2023 was a year of F1 activations for Primatix.
Impressed by our quick turnaround on the Mission: Impossible activation at Silverstone, the motorsport brand experience agency Velocity got in touch for another photographic activation for their client Paramount+ at the F1 in Austin, Texas.
Velocity had floated several concepts - generative AI photo booths, face-mapper AI activations, digital reaction games - but sometimes a classic AI background-removal photo booth is exactly what an activation needs: uncomplicated and engaging.
A logistical challenge
We got the final go-ahead three weeks out, and less than that once shipping was factored in. To save time, we re-used the hardware configuration we'd built for the F1 activation at Silverstone earlier that year.
The extra fortnight we had this time went on one specific problem: bright Texas sunshine. We pushed the brightness on the touchscreens to cope with it, which took some work to get right. Direct Texas sun against a 1,000-nit touchscreen: the touchscreen came out ahead.
Creating the experience
Velocity's creative team produced the overlay artwork to exact specifications from the brand team. To place each guest into the scene, we ran the Primatix AI background-removal service, with an on-screen overlay to help users line themselves up. An ultra-bright screen let them position against the shot, and a sim racing chair aligned each person to the camera. To settle the subject into the background, we applied a film-grain filter. The finished image appeared on screen, and users scanned a QR code for their digital takeaway.
Results, again and again
The activation pulled a high volume of participants through the experience, and even more shares and downloads of the images. It had been built for the Austin race, but on the strength of that response Paramount+'s brand team had us pack it down and bring it to the Mexico City race the following weekend. Not a simple logistical operation.
Why it worked
Primatix's image platform runs fully white-labelled activations with fast turnarounds, so a brand gets consistent, on-brand content without a long custom build. That suits live events, where the schedule is fixed and the queue does not wait: here it meant standing up a proven rig in under three weeks, then repeating it in another country days later.
