With the growth of F1's younger fan base and the need to activate the Heineken 0.0 brand in F1 for the first time in Brazil, in line with the When You Drive, Never Drink campaign, the timing couldn't be more appropriate and challenging: F1 was returning to São Paulo, with all the expectations of an audience that had been stuck at home for almost two years Thus, it was necessary to find a common point of interest that would generate traffic to My Heineken (App) between current and future consumers.

In order to bring this target profile a bit closer as well as to activate the Heineken 0.0 brand in the championship for the first time in Brazil, it was necessary to create a strategy encompassing the target, F1, the city and the brand.

In order to engage different audiences and bring them closer to the brand, we went in search of a common point of interest that led to the development of a strong concept and an unprecedented approach for the brand with gamers.

In a meta-world where, say, Driver #33 (Verstappen) and Driver #44 (Hamilton) can compete freely with Player One and Player Two, who is going to be our Player 0.0?

Player 0.0 was somewhat of a quest for the ultimate virtual driver, whether he/she is an F1 fan, professional racing driver, professional streamer, influencer or just a Heineken 0.0 consumer.

The quest was divided into 4 stages, which placed professionals and fans on the same track, on the same grid, with open participation through registration at “My Heineken” mobile app.

For this stunt to be impactful, we have created a digital strategy with gaming influencers, product placement on TV and internet shows as well as physical activations that were placed on strategic landmarks of the city as a warm-up for the Grand Prix. The first live qualifying stage of the tournament was held at Ilha 360 rooftop, an iconic building with a great view of the city; the second live stage took place at Avenida Paulista (São Paulo’s most important avenue) and the third one was held at BBL Headquarters, the local most famous arena for the gaming community. The grand finale, however, was reserved for Interlagos Racetrack Paddock on Grand Prix Race Day, where participants competed live with online broadcast via Twitch, bridging the F1 game metaverse to the actual Grand Prix in the real world.

The Player 0.0 competition was divided into three phases: It started with an open and free national qualifier for gamers consumers who had to register their best lap times on the Interlagos track on the F1 2021 and F1 2020 official games at My Heineken mobile app.

The 10 best-performing fans and consumers were awarded a custom gaming kit, finally joining the grid for the next stage, where they would compete with 10 drivers and influencers for three races in Grand Prix mode.

In order to maximize awareness about the tournament, during each live stage event, two of the competitors would compete in person at our “scenic” cockpits, strategically placed in São Paulo landmarks.

The very final race welcomed the 3 best players of each category (consumer, driver and gamer), directly from the paddock at the Interlagos Race Track, moments prior to the F1 Heineken Grand Prix São Paulo itself.

The Player 0.0 project generated more than 310 million online impacts, a 72% increase in My Heineken app downloads, 6 million hits with online and TV product placement, over 4,800 hours of live content watched and over 547k USD in extra Ad Value. About 80 earned media posts were registered from respected vehicles, ranging from ESPN to Brainstorm9 and Meio & Mensagem. Just over 330 influencer posts were registered as coverage, from F1 fans to lifestyle and gaming influencers.

Also, the initiative boasted 92% CR on Twitch, which was particularly noteworthy as it was the brand’s first experience on the platform, The Player 0.0 project marked the official launch of Heineken’s TikTok account registering a 60% higher CTR than average.

Finally, on race day, our Player 0.0 challenge accounted for 50% of F1 viewers in the whole world.