Formula E Jeddah E-Prix

After five successful seasons of racing in Diriyah, Formula E (FE) moved its Saudi Arabian E-Prix race to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the 2024-2025 season. With this transition, Formula E engaged SMG to support and develop its regional communications strategy and messaging ahead of the competition’s inaugural Jeddah E-Prix held in February. 

Our Middle East (MEA) and UK teams closely collaborated to tailor all FE related news to the region and used our connections with domestic and regional media to help raise awareness and drive interest in the first double-header race weekend of the FE season.

Leading up to the event, SMG assisted Formula E in promoting the Jeddah E-Prix race by sharing media releases and developing and pitching FE-related news stories and feature opportunities that appealed to regional and domestic media. This included sharing a pre-produced Q&A with Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Dodds, as well as a story highlighting the Jeddah Corniche Circuit track layout that was specifically altered for the FE championship. SMG also organised carefully selected 1-on-1 interviews between premium regional media outlets, such as Arriyadyah & Arab News, and senior FE executives, including Jeff Dodds and Chief Championship Officer (and Co-Founder) Alberto Longo. 

SMG’s MEA team provided translation services (English into Arabic) for all press materials and interviews as well as on-site during media briefings and race week press conferences. Moreover, SMG assisted in translating the official media kit, processing and managing all regional media FIA accreditations, and securing local media attendance at round table interviews and race week activations. The latter included events such as the FIA Girls on Track initiative where FE invited young women aged 12 to 18 to the racetrack to better understand the different aspects of the sport through activities, workshops and behind the scenes access. 

As part of SMG’s brief, we were also asked to devise proactive PR opportunities to help generate excitement and interest around FE’s arrival in Jeddah. As such, our team conceptualised, facilitated and managed an educational, community focused race-week Career Talk at the prestigious University of Business and Technology (UBT) in Jeddah. FE was represented on stage by Agustin Delicado, Event Operations Vice President and Cara Pelchen, Teams & Manufacturers Partnerships Director alongside Tommaso Volpe, Managing Director & Team Principal for Nissan Formula E Team. They were joined by Dr Hamza Ahmed Ghulman, UBT President Advisor and Professor in Mechanical Engineering for an extensive dialogue covering topics such as logistics in FE, sustainability, women’s initiatives – including FE’s celebrated FIA Girls on Track programme – as well as STEM and innovation and the many varied career opportunities that exist in motorsport today.

A subsequent Q&A session allowed the attending group of 70 specially selected UBT students to quiz the expert panel on a variety of wide-ranging matters. Questions posed by the students covered the inaugural Jeddah E-Prix, race week operations, sustainable racing, diversity initiatives, FE’s continued focus on innovation and pushing boundaries, as well as gaining helpful advice on working in motorsport.

To further build excitement around FE’s arrival in Jeddah, SMG collaborated with the Shangri-La Jeddah – the stunning 5-star hotel that overlooks the Jeddah Corniche Circuit – to ‘paint the town blue’. This was achieved by lighting the iconic Jeddah landmark up in FE’s famous electric blue colour scheme across all three track days. A magnificent laser show was added to the spectacle, ensuring the electric-blue Shangri-La took centre stage during the opening and closing ceremonies. 

Additionally, over the race weekend, SMG oversaw in-paddock communications and day-to-day motorsport media relations, and assisted Formula E’s team in managing media enquiries and requests. This included TV interviews with Jeff Dodds, and Vice President of Sustainability, Julia Pallé. 

SMG helped secure more than 230million media impressions across the Middle East and North African regions over the month of February for Formula E. Race week alone saw 87.45million impressions with stories shared in numerous countries outside of Saudi Arabia, including Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon and Egypt. 

Highlight coverage included feature interviews with Jeff Dodds, Alberto Longo and Formula E’s Premium Experience Director Darcey Lingley, for major news outlets such as Arab News, Arriyadiyah, Al Eqtisadiah and Asharq Al-Awsat.