Image Credit : ©BrandBase
Project Overview
The Shell Motorsport Collection of Bluetooth remote controlled cars is a global promotion to drive Shell retail sales which first launched in 7 countries within the Central Eastern Europe region.
For the first time a powerful array of OEM and Motorsports partnerships were brought together to tell a story of performance linked to Shell V-Power, Shell’s differentiated fuel.
In addition to bringing together 12 rights holders including Ferrari, BMW and others, the Shell Motorsport Collection also delivered genuine innovation as BrandBase developed a proprietary Smart Battery that included the Bluetooth chip within a rechargeable lithium cell. This meant customers could buy just one battery and have a whole collection of remote-controlled cars.
This innovative promotion was developed exclusively for Shell, is highly collectible, sustainably led and has both physical and digital gameplay that drive increased engagement during and after the promotional period.
In addition each car sold contributes to Plastic Bank, offsetting the plastic used in production of the toys. The Plastic Bank is an organisation designed to remove plastic waste from the world’s oceans, beaches and waterways while empowering disenfranchised communities to exchange any type of plastic for currency.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Klaas Engelsma - Global Promotions Manager Shell
Krzysztof Slowik - Global Promotions Developer Shell
James Rankin - Commercial Director BrandBase
Paul Alberts - Project Innovator BrandBase
Mark Edwards - Operations Manager BrandBase
Miles Rankin - Project Manager BrandBase
Cynthia Tang - Production Manager BrandBase
Jesse Post - Creative Director BrandBase
Jeroen Coert - Lead designer BrandBase
Emanuele Papale - Designer BrandBase
Project Brief
Shell uses premium based promotions to drive loyalty, grow market share and increase fuel sales, particularly of their premium fuel, Shell V-Power. This exciting new global promotion managed to do this to great effect.
The first launch in 7 European markets saw over 1.5m units sold across in a 13 week campaign. Despite running in Q3 2020 in the middle of a Global pandemic, the promotion was able to significantly increase sales of fuels during the campaign period as well grow Shell V-Power sales to record levels.
Project Innovation/Need
We needed to build on the success of our BMW M Salt Water Cars (winner of the DrivenxDesign London Design Awards in the same category, last year) and deliver a next generation of innovation in toy cars. Having developed our own proprietary rechargeable lithium battery already we wanted to take the Shell Motorsport Collection to the next level… and so the Smart Battery was born.
Usually, remote control toy cars are made of plastic to be lightweight for the engine and battery power. These Shell Motorsport collection cars are one of the very first diecast toy cars on the market to be remote controlled. Not only with a much more qualitative look and feel but also much more durable.
Design Challenge
Innovation and technology often come hand in hand but usually bring increased cost with them. Our challenge was to create exciting new functionality without the product becoming cost prohibitive. As the promotions are designed to be collectible, we focussed on how we could add functionality to the toy car without adding too much cost.
We created and developed our proprietary Smart Battery which for the very first time saw a Bluetooth chip built into a removable and rechargeable lithium battery cell. This meant that not only the lithium battery cost but also the Bluetooth chip cost could be kept out of the car. This meant you only needed one battery to make your whole collection remote controlled which in turn allowed the cars to remain affordable and offer a very strong value proposition.
User Experience
The Bluetooth Remote Controlled cars could be driven using the Shell Racing app. The app not only allowed users to have fun controlling their toy cars but also had a highly successful racing and track building game.
Each day there were new race events that users could compete in to win in-app rewards. Users could also scan the physical toy car to unlock and race it in the app.
The Shell Racing platform has delivered incredible engagement in a number of countries around the world…
Game statistics
Total installs over 1,000,000
Over 23,000,000 races played
More than 500,000 race tracks created
Average play time per install is over 2 hours
Average session length is 7 minutes
Sales Promotion
This award celebrates creative and innovative experience design for sales promotions intended to persuade an audience to purchase or take some action upon products, ideas or services. Consideration given to the technical, conceptual and aesthetic elements, user experience, audience engagement and message delivery.
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