With Lap of Legends, Michelob ULTRA told a heartwarming story across broadcast channels, and across realities, all while moving at 200 mph.

Fusing physical and augmented reality, we created the world’s first-ever real-vs.-virtual F1 race for millions of viewers across live TV, theaters, and streaming platforms.

We told the story of a young F1 driver facing unimaginable pressure to win, and put him on the iconic Silverstone Circuit to race AR avatars of his heroes who taught him the joy of racing.

Across dimensions of reality and media channels, we proved that racing is all about joy.

Logan Sargeant is the first American F1 driver in 30 years. It’s one of the highest honors in racing today, but it also comes with even higher stakes in a hyper-competitive league like F1.

He recently told a reporter that his rookie F1 season had been “a dream come true. Then you immediately think, ‘now the real work starts, trying to keep my place in F1.’”

He’s not the only one facing debilitating pressure to keep his place in F1. Top drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris have publicly opened up about their struggles with the high-stakes intensity of racing culture.

And unfortunately, the intensity extends beyond the drivers themselves. Their crew members, their fans, and the journalists who cover them all now understand that each race feels like a fight to stay alive in the racing world. The competition has become more existential.

So as the league works to alleviate this pressure, we aim to rekindle the joy that shaped F1 racing in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

After all, we believe that it’s only worth it if you enjoy it.

Situation

Michelob ULTRA’s brand platform, “It’s Only Worth It If You Enjoy It,” has made unparalleled impacts in the world of sports over the last few years, addressing issues such as burnout, fans being shut out of games during COVID lockdowns, accessibility, and more. Our cultural relevance in sports has helped us become the #1-selling beer in the U.S.

But competition never ends in the beer category. To keep your sales up, you need to keep being culturally relevant.

Objectives

So, to continue growing our sales, we set out to inject Michelob ULTRA with a new burst of cultural relevance.

Brief

As the official partner of Williams Racing, we set out to remind everyone who loves the world’s fastest-growing sport — F1 racing — that joy is an essential component of the sport, and an active lifestyle in general.

It became clear that the world of F1 had lost its sense of perspective about racing. The lighthearted racing eras of drivers like Mario Andretti had taken a back seat to this new pressure-packed era.

Our target audience of Millennial F1 fans could clearly see it in sports culture. Interviews with drivers like Lewis Hamilton, Logan Sargeant, and Lando Norris showed that the pressure to win had reached a fever pitch, Not to mention, the proliferation of shows like Drive to Survive has also reinforced the notion in culture that F1 should be high-octane and cutthroat all the time.

Knowing that this win-or-get-fired narrative had become so pervasive in TV shows about F1, we decided to lean into TV as a medium for our strategic approach: Use our F1 partnership to reframe the way in which people think about the joy of an active lifestyle, especially racing.

Using real-time racing data, we created the first-ever real-vs.-virtual F1 race and aired it on live TV — we put Logan Sargeant, a young Williams Racing driver, on a real racetrack against AR avatars of his racing heroes when he was younger, driven by AI.

But why would Michelob ULTRA do this?

Because these retired icons — Mario Andretti, Jacques Villeneuve, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Jenson Button, and Damon Hill — embodied the kind of joy that Logan became a driver to experience. Their joyful outlook offers an antidote to the win-at-all-costs mentality making F1 racing today so toxic for drivers, fans, and journalists alike.

And we did it all through AR, AI machine learning, and telemetry, using tech to remind the world that it’s only worth it if you enjoy it and create the first sporting event that spanned different dimensions of reality.

We first teased our one-of-a-kind F1 race at the United States Grand Prix in October 2023, and at premiere events in New York and Miami in early 2024. Then, the full program aired on AMC and BBC America in spring 2024, interspersed with stories of Logan’s journey as a driver, adding a personal narrative that no other race has offered.

Soon, the full program featuring the race and the human story behind it will also be available to stream on-demand via AMC, BBC America, and Roku.

This wasn’t the kind of forgettable branded content most people gloss over. This was a TV show that other brands ran ads inside of. We’ve opened a new realm of possibility in the worlds of entertainment and a media format for brands to use.

Lap of Legends is still in its promotional phase. But the success of the promo shows another cultural relevance juggernaut in the making:

4.5 billion impressions and 19 million viewers across platforms

+1,650% month-over-month growth in organic search for Michelob ULTRA

+23% month-over-month growth in social reach for Michelob ULTRA

100% positive/neutral press coverage

And we’re making a lasting impact beyond the race.

The tech behind Lap of Legends makes AR devices more accurate and functional in fast-moving vehicles. This will make a crucial difference for ambulances during medical emergencies, disaster response teams during extreme weather events, and more.

Not to mention, we pioneered a new entertainment media format. Rather than advertising alongside sports, we created the sports event ourselves and other brands advertised alongside our event.

From live events to impossible technology, we continue to change the world with the joy of sports.