As a cutting edge lubricants company, Castrol continually strives to improve performance. Changes in the market place and within the organisation meant that it needed to make a bold statement about its marketing and its business to enhance its reputation as a premium youthful brand.The big idea: Sponsor UEFA EURO 2008™ to align the company’s core brand attributes with a platform that would excite the new organisation, its customers and its consumers across Europe. There were four key pillars of success: modernise Castrol, encourage consumers to switch to Castrol; build loyalty and goodwill amongst customers and motivate and excite employees across Europe.

Key to its success was to build credibility by finding a connection between Castrol’s brand and football. Castrol secured exclusive marketing rights to the UEFA data tracking system and with sports statisticians it developed the Castrol Performance Index. Sponsorship was maximised through top line PR, hospitality, online, awards, merchandise, experiential and all media channels.

Castrol outperformed expectations! 61% of fans said ‘Castrol’s more appealing’, awareness amongst customers increased 27% beating targets, 1.5 billion media impressions generated by PR; over 25 offices and 8000 customers participated in events. The tournament promises a return in excess of $30 million.

Activity included PR, B2C & B2B promotions, ATL, hospitality, co-marketing, digital, merchandise & experiential activations, but the central manifestation was the Castrol Performance Index (CPI) – a new algorithm which gave a value to every action made on the pitch during the finals. The CPI was hosted on a multi language website: www.castrolindex.com- which we launched at the UEFA EURO 2008™ draw. This gave fans access to graphics, statistics and analysis, allowing them to judge player and team performance objectively, taking them beyond punditry.

Pan European activities included rewarding over 8,000 customers with a trip to the tournament. In addition, Castrol’s key trade audiences were invited to compete in the ‘Castrol 5s’, a 5-a-side tournament culminating in a finals event in Vienna. For fans at the tournament, Castrol created the ‘Castrol Performance Pitch’ in the heart of the Vienna Fan Zone.

Results outperformed expectations. 61% of fans said "Castrol’s more appealing" and 30% said "Castrol understands the need for analysis to improve performance". Over 25 offices and 8000 customers participated in the event.

The CPI website enticed 5m+ fans online while 1.5 billion media impressions were generated by PR.Key accounts were also traded up and the tournament promised a return in excess of $30 million.

For a sponsor new to football, this was a great demonstration of what sponsorship can do, even affecting how a business works. Castrol made a positioning that was their own- performance analysis- and grew a new area of interest for media coverage. It was so successful that Castrol will be there next year for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.