Results and Effectiveness

The project was covered in over 150 Japanese media, and the media effect in Japan alone was worth 500 million yen. Google had 8 million hits. The news spread to 80 countries, and received enormous media coverage around the world. We received many offers from national / foreign TV, professional football matches, special events for football supporters and exhibitions at the Toyota showroom. Castrol Ichi-GO also achieved a Guinness World Record, for “The Fastest Football Kick by a Machine” at 225km/hr. The development process and this achievement succeeded in communicating our message “Castrol’s engine oil delivers “Best Performance.”

Creative Execution

Since our creative strategy was to drive buzz around the world's fastest free kick machine driven by engine, we created attention from the phase of architecture up to its performance to earn continuous exposure. As development commenced in August 2009, we started sharing the production process on the project website real time. We also utilized social media to share the thrill of developing what was still unguaranteed. At the start and middle of development, we released press releases to draw attention from the media on top of general buzz. Upon completion, we released another press release and held a public showing event for journalists, bloggers and general guests which resulted in huge media exposure. During the performance phase, media exposure led to offers from television stations and professional soccer teams for appearance. We demonstrate performance and drive exposure to a huge audience without buying any media or hosting any events.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Castrol is the leading brand in engine oil who became the official sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We took advantage of this opportunity to boost brand awareness since it is low in Japan. The client brief was to drive as many people possible to be in touch with Castrol. Football in Japan hit the peak of popularity at the time of co-hosting the World Cup with South Korea in 2002. Popularity declined since and is stagnant after 2008. There was no media budget. There was a risk that we would be in the clutter of other World Cup-related campaigns. Our biggest challenge was the disconnection between engine oil and football. To drive direct association, we planned to develop the world’s fastest free-kick machine driven by engine. It was the dream machine incorporating robots, scientific technology and humor, matching the preferences of our target; car owners in their 30’s-40’s.