A new ad for the Peugeot 208 GTi revolves around a slide guitar creating the noise of a revving car, bears striking similarities to the Lotus F1 team’s 2012 season launch video
Perhaps imitation is indeed the best form of flattery in the car business.
Lotus 2013 Season Trailer, which its major new Coca-Cola-owned Burn sponsor on-board takes a fairly different approach again with a short film from Ridley Scott Associates called #ShowTime.
Starring drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean and counting down to the new F1 season, its focus is on Lotus’ positioning as the team that does everything just a little bit differently.
Burn itself kicked off its own multi-year Lotus F1 partnership with a Twitter initiative to encourage fans to ask drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean questions about the season ahead.
It is also using its Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr platforms to promote the Ridley Scott teaser trailer ‘#Showtime’ (which has racked up 116,000-plus YouTube views to date).
The brand symbol of active fire, which simulates the senses and provides a symbol of the brand’s mission to provide drinkers with the energy to channel raw creativity into purposeful self-expression, features prominently on the car and the driver suits this season.
According to Burn, this Twitter push is the first phase of a wider strategy the energy drink brand says will dovetail with its existing art and music initiatives as it aims to change the traditional hospitality and reach-and-frequency conventions of so much previous F1 activation.
This is set to reflect Burn’s wider objective of encouraging and inspire everyone to live in a ‘Free State of Creativity’; challenging norms, without fear and boundaries, in the pursuit of creative expression.
This reflects the wider ambition of Burn to add to culture, be a place to bring talented people together, and energize creators in all fields.
Comment
In past years Burn has linked with a span of elite creators around the world – from snow and skate sports to electronic dance music – individuals who are living manifestations of the brand.
These partnerships have been activated by giving these creators a voice and a platform to ignite their creativity.
For years, while F1 has more than its fair share of creative visionaries, it’s sponsorship activation has tended to be fairly standardised, dominated by reach and awareness and generally lacking in imagination and innovation.
Perhaps Burn, along with other major new F1 sponsors in the 2013 season such as Blackberry, will begin to change this approach for one more focused on original, experience-enhancing engagement.
Links
Scott Associates Season Intro Film YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IPpS1adn9T0
Burn Tumblr
Burn Twitter
Burn YouTube
Lotus F1 Website
Lotus Twitter
https://twitter.com/Lotus_F1Team
Lotus Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/LotusF1Team?group_id=0
Lotus Pinterest
http://pinterest.com/lotusf1team/
