brand-e

Says Natasha Kizzie*. Formula One – the world’s most expensive sport – has long forged commercial relationships with those wanting some of the glitz and glamour that Grands Prix attract. Over the decades races set in increasingly far-flung and exotic locations have attracted the biggest and brightest stars of sports and entertainment as VIP spectators.
But only now is it really hooking into such off-the-track offerings, with a series of F1 Rocks music and lifestyle events planned in 2010. It follows the staggering success of a pilot F1 Rocks concert held in Singapore in September, together with Universal Music Group subsidiary All The Worlds, which saw 27,000 flock to the event itself, and a further TV audience of 26 million globally.
It’s a savvy move by Formula One Administration, and shows that it understands F1 is above all a lifestyle brand – a sport that attracts very stylish affluent audiences the world over: many a marketer’s dream, in fact. By marrying Grands Prix with top class music talent it not only locks in that association of F1 and its superstar supporters, but may also help it attract new audiences.
With F1 Rocks, the sport’s chiefs are developing events concepts that they will own, be able to market and promote and attract brands and sponsorship to. Moreover, the rich vein of content each event will produce – from the concert itself to driver interviews, behind-the-scenes action, as well as the local tourism angle – means that F1 Rocks can cater to an enormous variety of media owners too.
And what’s really interesting is the idea of providing magazine-type variety of edits of content to media outlets. The strength of the concept is it is not just about music – it’s sport, it’s lifestyle, fashion, tourism, it is music. It has so many different facets that it provides a lot of really rich content, which is key.
As broadcasters and outlets fight for audiences they have to protect what their brand DNA is about, rather than simply ‘copy/insert’ what the event organiser brand wants. Broadcasters can edit the experience targeted to their own channel DNA.
It is a lesson in how to understand your global properties – to think about where you can leverage all those multiple facets and think about ‘lifestyle’ in its widest sense.
Yet what is really smart is that F1 is doing what it is already known for – the glamorous parties, the A-list celebrities, the VIP experiences – albeit in a branded, commercial, uniform way. The parties exist already, the stars are there already, now they are creating a marketing property out of it.
The value for a brand is huge. Think of the media exposure the sport already enjoys globally. And it opens up the F1 experience to a different audience at a time when some are suggesting that the allure of motorsport is fading. Just imagine what other sports could learn by broadening their entertainment appeal.
* Natasha Kizzie is head of entertainment at EuroRSCG KLP