Anatomy of a Ferrari launch

Day 1, 6.49am

It begins with the inevitable WhatsApp message from Ferrari’s head of UK PR. The purpose of this is to send all available ‘assets’ about the car – tech documents, launch pictures, video B-roll, event schedule, dinner menus, you name it – to the entire group of journalists attending, all in one hit.

By doing so, none of said journos has the right to ask the PR any questions about the car itself – because all the answers ‘are already on the microsite’. At which point the PR hosting becomes superfluous and goes home. I jest of course, although I bet they wish they could. Sometimes.

2.30pm

Next comes the arrival procedure, which in this case centres around the BA business class lounge, no less, at Gatwick Airport’s south terminal.