It starts with a $300 million gamble
Apple Studios makes a move.
Brad Pitt stars.
Hollywood scripts a fictional team: APXGP.
Twelve brands sign on to sponsor a car that doesn’t exist.
Merch drops before the trailer.
Hot Wheels builds toys.
Expensify becomes the hero.
This isn’t a movie. It’s a blueprint.
The line between content and commerce just disappeared
Let’s break it down:
- The car isn’t real.
- The brands are.
- Tommy Hilfiger, Mercedes, Heineken, IWC, T-Mobile, KFC, and others all buy in.
And what do they get?
$40M in brand deals — before opening night.
166,000+ Instagram engagements — with no paid ads.
A starring role in a narrative universe fans treat like real life.
Hollywood bets on Brad. We bet on the blueprint.
Sure, some people are debating whether Brad Pitt is too old to play an F1 driver.
Let them.
Because for us marketers, there’s a different elephant in the room:
What happens when the most powerful brand of the year doesn’t even exist?
This isn’t about casting. It’s about crafting — crafting a universe so believable that consumers spend real money on pure fiction.
And the best part? It worked.
Storytelling as a marketing platform
Real F1 tracks. Real Grand Prix weekends. Real speed.
Brad Pitt trains in a modified F2 car and races alongside actual F1 legends — while fans wear APXGP gear to real races.
Reality didn’t just blur. It merged with the fiction.
Brands don’t sponsor stories. They become them.
- Expensify isn’t a logo — it’s a plot point.
- Tommy Hilfiger doesn’t sell clothes — it sells identity.
- APXGP becomes a real brand in the minds of fans.
This is what happens when marketing isn’t an afterthought.
It’s the core experience.
Integration beats interruption — every time
The movie becomes a platform.
The team becomes culture.
The merch becomes movement.
The fans buy in — not because of ads, but because of meaning.
What happens next?
- EA puts APXGP in F1 25.
- Players race fictional drivers against real legends.
- The team lives on in millions of living rooms.
- The line between brand and lore is gone — forever.
Hollywood didn’t just rewrite the script. It rewrote the playbook.
A $144M global box office debut.
Twelve brand partners.
Zero real products.
Infinite cultural footprint.
So, what’s next?
Can the NBA pull this off?
Will the Olympics invent its own fictional team?
Can a tech company build a fictional founder and still go public?
Maybe.
But one thing’s for sure:
The next blockbuster brand might be entirely made up.
Welcome to the age of story-driven brands
Where immersion is the new attention.
And fiction might just be the fastest route to profit.
Want to turn your brand into a universe?
I help teams turn stories into scalable growth engines.
Narrative marketing. Brand IP. Emotional immersion.
Let’s build your APXGP.
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Theodore has 20 years of experience running successful and profitable software products. In his free time, he coaches and consults startups. His career includes managerial posts for companies in the UK and abroad, and he has significant skills in intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship.
