Legend Vs. Leaderboard
Read the story- Brand
- Mobil 1
- Year
- 2024
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Automotive
- Mechanic
- Racing & Sports
- Platform
- In-Game
- Agency
- BBDO MW
Objective
Mobil 1 wanted to mark its 50th anniversary and racing heritage by moving beyond static sponsorship logos on real race cars into a direct, personal challenge for gamers and motorsport fans. The goal was to make this the brand's largest video-game activation yet, pairing its name with a branded track and holding the racing community's attention across a half-year series of events.
Solution
Inside Forza Motorsport, the player finds a Featured Rivals event set on a track now called Mobil 1 Presents Maple Valley. The event shows the car, the lap, and a time set by a real racing pro — Tony Stewart, Jamie Chadwick, Jenson Button, Juan Pablo Montoya, and others took turns headlining it. The player takes the wheel and races against the pro's ghost lap in Rivals mode, chasing that benchmark time on the same car and course. A finished run drops the player into a leaderboard ranked against friends, their region, and the world, and strong runs earn in-game rewards such as a Mobil 1 racing suit or a 50th-anniversary suit, plus in-game currency. Every month the event resets with a new pro, a new classic car, and a new layout of Maple Valley, so players kept coming back for a fresh lap to beat.
- 1
The player learns of the challenge from a Forza Motorsport announcement or the Mobil 1 Racing channel, inviting them to race a professional driver at Maple Valley in a Featured Rivals event, then watches a video of that driver setting the reference lap in a specific classic car.
- 2
In Forza Motorsport, the player opens the event in the Featured Rivals section, which frames Rivals as a mode for shaving every possible millisecond out of a given car-and-track pairing.
- 3
Each event specifies a fixed car, a branded configuration of the Maple Valley circuit under the "Mobil 1 Presents Maple Valley" livery, and the exact lap time set by the professional driver that the player must beat.
- 4
The player drives repeated laps against that benchmark time, then checks a leaderboard showing their ranking against friends, their region, and the world.
- 5
Completing a lap and setting a time earns rewards: some events grant a fixed prize such as in-game credits or a driver suit just for participating, while others tie the reward to performance, giving a special anniversary suit only to players who land in the leaderboard's top half.
- 6
Players can also register on a separate Mobil 1 promotional site for a sweepstakes tied to the campaign, offering a prize such as an autographed console.
- 7
The challenge repeats as a series: over several months, new pairings of professional driver, car, and Maple Valley track configuration (including a shortened layout and a reversed direction) are released roughly every few weeks.
- 8
The series concludes after its fifth event, after which the challenges are removed from the game and the promotional site marks the program as ended.
