EMC activates its Lotus F1 partnership in spectacular style with a world record truck jump stunt that turned into a viral sensation
Stunt driver Mike Ryan planned the epic action and drove the truck off a ramp and over fellow stunt driver Martin Ivanov speeding underneath the lorry in a Lotus F1 race car.
Both have worked on films like The Fast and the Furious, James Bond, and Bourne.
The jump set a new Guiness World Record for the longest truck jump of 83 feet 7 inches.
No CGI was involved in the viral.
EMC is the official Technical Partner of the Lotus Formula One Team and its branded truck that is the start of the stunt is a Renault (the French car giant supplies Lotus’ F1 power units.
While the F1 car itself is the Lotus team’s 2013 season model.
As is seemingly mandatory with such stunts designed for viral video spread, there is an accompanying behind-the-scenes webfilm about the project available on the REMC Lotus microsite at http://www.emc.com/microsites/lotus/redefine-records.htm
Comment
At its heart the EMC/Lotus partner is built on computing power and data storage for maintenance and development.
So why would the racing team sponsor want to jump a hulking great lorry over the top of a sleek Lotus F1 racer?
Well, for one it certainly meets the objective criteria that underlies the entire sponsorship deal – ‘redefine motorsports by using EMC technology to push the boundaries’.
And also because something so technically specific and visually stunning was bound to spread like wildfire.
Indeed, the film has thus far racked up more than 10 million YouTube Views – with 29,547 ‘likes’ and a surprising 820 ‘dislikes’ (road safety campaigners perhaps?).
Lotus and its partners – from Burn to Spotify – continue to lead the way when it comes to innovative and brave F1 activation.
It might not have been the best year on the track for Lotus, but this surely makes the podium for the most exciting F1 sponsor social media activation!
And in a world where F1 supreme Bernie Ecclestone says he’d rather focus on rich 70-year-old men and things like ‘I’m not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is. I tried to find out but in any case I’m too old-fashioned. I couldn’t see any value in it’ that can’t be too easy.
Luckily teams like Lotus and sponsors like EMC don’t agree with Bernie.
Links
EMC/Lotus Truck Jump Websites
http://www.emc.com/LotusF1Team
http://www.emc.com/microsites/lotus/redefine-records.htm
EMC/Lotus Twitter
#RedefineRecords
EMC/Lotus Microsite
http://www.emc.com/microsites/lotus/index.htm
Lotus F1
