Have you met Jack Advancer?

On June 18, 2020, we introduced Advancer during a kick-ass 20-minute live show. Alongside the many videos, there was one video that stuck out where we introduced Jack Advancer. We sat down with Erika Smets, Marketing Communication Leader at Thermo King EMEA, to give some insights into the Jack Advancer movie.

Who is Jack Advancer?

“Much of the marketing material we prepared, focused on Advancer itself. It is product-oriented. However, with Jack Advancer, we went into a whole other direction: we wanted to put the primary user of Advancer on a pedestal. We turned the driver into the hero of our video. Jack represents all the advanced drivers that deliver precious cargo on a daily base.”

Why is he presented as an astronaut?

“Well, during our initial brainstorm, we had some key values as what Jack should represent. Jack should represent the future, be innovative (light years ahead), be supportive, and a hip TK icon. If you take a closer look, he is not an astronaut: Jack embodies the Advancer unit. His suit is an interpretation of the unit, with Thermo King and Advancer patches, solar panel straps, and a mini-unit as a backpack, ….

Jack was supposed to turn heads in his suit. And he sure did.

Could you explain innovative, supportive, and hip?

• Innovative: Jack resembles innovation because Advancer is synonymous with moving forward. It has many industry-first features – fully-variable airflow, fastest pulldown on the market, and it guarantees more uptime.
• Supportive: Advancer will make the lives of drivers much easier. For example; they can communicate much clearer with both their unit and their fleet managers.
• Hip: There are large communities of Thermo King drivers, clients and, dealers on different platforms (Facebook, for example). And we wanted to give them a true TK icon.

How did the audience react to Jack?

“We received nothing but positive feedback on the Jack Advancer video. Some even called the video one of their favorite part of the entire live show. Some of our dealers wanted to see more about Jack. Get to know where he got his backpack or key chain.

And where did Jack get his gear?

“Well, I can’t tell you… yet. But it might appear real soon."