08/ — Marketing & Campaign Strategy — EA SPORTS
Building hype for a race that didn't exist yet.
At a glance
Tension
The Las Vegas GP was F1's biggest bet in decades and nobody, including the drivers, had ever raced it. EA had the one place the race already existed: the game.
Insight
When the real thing hasn't happened yet, the simulation is the event. F1 23 could give fans the circuit before Formula 1 could.
Strategy
The Virtual Showrun: dare players worldwide to take the wheel and run Vegas before Vegas ran.
Vegas hadn't raced yet. Players could.
The Las Vegas GP was F1's biggest bet in decades and nobody, including the drivers, had ever raced it.
EA had the one place the race already existed: the game. With the inaugural Grand Prix landing in Black Friday week, that gap between anticipation and access was the campaign's engine.
The simulation is the event.
When the real thing hasn't happened yet, the simulation is the event.
The Virtual Showrun dared players worldwide to take the wheel and run Vegas before Vegas ran; rallying players, creators and pro drivers as an anticipation engine for both the game and the Grand Prix.
Pro drivers show the track
Real F1 drivers previewed the circuit in the game an authentic bridge between the sport and the sim, capped by a live virtual showrun featuring Charles Leclerc.
An open competition
A unique event competition invited everyone onto the grid broadening reach beyond the franchise's core players.
The Black Friday edge
A special discount offer ran through the week, converting the hype of the race moment at the year's peak of purchase intent.
One night in Vegas
The beat culminated in a live spectacle at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas; creators, celebrities and drivers racing the strip in-game as the city prepared for the real thing.
"Drive the track before the drivers do."
76% above forecast.
Game installs 76% above forecast, riding the campaign's hype into the Black Friday window.
12.9M video views across YouTube from the live virtual showrun, creator collaborations and pro-driver track previews. 7,600+ tracked social conversations across the week-long campaign.
An 85.4 sentiment benchmark across the gaming and motorsport communities. [Placeholder — name the measurement tool, its scale and source]