Behind Visa's new Formula 1 sponsorship

Between its globetrotting glamor, dramatic battles and dashing young drivers, Formula 1 is one of sport’s hottest properties—and is attracting a lot of sponsors. Visa is among the latest, catching a ride with F1’s powerful Oracle Red Bull Racing franchise, including taking over title sponsorship of its No. 2 team, the former Scuderia AlphaTauri, along with Cash App. The new team is to be known as Visa Cash App RB and employ drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo (a Visa logo is also going onto the cars of three-time F1 champion Max Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez on the top Red Bull team). Some F1 observers have criticized the team name as an example of corporatism. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend! For Visa, F1 represents not only a chance to connect with the sport’s young fans but the opportunity to give its clients and cardholders access to the action, Andrea Fairchild, Visa’s senior VP of global sponsorship strategy, says on the newest edition of Ad Age's Marketer’s Brief podcast. Formula 1 counts 500 million fans worldwide—41% are women, and 45% are under the age of 35. The best and worst Super Bowl ads Ad Age reviews the Big Game commercials Click here “What’s interesting about Formula 1 is the younger, newer fans that are coming into the sport [and] the interesting dynamics and personalities with the drivers in the cars at the heart of the sport, really giving us the unique opportunity to kind of craft stories around both,” Fairchild said. “There's a lot of passion in this fanbase,” she added. “They’re enthusiastic. They’re diverse.” More news: How a new sports streamer could impact advertisers Visa, Cash App and Red Bull will also be sponsoring the race car to be driven by Amna Al Qubaisi in the F1 Academy series, which features all women drivers. Academy drivers will race at seven F1 tracks on the same weekend as F1 races. “Supporting women in sport is one of the things that I am most proud of in the work we do,” Fairchild said. Prior to joining Visa in 2021, Fairchild held key marketing roles at Nike and Gatorade. She also served as president of Kobe Inc., the business venture run by NBA legend Kobe Bryant, who died in 2020. On the podcast, she discusses how the business of corporate sports sponsorships is evolving, noting that social media changed the game by turning athletes into influencers, and providing marketers an onramp for culture and access. Creator and influencer trends to know about right now “That instant connectivity that fans are now able to have opened up a lot more than a typical ad,” she said. “Back when I first started, that was the lever we pulled—what’s our tagline? What’s the ad going to be during the sporting event? And how are we going to reach as many people as possible sitting kind of in front of their TV at that moment? “What really changed us as marketers is how we get to go so much deeper and wider than just that one moment and how are we reaching people every day of the year through the platforms that we are engaged with,” she continued. “A lot of that is utilizing those athlete voices and having them engage at a much different level.” The F1 deal represents Visa’s first new global sports partnership in 15 years; the brand is a longtime sponsor of FIFA, the Olympics and the NFL. “What I love about sports is this global ubiquity, bringing people together united around a common passion,” Fairchild said. “And that passion could be Formula 1, that passion could be the NFL, whatever it is, sport really unites—it brings people together in a really unique way. So from a marketing perspective, that’s certainly how I look at things, too, and why I think sports are so important.” The 2024 Formula 1 season begins with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 2. Ad Age Leading Women Luncheon Join us Aug. 7 in New York as we recognize this year’s honorees Buy your ticket today

Behind Visa's new Formula 1 sponsorship

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