In a race car we found a visual metaphor for speed. We invited Lewis Hamliton (the youngest formula 1 champion) to race on Schiphol airport against a virtual racecar, that was built up out of 28800 Facebook profile pictures. The pictures were gathered weeks before the actual race. On 13 September, the car had to race a track of 4,7 km faster than the Vodafone network could download the virtual race car of 288 MB. We invited press and broadcast the race between the real car and the virtual car (which was superimposed in real time) live on the internet.

Facebook vs Hamilton has generated both national and international a lot of attention. More than 28.800 Facebook members uploaded their profile pictures within 2 weeks and the idea generated 11.000 likes on Vodafone Facebook.

The live streams was watched by 100.000 people live. The trailer and making of generated more than 190.000 views. Together with attention in traditional media (like TV, newspapers, magazines and blogs), Facebook vs Hamilton generated a PR value of €2.8 million.More than 100 blogs wrote about the event and mentioned Vodafone’s fast mobile data network.