Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Race Previews is the annual social and digital output created by the team to describe the challenge of racing each individual grand prix race track. Traditionally it has been the driver describing the way the track handles and simply uses F1 cars driving on a test track as cutaways. For the 2021 season, Petronas were again keen to use their title Partnership of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team to create short ‘Race Preview’ content pieces to engage with their existing audience and attract new fans to their Petronas motorsports Channels. The brief was extremely clear – to shake up the standard F1 team preview content and bring something new and shareable to the table.
Our series of 23 films realised the brief in a fresh and abstract way, using allegory and metaphor and a unique insight from the two drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas that isn’t typically covered in the media – a glimpse into their minds through an exciting, strikingly visual and ‘fresh for the genre’ creative treatment. With only two short four hour appearances with both drivers to shoot 23 films, we needed adaptability, collaboration and extensive pre-production planning. The production’s craft is on point with its editorial, visual effects, graphical treatment and sound design. The success of the campaign was extraordinary, achieving over 30 million organic views on digital and 1.2 million engagements. In comparison to the 2020 campaign of Race Reviews which totalled less than 100k views, we blew the numbers sky high, bringing massive ROI and visibility.
