Castrol believes in protecting the people that are behind the engines, even more than in protecting engines.

However, with the 2020 lockdown in place the number of people driving their cars was naturally reduced to a minimum. This has affected the whole auto-care category with service centers being opened, due to the local regulations, but totally empty.

Digging into the data and the profile of the usual customers, we identified a sharp decline in visits from those ridding the essential rides - medical workers.

Whilst many brands have been passively supporting frontliners through words of encouragement, there was another aspect of their lives that was overlooked.

In the past few months with the fight against COVID-19, their focus and time had been dedicated to saving lives. In turn, many personal errands were being delayed. With 50% of frontline workers delaying their regular car check-ups.

The Care for Caretakers platform was created, turning traditional service centers were into 'Hygiene Hubs'.

In these Hygiene hubs, the staff went through intensive sanitation and care trainings and the space received the highest standards of hygiene and safety.

From a destination worth skipping, our Castrol centers were now ready to welcome a segment of population that was driving more than ever.

The essential workers now had a safe space where one of their unspoken needs was to be taken care of in a reassuring manner.

The UAE is home to the highest number of medical professionals per capita in the world - more than 80K staff (DHA2019).

Using the region’s biggest medical community on Facebook, UAE Medical Representatives Union, we crafted a survey to better understand their driving routines. We learnt the vast majority were delaying up to 3 months their car’s recurrent check-up. Perhaps more interesting was the reason for that delay: We assumed lack of time was the key barrier, it turned out to be their fear of contamination at service centers.

Using sales data Castrol was able to identify the busiest service centers. We correlated this data with location and traffic of health centers and hospitals, using data from sources as Dubai Health Authority, Ministry of Health, Waze, etc- and we were able to identify those key for this target group. Communication was geo-fenced and targeted focused.

But that alone wasn’t enough since proximity to their commuting areas was a decisive factor in even considering a visit to the service center.

And so, using CRM and location data, we crossed referenced the proximity of hospitals and clinics in the country with the location of a selected number of centers in order to prioritize accessibility and convenience.

This in turn allowed the brand to be a seamless part of their everyday journeys with minimal communication efforts.

Geo-fenced social media communication allowed for a direct invitation to a hygienic service check-up of their cars. In addition to that, we targeted the frontline workers using social media and reassured them of our hygiene standards.

With this, ‘Care for Caretakers’ became the talk of the medical community.

Their vehicles were serviced and sanitized, and free car checkups were provided to help keeping their cars safe during the first pandemic months.

The Impact After two weeks:

2,000 mechanics took part in the initiative

100 workshops nationwide

+30,000 doctors and health workers reached (40% of the total medical staff community in the UAE)

+26 Million Social Media Views.

Medical community reactions:

Fantastic Initiative @DRAbdulSherif

Great to see a brand talking to frontliners in a different way @DrMayaJ

One less worry of my mind @UAENurse

Shout out to @CatrolMiddleEast for a safe car check @MoManu

Castrol + Taking care of health workers = amazing!!! @MDUmarNair