A Drive Through TRO’s Goodwood Festival of Speed Activations

Goodwood Festival of Speed isn’t just for the petrolheads anymore. Rob O’Siochain, head of growth at TRO, notes how what was once an event focused on automotive engineering now presents a broader brief to experiential agencies like the one he works at. Standing between the festival’s Hill Climb stretch of race tack and the BMW M5 activation that TRO created, he gestures around. “You can see around you, it's starting to really bleed into lifestyle. So it's pretty exciting for us as an experiential agency.”

TRO has been on a journey with the likes of BMW and MINI for almost 30 years working on the event. “That evolves over time, ultimately to reflect the consumer,” says Rob. “And I think the makeup of the consumers has changed in that period, as well. We have to keep up from an experiential perspective. It's very family oriented. As you can see, young, old. The enthusiasts still come for the noise and what's on track, but I think it's just a really good day out.”

For him, that means that the agency’s Festival of Speed activations for BMW, MINI and Genesis are all about showcasing a lifestyle, as much as a product. “The battleground is about winning hearts and minds,” he says. “And if you're working in an experiential agency, that's sort of music to your ears. You can start delving into what the brand values are, what the popular trends are, what people want out of a day out, essentially, and what does that reflect about the brand?

“If you're a creative you can imagine how exciting that is,” he continues. The TRO teams have been working on developing these experiences to bring to life the brands’ worlds for six or eight months leading up to FOS. The briefs, of course, built on previous years’ ideas, but there are always new products to launch or showcase and, as Rob notes, “what better place to do that than here?” 

“On a very human level, it's bringing people in to participate. The days of passive ‘it looks great’ are behind us. I think the consumer is more savvy than that. They want to be involved. They want to shape that experience. So you will see activities where people can literally get their hands on [the new cars].” 

BMW’s trackside spot sees the German carmaker celebrating the duality of the M series, highlighting its performance, street style and adventure by drawing on the energy of M car meets. A stark black space, it  played host to the world premiere of the new BMW M5, which enters its seventh generation with an electrified drive system for the first time. Its second location, the Stable Yard, is a more tranquil experience, showcasing the joy of innovation by humanising the latest technologies and looking towards the future. There you could see the Vision Neue Klasse, the luxurious BMW Concept Skytop and the BMW i5 Flow NOSTOKANA with colour-change technology. 

“Product launch is a big one,” says Rob. “BMW really trying to drive home that innovation story was one of our primary objectives.” But the feeling of the space is core to the experience. “For a brand like BMW, and similarly Genesis, there's a real hospitality element. So you've effectively got a reward and recognition for consumers who are already clients.” If you have a set of BMW keys, you can access the Owners’ Bar. “You can go up, you get a room with a view, you get refreshments, coffee, water, etc. It's a very hectic, busy festival. To give someone a moment of respite, to be able to sit down and have a refreshment, it really makes their day,” says Rob.

There’s also a space to buy merchandise – something that car brands leaning into lifestyle are more and more keen to push. “Their roles have changed hugely,” says Rob of the auto manufacturers. “They're no longer just selling products. They're selling brand ecosystems. You'll see a lot of licensing and merchandise. And that is another way of bringing people closer to the brand. It also makes it more accessible. Can I afford some of these cars? No. But can I buy into the ethos of the brand through their merchandise, their lifestyle extension, their partnerships? Absolutely. For our clients, part of their role has now transitioned into how you bring people into your brand, not necessarily through the product, but through something else.”

Compared to some of the newer contenders in the space, whose activation at somewhere like FOS may feel ‘a bit showroom-y’, the likes of BMW have to build something more conceptual. “People already know what the brand is, the product, and so it's about going further with that,” says Rob.

Goodwood is a vital calendar moment for an agency like TRO to develop its thinking. “You learn a lot that you can take forward to the next event,” says Rob. He looks forward to BMW’s activations at the PGA Championship in September. “The great thing is if you go down to the Stable Yard, a lot of the stuff that we’re doing there, we're going to reuse. Sustainability is obviously a really hot topic. And what we're doing – not just planning for one event, planning for a series of events. And we're creating assets where the experience can change. That's a really important part of our role — to make sure that the client is not reinventing the wheel (pardon the pun). They've got these tentpole events. With the experiences there they can create efficiencies and more of a sustainable food chain around delivering those experiences.”

