Nowadays, no fewer than four out of every ten passenger cars in Turkey run on Autogas, making Autogas the most widely used passenger-car fuel nationwide. Many countries are looking to emulate this remarkable success. Yet there is still room for the Autogas market to grow in our country. So, being the leading LPG firm of Turkey, we at Aygaz recently decided to embark on a new campaign aimed at raising awareness about the benefits of using Autogas and boosting sales even further.

Autogas, the most widely used alternative fuel worldwide, has been declared one of the fuels of the future by the European Commission, with the aim of tripling consumption of the fuel by 2020. Inspired by this resolution, our campaign is named “Fuel Of The Future: LPG”. The aim of the campaign is not only to remind and inform existing Autogas consumers of the advantages of the fuel but also to raise the awareness of Autogas among the people who are not yet familiar with it.

The printed advertisement of the Aygaz awareness-raising campaign

The campaign focuses on five key advantages from using Autogas:

Autogas is safe

This issue is the most critical issue on many consumers’ minds and the main barrier to switching to Autogas. Some people avoid using Autogas because they think that there is a high risk of explosion. On the contrary, Autogas has been proven to be even safer than its conventional rivals, gasoline and diesel. Cars converted to use Autogas in compliance with ECE R 67 conversion standards should have a tank with a thickness of at least 3.5 millimetres, which is seven times thicker than gasoline tanks. Moreover, in the event of fire, the safety valve releases the gas in order to keep the pressure within safe limits. Therefore, the gas burns in a controlled manner.

In our campaign, we try to convince consumers that they should always use conversion centres that are certified to the regulated standards. There are approximately 1,000 certified centres across Turkey, so they can always find one close at hand.

Autogas provides high performance

Autogas continues to suffer unfairly from accusations that vehicle performance is somehow inferior to gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. That is why we decided to devote efforts to counter this myth. We emphasize that autogas provides high performance for all types of vehicles, even for sport cars with bigger engines, thanks to its high octane number.

On top of this, running a properly converted car on autogas in compliance with the EN 589 standards results in more efficient combustion, thus generating more power. In short, Autogas delivers performance that in practice is at least as good, if not better than that of the two conventional fuels.

TV advertorial with a famous Turkish car-show celebrity

Autogas is economical

This is the most widely known fact about Autogas. Still, in our campaign we show that the breakeven distance against gasoline – the distance at which the fuel cost savings exceed the upfront cost of converting the car to run on Autogas – is  just 10,000 kilometres. This is much sooner than many people realise. In addition to this, we underline the amount of money that is saved by the whole population that uses Autogas: the total saving amounts to an incredible  €1.5 billion Euros. We point out that this amount could be spent on other types of goods and services, providing a much-needed boost to the economy.

Autogas is environmentally friendly

Although the environmental benefits of Autogas should be a primary consideration, many consumers pay little attention to this benefit. That is why we highlight the results of tests comparing pollution from the Autogas, gasoline and diesel.

The main argument we focus on is the effects of each of the fuels on global warming. Based on well-to-wheel analysis, we show that emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from Autogas are lower than from the other fuels and are even lower than from electric vehicles. A striking statistic is that thanks to Autogas, approximately 1 million tonnes of CO2 emissions are saved annually. Emissions of black carbon and the other regulated emissions are also shown to be lower.

Autogas is widely used

Although the first four arguments are sufficient by themselves to convince consumers to use Autogas, the extent to which the fuel has already been adopted in Turkey should reassure them that Autogas is the sensible fuel choice.

The facts about the number of Autogas cars on the road in Turkey still astonish many people. The extremely high penetration of Autogas in the Turkish market proves that most people do not hesitate to use the fuel. In surveys, women tend to be more reticent about Autogas than men. Yet the fact that 600,000 women now drive Autogas-powered cars provides a convincing argument that this is no longer the case. We aim to show people that Autogas is used in every type of car by every kind of people.

TV advertorial

In order to reach vast the largest possible number of consumers, our campaign makes use of not just mainstream communication channels like television, radio, print media and internet advertisements, but also advertorials (advertisements in the form of editorials), sponsorships and public relations events, including in service stations. Sponsored advertising in automotive and football programmes on television were excellent channels to reach male consumers. PR events in refuelling stations are very effective ways of reaching consumers directly, whereas trade fairs and exhibitions are used to influence industry-related audience.

An event in an Aygaz refuelling station

By the time the campaign comes to an end, it is hoped that consumers’ awareness of Autogas will be raised significantly and that they will have full and accurate information about the fuel. This should help to stimulate further growth in sales of the fuel. Early research results show that we are on the right track.

The Aygaz stand at the Gas Turkey trade fair

The results of past research showed that the users of gasoline- and diesel-powered cars were aware of the cost and environmental advantages of using Autogas but were put off by concerns about performance and safety. According to preliminary results, consumers seem to be paying attention to what we say. The proportion of consumers who recognise that Autogas is safest and best-performing fuel has increased by a factor of almost seven. The proportion of consumers who believe that Autogas is both economical and environmentally friendly is also increasing, although it was already well-known among the majority of them.

From a marketing perspective, the campaign seems to be helping to convince gasoline and diesel car users that Autogas cars are a more attractive option when looking to buy a new car. The proportion of people claiming that they will opt for Autogas when they next buy a car has increased by 15%. We also see that people who have unfounded prejudices about Autogas are now softening their stance. The number of people saying that they would not use Autogas in the future has fallen by 30%.

All of those outcomes show clearly that Aygaz’s campaign is succeeding in persuading potential users that Autogas makes sense.

The campaign will be on air for the whole of this year and we expect to achieve even better results by the end.

To learn more about Aygaz’ Fuel of the Future campaign, please do not hesitate to contact Burak at burak.pala@aygaz.com.tr.