Soma Ghosh, Vice President, Marketing-India & South Asia at Castrol, tells us about leveraging the millennial consumer through new and innovative campaigns on Digital and Social media, especially by associating with properties like the 2014 FIFA World Cup
By Saloni Dutta
Q] Castrol India has launched a Digital and Social media campaign, Castrol Activ Cling, to leverage Castrol’s global sponsorship of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. What are the key insights behind the campaign and the reach you aim to achieve through it?
Castrol Activ has been on a journey to connect with the millenial generation. Castrol India is making a concerted effort to connect with this set of consumers through their sporting passions, i.e., cricket and football. Football holds an ever increasing appeal for this generation, especially in the urban areas. This generation also lives with their mobile phones and social media and hence Castrol India is using the ‘Second Screen’ to engage with them. Developing a closer, interactive and more engaging relationship with consumers gives Castrol the perfect platform to make fans central to conversations on these networks. These innovative digital initiatives provide the audience with unique engagement through hangouts, ‘Cling on to Football Parties’ and online contests during the FIFA World Cup. In fact, our global campaign - Castrol ‘Footkhana’ - is the most shared ad from an official partner of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Q] How is Castrol utilizing the digital medium to reach out to its consumers for a relatively low involvement category?
The millenial consumer is very astute and aware and chooses brands on the basis of information available in the digital world as well as peer recommendations. It is extremely important for any brand communicating with this audience to have a presence in the digital world. At Castrol, we are using various innovative methods to engage with consumers digitally and give them a complete brand experience. By providing exciting content delivered through innovative channels and programmes keeping consumers at the centre of the action, Castrol has been able to connect and communicate with its core consumers.
Q] What are the fundamental principles of your marketing strategy at Castrol?
Castrol is the market leader in the Indian automotive retail market, both in terms of marketshare as well as mind-share. Our philosophy has always been that success will best be achieved by providing consumers with products and services which meet their specific requirements. Over the last 100+ years of our presence in India, we have taken the lead in delivering pioneering technology products and continuously innovating in everything we do as part of our marketing mix – be it advertising, customer/consumer engagement, distribution, etc.
Q] Which medium utilizes a major chunk of your advertising and marketing spends? How have your marketing spends changed over the last year?
Our business is a mix of Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C). Hence, to establish new brands and drive home the product proposition, Television continues to play a key role. BTL and direct engagement activities are equally important, especially with certain consumer segments, especially in the small town and rural markets.
Our marketing mix and hence our spends are a function of what the business requires and keeps aligning to business requirements. We have been focusing on Digital and Social media over the last 18 months and will continue doing so.
Q] Castrol is the Official Performance Partner with ICC and the deal runs up to the end of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. How does the brand plan to leverage this association?
Sponsorships and big events create a lot of conversations and excitement around brands. Over the last four years of its partnership with ICC, Castrol has run a number of exciting and innovative campaigns to leverage its partnership like ‘Cling on to Cricket’ (during the ICC Champions Trophy 2013) and ‘Castrol Activ Scooter Zipfactor’ (during the ICC T20 World Cup, 2014). For the forthcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, we are working on a plan that is a mix of innovative consumer engagement and consumer experience. It will be very exciting as India goes into the World Cup as defending champions!
Q] How has direct trade outreach initiatives helped Castrol reach out to a larger customer base and create higher brand preference? How much have Castrol Bike Point and Castrol Pitstop helped your supply chain?
Increasing our presence in the servicing segment through Castrol Bike Points and Castrol Pitstops helped us communicate our brand benefits in a stronger manner. Also, it allows the consumers to get the best quality products and the best service that is available for their automobiles.
Q] What are some of the interesting BTL activities, sales promotions that you have engineered to increase consumer engagement?
The ‘Best Seat in the House’ at the 2011 ICC World Cup and ‘Actibonds’ in the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 come to mind. The hallmark of successful activations is the clarity of messaging and how it benefits the customer.
Q] What is the brand’s current and target market-share in India?
As per Nielsen, we have about 26% of market-share by value for the masterbrand. This makes us market leaders in the retail automotive lubricants market. We are constantly trying to increase our market-share in volume and value terms.
Q] What’s the USP of the brand?
Pioneering product technology, strong brands, continuous innovation in everything we do, deep consumer and customer insights and most importantly, strong and enduring partnerships with all stakeholders including most leading Original Equipment Manufacturers, provide Castrol the distinctive edge.
Q] Which markets have been contributing greatly to the growth of the brand?
Castrol has a presence in geographies across India, both urban and rural. The growth potential depends on the segments we are looking at – so we pretty much see potential across markets.
Q] How does the brand approach and compartmentalize marketing strategy for Tier II and Tier III markets?
Our strong distribution network already reaches the Tier II and Tier III markets. Our strategy for consumers is dependent on consumer needs. Recently, we stepped up our distribution in rural markets with appointment of Castrol sub-distributors. We define our strategy according to the needs of different consumers and different vehicle types – providing solutions which best meet the requirement of our consumers and customers. Just to give an example, the communication channels and messages in rural markets are quite different from the way we communicate in urban markets.
Q] What opportunities do you see for the brand going forward?
As Castrol, we believe in constantly innovating and exploring new ways of reaching our consumers. It is an exciting time for the marketing space as new technologies allow for a more interactive brand experience. Young India is going to be a great growth opportunity as nearly 65% of India is under the age of 30. The brand has a heritage of exciting and pioneering sponsorships which dates back to the early 1900s when our founder Sir Charles Cheers Wakefield worked closely with the early pioneers on land, sea and air, to develop and provide products which could drive the new engines of the time.
In Motorcycle Oils, this year we did the Good Road campaign. In Passenger Car Oils, the Magnatec Mobile Unit has won appreciation globally within the BP fraternity. In Commercial Vehicle Oils, we co-engineered a product with Tata Motors - the Tata Fuel Saver. Similarly, we are working on more co-engineering projects with leading auto OEMs in India. We recently had India’s biggest Football Hangout with Abhishek Bachchan, Baichung Bhutia, Gaurav Kapoor and Paul Masefield. It has been viewed by 1.5 million people till now.
ABOUT THE BRAND
Castrol, one of the world’s leading lubricant brands, has a proud heritage of innovation. Castrol has developed oils that have been at the heart of numerous technological feats on land, air, sea and space for more than 100 years. Today, the company’s vast portfolio of high performance lubricants, including Castrol Edge, Castrol Magnatec, Castrol Activ and Castrol Power1 are available in almost 140 counties worldwide. As an official sponsor of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Castrol has brought its pioneering approach to Football to life through Castrol Footkhana, an innovative experiment launched in April.
FACTS
CREATIVE AGENCY: OGILVY
MEDIA AGENCY: MINDSHARE
SOCIAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA MARKETING: FOXYMORON
BTL/ACTIVATION AGENCY: WORKS WITH MULTIPLE AGENCIES BASED ON THE PROFILE OF THE WORK
PR AGENCY: PERFECT RELATIONS
CMO FILE
Soma Ghosh joined Castrol in October 2012 as VP-Marketing for India and South Asia. She is part of the Castrol India Country Leadership Team and CIET. She started her career as a banker with ANZ Grindlays and subsequently worked with Johnson & Johnson Consumer products and Beiersdorf (Nivea) before joining Castrol. Ghosh was the first woman Area Sales Manager at Johnson & Johnson, and has 15 years of experience in Sales, Marketing and Strategy in blue chip FMCG companies. She has been the architect and executor for the India launch of Neutrogena and Nivea.
MARKETING TIP
The world is changing and the pace of change is faster than ever before. Always be open to change and seize your opportunities
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