For the first time, fine wine brand St Hugo stepped onto the grid as the wine sponsor for the Australian Grand Prix.

St Hugo was looking for a new partnership to achieve some ambitious goals for their brand — not just an increase in awareness and impressions for a naming sponsor, but an extension of their modest footprint into a way to court potential customers, demonstrate their wines, facilitate direct sales, and maximise the return on their investment.

So Neonormal set to work creating an extraordinary pairing for the brand.

St Hugo knows as well as any F1 team that the road to perfection is a lifelong journey — built on legend and legacy, fuelled by passion and pursuit of excellence. Our campaign was crafted around this connection.

We began by negotiating a strategic partnership that would be equally fruitful for both parties — including pourage rights across AusGP, MotoGP, activation space, a mobile cellar bar and in-suite experiences.

We then set about creating a physical platform to promote the St Hugo brand within the exclusive Paddock Club environment — the St Hugo Wine Lounge.

The elegant marble bar was styled to reflect the textures and finishes of the brand’s Barossa Valley home, and we designed it in a horseshoe array, to encourage intimate conversations and host personalised tastings.

The Chief Winemaker and wine experts guided guests on a journey through the label’s fine wine offering, and the brand was host at auxiliary events including dinners and trackside parties across the four days of Formula 1.

We then created the Mobile Cellar — a stylish, custom-built trolley that toured throughout multiple trackside hospitality suites and lounges, extending a smaller footprint into a portable promotion. Using the Mobile Cellar, we introduced St Hugo’s fine wines to thousands of new consumers, and wine experts conducted tastings and made sales on the spot.

This first-of-its-kind partnership was so successful that it became a cost-neutral campaign for Pernod Ricard — the sales and sign-ups generated by the experience to date have covered the cost of the partnership deal.

Thanks to this perfect pairing with Neonormal, which matured from a standard sponsorship package into a truly powerful partnership, St Hugo has its sights set on the brand-building potential with Formula 1 into the future.