Sponsorship pleases lubricants customers

According to Castrol, the sponsorship was used as a platform to demonstrate the company’s strength in analysis, and its products’ contribution to strong performance. The campaign began in July 2009, when people in the industry were invited to enter a team into the Performance Manager ‘fantasy football’ style online competition. The two winners came from F.H. Bertling Reederei GmbH, both of whom won a trip to South Africa, to attend the semi-final between Uruguay and the Netherlands, in Cape Town.

Bringing the sponsorship closer to its customers, Castrol gave key marine industry conferences and exhibitions a football theme in the build up to the FIFA World Cup, with high calibre ambassadors including German legend Lothar Matthäus, who attended the Motorship Propulsion & Emissions Conference in Hamburg., taking part in a Q&A sessions with guests at the Castrol gala dinner. Guests were given the opportunity to meet the Castrol ambassadors, have photographs taken and get autographs signed.

Bringing the campaign to a close this summer, over 100 customers and hosts were invited to attend a three-day Castrol conference in South Africa during the World Cup. In addition to attending the first semi-final in Cape Town, customers participated in the Castrol Performance Lab, an interactive demonstration of Castrol product performance benefits and links with football. The Cape Town event included a customer conference and dinner.

Paul Lowther, global marketing communications manager for marine lubricants said: “The campaign was an unprecedented success and the level of positive feedback received from customers has shown that football is a global platform across which we can speak to our customers in every country. The football initiative has helped us to strengthen relationships with our existing customers, has aided us in starting speaking to new potential customers, and has provided us with great insights in terms of understanding the industry and customer needs more than ever before. The opportunity to demonstrate our product and service benefits through the globally recognised context of football was something both fun and unique, and received incredibly positive feedback from all of those involved. At Castrol Marine we are passionate about performance, and there is no better worldwide demonstration of top performance than the FIFA World Cup.”