“Genesis are at a very, very different part of their journey to BMW,” says Rob. The Korean brand has only been in the UK market for three years, but as part of Hyundai Group it’s well established as an automaker. TRO’s activation for them was built around the launch of a whole range – the performance-led Magma Series. Having made an international debut in New York a few months prior, FOS is its first showing in Europe. And all the cars on the activation are a searing magma orange, making it hard to miss.

“Their story is different. They're telling more of a story around elegance,” says Rob. “And from that side, it's really more around the aesthetic of the brand, what it means, trying to deliver that message of prestige, luxury, and now layered on with performance with Magma, which is a bit more minimalist.”

“The MINI activation is all about personalisation,” says Rob. “You've got all brands now under one house, all electric, but each of those vehicles has a different story to tell. I think that that level of personalisation is what the consumers are really hungry for. And that's what we tried to deliver across the experiences.”

Blythe Grieve, account manager at TRO, was particularly excited to be involved in this space. While some auto brands can be “very corporate and very within the lines,” that’s not MINI. “They are so fun, so exciting, so adventurous in themselves, where they allow themselves to push their own boundaries and encourage people internally to push their boundaries to see what else can happen in this experience,” she says. “Because for them, the best way to sell a car is to have people in the car. And what better way than coming to Goodwood where it's people that love cars, potentially in the market for a new car? Why not get them in it, getting them experiencing and feeling the brand?”

At Goodwood, MINI has always tried to do something unique to bring the cars’ personalities out. “Here we've got climbing walls, photo booths, disco balls, tea and coffee, we've got The Knot Churros here, building crazy ice cream structures with candyfloss. When you walk around Goodwood, it can feel very car heavy. And then you come to MINI and it's bold and bright and we're allowed to be playful. And that's what's exciting.”

Three brands within MINI each get part of the space on the activation. “We've got classic cars, and it's all about making sure that they are how they should be,” says Blythe. That includes the Mini Cooper S Monte Carlo Rally car from 1967, presented as if it was in the garage ahead of the rally, and the ‘Issi’ – a restored vintage MINI – named after MINI founder Alec Issigonis – “the icon, taking front and centre as a MINI Cooper classic should.” 

Beyond that, it was about showcasing the new MINI product family in a space divided into three.

The Countryman is all about being adventurous and encouraging owners to head into the wild. The Aceman is all about being future focused and digital led. The Cooper is centred on the brand’s heritage.

For Blythe, the focus of the Countryman is showcasing the range of accessories that the car has. At the front of the activation is the car’s roof tent, as well bike racks, surfboard racks – anything to support that adventurous lifestyle. The aim, Blythe says, is “trying to get people to be adventurous, climb on a wall, see how far they can get, be playful whilst also seeing how far they can go with the Countryman.” There’s an interactive part of the activation that shows off how far the Countryman electric range can go. “In the past, people have been really nervous about EV and how far they can travel, especially in a 4x4 style car,” says Blythe. “So visualising that for people has been really interesting. They go and put on their sticker of where they've come from, does it fit within the radius? Could they have got to Goodwood and back again on one charge?”

The Cooper space is looking at the past. “Where it's come from and how it's developed over the years. Cooper is such an icon in itself and MINI really like to showcase that,” says Blythe. “That space is really all about where they were, where they are now, and also where they could be in the future. But within that as well, they're still fun and playful. And we've got these random moments in the day when we just give stuff away. It's really exciting and it brings that quirky fun to MINI.” 

The final space is for the Aceman, which includes a photobooth and a big round screen. “But the real focus is the car because it has been around for a little while, however, this is the first time the majority of people are seeing it and getting real hands on,” says Blythe. “It's a great way to have them on their own and really stand out. We've gone dark cars versus bold colours to really make them pop. It's all about getting people in that car and seeing where a Cooper might just be that little bit too small versus a Countryman that's maybe a bit too big – having that middle ground, but still being MINI.”