Why Are Tech Marketing Leaders Competing to Sponsor Formula One?

 Formula One is a hugely popular sport across the world, and its popularity is expanding quickly in the United States. The dramatic 2021 season and the Netflix series Drive to Survive, whose new season premieres March 11, are primarily responsible for the increase in its fan following. It is also one of the most technically advanced sports on the world, attracting technology corporations like as Amazon Web Services (AWS), AMD, Cognizant, Dell Technologies, and Oracle to sponsor the F1 organisation or a single team. Their companies' technology are utilised to evaluate the impact of new design modifications, to provide real-time insights into in-car sensor data, and to host interaction platforms for devoted customers.

"As F1's popularity grows, particularly in the United States, where the Netflix series has sparked a surge of interest in the sport, we have the opportunity to reach a huge audience that cares about the impact technology has on their favourite teams," said Ariel Kelman, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Oracle. "This February, we deepened an existing year-old partnership with Red Bull Racing to become Oracle Red Bull Racing, which means the team will use more of our Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services to improve race day performance, inform training for up-and-coming drivers, and assist Red Bull Powertrains in designing its next-generation engine," he added.

"F1 is a battle between the world's finest drivers, but it's also a battle among some of the world's most inventive engineers," said Rachel Thornton, AWS vice president of international marketing. No other sport has been more dynamic in its growth and embracing of new technology, and with a vehicle at the heart of the sport, it's an organically tech-driven environment, brimming with data." Thornton expounded on his role as Formula 1's official cloud service and machine learning provider, saying, "We have benefits for advertising and digital properties, but what truly defines this collaboration is the rich narrative about the business effect of the cloud."AWS's technology is helping F1 to enhance the way it uses data for commercial purposes, and that tale has ramifications well beyond racing. It connects with business leaders, and we can express this through a range of media, including onsite at Grand Prix events, where our clients not only hear about F1's journey, but also get to experience it on race day."

"We became the official technology partner of the McLaren Group and Formula One team back in 2018," said Liz Matthews, senior vice president of brand and creative at Dell Technologies. "To compete, McLaren relies on technology; it drives their vehicles and allows them to make data-driven decisions to boost performance." Like us, innovation is at the heart of all they do. That, along with our common goal of advancing human growth, made the choice to sponsor a no-brainer."

AMD originally sponsored Formula One in 2002, and its collaboration with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team began in 2020. The strong brand linkage is one of the main reasons AMD's CMO, John Taylor, supports Formula 1. "If you tell a customer that AMD powers the PlayStation 5, or Tesla infotainment, or a 787 Dreamliner heads-up display, that pushes the consideration and preference needle like nothing else," he explained. So, first and foremost, the connection with Mercedes matches that approach. Very successful Formula 1 teams employ AMD technology to build the car, analyse data, and execute simulations, which results in brand connection."

Cognizant, a technology services business, has lately begun sponsoring F1 Team Aston Martin. "We're a $18 billion company, and not a lot of people across the world knew about us or what we did," says the company's CMO Gaurav Chand. To overcome these difficulties, Chand turned to sponsorships, with three criteria in mind: global reach, smart client activation, and tech-centricity. "When you look at those criteria, Formula One is great in all three," Chand said.

Formula 1 is not a cheap sport to sponsor, with some multi-year partnerships reportedly costing in the eight figures. AMD's Taylor stated that only from television brand exposure, they received a 14.5X return on investment. Sponsors benefit from media exposure, but it is not the only way to justify sponsorship spending. "In addition to reach and visibility, we pay close attention to engagement, and we've seen that adding McLaren into our campaigns, content, and marquee events has brought up to a 50% increase in engagement among our core audiences," Dell's Matthews explained."However, the essence of the cooperation is considerably broader. We're constantly seeking for ways to collaborate to generate the kind of innovation that has a long-term influence on our planet. From tackling industrial sustainability to fostering the next generation of technological leaders through STEM education, our cooperation remains multifaceted with a broader purpose."

Cognizant has also discovered that its affiliation with Formula One has helped them win the race for talent. "Hey, Gaurav, I was speaking with a senior guy in the firm who had chosen to quit Cognizant and go to a different company," Chand explained. When the executive told his family, his 9-year-old kid simply said, 'Dad, are you crazy?' You're leaving a firm so amazing that its name appears on a Formula One vehicle and joining another? 'How can you possibly consider doing that?' And then the individual turned around and said, 'You know what? My son is correct."There's no way I'm leaving." And he stayed at Cognizant." The company's recruiting efforts have also improved. 'We're leveraging a lot of the automotive imagery in our advertising throughout the US, Europe, and India for talent acquisition,' Chand stated. Over an eight-month period last year, those advertising resulted in over 500,000 direct click-throughs to the Cognizant employment site. Even more incredible, 33,000 applicants applied on the moment."

In addition to the commercial benefits of sponsorship, marketers gain personal satisfaction from being linked with Formula 1. "I've enjoyed working with F1 drivers like Daniel Ricciardo at COVID to create engaging fan experiences like the AWS DeepRacer F1 partnership," Thornton said. "We helped inaugurate a new STEM learning centre at a high school in our hometown of Austin, Texas, during the week of the United States Grand Prix last fall," Dell's Matthews stated. "Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, and the entire McLaren team came out to assist the youngsters, chatting with them about how they apply their STEM talents in Formula One.""Seeing Lisa Su, our CEO and fantastic leader, alongside [seven-time champion] Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolf, Mercedes team principal, talking about the role that our technology plays in both their downtime, in Lewis' case with his PS 5, or really racing on the track," AMD's Taylor continued. That moment from our CES presentation last year was quite memorable for me."