The Campaign

Challenge: Honda's R&D is not only about mechanics, but also making innovations happen in the "brain" of the vehicle or electronics. Internavi – a two-way communication car navigation system that uses vehicle telematics. Its roots go back to 1980's when Honda introduced Telemetry system to F1 and stormed the world. Tested and perfected, today, this technology supports everyday drivers worldwide, but this is still not widely known. We needed to find a way to grasp the attention of the audience and make them feel excitement for this technology. Idea: We re-enacted the world's fastest lap set by Ayrton Senna while qualifying for 1989 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix from a single sheet of paper. Every aspect of Senna's driving data recorded in 1989 was digitally restored and analyzed. Engine sound of Senna's McLaren Honda MP4/5 was re-created by combining driving data collected in 1989 with engine tones recorded today. Hundreds of networked speakers and LEDs were placed along the 5,807-meter long Suzuka circuit. Then re-created engine sound was played according to driving data bringing back Senna's fastest lap from 24 years ago. People could feel Ayrton Senna race through Suzuka just as he did that day. PR elements: By creating such big news, we achieved huge media coverage with zero PR or media budget around the world. The project succeeded in reaching and moving F1, Honda and Senna fans around the world, and they spread the news even further.

The Brief

Senna's driving data was recorded using Honda's Telemetry System, which is the origin of today's Internavi navigation system. Though Internavi uses the same core technology that supported Senna, the origin and core technology of Internavi's navigation are still not widely known. Our mission was to tell the story, true possibilities of this technology and the power of Honda engineering. We didn't do normal research. Instead, we had many interviews with former engineers of Honda F1 team, and engineers that work for the telematics technology today to reveal the origin of Internavi and the relationship between Honda and Senna.

Results

Article placements: Right after its launch, this project was covered by media from Japan, Brazil, Europe, US and other regions (such as Wired, Gizmodo, Yahoo and so on) despite zero PR/Media budget. Content Views: Played over 3.7 million times, it became most watched YouTube video by an automobile company in Japan’s history and most watched viral video two weeks in a row worldwide. The rate of people who played the video to the end reached 85%, extremely exceeding the average which is 10%. Likes click-through rates: Likes click-through rates on Youtube reached 1%, which is 10 times the average. Fabourable mentions in social media: We received countless comments filled with emotions from viewers all over the world for Honda and Senna.

Execution

We re-enacted the world's fastest lap set by Ayrton Senna while qualifying for 1989 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix from a single sheet of paper. Every aspect of Senna's driving data recorded in 1989 was digitally restored and analyzed. Engine sound of Senna’s McLaren Honda MP4/5 was re-created by combining driving data collected in 1989 with engine tones recorded today. Hundreds of networked speakers and LEDs were placed along the 5,807-meter long Suzuka circuit. We invited motorsports engineers, journalists and photographers who were there in 1989 along with Senna’s fans to the main stand. Then re-created engine sound was played according to driving data bringing back Senna’s fastest lap from 24 years ago. LED lights also set around the circuit synchronized with Senna’s location at that moment down to the millisecond. Then, It was released as an online film for all to see.

The Situation

Honda's R&D is not only about mechanics, but also making innovations happen in the "brain" of the vehicle or electronics. Internavi – a two-way communication car navigation system that uses vehicle telematics. Its roots go back to 1980's when Honda introduced Telemetry system to F1 and stormed the world. Tested and perfected, today, this technology supports everyday drivers worldwide, but this is still not widely known. We needed to find a way to grasp the attention of the audience through various media and make them feel excitement for this technology.

The Strategy

We heard so many touching stories from Honda engineers who were working in F1 back in the day about how Honda worked very hard to perfect their engineering, create the very best of synchronization between man and machine to support F1 drivers such as Senna set record breaking laps. Discovering the existence of a single sheet of paper with telemetry data of that lap was the big start. First, we decided to re-create the engine sound of Ayrton Senna's McLaren Honda MP4/5, which filled Suzuka circuit during his qualifying lap in 1989. Then, we came to a conclusion that the ultimate way of visualizing the legendary data, was to replay it where it was originally born: the Suzuka circuit. So we brought in and lined up numerous speakers to re-produce Senna's engine sound once again. Eventually, we decided to also trace Senna's trajectory with LED lights and laser.