In a partnership with Walmart and former NFL star Larry Fitzgerald, Castrol created a digital shopping experience catered specifically to the interests of DIY enthusiasts, even cross promoting other brands within its hub to achieve authentic engagement. In doing so, Castrol was able to win over the hearts and minds of its target consumer, reintroduce them to its brand, and drive impressive business results.
Objective
With the motor oil category becoming more commoditized, BP wanted to create a retail experience for the "Do-It-Yourself(er)" customer (DIYers) that both engaged and converted them while showing points of differentiation for its Castrol brand motor oil.
Context
Castrol was not getting on the consideration list of many DIY enthusiasts because a lack of differentiation existed between various motor oil brands. Potential customers knew of Castrol but would pass on it based on legacy challenges — they viewed it as a "dad's brand," for example — and the higher price point.
Castrol knew that DIYers were passionate about multiple activities outside of the auto category. When they do purchase oil, most customers go directly to the brand they want and just purchase — it is a low engagement category.
Target Audience
Castrol's strategy was to use the high engagement that DIYers express for other categories to re-introduce its own brand to them. In partnership with Walmart, Castrol researched what categories/products over-indexed with the DIYer outside of the motor oil category, learning that the most popular areas were home improvement tools, workout equipment, and storage and organization.
Creative and Media Strategy
Castrol planned to use Walmart's vast audience to identify DIYers that were motor oil purchasers and drive them to its central destination/hub. That destination would be a blend of DIY essentials across the multiple categories upon which they over-index with an overlay of Castrol proof points and claims. Walmart was thrilled that Castrol was proposing to support cross-category shopping experiences while engaging its target audience.
Talent was a key driver of creating interest, as the brand wanted to personally connect the consumer with an NFL talent and achieve a halo effect on the brand. Because of this, Castrol anchored the DIY experience around one of its consumers' favorite athletes, former NFL player and future Hall of Famer, Larry Fitzgerald. He was a prominent all-star athlete and spokesperson for the Castrol brand and was used to guiding the customer through the experience off-site, on-site, and on the hub destination.
The core idea was making Larry's garage a fully shoppable destination for DIYers, including all pertinent DIY essentials found at Walmart.
Castrol used category takeover ads on Walmart so that anyone in the automotive audience saw its ads. This was amplified with display ads on and off-site, search ads, Spanish language ads (a first for Walmart), and merchandising support from the category team at Walmart.
As a testament to the mutually beneficial Walmart Hub that was built, Walmart organically embedded Castrol into the homepage navigation of Walmart.com (Castrol was the only product to receive a featured shop on Walmart's navigation). The brand also received dynamic merchandise placements across the auto category on Walmart.com.
The Walmart Hub was a first-of-its-kind, creative experience on Walmart.com. It was a full 360-degree, interactive shoppable unit, which allowed shoppers to interact with NFL player Larry Fitzgerald's garage. Through hotspots, people could watch "how to" videos with Larry, add Castrol to cart, use the oil finder tool, and browse Walmart product pages all within Larry's Garage. Every piece of content in the catch-all DIY destination was utility-driven and educational in nature, intended to guide the shopper into making an educated decision based on the curated garage of one of their favorite players, Larry Fitzgerald.
The program delivered on all critical KPIs for the year, including: