For the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix, The Ritz-Carlton wanted to showcase its partnership with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team through an impressive activation, using the luxury, location, talent, and celebrity on hand at The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest to surprise and delight in person and on social media.
Although it was miles away from the race at the Hungaroring, The Ritz-Carlton planned to transform The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest into it a center of attention all its own, engaging racing enthusiasts, luxury consumers, and the city at large.
Overall Objectives:
Build awareness of The Ritz-Carlton’s status as official hotel partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
Make The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest an essential part of the Grand Prix conversation with the art activation from Louis-Nicolas Darbon and appearance by Lewis Hamilton.
Use these in-person experiential moments to create engaging social content, further elevating the partnership between The Ritz-Carlton and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
Creating this center of race week excitement involved the coordination of on-the-ground, digital, and social elements. To tie them together and create a unique experience, The Ritz-Carlton looked to Louis-Nicolas Darbon, official Artist Partner for the brand.
Louis-Nicolas set his talents on two of the partnership's biggest moments yet — creating a larger-than-life mural of the Mercedes W13 car on the walls of The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest, just off of the famous (and famously popular) Elizabeth Square, as well as hosting an interview with 7-time Formula One World Champion and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver Lewis Hamilton, one of global sports most recognizable and successful athletes.
On the ground, both the mural and Lewis Hamilton’s appearance elevated The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest from an unforgettable stay into a can’t-miss focal point for the race weekend, drawing crowds in the hundreds during Louis-Nicolas Darbon’s painting process (including plenty of selfies), with a second, even larger gathering filling the streets to welcome Hamilton as he made his appearance to see the finished piece, chat, and paint with Darbon.
Documented by high-quality, social-first photo and video, these experiences were shared to a global audience through the social channels of The Ritz-Carlton, Mercedes, and Louis-Nicolas.
Across 18 pieces of content, racing fans and travel lovers alike were able to step into the world of Formula One in Budapest, with The Ritz-Carlton focused on sharing the destination and hotel, mural, and visit from Hamilton through engaging Instagram video, and Mercedes focused on capturing moments from the drivers’ perspective.
The presence of Ritz-Carlton content on Mercedes’ owned channels proved particularly valuable — their post of Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest on Facebook was the single most valuable piece of content from Mercedes for the Marriott partnership for all of 2022.
Overall, across The Ritz-Carlton, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, and Louis-Nicolas Darbon’s social channels, content generated 2 million engagements, a 31% engagement rate, and a $0.02 cost per engagement, notably exceeding the partnership’s 2021 engagement rate of 24%.
