Helping Castrol get
its swagger on

Castrol in. Garage Swagger on.

The Ask

Castrol’s just one of those brands, isn’t it? One of those brands that everyone knows, loves or at least enjoys for its retro TV ads. The lubricants giant is, without a doubt, a true icon in the world of motoring. But heritage can only take a business so far.

When Castrol USA began losing market share to Mobil, it asked us to flex our marketing expertise to help bring more customers into the fold. If we recall correctly, the briefing conversation played out something like this*:

“Hey TMW Business, can you come up with a new campaign to promote our performance oils? We need something standout. Something badass. And we need it now.”

“We’re on it. One thing though… don’t expect us to be able to pronounce ‘badass’ without embarrassing ourselves.”

*It didn’t really.

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The Answer

The answer was Garage Swagger – a campaign that turned garage DIYers into rock gods, film stars and action heroes – complete with their own slow-mo moments, guitar backing tracks and movie-style voiceovers. This dramatic, overblown approach allowed us to celebrate everyday Castrol customers while indulging our love for tongue-in-cheek humour.

Seven short films created a much-needed buzz across TV, social, mobile and more. They also sparked conversations across Facebook and Twitter. While some people debated the merits of different Castrol products, one went as far as photoshopping himself into the campaign photography. What a hero.

Since then, Garage Swagger has proven to be a flexible, attention-grabbing platform that can accommodate a variety of messages and audiences. It’s reached auto shop owners, NASCAR enthusiasts and NFL fantasy footballers, plus fans of TV legend Courtney Hansen and pro drivers Ryan Newman and Chris Buescher. Starstruck, us?

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The Results

After a rockstar effort all round – and despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, the Christmas break and the entire Atlantic Ocean – results show that:

  • Our campaign is fuelling epic lifts in all measured brand equity metrics…
  • …and acing KPIs around unaided brand awareness and consideration,
    plus purchase and recommendation intent.
  • Our Hulu units are outperforming industry benchmarks by up to 10x.
  • An above-average number of listeners are sticking around to hear our
    Spotify ads through to the end.
  • Our NASCAR sponsorship is smashing benchmarks in audience engagement.
  • Our Discovery ads are performing up to +313% better than last years’ – and our Flosports units are nailing it too.

Last but not least, our badass (nope, we really can’t pull that off) campaign won us the spot as Castrol USA’s Agency of Record.

Hell yeah.

 

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