Castrol ON
Visualising the Quiet Revolution
What’s the main reason people love driving electric cars? Sustainability? Performance? Lower running costs? According to new research from Castrol ON and WMH&I in collaboration with CrowdDNA, the answer is something far less expected: tranquillity.
As part of a study involving 3,000 drivers, Castrol ON sought to understand what makes people fall in love with electric vehicles, and what might persuade those still hesitant to make the switch. The findings revealed a significant shift in what consumers find desirable in a car.
Rather than focusing on speed, power or technology, drivers consistently described the EV experience using words such as floating, serene and silent. The most valued aspect of driving electric wasn’t what the vehicle could do, but how it made them feel.
For WMH&I, this presented an opportunity. For decades, automotive advertising has been built around excitement. Cars race through mountain roads. Engines roar. Performance dominates the conversation. Yet here was evidence suggesting that, for many drivers, the future of mobility feels less like adrenaline and more like calm.
Working with Castrol ON EV Fluids, we developed a campaign that brought this insight to life. Rather than focusing on technical specifications or environmental credentials, the creative sought to visualise the unique sense of tranquillity that electric driving can provide in an increasingly frenetic world.
The campaign launched through a partnership with the Financial Times at its prestigious Future of the Car Summit, where the work came to life across editorial content, event experience, film and a wider suite of campaign assets. The result was a thought leadership platform grounded in a deeply human truth: that sometimes the most powerful innovation isn’t what makes life faster, but what makes it quieter.
For us, it was also a reminder that even in B2B categories, the strongest communications often start with emotion. Because behind every technology, every product and every innovation, there are people looking for something better.
Sometimes, that something is simply a moment of calm.
Read more about the research and the revolution of quiet in these two FT articles:
Country roads: the cultural differences shaping EV development