The cryptocurrency neighborhood has at all times put an emphasis on decentralization and globalization. Due to this fact, it shouldn’t come as a shock that a variety of crypto corporations are sponsoring Method 1 (F1) racing groups in an try and additional join with audiences internationally.
Analysis by world analytics firm Nielsen Sports activities found that Method 1 has the potential to achieve about one billion followers globally this yr, with the 16–35 age group accounting for the largest share. The enchantment of F1 is clearly on the rise, and cryptocurrency corporations are leaping on board to reveal their presence. To place this in perspective, there are 10 F1 groups for the 2022 season and crypto corporations are at present sponsoring eight.
Crypto and F1: An excellent advertising and marketing match
Mark DiMassimo, founder and inventive chief of DiGo — a New York-based advertising and marketing company — advised Cointelegraph that the curiosity crypto corporations are taking in Method 1 actually is smart from a advertising and marketing perspective. “You’ll be able to argue that F1 is a pure extension from a sponsorship standpoint for crypto corporations since each sectors are worldwide, thrilling and contain cash,” he mentioned.
To DiMassimo’s level, the F1 racing workforce, Crimson Bull Racing, lately entered a three-year partnership with Singapore-based crypto buying and selling platform Bybit for $50 million per yr. Previous to this, the cryptocurrency alternate Crypto.com introduced a $100 million partnership with Method 1 for its 2021 “Dash Collection.”
Igneus Terrenus, head of communications at Bybit, advised Cointelegraph that the crypto alternate views sports activities sponsorships as a key a part of its world advertising and marketing technique to construct model consciousness and sentiment in main markets. “We’re additionally companions to a few of the prime e-sports groups on this planet, however Method 1 stays the preferred worldwide racing collection,” mentioned Terrenus. He added that Method 1 has a bigger and extra world following than virtually each different sport:
“2021’s Abu Dhabi GP culminated in a dramatic nail-biting final-lap decider that noticed Crimson Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen prevail over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton — this attracted an viewers of 108 million. Whereas Tremendous Bowl 2022 between the Rams and Bengals drew an viewers of 101 million.”
Patrick Hillman, chief communications officer at Binance, advised Cointelegraph that F1 is a sport the crypto business gravitates towards, given its world presence and fan base. “Binance lately introduced a partnership with the BWT Alpine F1 Group. There are only a few sports activities as world as F1,” he mentioned.
Blockchain corporations are additionally getting concerned with Method 1. In January 2022, Fantom Basis, a layer-one blockchain platform, announced its sponsorship with the Italian Method 1 racing workforce, Scuderia Alpha Tauri. Fantom CEO Michael Kong advised Cointelegraph that this partnership is necessary for a number of causes, with publicity being a main profit. “It places much more eyeballs on Fantom since F1 is watched by a whole lot of thousands and thousands worldwide. “This has partly been liable for consumer progress on the Fantom community,” he mentioned.
F1 sponsorships develop as NFTs acquire traction
However, whereas crypto corporations could have initially been drawn to F1 sponsorships from a advertising and marketing perspective, the rise of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) is presenting new alternatives for organizations concerned with Method 1. For example, a latest Deloitte International research anticipated that in 2022 alone, sports activities NFTs will generate greater than $2 billion in transactions — double the quantity seen in 2021.
Moreover, the research predicts that by the top of this yr, roughly 5 million sports activities followers across the globe will personal an NFT sports activities collectible. Given this, nearly all of crypto and blockchain corporations sponsoring Method 1 racing groups have additionally launched NFTs to coincide with sponsorships.
On March 22, 2022, Fantom announced a sponsorship with the Brazilian-American Method 1 racing drivers Pietro and Enzo Fittipaldi. In line with Kong, the duo drivers will show Fantom imagery on their race fits and helmets all through the F1 2022 season. Along with the sponsorship settlement, the Fittipaldi Brothers will launch their first NFT collection on the Fantom community. “Each Pietro and Enzo have demonstrated a powerful curiosity in rising applied sciences. These NFTs will ship unprecedented entry to followers, permitting them to have interaction with the favored athletes by way of a brand new medium,” Kong mentioned.
Pietro Fittipaldi additional advised Cointelegraph that he and his brother determined to launch an NFT collection with Fantom resulting from their involvement within the crypto world:
“We wished to have the ability to share a few of our most unique objects with our followers and the individuals who help us by way of the NFT neighborhood. We’ve at all times been very energetic on the digital facet of issues. My brother and I received the primary F1 digital world championship, so to have the ability to do one thing else digitally by way of NFTs made quite a lot of sense.”
Fittipaldi defined that the NFTs will likely be designed by the Brazilian artist Wealthy, who is legendary for his graffiti paintings. “These artwork items will then be digitized into distinctive NFTs that supply entry to unique F1 championships, together with entry to my indy 500 F1 helmet and digital mini-world championship reproduction helmet,” mentioned Fittipaldi.
Kong added that NFT company Infinity NFT will help the Fittipaldi Brothers sale by delivering 4 NFT classes for followers to select from, every providing various ranges of direct engagement.
Along with Fantom’s latest NFT launch, Terrenus mentioned that Bybit will function the first market for the NFTs launched by F1’s Oracle Crimson Bull Racing workforce. Bybit’s NFT market was launched in January 2022, however Terrenus believes that it has already generated spectacular help from the neighborhood.
Bybit may also difficulty fan tokens for the Oracle Crimson Bull Racing workforce, anticipated to launch subsequent yr. In line with Terrenus, fan tokens will be sure that the neighborhood’s voice is amplified on the subject of the workforce’s decision-making processes.
F1 neighborhood learns about blockchain
Whereas it’s notable that crypto corporations are sponsoring F1 racing groups and drivers, some could query how the mainstream will obtain these partnerships and NFTs. That is particularly necessary to contemplate, given the truth that NFTs are nonetheless a brand new and generally unclear idea for non-crypto natives. For example, latest analysis from the NFT Membership found that though NFTs have elevated in recognition since Dec. 2020, the preferred query of 2021 was “the place to purchase NFTs.” This demonstrates that there’s nonetheless a big sector of people unfamiliar with the NFT house.
Kong famous that Fantom has had a constructive expertise collaborating with Alpha Tauri, noting that the corporate was in a position to clarify NFTs, their advantages and prospects when Fantom worked with Alpha Tauri F1 driver Pierre Gasly on his NFT launch. “Hopefully, we’ve been in a position to additional introduce them to blockchain know-how,” Kong commented.
Fittipaldi added that he believes NFTs will likely be properly obtained by non-crypto natives because of the utility behind the tokens. “Quite a lot of instances, individuals assume NFTs are nearly shopping for digital paintings, however behind these creations is entry to unique F1 championships.” With this in thoughts, Fittipaldi shared that he and his brother plan to launch extra NFT collections transferring ahead. “The entire concept behind this drop is for our neighborhood and followers to have one thing unique, which we plan to supply extra of transferring ahead.”
Furthermore, crypto sponsorships additionally appear to be resonating properly with F1 workforce leaders. An article revealed this month on motorsport.com highlighted this notion, because the Method 1 Mercedes workforce boss Toto Wolff stated that “it was fascinating to grasp crypto exchanges,” in reference to FTX’s sponsorship with Mercedes.
