Bose Activates Mercedes AMG Petronas Partnership With Immersive, Funky ‘F1 Garage Experience’

It was back in March 2015, ahead of that season, that Bose and the Mercedes Formula One team announced a new partnership that saw the audio equipment company become the team’s ‘Official Team Partner in Sound’.

As part of the agreement, Mercedes is using a range of Bose products (including the QuietComfort headphones and SoundTouch wireless music systems) both at and away from the race track, while the rights package sees the Bose logo feature on the racesuits and helmets of Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, on the helmets of the Mercedes team’s pit crew, as well as on the team’s trackside clothing.

Colette Burke, Vice President, Bose Europe, said at the time the deal was signed: ‘We’re excited to join Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team as we share a similar passion for performance and commitment to excellence. The propriety technology found in our products will help the team as they prepare, travel and perform together at every global Formula One race.’

While Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, added: ‘We are delighted to be partnering with Bose ahead of what should be an exciting new Formula One season. Being part of a Formula One team is a demanding lifestyle so benefiting from Bose’s industry-leading products in sound will become an important part of our routines, with our travelling personnel already enjoying an improved experience on long journeys around the world with the benefit of Bose’s QuietComfort noise cancelling headphones.’

The 2016 US GP work follows on from previous Bose Mercedes F1 leverage programmes – such as a recent August ‘Better Sound’ initiative which included the brand challenging Nico Rosberg (and his SoundSport wireless headphones) to 30-seconds in a gyrosphere.

This linked to July 2016’s wider ‘Better Sound’ activation in which Rosberg visited the Bose headquarters to take part in a series of other challenges that all put the brand idea of #BetterSound to the test to see if it really does help users ‘keep going’ and ‘stay focused’

Earlier in the partnership, back in 2015, Bose kicked off its Mercedes F1 activations with an August 2015 behind-the-scenes audio experience led by a video fronted by the chief mechanic of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team.

Mercedes worked with Bose to create ‘The Sound of the Perfect Pit Stop’

This sound-focused film opens with the chief mechanic speaking to the camera about his own favourite sounds at a race: he says that a successful day would involve a perfect pit stop and that he especially enjoys the sounds of the wheel guns in the garage.

The viewer then sees mechanics working during a pit stop, while the sound of the wheel guns is emphasized along with the background noise of the garage.

The chief mechanic then goes on to say that music plays the largest role in his day during the pack-up after a race. He loves when the team can turn the sound system up in the garage and enjoy the satisfaction of finishing a race.

He says that the sound of success for him would be the sound of a racecar crossing the finish line and the cheering of the crowds at that moment: ‘The whole sound is a great atmosphere.’

While Bose speakers don’t directly play a major role in the spot, video, the creative does emphasise the unique noises of a Mercedes experience to ensure Bose consumers get an intimate sensory portrait of the F1 team.

Another activation phase of the partnership was ‘The Sound Of Success’: which saw a launch spot presented by Bose that emphasised the fact that Bose is an integral part of Mercedes sounds, regardless of what they are.

While in September 2015 a ‘Driven By Better Sound’ driver-led marketing push saw Bose present ‘The Soundtrack of Nico Rosberg: In Studio with Kasper Bjørke’ (which has thus far notched up 30,000 YouTube views),

and ‘The Soundtrack of Lewis Hamilton: In Studio with Spinz Beats’ (which boasts 84,000 YouTube views to date).

This isn’t Bose’s first automaker partnership: for example last year the audio outfit link with Porsche Cars USA on a multisensory, pop-up shop brand experience in New York’s Meatpacking District with the aim of broadening how consumers perceive the brand.