The challenge for Castrol then has always been inserting itself naturally into the mechanic-car owner relationship; Castrol knew that it wasn't enough to just sell to their distributors, it had to extend its role into this relationship and add value in a way that only Castrol could.
Objective
Car owners don't think about motor oil until it's time for an oil change. As such, motor oil brands like Castrol are heavily dependent on its distributors and their mechanics to recommend Castrol oil when providing service to the end customer: the car owner.
In fact, 40 percent of car owners in China will go with whatever motor oil the mechanic at the dealership or repair shop recommends.
Context
Due to the nature of their business, dealerships and auto repair shops rely heavily on face-to-face engagement to build good customer relationships and have always struggled with raising customer engagement in a scalable way.
So, when COVID-19 lockdowns rolled across China in 2022, car owners were driving less than ever, and mechanics urgently needed new ways to maintain virtual ties with their customers.
At the same time, many of the car owners who were stuck at home for prolonged periods turned to mobile gaming, especially Honor of Kings — the most popular mobile game in China with over 500 million users. So, when Honor of Kings (HoK) launched its DIY league platform — Castrol saw its opportunity.
Target Audience
The DIY league program was initially geared towards individual users or small clubs who wanted to organize their own amateur HoK leagues, but Castrol took the concept to a whole new level.
Castrol decided to become the ultimate engagement engine for its distributors by offering them something only Castrol could: a branded amateur league for mechanics and car owners that looked and felt like the official HoK eSports league: the KPL.
Creative and Media Strategy
With exclusive access to KPL resources and assets as an official sponsor, Castrol meticulously designed its branded league, complete with its own Castrol infused visual identity, tournament mechanisms, and even a dedicated online league assistant who could help distributors handle league logistics.
It then licensed out the amateur league IP to distributors for free, giving them a highly relevant way to re-connect with their customers online. In one move, Castrol carved out an irreplaceable role for itself within the mechanic-car owner relationship at scale.
By focusing resources solely on designing its branded amateur league, Castrol ensured that the product it created was highly desired by mechanics and car owners, letting distributors put their own marketing budget behind the amateur leagues, which in turn were boosted by tons of earned media.
Further, 13 major distribution partners, including major auto brand dealerships as well as major repair shop chains, used Castrol's amateur league IP. They invited both their customers and their own mechanics to form teams and sign up, and matches were played every weekend as the tournament progressed, with teams still tuning in to the livestream to spectate even after being knocked out — effectively creating a strong sense of community between the mechanics and car owners.
The amateur leagues were such a success that some of the distribution partners, including Volvo, hosted large scale offline events for the finals, with impressive amounts of earned media coverage. What's more, they voluntarily infused Castrol elements throughout the event, creating strong associations with Castrol in front of their customers.
Building on the momentum, Castrol then partnered with major distributor JD Auto (part of China's leading e-commerce platform JD.com) to host an even larger scale weekend tournament during JD Auto's annual "maintenance festival." This time, the winning team had the chance to play against a professional KPL team in-person, generating unprecedented consumer interest during this e-commerce shopping festival, and giving both mechanics and car owners a chance to live out their eSports dreams.
Castrol's Amateur Honor of Kings League far surpassed what anyone had in mind when the DIY league platform was announced, truly becoming the ultimate engagement engine for its distributors and cementing Castrol's status as the undisputed industry leader.
Over 1,500 teams (representing 7,000 distributor customers) signed up across the 13 distributor leagues, and the JD Auto tournament engaged over nine million users, with the finals livestream drawing over 18 million views.
In terms of brand metrics, Castrol's brand affinity rose 26 percent, and willingness to buy increased 20 percent. But, most incredibly, in a year where China's car traffic declined in many markets by over 50 percent, online orders of Castrol x JD Auto service packages increased more than 500 percent year-over-year (YoY), with the number of customers increasing over 200 percent YoY during the JD Auto "maintenance festival" period, driving innovative e-commerce growth.
With this campaign, Castrol truly became a game changer within the industry, showing how a motor oil brand can tangibly enable its distributors to level up their customer relationships, and inspiring other brands in different industries to employ similar tactics with the DIY league platform.
Feedback from both the distributors as well as the car owners were overwhelmingly positive, with plans to potentially turn Castrol's amateur leagues into annual events at some of the distributors.
