Duckhams Lubricants

Executive summary

Duckhams brought a heritage British lubricants brand to a UAE market that did not yet stock it. Slipstream ran the launch and the twelve months of sustain that followed, working two audiences at once: the distributors and workshops who decide what is on the shelf, and the drivers who ask for it by name.

The challenge

• A brand with deep heritage in Britain and almost no recognition among UAE drivers.
• Two audiences with different questions: the trade asks whether it will sell, drivers ask whether it is any good.
• Lubricants is a trust purchase. Workshops recommend what they are confident in, and that confidence has to be earned.
• Launch attention fades; shelf presence only holds if the brand keeps showing up afterwards.

The strategy

Launch across both audiences

Ran the launch at distributors and workshops and at car owners in parallel, so that trade interest and consumer demand reinforced each other rather than waiting on one another.

Heritage as the trust argument

Used the brand's British motoring history as the reason to believe, which answered the trade's commercial question and the driver's quality question with the same story.

Twelve months of sustain

Followed the launch with a year of ongoing awareness and branding work, keeping the brand present through the period when a new entrant is most easily forgotten.

The results

The work moved on distributor sign-ups and retail listings rather than awareness alone: the commercial measures that decide whether a new lubricants brand stays on the shelf.