Adopting a similar approach to its season opening, driver-led 2016 short film, Chandon activates its McLaren Formula One partnership via a video that sees the team’s drivers at the wheel of toy cars for an ‘Unexpected Race’.
The Australian-based sparkling wine is using the Formula One 2017 season-opening race to ramp up the second year of its McLaren F1 team sponsorship through a spot that sees Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne race remote control cars (and reference ‘don’t drink and drive’).
Speeding along a track built by the brand through its own Chandon vineyards, the toy tech steps up a gear as the cars are snatched by drones piloted by the drivers via virtual reality headsets before dropping back to the track and then racing across the table of a group of surprised vineyard visitor diners.
Initially posted on the wine brand’s YouTube channel,
it was further amplified across Chandon’s own digital and social platforms and also supported across the McLaren team’s various channels too – (such as its Instagram page)
The spot, which was launched at the start of Australian Grand Prix weekend on 25 March, finishes with the line brand’s ongoing ‘Share the Spark’ tagline which spans a marketing strategy built around the idea of prompting people to celebrate spontaneous moments.
Accordign to Ashley Powell, Chandon’s marketing and business development director, the ad aims to be a great way to kick off the second year of the sponsorship.
‘We are thrilled to be working alongside McLaren-Honda again and kick off the new season in style,’ Powell said.
‘The content we created last year put Chandon on the global stage so we wanted to emulate that, to bring the Chandon story to life. It was fantastic to have Stoffel on board and work with Fernando again to create a piece that we are confident will generate excitement and encourage fans to ‘Enjoy the Spark’ of Chandon.’
The work is actually one pillar in a broader influencer campaign created by Havas Village.
The agency-led team on this project included director Lachlan Dickie, broadcast boss Monique Pardavi, print producer Claudia Brookes, ECD Stu Turner. Copy writer Zac Pritchard, art director Damian Galvin, group account director Nick Braddy, account director Nicole de Pear, account executives Henry Hellegas and Maddie Pulver, plus PR account lead Adam Freedman, PR account manager Sophie Muir and PR senior executive Shailo Rasanayakam.
Activative Comment:
This campaign follows in the activation footsteps of last year’s ‘vineyard race’ activation (see case study) and continues a creative approach based around exclusive pieces of content featuring the drivers racing in a series of unexpected challenges
The alliance between the sparkling wine brand and the elite race team continues a long established tactic of premium brands and luxury lifestyle companies sponsoring F1: a property long perceived and positioned as a glamorous global sport.
Indeed, when the deal was initially signed, the accompanying PR saw Chandon describe itself as being ‘born out of the spirit of open-mindedness within a search for new horizons in Old World wine-making 60 years ago’, while McLaren trumpeted its credentials as one of the most successful teams in Formula 1 history.
Thus, the umbrella aim behind the tie-up is to link Chandon’s ‘sparkling attitude’ to the famous McLaren-Honda Formula 1 team in an ‘exciting celebration of innovation’.
The Chandon and McLaren names both reek of an elite, premium positioning, but it seems something of a shame that the team’s on-track performance remains so far behind F1’s front runners.
Links:
Chandon
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbstkMJLrkBeCD0de7ppb7Q
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115533674979402726133
McLaren
https://www.youtube.com/user/Official…
http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/
http://mclrn.co/iOS
http://mclrn.co/Android
https://www.facebook.com/McLaren.Racing
https://twitter.com/McLarenF1
https://plus.google.com/+McLaren
http://instagram.com/mclaren/
https://uk.pinterest.com/McLarenRacing/
Havas Village
http://www.havasgroup.com/group/management-committee/havas-village
