My two favorite things: F1 and fashion.
Daniel-Yaw Miller of Business of Fashion dubbed the Las Vegas Grand Prix the LVFW. Sports fashion has been huge this year, and, of course, the drivers were dressed to the nines for their penultimate race and the first-ever GP in Vegas. All eyes were on the track except mine and most of you, dear reader.
With 1.3 million viewers in the US alone, many partnerships between legendary brands and renowned racing teams took center stage—Alpine’s three-way apparel partnership between themselves, Palace, and Kappa. Mercedes-AMG teamed up with Sacai to launch a capsule collection. And Puma took advantage of the GP to reveal the first of the products in its partnership with F1.
Miller explains that the first LVGP was ideal for brands to cross the “intersection of sports, entertainment, and pop culture.” Luxury brands also wanted in on the action. Louis Vuitton was the first to dress the seven-time champion, Lewis Hamilton, who donned a black vest and trousers. Catherine Kallon of Red Carpet Fashion Awards said she would’ve called this look “quiet luxury, but the bling would counter that statement.” Hamilton is known for his race looks, as he was also dressed in Burberry, Valentino, and Bottega Veneta. Miller cites a Launchmetrics estimation that each look was valued between $780,000 and $830,000. While the Louis Vuitton look was nearly ten times less than that.
My favorite PR move from the weekend was when Puma brought its ambassadors, A$AP Rocky and Rihanna, down to Vegas and sported Puma as Rocky drove down the main strip. Bringing a familiar (famous) face to the world and Puma into these uncharted waters helped keep the brand accurate to itself while expanding in a massive way.
Another way Puma won at the Grand Prix was how conservative yet powerful they were with their marketing. According to Miller, the brand took the collection for a test drive at a gas station right outside Las Vegas city limits, “with pieces from the collection up for grabs amid customization pumps, backdropped by neon signs celebrating the collaboration.” By expanding outside of the strip, Puma’s event was able to get consumers’ attention and that of PR professionals.
If I were on any of the brands at the GP’s PR team, I would agree that this event was the perfect place to take a gamble. I would have had them find influencers or celebrities who were going and were going to be photographed (i.e., in the paddock, downtown, or at an event) and gift them items or dress them entirely. I would find it hard to believe if brands didn’t do this, but it was not as outwardly publicized. I also noticed some brands hosting influencers in a suite to watch the race. I know F1 already has great and large sponsors (take Red Bull and Tag Heuer), so I would stray away from energy drink brands and watches. However, I would take after Puma but make it more specific to American brands as it is an American GP. Ralph Lauren, for example, is a proud sponsor of the American Olympic team and the US Open. I would have Ralph Lauren send influencers down to watch the race. Or I would have them dress Logan Sargeant, the only American F1 driver to really pull out the American x American partnership.
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