In 2011, Hot Wheels wanted to break away from the overcrowded toy market and capture the attention of a new generation of dads before the holiday shopping season.

Dads, the brand knew, are just big boys who want the thrills boys get from Hot Wheels, but on a bigger scale. So the brand scaled up... way up.At the Indianapolis 500, Hot Wheels built a kid’s bedroom door 10-stories high, attached a super-sized version of its iconic V-drop track and sent a driver in a full-size replica of a Hot Wheels car soaring across the infield to set a world record jump. 'Fearless at the 500' was a crazy-risky stunt that brought the toy to real life.And the fearless PR pit crew maximised its mileage. Beforehand, PR created teaser videos and a Funny or Die skit that had dads everywhere questioning, “Is this really happening?” Afterwards, PR put the jump on YouTube, seeded it in all the right places, and dads around the world made it YouTube’s most-viewed video over Memorial Day weekend, capturing nearly 6m views by summer’s end.

By holiday season, sales were racing, too – jumping 11% in 2011, compared to 1% in 2010.

February and March:Launched Team Hot Wheels at Toy Fair and, with video site Funny or Die, created and distributed 'The Fifth Racer', a video starring Jeremy Piven as a Team Hot Wheels wannabe.April: Aligned 4 feature stories to break the stunt announcement on April 12, from 4 differing angles: Associated Press (general), New York Times (marketing), Wired.com (tech) and ESPN (sports), creating a flurry of follow-up media.May (pre-stunt): Secured stories about building the giant set-up at the Speedway.

Drove speculation around the identity of the 'Yellow Driver' performing the stunt by releasing a teaser video and conducting media interviews.Partnered with GetGlue to enable users to check into 'Fearless at the 500'.May and June (post-stunt): Saturated media with stunt coverage.Revealed stunt driver, Tanner Foust, and executed national/regional satellite media tour.Released 'Fearless at the 500' world record-breaking jump footage via YouTube and Facebook and seeded the link to all media targets.

Communications objective: Drive cultural noise and conversation about the stunt to engage young dads.

'Fearless at the 500' was the number 1 YouTube video worldwide over Memorial Day weekend, and YouTube views totaled more than 5m by summer’s end. YouTube analytics showed video was most popular with males 25-35.1,500 global stories, resulting in 1.5bn earned media impressions, with more than 475 broadcast segments – including 'Today', 'Fox & Friends', 'Anderson Cooper 360', – and more than 645 online placements, including MensFitness.com, PopularSci.com, and BuzzFeed.40% increase in monthly active Facebook users.With more than 118,000+ views, Hot Wheels’ 'Fifth Racer', ranked number 3 in a top 10 roundup of the most hilarious branded entertainment campaigns by Mashable.8,200+ GetGlue check-ins with social reach of 1.5m.Business goal: Help drive Hot Wheels holiday season sales.Holiday season sales jumped 11% in 2011, compared to 1% in 2010.