client: Irving Oildate published: Apr 13, 2025 content type: Commercials
commercial
Hometown Rewards
Irving Oil needed to overcome a major consumer adoption challenge: transitioning a demographic with varying levels of digital literacy from physical cards to a mobile platform.
Multi-platform commercial ads, screen-capture walkthrough explainers, and an agile suite of digital assets for targeted social media distribution.
The Challenge
When energy giant Irving Oil prepared to launch Hometown Rewards, their premier digital loyalty app for Atlantic Canada, they faced a critical consumer adoption challenge. The region’s fueling demographic spans wide variances in digital literacy, meaning the rollout of a mobile app couldn't just look slick—it had to be inherently understandable. To successfully transition traditional, physical-card users into mobile app users, Irving Oil needed a multimedia campaign that stripped away technical complexity. The visual content had to clearly demonstrate how easy the app is to use, highlight immediate consumer value—like fuel discounts and birthday perks at the iconic Irving Big Stop—and build widespread public trust to drive instant downloads across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, and Newfoundland.
Our Approach
We designed an extensive, user-centric video production and digital advertising suite engineered to maximize app downloads and turn everyday commuters into active loyalty members.
User-Friendly Micro-Explainers: We produced a series of clear, step-by-step digital walkthrough videos that visualized the user journey—from initial registration and card linking to scanning at the pump. By focusing on a clean, simplified interface model, we removed the barrier of tech anxiety for users.
High-Energy Commercial Content: Our creative team scripted and produced premium broadcast and social media ads highlighting the relatable, everyday rewards of the program. We brought the app's perks to life, visually connecting fuel savings with regional road trips and cozy family meals at Irving Big Stops.
Omnichannel Distribution Asset Suite: We optimized the video assets into diverse formats for every stage of the consumer pipeline. This ranged from highly focused, 15-second "scroll-stopping" social media ads optimized for driving click-through app store conversions, to larger-format video packages used for internal stakeholder alignment and point-of-sale loops.
Producing content to promote a new application like this is such a unique and exciting opportunity. The creative partnership we've developed between us is truly unique."
The Impact
Our media strategy transformed a standard tech rollout into a highly successful, community-focused adoption campaign. By replacing clinical app tutorials with warm, behavior-driven storytelling, the video creative successfully propelled thousands of users across Atlantic Canada to download and engage with the Hometown Rewards ecosystem. The step-by-step visual explainers drastically minimized customer onboarding friction, while the promotional assets successfully built immediate consumer excitement. The campaign not only fortified customer retention for Irving Oil but also firmly established the Hometown Rewards app as a trusted, daily tool for drivers throughout the region.
