Sports Marketing Summit: ‘Being a fan of Formula 1 is difficult in Australia’
Mumbrella's Sports Marketing Summit returns to Sydney this month. Joel Mackenzie, division manager - digital, at Australian Grand Prix Corporation, explains how, when it comes to marketing the F1, it's all about personalisation.
Marketing is at the heart of what you do. What are the key brand and marketing principles that you follow in your role?
We spent a lot of time trying to understand the role that we (the Australian Grand Prix) play for people as opposed to Formula 1.
From a digital marketing and owned channel perspective that’s led to a really rich understanding of who our audience is in the face of a rapidly evolving fan demographic and can attribute most of our successes – particularly in the social media space – to the creation of community.
Being a fan of Formula 1 is difficult in Australia given it mostly happens while we’re asleep and we’ve seen a real solidarity within Australian fandom and been able to leverage this commonality to create connection and ultimately more meaningful engagement.
What lessons from Sports Marketing do you think are applicable to brands outside sports?
The greatest tool a sports marketer has at their disposal is emotion.
It’s difficult to think of any another industry that is as highly emotive or evokes such passion as sport does. That’s something that’s impossible to manufacture and really difficult to leverage authentically, but when you can tap into that feeling you get from sports, your connection to your customers (or in the case of sports: fanbase), is going to be so incredibly powerful.
In my experience, sports can sometimes be a late adopter with many things, and so as much as I believe that there is a lot learn from other sports and events, I find there’s so much to be learned when you can look outside of your industry and towards what other brands are doing outside of the sports and events.
When you are dealing with internal stakeholders and aligning the business to your campaigns, what works best for you?
It might be a bit cliché, but communication and bringing people along on the journey is key.
I think we all understand that clearly, campaigns are their most impactful when they go beyond just a logo, colour palette and a tag line across channels and are integrated into everything you do. To do that effectively you need buy in from people right across the business and so including them in the process is crucial.
How are you using technology and data analytics shaping the future of sports marketing?
For the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC), we’ve seen both an explosion in popularity and a rapidly evolving demographic of our fanbase meaning we’ve had to adapt quickly.
A 40-year Formula 1 fan wants very different things from us compared to a young fan who might be looking to attend their first Grand Prix after watching Drive to Survive on Netflix.
So, for us, it’s all about personalisation.
The right technology gives us the ability to take what we know about our customers and turn that into something actionable that ultimately gives more fans a more personalised experience both digitally and on the ground.
What advice would you give to brands looking to leverage sports partnerships for maximum engagement?
The best partnerships are mutually beneficial which can sometimes get a bit lost on both sides
I think the key is just understanding and being really specific when it comes to both what you’re hoping to achieve through the partnership, and where you can add value.
How do you measure success in a sports marketing campaign?
For us its ultimately ticket sales and the number of people that attend our event/s, but it’d be naive to say everything is measured on a purchase transaction.
For us, success depends on where someone sits within marketing funnel. Our primary goal is always just to move that person to the next stage in their journey and we apply that thinking to every campaign we run.
We segment our audiences and personalise messaging based on where that person is in their journey and the action we want them to take.
Success is then able to be measured on all different types of conversion events and our ability to move people through a purchase funnel.
Don’t give the game away, but what do you hope attendees of Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit 2024 take from your presentation?
I just hope people find what I talk about interesting…
I think that sometimes you go to these things and think “geez, we’re a long way behind”, when in reality you’re not, so don’t panic.
We all share similar challenges and probably all the same frustrations within the chaos of our roles and I just hope people can see a bit of themselves in us at the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, and maybe (if they’re not bored by the time I hit the stage), hear something that sparks an idea that can be applied back at work.
What are you hoping to gain from the Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit 2024?
I get inspired listening to people that are looking to innovate and take risks.
Our default is to talk about our successes, but I personally get a lot out of hearing about some of those less successful things we may have tried as often there’s still a seed of a good idea in those things that don’t work for us.
Mumbrella’s Sports Marketing Summit takes place September 19 at the Australian Turf Club, Sydney.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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