A new campaign, created in harness with agency Uncommon, was inspired by Formula E races on city streets and introduces the series’ new brand positioning and vision to accelerate sustainable human progress through the power of electric racing.
This strategic message was brought to life via the campaign’s launch film which seeks to capture the sport’s ability to excite next generation fans through a combination of thrilling on-track action and its role as a catalyst for positive global change.
As Formula E starts its seventh season, the sport is now positioning itself not as a new challenger series but rather as the future of motorsport.
The idea is that Formula E’s very existence drives mobility and ecology forward with greater pace and ‘Change Accelerated’ seeks to encapsulate this vision and bring it to life.
The marketing team was inspired not only by the sport’s sustainability credentials, but also by one point of difference between Formula E and F1 in that its races take place on temporary city centre street circuits rather than on separated tracks and were inspired by the idea of people being as shocked at the idea of cars going past as they might be at the change it was creating.
The film features seven Formula R race destinations from this season: London, New York, Berlin, Diriyah, Valencia, Puebla and Monaco.
The hero spot, which was helmed by Director Marcus Söderlund and Executive Creative Director Sam Walker, rolled out on 29 April and blends speed and stillness and is narrated by Arthur C Clarke (known for predicting what the future will look like).
Uncommon Founder Nils Leonard explained that the agency actually identified the marketing campaign’s sound track before it began work on the hero film.
“Singularity sounds like one of the cars – badass and cool. We were listening and listening to the track, thinking it’s expansive, it’s epic, it’s dangerous, a little bit dark. What experience could match that?” he recalled.
It was last year that Uncommon won a brief to help Formula E reach its full potential.
“It can be cool, it can be dangerous, it can be ethical, and it can be luxurious,” said Uncommon Founder Nils Leonard. “I was really keen that Formula E wasn’t just seen as the ‘right’ choice, rather than the fucking exciting one. Because that’s what racing is all about. It’s about risk and death. Some guy in a Prius is not going to convert somebody. Whereas Formula E is that badass brand that actually has a hope of doing that.”
This led to the ‘Welcome To Season 7’ launch campaign which rolled out on 12 February and was led by a hero spot emphasising that the series races for change and that it can’t drive fast enough towards it and introduced the #ChangeAccelerated hashtag.
The campaign was created for the Formula E marketing team which included Chief Brand Officer Henry Chilcott, Marketing Director Louise Troen, Senior Marketing Manager Catherine McCartan and Brand Operations Director Jordan Oates by creative studio Uncommon where the team was led by Founder Nils Leonard.
The media agency was MediaHub with Media Planner Georgia Scott.
The production company was Academy with Director Marcus Söderlund, Editor Ted Guard @ The Quarry and Production Company Producers Luke Goodrum and Medb Riordan. The Editing Company Producer was Maggie McDermott, with DOP Daniel Voldheim, post-production was handled by ETC with Grade & Colourist Julien Alary, VFX from Fasa Producers Jon Purton and Sydney Levy. The soundtrack composer was Jon Hopkins of Domino Publishing. Audio post-production was handed by Wave Studios.
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This campaign, which follows on from February 2021’s ‘Change Accelerated’ new season initiative and its last ‘Raw & Urban‘ brand refresh in early 2018, aims to offer a blend of ‘cool’, ‘dangerous’ and yet ‘ethical’ messaging and in large part it succeeds.
Formula E was originally founded to counteract climate change by accelerating the research, development and adoption of electric vehicles. This mission which has since evolved to become a more encompassing ‘race for a better future’ and aligns with the FIA’s Purpose Driven movement.
Reflecting its own commitment to counteract climate change and its role in campaigning for others to do the same, Formula E is also the only sport to be certified net zero carbon since it was founded.
“The world didn’t need another motorsport,” said Formula E’s Chief Branding Officer Henry Chilcott. “The reason Formula E came into existence was through its capacity to make a positive impact to the world.”
According to Chilcott, Formula E has three core audiences: fans, teams/sponsors and automotive manufacturers.
“The fans ultimately need to believe in the sport – that it can be just as exciting as F1,” he explained. “The partners need to believe this is a powerful platform, against which they can tell stories that classically sit at the intersection of technology, performance and sustainability. And manufacturers need to believe that the way we’re positioning the brand is going to help them attract a new generation of electric vehicle purchases,” Chilcott explains. While sport is Formula E’s raison d’être, it also plays a valuable role in driving the electric vehicle revolution.”
The series continues to grow rapidly and last year its cumulative broadcast audience (for Season 6) was 273 million, while its global brand awareness is 460 million.
It has also continued to expand the number of mainstream automotive manufacturers competing in the series and now boasts considerable more car companies than Formula One with Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, Nissan and Porsche.
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