Horse Power - The story of the Shell Ferrari Technical Partnership in the build-up to the 2014 Formula One season.

2014 is a new dawn for Formula One with the new technical regulations providing the greatest challenge to confront the competing teams in 20 years. The new regulations mean the V8 engines have been replaced with smaller V6 engines combining raw (prancing) ‘horse power’ with a new shiny Energy Recovery System (battery) supplying up to 30 seconds of power per lap.

Fuel economy – once the preserve of middle class saloon cars is now one of the key factors for F1 teams in 2014, now victory in F1 demands finding the maximum power using the minimum fuel. The most efficient engines will now be triumphant ones. We identified this brave new world was also a huge opportunity for Shell to highlight its longstanding Technical Partnership with Ferrari.

Horse Power tells this unique story giving unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to Ferrari and Shell’s technical teams in the build up to the first race of the 2014 Formula One season. It’s a story of science, passion, brute strength, precision, speed and engineering… but above all of a partnership between Ferrari and Shell.

The one hour documentary provided a PR platform from which Shell and Ferrari could tell their story to millions of F1 fans around the world. Since premiering in Melbourne the documentary has aired in over 45 markets to more than 25 million homes around the world.

In late 2013 we story-boarded as much of the narrative as we could to manage expectations with all parties as to the content of the final film. Filming took place over 4 months (Dec 13 - Mar 14) in Italy, Bahrain, Jerez and the UK began with the final edit approved on 7th March 2014 - one day before the film aired on Sky in the UK. As well as the 1 hour film, shorter edits x 3 were created for online usage.

In order to ensure we didn't need advertising to ensure the film was broadcast we commissioned a 3 minute edit teaser to pre-sell the film to broadcasters. The biggest challenge was that over 60% of the final film was shot in the final 4 weeks leading up to the race. To get this edited and approved by all parties required careful planning and execution.

Horse Power was shown 120 times in a period of 23 days (from 8th March) in 45 markets including UK, Australia, Italy, Spain, India, Philippines, USA, South Africa, China and East Asia. The 1 hour documentary has broadcast on channels including Sky 2, Sky Atlantic, Sky Sports F1, NBC, Fox Sports and Supersport with an estimated global viewership of over 25 million homes to date. (15.04.14)

The film take up was driven through PR - offering it free to all global F1 TV broadcasters and then mass market digital channels. This approach secured c.95% of the coverage. Latterly, Shell’s media team looked to chase broadcasters who were yet to engage via Medicom.

• Digital edits of Horse Power secured in excess of 280,000 on-line views to date (15.04.14)

• Three markets (US, UK, Australia) hosted film-premier style launch events

• The cost per person (CCP) reached is estimated at 14p