Freight shipping hasn’t changed much in 100 years. How the antiquated, analog freight industry communicates hasn’t either. Flock Freight is dismantling the industry’s outdated, unnecessary constraints with a modern, digital platform that puts customers first.

Over the past year, Flock has introduced a new brand identity, website, and social media presence to reflect its unique proposition and propel future growth. To increase B2B awareness of Flock and its superior shared truckload option, the company designed a first-of-its-kind brand campaign, “Define Your Load.” Throughout this campaign, Flock drove rapid acquisition and broke the historically bland mold for freight industry branding.

Across the United States, people have access to more goods than ever before. But the way most of those goods reach them — freight shipping — has remained largely unchanged for +100 years. Businesses shipping less than a full truck have two options. They can use hub-and-spoke freight networks, accepting delays and breakage costs. Or they can pay extra for an entire truck that ships directly — meaning they’re paying to ship air.

Most choose the second, leaving nearly half the trucks on the road hauling half-empty. It’s a market failure that’s terrible for businesses and the planet.

Flock Freight’s proprietary matching technology solves this problem by offering the efficiency of full truckloads for partial shipments. The problem is that most businesses don’t know about our solution. This campaign — unique among freight companies — is driving awareness of the superior alternative Flock Freight offers shippers, truckers, and the planet.

Shippers know they have limited options, but they don’t necessarily know that a third option — shared truckload — exists. Most are sending less than a full truckload going to any single customer. Because trucking has remained the same for a long time, they accept paying for half-full trucks as the cost of business.

Our business proposition is straightforward: lower costs and faster service for partial truckloads, all while reducing CO2 emissions by up to 40%. Our strategy has a clear objective: Tell shippers there is another way, one that can save you money and move your goods more sustainably.

Compared with package delivery giants like FedEx and UPS, freight is very traditional. It lacks recognizable national brands, and communication tends to be hyper-masculine and monotone – serif fonts, simple logos, and limited B2B channels. To break through to shippers, we needed creative execution that loudly broke those industry norms.

Our own market research, in the form of industry surveys, identified the pain points for both shippers and truckers. Shippers want timely delivery, savings on shipments that don’t fill an entire truck, and less damage or delays. Truckers, meanwhile, want full truckloads and efficient routing that enable them to earn more.

Our own operations analysis showed these pain points were bigger than any one market participant. Millions of individual shipments had created a massively disaggregated matching problem. Roughly 45% of the space on trucks is empty — a status quo that wasn’t working for any of our key audiences.

The breakthrough moment was realizing that load matching technology, deployed at scale, could solve the “empty truck problem,” all while cutting emissions from a CO2-intense sector by up to 40%. We could credibly present that both sustainability and profitability can coexist.

We had to draw a sharp contrast to the hide-bound freight industry, as well as explain a technical market solution in understandable terms. We also had to link the practical benefits of our technology to the overarching goal of helping the planet. The goal was to transform Flock Freight into the first branded solution for a systemic problem, creating trust and affinity along the way.

Our idea placed a generationally trusted messenger in an unexpected context: as our guide explaining the differences between F*ckloads and Sh*tloads in shipping. Instead of the usual industry jargon, acronyms, and legalese, we could talk like a human about human problems — and use attention-grabbing language along the way.

Beyond the spots themselves, a rebranded website featured animated explainers demonstrating our technology. Social teasers amplified our reach. And the shock of using Mr. Blue’s Clues to explain “Sh*loads” created 130+ earned media articles.

The “Define Your Load” campaign garnered significant attention that has increased awareness of our brand and helped us reach strategic business goals.

The campaign generated over 130 news articles, more than 2 million video views on social media, and 3.2k new social media followers. It resulted in 181% awareness lift and 140% ad recall lift over Flock’s previous best performing asset, plus a 101% lift in online brand searches on launch day versus our previous record. It also earned Flock recognition as the only B2B brand on Adweek’s ‘30 Best Ads of 2022’ list.

Increased brand awareness has translated into business wins — we’ve hit year-over-year records in customer acquisition, including a 604% increase in leads, a 481% increase in MQLs, and a 104% increase in new marketing starts. Our new customers include well-known enterprise businesses, and ad recall continues to drive interest at trade shows and on sales calls.

Compared with giants like FedEx and UPS, freight B2B is limited in reach and very traditional in tone. It lacks recognizable national brands, and communication is often hyper-masculine and monotone — serif fonts, simple logos, and limited B2B channels. To break through to shippers, we needed a creative B2B campaign that loudly broke industry norms.

We started by designing an end-to-end refresh of our marketing and communications to fuse our human values with Flock’s modern technology. In September 2022, we introduced a new logo and color palette. We also implemented a new communications strategy that reintroduced Flock as a fresh voice solving stubborn freight problems while bettering the planet. Using these assets, we revamped our website with animated explainers demonstrating our technology and posted them on social media to create traction for new SEO efforts. This work set the stage for our November brand campaign, “Define Your Load.”.

27 years ago, the U.S. children’s network Nickelodeon launched an iconic show called Blue’s Clues, hosted by Steve Burns. Steve helps his young audience find clues as they examine the world around them.

Blue’s Clues quickly became the highest rated show for U.S. preschoolers. Steve was beloved by kids, and their parents, as a genial, trusted, and gently funny guide who could understand the world through the eyes of children. The format for Blue’s Clues used repetition, simple graphics, and bright colors to reinforce his explanations.

Those preschoolers are now Millennials, and their older siblings are among Generation X. Many of them have grown into the logistics and supply chain professionals we need to reach. Our idea used the incongruence of a kids’ show host cussing to grab attention. It also used nostalgia to connect a new idea, our brand, to a show with deep emotional resonance.