Oscar Piastri Gives “Understated Performance” in Google Pixel’s Aus Open Campaign

Oscar Piastri has leaned into his relaxed, laid-back nature for Google Pixel’s latest spot -- but the “understated performance” was a creative risk from indie Emotive.

The campaign, produced by Somesuch, and directed by Isaac Lock, stars the Australian Formula 1 driver and was made in partnership with the Australian Open.

The hero film features Oscar sitting on a couch, unexpressive as he says, “I know I don’t always show it, but winning does excite me.”

He switches a painting of an Alpine mountain to a papaya -- a reference to his F1 team switch from Alpine to McLaren -- plays with a remote control car, and asks Google Gemini to come up with a race-winning speech that sounds like him. The result is a low-key “thanks”.

​Emotive’s chief creative officer Gavin McLeod and executive strategy partner Sebastian Revell told LBB they worked with Oscar’s relaxed, quiet demeanour because it was “authentic”.

Recently-appointed CCO Gavin said the team’s initial concepts involved trying to “weave [Oscar] into a tennis narrative” until Somesuch director Isaac had a “really strong opinion” and advised against it.

“His perspective on working with celebrities is, don't try and get them to do something that's outside of their comfort level. Work [with] the parameters of who they are."

Gavin added “the creative risk for us was that understated performance”, even though “going against the grain” was the main strategy and an opportunity, Sebastian said.

Google wanted to “culturally own the AO in a way which is relevant to fandom”, which made Oscar the perfect pick.

“We want[ed] to make sure that what we were doing [was] really connecting with the fans of the Australian Open, and Oscar was going through this really strong fandom era,” Sebastian said.

“Using a tennis player or showing up with a tennis player in that sort of sense was almost the expected thing to do.”

Sebastian conceded bringing together the “two national passion points” of fandom and the “cultural festival idea of the AO” -- plus the popularity of F1 in Australia, which Oscar “spearhead[ed]” -- “wasn't a match made in heaven … but it worked out really well” and gave Google an opportunity to “ own the moment around the AO.”

The target audience is millennials, and Oscar’s high-profile F1 team switch perfectly aligned with the difficulty that demographic has to switch phones.

“Millennials aren't just asleep to other options, they're sedated,” Sebastian explained, “by cultural conformity. Like, ‘I must have that phone’, or ‘I'm not seen as the right sort of image or social identity I want to have of myself.’

“Oscar's made a lot of choices throughout his career to get ahead and to ask more of himself. So that synergy between ‘Ask More of Your Phone’, Pixel[‘s] positioning, and an athlete, tennis or otherwise, who really embodied that career journey was also a huge part of [the strategy] as well.”

Gavin added Oscar “doesn't make decisions” unless he sees it as an “advantage to him, whether it's a state-of-the-art racing car or phone. So the understated sell of what he's doing in that was really important for us.”

Asked about the strategy of the muted and casual setting, Gavin said the agency wanted “aspiration, but not aspiration in a way that didn't feel attainable for people as well.”

Eagle-eyed fans will spot easter eggs acknowledging key moments in Oscar’s life and career.

“There's some posters on the wall, for example, that are references to some of the racetracks where he had significant wins. There's things like a cricket ball. He's got a real passion for cricket.”

Further references include a trophy as a nod to his early career in road control racing, house music, AFL, and real framed pictures of Oscar as a kid.

“It's so interesting to see Oscar's expression from when he was winning a go-kart race at 10-years-old to Oscar [at] 24 winning an F1. They don't change. It's the same expression,” Gavin laughed.

While the F1 driver is starring in an AO spot, Sebastian said tennis was still integrated into the campaign.

“‘Ask More of Your Phone’ is the brand platform line,” he said, “but the idea is about switching for something better. Within tennis, when you switch sides, we've got this beautiful in-court, in-arena LCD screens that go around Rod Laver arena about ‘Switch phones, switch sides’ and linking to that moment.

“It’s about integrating … a really authentic, credible message [into the AO] rather than badging. Google sponsors the AO, but how can we actually add value [to the tournament]?”

On highlighting the competency of Google Gemini, Gavin said it was “so interesting” the technology “understood [Oscar’s] character” of being “a man of few words” when asked for a personalised winning speech.

“We can't manufacture this. Like, we actually have to work with the capability of Gemini as well,” the chief creative added. “Such a great demonstration of AI, understanding [you] as a person.”

He noted working with Google “wasn’t a normal agency-client relationship”, and gave “a huge shoutout to Google” for having “intelligent, mature conversations that don’t always happen with other clients.”

“They were really involved in the development of this idea, both with us as an agency and with Somesuch as well,” he said. “It was a co-creation process."