Brief
When HRH Prince Salman, Crown Prince of Bahrain, set about establishing a joint venture with leading British motorsport business, Prodrive (known for the Subaru in the late ‘90s), it sent vibrations through the industry. The ambition was to develop a bespoke 4x4 vehicle to take on one of the world’s most extreme sporting events – the Dakar Rally 2021. Using the Rally as a platform to promote the Kingdom of Bahrain and Middle East region at-large.

Challange
My role was to define and build a brand for the team that reflected the ambition of the project and the Kingdom’s rich heritage. This included the team & car name, values, tone & mission, marque, brand book, brand guidelines, driver jump suits, car and support vehicle branding, marketing & social collateral and branded merchandise..

Approach
The process of establishing the brand values, tone & mission required navigating multiple international stakeholders and hierarchal brand mechanics to determine a direction of travel for the brand visual identity. Defining the visual identity and name for the team required hosting comprehensive international creative workshops and exploring multiple avenues of visual expression. Instead of aligning to a native animal or desert creature, CSM created the illusion of an unseen beast that is reflective of the brand-new car and the disruptive nature of the project. The brand pays homage to the Bahrain flag and crown, is fierce and bold, while at the same time complimenting the ambition to create ‘Ferraris of the Desert’ – both iconic and striking.

And so, Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) was born. On June 15th, 2020 the first glimpse of the brand and car were revealed to the world across; social, BRX owned channels and global media distribution.

Results
TBD.