Renault Sport - 40 Years of Passion, The Yellow Teapot
Renault Sport
Issue 45 | December 2017
Agency
Publicis Conseil
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors Marcelo Vergara, Cédric Guéret Senior Copywriter Jean-Laurent Py Senior Art Director Cédric Auzannet 3D Pierrick Lamoureux
Production Team
Film Production Company Prodigious 3D Production Audrey Lagnous, Mathieu Gérard, Nicolas Bossu Post-production Solveig Pastor, Tara Galy Nadal 3D Post-production Matthieu Royer (Prodigious) / Fanny Bilani, Arthur Paux, Olivier Zibret, Benoit Messager, Mathieu Destrade et Stephen Plongeon (Reepost) Sound Design Marcelo Baldin (Combustion studio) Graphistes Dorothée Sorbier, Aurélien Farrobbia, Yoann Bouchard, Jérémy Maillard, Camille Lopez, Arnaud Grelaud, Léo Vedel, Laurent Harambillet, Jeanne Loyer, Jérôme Lionard, Marie Coudiere, Guillaume Jolly, Hugo Durand Mermet, Tim Mendler Visual Production Publicis Conseil, 4uatre
Other Credits
Account Managers Adrien Dumont, Domitille Bouvier, Grégoire Bautier, Lisa Wey Planning Filippo Del’Osso, Nicolas Izel Clients Renault Arnaud Delebecque, Andreea Culcea, Xavier Hourdeau, Nathalie Fiancette
Date
September 2017
Background
When Renault started in Formula One in 1977, 40 years ago, they equipped their car, the RS01, with a revolutionary turbo-charged engine. As is often the way with new technologies, there were a few technical difficulties and the car was not completely reliable. It often came back to the pits streaming white smoke.
Ken Tyrrell, then boss of the Formula One team that bore his name, saw the smoking car one-day and yelled out, "yellow teapot".
From then on the RS01 was known as the yellow teapot. But within two years it had won its first Grand Prix and won the respect of its competitors.
Idea
As a testimony to a history of passion and perseverance, Renault decided to celebrate their 40th anniversary in F1 by creating the 2017 Yellow Teapot. A real teapot, inspired by the RS01 & RS17 design, that would be the official teapot of the Renault Formula One team, transforming each sip into a sip of pride.
The teapot was also supplied to the Atelier Renault restaurant on the Champs- Elysées and a limited first-edition of 40 teapots were made available for sale to the general public at the Atelier and at Renault online shop for €129.
Results
The 2017 version of the Yellow Teapot was widely shared in both auto and F1 media but was also covered by news channels such as Le Monde and lifestyle titles like GQ, Wired, Marie France etc.
The campaign ended up with more than 60 million media impressions.
Sentiment was 99% positive and engagement rates were six times higher than Renault's benchmark figures.
The unprecedented number of calls and emails from potential customers wishing to buy the teapot has led Renault to consider mass-production.
Our Thoughts
What a charming way of reminding the world of Renault's prowess as an auto company. The RS01 was the first car to be turbo-charged. At the time, it was revolutionary but today every car that lines up on the grid is turbo-charged, as indeed are very many cars on the road.
Car companies are not noted for their sense of humour. If Renault were mocked in the early days of F1, then this self-deprecating look back at their own past makes them appear as cool as the teapot itself.