Inside the V8 Leaderboard Activation at Commercial Bay

Some activations are about getting people through a stand. This one was about getting people to stay — and to come back and try again. In March 2026, Ping Zero delivered the "Pro-Driver Challenge" for Shaw and Partners' Red Bull Ampol Racing activation at Commercial Bay, Auckland — and it doubled as the debut of a new leaderboard system we'd been building toward for a while.

Here's what we built, why it worked, and what it means for how we run brand activations going forward.

The Brief

Shaw and Partners wanted an activation at Commercial Bay that connected to Red Bull Ampol Racing's V8 Supercars programme — something that felt fast, competitive, and premium, in a high-foot-traffic public space. The stand and physical build were handled by another supplier; Ping Zero's job was the technology and the competitive experience layered inside it: sims, reflex technology, and a leaderboard that tied it all together.

Shaw and Partners Financial Services branded sim racing booth at Commercial Bay, Auckland

The Pro-Driver Challenge

We designed a two-part competitive format with two connected leaderboards:

Sim racing hot laps. Dual ultrawide racing rigs ran fastest-lap time trials, giving participants a genuine feel for what it takes to push a lap time down — accessible enough for someone who's never sat in a rig, engaging enough for the enthusiasts who know exactly what they're chasing.

Blazepod reflex wall. Alongside the sims, a Blazepod flash-reflex station tested pure reaction speed — fast, visual, instantly understandable to anyone walking past. It's the kind of station that pulls people in from ten metres away just from watching someone else play.

Rather than running as two disconnected mini-games, both challenges shared the same competitive narrative — the Pro-Driver Challenge — and the same display. Each challenge had its own leaderboard, and the screen automatically switched between the hot lap standings and the reflex standings, so whichever challenge someone had just finished, their result was up and visible within seconds.

Why the Leaderboard Was the Real Innovation

Anyone can put a screen on a wall and call it a leaderboard. What made this one different was what happened before a name ever appeared on it.

Tablet self-registration. Participants registered themselves on tablets at the activation — no clipboard, no staff member manually typing names into a spreadsheet between runs. That single change removed the biggest bottleneck in any leaderboard-driven activation: the queue to get onto the leaderboard in the first place.

Automated results, zero manual entry. Once registered, a participant's run — sim lap or Blazepod reflex score — posted to its leaderboard automatically. No one was typing times in by hand, which meant no lag between someone finishing a run and their name appearing on screen. That immediacy is what keeps a crowd watching.

Full brand integration. The leaderboard interface, the registration flow, and the results display all carried Shaw and Partners and Red Bull Ampol Racing branding throughout — this wasn't generic software with a logo pasted on top, it was built to feel like part of the activation.

A participant racing on the Pro-Driver Challenge sim rig with the live Shaw and Partners leaderboard visible behind

Why This Format Works for Brand Activations

A leaderboard does something a static brand experience can't: it gives people a reason to come back. Someone who posts a mid-table lap time doesn't just walk away — they watch the board, see themselves get bumped down, and come back for another run. That loop is what turns a five-minute interaction into a fifteen-minute one, and turns a passerby into someone who's now genuinely invested in the outcome.

It also does the brand's job for it. A crowd gathered around a leaderboard, watching names shuffle in real time, is organic engagement no amount of signage can replicate — and every one of those names sits inside a fully branded environment for as long as they're watching.

What This Means Going Forward

The tablet self-registration and automated scoring system built for this activation isn't a one-off — it's now part of how we run digital leaderboards across corporate and expo activations. Any PC-based competitive format (sim racing, reflex challenges, time trials) can run through the same registration flow, which means faster setup, less staffing overhead on the day, and a smoother experience for participants from the moment they walk up.

If you're planning a brand activation and want competitive engagement that does more than fill a floor plan, this is the kind of system we now build as standard.

Bring This to Your Next Activation

Ping Zero designs and runs digital leaderboard activations — sim racing, Blazepod reflex challenges, or a combination — for corporate events, expos, and brand activations nationwide.

Talk to us about your activation or explore our full activations capability.