Engaging the Up-and-Comer with Motorsports Marketing

The last few years have introduced some remarkable companies into the world of sponsorship. Shifting audience demographics, especially from F1, has encouraged brands new and established to get back into the race with a variety of partnerships. 

The established brands are looking for a way to build relationships with the new audience while the startup brands are looking to gain trust by association. Ford's re-entry into F1 showcases this beautifully, and we love how the collateral they used to announce and promote the news. It shows how much more these relationships are than plain sports sponsorships.

On the startup side, growing tech companies can offer innovative solutions to pressing challenges that existing teams and series face as well as make improvements to the system as a whole. These lesser-known brands are starting to recognize the potential in motorsports and benefit from the immense platform to build their business.

They are the up-and-comers in their industry, and they are trying to engage the up-and-comers in the world. With one of the largest and most loyal fan bases in sports, the right activation for these new sponsors can provide access and engagement that can't be bought or found on any digital-only platform. We like this thought from marketing guru Seth Godin:

Any metric you can buy your way out of is probably not a useful metric to measure yourself by. If it’s important and you can spend money to fix it, by all means, go do that. But the helpful metrics are the ones where cash isn’t the solution.

Mutual benefits

F1 and NASCAR teams benefit immensely from the improved applications of tech in their competition as well as the support system they provide for their fans, customers and partners. These new developments are exciting because we see a massive increase in ROI when sponsorship is leveraged in unique ways that neither partner could access if they were not working together.

The idea of "2+2=5" is more alive than ever with these new alignments that are pushing the limits of innovation and creativity.

The benefits of these new partnerships extend beyond the two parties in the agreement. New sponsors bring new audiences to the sport, while simultaneously motorsports are introduced organically to a new audience that may have not otherwise paid attention to what was going on in this space.

How do you start?

All the "new" is exciting but if you are a brand looking for blue oceans to market your product or service, we recommend you consider consulting with activation expertise before you begin investing. Motorsports sponsorship is not like other forms of marketing, so it can't be approached like other forms of marketing with expectations of being successful.