Castrol’s flagship product– Castrol CRB – saw sales declining as Indian truck drivers opted for cheaper alternatives.

India is home to one of the largest trucking communities in the world. Despite being the backbone of the India economy, this community isn’t the happiest or the healthiest. Long hours on the road, demanding deadlines and a lack of healthcare facilities or knowledge have led to many serious and recurring health issues among members of this community.

Castrol CRB Turbomax was relaunching in the country with the proposition of ‘up to 2 times engine life.’ Could Castrol CRB then also do something for the lives of truckers and keep them loyal to the brand?

The business objectives were to:

• Grow faster than the segment (which grew by 26%)

• Arrest declining growth

• Drive purchase intention among users of competing brands

• Increase brand score on Spontaneous Awareness

We set out to help Indian truck drivers improve their physical health in a way that culturally resonated, and was sustainable, by borrowing from India’s most popular health regime – Yoga. Yoga itself originated in ancient India. Out of all physical exercises, it is perhaps the most familiar among regular Indians, despite whether or not they regularly practised it.

We partnered with India’s oldest yoga institutes to devise a set of 21 Yoga Aasanas (body poses) that can be performed inside or around trucks. We called these the TruckAasanas.

This was Yoga modified for truckers. Each curated pose was given easily remembered names that borrowed from everyday trucker speak, such as ‘Steering Aasana’, ‘Clutch Aasana’, and ‘Headlight Aasana’.

In India, independent truck ownership outnumbers fleet ownership. How a truck’s ‘health’ is maintained and serviced (including its engine oil) rests not with the mechanic or fleet owners, but with the trucker.

Indian truckers are mostly illiterate and barely consume any form of mainstream media. To successfully engage with truckers, our campaign had to be deployed through mediums they are familiar with and can be easily incorporated into their daily lives.

This campaign extended the care from truck to trucker. We built a clear parallel between the health of a truck’s engine with the health of a truck driver. This was what set Castrol apart from the competition.

We partnered with The Trucking Association of India to gather over 500 truckers to a venue in Himachal Pradesh that featured a main stage that looked like an actual truck. Here, on the eve of World Yoga Day (21 June 2018), the truckers were taught how to perform the various Yoga Aasanas.

Specially produced Truck Aasana instructional videos were pushed to the mobile phones of over 90,000 truckers via Whatsapp (India’s most popular messaging app) so they could use it when it was most needed – while with their trucks.

And to increase awareness, empathy and support for India’s truckers, we engaged the Indian Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, to launch the ‘Castrol India Trucker Health Report’, a comprehensive study of health issues faced by India’s truckers. Infographics with alarming data on trucker health were seeded to the media in the run-up to World Yoga Day.

The campaign reached 270,000 truckers via events, roadshows and social media, raising much-needed awareness about taking care of their own health through Yoga.

Top-of-mind awareness and spontaneous mentions of Castrol CRB increased, resulting in trials and purchases of the product. Purchase consideration went up by 11 points and purchase intention amongst key competition users clocked at 86%.

Sales for Castrol CRB grew five-fold compared to the previous year, and four times faster than the entire diesel engine oil category.

The campaign generated over 250 pieces of coverage across print, radio, TV and digital platforms reaching 100 million people. Digitally, #Truckaasana generated 12 million impressions.

After the initiative’s great success in India, the campaign was adapted for Vietnam where, post-implementation, the brand moved from minus 2% to 22% growth.

The campaign was further incorporated into Castrol’s CSR program, through which Castrol pledges to teach Truck Aasana movements to more truckers nationwide.