In 1991, Genesis were singing those words "you buy a piece of paradise, you buy a piece of me". Well, as a technology brand you can buy a piece of paradise in the sports industry, let's see what that is. You don't have to be a sports sponsorship genius to see that technology brands are dominating the landscape nowadays. This is a trend involving the whole sports industry and there is no sign of slowing down. However, there is an even stronger trend: Formula 1 and technology brands.
According to the latest Power List, published by the Sports Technology Group, Formula 1 is at the top of the ranking, followed by NBA and UEFA. Why is that?
Simple, whilst other sports are "supported" by technology, Formula 1 is "driven" by technology instead. But more than that, Formula 1 is where innovation is made and then applied to other environments: from manufacturing, retail and pharmaceutical.
Data and analytics are now present in every sport and footballers or tennis players are monitored to understand how they can play better and more efficiently, but the level of real-time analysis of data that takes place in Formula 1 during a race is simply unthinkable for other sports. A racecar deploys more than 100 sensors onboard and produces 900GB of data each weekend, those data are the keys to unlock performance.
Cybersecurity is another big topic. Of course, every sports organisation has a certain level of secret data that they want to protect but in most cases, those data are related to the business side rather than the sporting one. Differently, the tyres' degradation level or the operating temperatures of the brakes are the kind of data that in Formula 1 defines who wins and loses.
Artificial Intelligence is also something that is increasing its presence in the sports environment, but Formula 1 teams have been working on it for several years. During a race, a team can hear many radio communications also from other teams and extrapolating crucial information from these conversations can be a game-changer in terms of race strategy. But to do that quickly and while cars are going at 300 km/h, teams utilise AI systems. Are there other sports where technology plays such a big role? We don't think so.
The storytelling is then very authentic and the audience is the perfect one: in fact, 57% of fans are senior decision-makers and they are 49% more likely to work in an IT role than average, representing exactly the people to sell technological solutions to.
Additionally, more than 300 brands are involved in the sport and B2B opportunities are simply limitless.
So, what are you waiting for? At Drive, we are looking forward to speaking with you regarding the relationship between Formula 1 and technology brands.
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