This year Lenovo announced a multi-year deal as an Official Technology Partner of Formula 1®. To bring the partnership to life and increase brand visibility for Lenovo, we focused on four key moments throughout the year. These included on-site social media activations for the two Formula 1® Lenovo Grands Prix, an influencer activation at the Formula 1® US Grand Prix, and a social media sweepstakes. We even welcomed Stefano Domenicali, President & CEO of Formula 1®, to the virtual stage to speak at Lenovo’s biggest global event.
Beyond driving brand awareness, our objective for the first year of the partnership was to get fans excited about what Lenovo and Formula 1® had planned for the future of motorsports. The partnership brought Lenovo to the forefront of the F1® audience and eventually blossomed into influencer-generated content for the Formula 1® US Grand Prix.
Lenovo’s Corporate Social Media Team and Global Sponsorships Team worked hand-in-hand to create an effective paid social media strategy for each key moment. After the partnership announcement, we used the title races as opportunities to amplify our story and put Lenovo in front of the growing F1® audience.
Formula 1® Lenovo British Grand Prix:
For Lenovo's first title race of the season, we wanted to make a big splash on social media and create excitement around our involvement with Formula 1®. With a lot of cross-team collaboration, we developed an on-site video and photo capture list for the race weekend. Considering the newness of the partnership, our content would be limited to the Lenovo branding around the racetrack and the experiences provided for our guests. Knowing this, we adjusted our strategy to include a more robust teaser phase.
For the pre-race creative, Lenovo's Global Sponsorships Team worked closely with the partner to obtain photography and videos to promote the race. Meanwhile, Lenovo’s Corporate Social Media Team was able to expand on the limited creative provided by developing three animations that would be invaluable for future races. One of those key assets was a generic 3D-animated F1® car with Lenovo branding. Whether we wanted the car driving in the middle of London or on a real track, we now had the flexibility to create anything.
Formula 1® Lenovo French Grand Prix:
Using the 3D Formula 1® car, we developed two new videos to tease Lenovo's title race in France. Once it was time to capture content at the race, Lenovo’s Corporate Social Media Team and Global Sponsorships Team worked to capture Lenovo guests enjoying Formula 1® VIP experiences, as well as all of the branding around the track. To close out the weekend, we shared a congratulatory image of the podium winners and started planning for the next big race.
Formula 1® US Grand Prix:
Lenovo took over the Circuit of the Americas racetrack with high-visibility branding for the Formula 1® US Grand Prix. We developed a strategic paid media plan for Lenovo's social channels along with influencer-generated content from Daniel Mac, Jordan Fisher, and LuluLuvely. Each influencer posted to their own channels throughout the race, while Daniel Mac and Jordan Fisher tied out the weekend with an Instagram collaboration post recapping their experience. This allowed us to tap into their large following to help amplify the Lenovo and F1® partnership story.
Lenovo Tech World Formula 1® Sweepstakes:
In partnership with F1®, we developed a social media sweepstakes to drive registration for Lenovo’s most important event of the year. The sweepstakes allowed everyone who registered for Lenovo Tech World to be automatically entered to win an all-expense paid trip to an F1® race during the 2023 season. This allowed us to increase registration and market Lenovo’s partnership with Formula 1®.
Lenovo Tech World is our annual event where we showcase our vision for Lenovo’s future, highlighting innovation and key partnerships. With the President & CEO of Formula 1® speaking at the event, we already had a reason to bring F1® into our social media strategy, but now we could take it one step further.
Formula 1® Lenovo British Grand Prix:
Our Twitter campaigns were initially optimized for video views, garnering 6 million video views. We later optimized for engagement, with a total engagement rate of 3.10%, well above Lenovo’s benchmark.
Formula 1® Lenovo French Grand Prix:
We saw even more success for engagement, with 500% increase over our benchmark for overall engagement rate.
Formula 1® US Grand Prix:
The influencer-generated content was a great boost for brand awareness on Instagram and TikTok. Jordan Fisher’s Instagram collaboration post reached 311K people and received a total of 54,089 likes. Daniel Mac’s video on Instagram featured Lenovo’s President of North America and reached 1.86M people with 78,853 likes. The same video was posted on his TikTok and generated additional positive comments about Lenovo and our leadership team.
Lenovo Tech World Formula 1® Sweepstakes:
The sweepstakes made an enormous impact helping drive over 27k registrations for Lenovo Tech World across ten countries.
