Brazilians are huge fans of Formula 1 and motor racing. Especially male adults over 30’s, who lived the era of F1 idols such as Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet. So to make the launch of the all-new Ford Fusion in Brazil unforgettable, a web series was created to reignite the fiercest rivalry in F1 history: Nelson Piquet vs. Nigel Mansell.

The drivers hadn’t seen each other in 25 years and it was clear from the get-go that they still held a grudge. Filming took place at a racing circuit in Brazil and both drivers had their own teams of engineers and mechanics. In order to keep the series as authentic as possible, they were given no scripts and were told to race for real.

The series was divided in 4 episodes. Every week the episodes were released on the campaign’s website and on Ford’s Social media channels.

A series of 4 episodes was created for the Internet. Every week the episodes were released on the campaign’s website and on Ford’s social media channels.

A vastly integrated media and PR strategy was put together. We activated channels such as open and cable TV, online portals, social media, YouTube and even came up with a viral plan.

One week ahead of the launch we leaked a few instigating pictures of the driver’s helmets and the crashed Fusions. It worked. The photos went viral instantly and popped up on major news websites and blogs. To draw eyes to the campaign’s website we launched a 15” TV teaser and online ads on news and sports websites as well as Facebook.

The public was eager to hear from both drivers, who are usually away from the spotlight, so we made the drivers available for interviews on TV, car shows and magazines.

Fusion Grand Prix was a tremendous hit. The agency was given a target of 300,000 views per episode. Each of the 4 episodes averaged 644,537 views with over 2.5 million on aggregate in only one month. The campaign reached 12 million results on search engines and 168,197,927 million impressions on all of Ford’s social media channels.

Ford smashed their initial sales target and completely ran out of new Fusions in the dealerships. Fordsold the entire target of units in the first month of an expected six months period.

Ford was so pleased with the results that more media investment was made. The new budget was used to turn Fusion Grand Prix into a 30” TVC on all major networks, with a heavy print campaign to follow. A 2 minutes version of the GP was screened on 184 cinema rooms in 9Brazilian capitals during the 2013 Oscar season.

Two acclaimed drivers. One new legend.