F1: The Movie Stays True to Its Brand Story

There’s no denying that F1: The Movie is having a major cultural moment in the U.S. right now. Released June 27, the film brought in $144 million in its first 72 hours—almost three-quarters of its heavy $200 million budget—making it the best performance for an Apple original film and leading man Brad Pitt’s biggest opening weekend to date. A mic drop if ever there was one. Besides being a solid win for Apple, the movie was a marketer’s dream, too. The film drew $40 million in sponsorships, according to one Forbes estimate—and that doesn’t even include the tens of millions spent in cross-promotional ads. The fictional APXGP team’s car is branded with a bevy of real brands, including IWC, EA Sports, SharkNinja, Mercedes-AMG, and title sponsor Expensify. While part of the movie’s success can be attributed to a star-studded cast led by Pitt, of course, and a marketing budget most films can only dream of, the primary driver (pun intended) was the legwork F1 put in toward building authenticity to nurture its growing fanbase in the U.S. The draw F1 is not your dad’s Nascar or IndyCar. After decades of false starts, Formula 1 has officially established itself in the American sporting zeitgeist like a reality TV show on Bravo. When Denver-based Liberty Media bought F1 in 2017 for $8 billion, it laid out a U.S.-focused master plan that brought the 75-year old motorsport to American audiences. A glamorous new race was added to the calendar with the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and the hit Netflix show Drive to Survive gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at each high-stakes race weekend and offered American audiences a place to escape during the pandemic. With only 20 drivers in the competition, fans get to know them as individuals rather than a number on the field. But the show doesn’t just focus on the paparazzi shots of drivers pulling up to the best hotels in the world with their exotic supercars. Fans also get a look behind the curtain at their lives and their relationships to teammates, gridmates, and bosses, truly taking their helmets off. This is how authentic connections are made with fans. F1: The Movie delivers the same authentic, immersive experience the docuseries gave fans because it doesn’t try to recreate a race at Silverstone—it’s actually there on race day in the paddock with the other drivers. Hollywood has tried to recreate sports passions before, but even Keanu Reeves’ amazing arm in The Replacements wasn’t enough to distract the audience from a very fake field of play. This film, on the other hand, perfectly captures the feeling of walking the grid, provides a glimpse into the glamor of F1 race day, and highlights the egos vying for the top spot on the podium—not because it had a great script (which it didn’t) but because it was authentically there in the race. Diehard fans of the sport get to show off their extensive knowledge: “Look, Sainz is still in Ferrari red!” and “That is NOT how you communicate tire management with your team.” And for new fans, it showcases everything the sport has to offer. The potential Brand partnerships in Formula 1 are as integral to the sport as downforce and tire degradation. Logos have been splashed across the cars and race tracks since 1968. But just as the sport has attracted millions of American viewers, its brand partnerships have similarly evolved to connect to those audiences. PepsiCo just signed a multiyear partnership with F1 to reach its younger, more affluent fans, while Lego partnered with this year’s Miami Grand Prix and built working, life-size Formula 1 cars out of Legos that the drivers “raced” around the track for the driver’s parade. For blockbusters, it is easy to sell product placements to the highest bidder. Remember Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel from 2013? The Superman reboot made $170 million in sponsorships and broke a record for the most product placements in a film, but many placements in the movie were too in-your-face and hard to watch. However, F1: The Movie’s authenticity extended to the film’s brand partners. A Mercedes livery, a unicorn tech company in Expensify, an insurance company with Geico, home appliances with SharkNinja, and an apparel deal with Tommy Hilfiger. And no F1 kit would be complete without an aspirational watch brand with IWC. By staying true to F1 racing and the authentic feeling of the sport, the movie felt real. Even though the plot was pure fiction, the drama and the behind-the-scenes clips were just like the audience’s favorite parts of the docuseries. The ups, the downs, and the in-betweens are all important for viewers now. Brands are endemic to our sporting experiences. Fans herald the sponsors from the pit wall to the jumbotron and have higher brand loyalty to their hometown team’s sponsors. The question marketers should be asking themselves isn't which blockbuster they can find a placement in next. It should be when the next authentic sports movie will have space on the jersey. Maybe MLB will find its next Bull Durham with the up-and-comer story from the Banana Ball league.

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F1: The Movie Stays True to Its Brand Story

Why the film is a master class in authenticity—and a marketer’s dream

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Dave Gaspar

Brand Marketing

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