After analyzing the advertising campaigns of Carsa (Castro Carrocera S.A.), an entity within our group, during the early 2000s in this post, we are now updating our blog to do the same for the campaigns launched by the Castrosua brand during that period. It was an era when the internet did not have the strength it has today, social networks had not yet made their appearance, and digital marketing strategies were a distant dream.
At that time, as we mentioned in the previous post on our blog, Castrosua and Carsa had distinct advertising strategies, although with some common threads. For example, the reference to regattas and sailing in the creatives was used by both companies in some campaigns, as this sport was promoted by our organization through a competition bearing our company’s name, as well as the sponsorship of a boat with the renowned Willy Alonso as skipper. This initiative was driven by our former CEO, José Manuel Castro, a passionate lover of the sea, regattas, and teamwork.
We want to show you how Castrosua’s advertisements evolved in the first decade of this century, and we will begin by referring to the campaign launched in 2002-2003. To provide context, we must place ourselves in perspective and note that in those years, mobile phones were still a very nascent technology and very different from those of the new generation. They were something novel that attracted people’s attention, and our company took advantage of this situation. It seems like yesterday, but we are talking about 20 years ago!
Thus, one of Castrosua’s first advertisements of this century played on the semantic value of the word “mobile,” which can refer to the phone or be linked to the verb “to mobilize.” Through a clever play on words (for the time), the creative included the slogan “we mobilize for you” along with an image of a mobile phone bearing the company’s stamp and a small text highlighting Castrosua’s ability, through its solutions for the road passenger transport sector, to communicate and mobilize people between different geographical points.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this text, the advertising strategy of Castrosua was forged through the sport of sailing, with an advertisement conceived in which a boat, branded with the company’s logo of that time, could be seen participating in a regatta.
Many sports, like the one we are referring to, just like in all organizations and companies, require their crew (employees or collaborators) to row in the same direction to achieve their goals. The chosen slogan aimed to highlight the concept of teamwork. And, precisely, our company focused its advertising proposal on this issue in the years 2004 and 2005, as you can see below:
In 2006, Castrosua launched a radically different graphic in its advertising policy. In it, different puzzle pieces could be seen, seemingly at the bottom of the sea, to once again emphasize, through the campaign slogan, the importance of collective effort: when you work as a team, no piece is superfluous was the chosen motto. The claim from the previous advertisement was also retained: The value of a team. The value of people in our company has always been a crucial theme for us, and the shared effort and work of everyone as the only path to achieve success.
Finally, in 2008, the strategy changed again to reinforce a concept that undoubtedly constitutes one of the corporate values that have guided our company’s history throughout its 75 years of existence: the trust that our stakeholders, especially our clients, place in us.
Therefore, around this idea, a different creative was promoted, showing an anchored boat, branded with the Castrosua mark, whose image was reflected in the water. And the campaign claim itself reinforced this graphic idea by stating, we are the reflection of your trust, as a token of gratitude for the good years that were being experienced.
These last two campaigns were based on photos taken by Eduardo J. Castro Rodríguez, who accompanied the company’s advertising campaigns for years.
Every idea is a child of its time
Let’s not forget that each campaign or creative idea is a child of its time, and although many of the proposals launched at the time may seem obsolete or simple from today’s perspective, the truth is that they worked wonderfully at each moment in achieving specific objectives and were disruptive.
And before we finish, we leave you with a great gift. We don’t know the exact year this advertisement was created, but based on the logo, we place it between 1981 and 1990, which was its period of validity. This advertisement reflects our commitment to quality, a hallmark of our brand.
And what do you think of the different advertisements we have shown you in this post? Which one do you prefer and why? We are eager to read your opinions!
And stay tuned to our blog because we will complete the story of our advertising evolution in this millennium with a new post focused on the period 2009-2023.
