In 2023, Lenovo was in its second year as an Official Technology Partner of Formula 1. For the British Grand Prix, its UK and Ireland team took the partnership to the streets, with a campaign built to reach F1 fans and IT decision-makers alike. We were there to capture it.
Piccadilly Circus on a summer’s day. Red buses crawl past, tourists crowd the pavements and, high above them, an F1 car bursts out of the Piccadilly Lights in 3D. It’s hard not to look up. That was the first stop on a trip that took us from central London to Heathrow and up to Manchester.
Billboards don’t last. Films do.
An out-of-home campaign has a short life. The screens change, the posters come down and what’s left is a report full of numbers.
A sizzle film brings those numbers to life. Lenovo’s campaign delivered 22 million planned impressions across the British Grand Prix period, while a record 480,000 fans made their way to Silverstone. Those figures matter, but they land harder when you can see the screens, the streets and the crowds behind them.
Chasing screens across the UK.
The campaign ran through some of the busiest places in the country: the Piccadilly Lights, the London Underground, High Street Kensington, Canary Wharf, Heathrow’s International Arrivals and the Manchester Arndale.
Every location was planned: when the screen would play, where the light would fall and where the camera needed to be. On the day, we used slow shutter speeds to turn commuters and shoppers into streaks of colour, so the billboard stays sharp while the city rushes past it. It’s a simple trick, and it tells you in a single frame just how many people walked by.
Big numbers, small screens.
The story is carried by bold on-screen text, built to work in a boardroom or on a phone with the sound off. Around our footage, we wove official race footage and Lenovo’s wider partnership work, including the F1 in Schools UK National Finals, where the brand encourages young people into STEM.
The result is a film that shows a technology brand using the world’s fastest sport to reach people where they live, work and travel. It turns a few weeks of billboards into something Lenovo’s teams could share, present and point to long after the race was over.
Lenovo’s campaign delivered 22 million planned impressions across the British Grand Prix period
What it means for you.
If your campaign lives in passing moments, plan how you’ll capture it before it goes live. Know every location, stage the moments that matter and let the numbers ride on real pictures. Your campaign will outlast its booking.