The challenge of the campaign was to bring Castrol's partnership of LMA (League Manager's Association) to life through a filmed Managers Forum with all four Barclays Premier League Midlands clubs. The partnership with the LMA provides Castrol with access to some of the biggest names in football. The task for Hill and Knowlton was to drive coverage for the Castrol EDGE brand that delivered messaging around its brand proposition of 'Strength to Perform'.

To bring to life Castrol's partnership of LMA

Hill and Knowlton Strategies created a filmed Managers Forum featuring the managers of the 4 Midlands clubs in the Premier League - Gerard Houllier (Aston Villa), Alex McLeish (Birmingham City), Mick McCarthy (Wolverhampton Wanderers) and Roy Hodgson (West Bromwich Albion) - which was the first time this had been done with media. The topics for debate were focused around areas that would resonate with Castrol's brand - performance and technology. H+K Strategies created the initial vision of the Forum, managed the overall production and subsequent PR of the forum.

Through online screening, the videos featured across 35 international football websites, securing in excess of 50,000 views. The transcript of the Forum was so engaging that the Daily Telegraph ran an exclusive double page spread of the event in their paper the following day. As well as success within media, the event has been held up within the LMA as a 'Gold Standard' of sponsorship activation.