By Ori Matarasso, CMO at AvaTrade, G-CMO Forum community member

Let’s be honest.

When people hear your company sponsors a Formula 1 team, they assume you’ve won the marketing lottery.

And honestly… they’re not entirely wrong.

There are selfies with the F1 world’s best driver, casual beers with legendary Team Principals, unlimited Michelin-starred food in the Paddock Club, champagne flowing all weekend, and access to experiences money can’t buy, like walking in the pit lane and spending time behind the scenes with the F1 team.

It’s glamorous. It’s exclusive. It’s addictive.

But behind every Instagram-worthy moment are months of planning, countless meetings, and the constant realization that, just like Formula 1 itself, everything can change in a split second.

One experience in Abu Dhabi proved exactly that.

We had just 30 minutes to film the reigning Formula 1 World Champion, for one of our biggest global campaigns. He walked in, delivered every line from the teleprompter in a single take, stood up… and left.

Exactly as scheduled.

Mission accomplished.

Or so we thought.

When the footage arrived, we experienced one of the more painful realizations of my +20 years marketing career.

It turns out the world’s greatest Formula 1 driver isn’t necessarily the world’s greatest actor.

Behind the wheel? In his zone – unstoppable!

In front of the camera? Let’s just say he wasn’t exactly in his comfort zone…

Despite every editing trick we could think of, we eventually killed the campaign. Weeks of work disappeared overnight.

Formula 1 teaches humility remarkably fast.

So why Formula 1?

In Fintech services, sponsorship is often about trust. Most brands choose football, basketball or other popular sports teams (few years back we also sponsored Manchester City FC).

This time we deliberately chose something different and were one of the first Brokers to lead the way in sponsoring F1 teams.

With only ten teams, Formula 1 offered us a rare “blue ocean”, less clutter, fewer direct competitors, as each team allowing only one sponsor per category, and a perfect association with precision, innovation and performance. It also allowed us to maintain our “Glocal” approach – Aligning with a Global brand but still keep the Local experience with races in about 20 different countries, many of which we also have Local Offices at.

After sponsoring Aston Martin F1 team for 2 years, we had the opportunity to partner with Oracle Red Bull Racing, arguably one of the world’s most creative brands in the world.

Ironically, despite their incredible creative reputation, the campaign that became our biggest success to date didn’t come from Red Bull.

It came from our own marketing team, here in Israel (G-CMO Israel is in the house!)

We called it The Best Job in the World.

Instead of simply giving away race tickets, we invited fans on social media to convince us to chose 1 fan that will become our Formula 1 ambassador. The winner received a 3-days-all-inclusive trip to Abu-Dhabi, VIP-money-can’t-buy-experience, with behind-the-scenes access to the team, the Paddock Club, the garages and the drivers – all in exchange for documenting the experience on social media. Oh… and we actually also paid them… after all, we promised them the best job in the world…

The response was overwhelming.

Our registration site almost crashed. The collab with ORBR social accounts was absolutely amazing! Our SM exploded with new followers and engagement…

We won the moment!

And then came the question every CMO eventually hears (and loves…):

“So… what’s the ROI?”

Media value reports look impressive, same goes for our Social KPIs.

Nielsen estimates are useful.

Brand awareness studies provide a great direction.

But none of them answer the CFO’s favorite question.

“How much money did this actually generate?”

Surprisingly, the biggest return, that can be actually directly tracked and attributed came from something we hadn’t expected to become the sponsorship’s superpower: VIP hospitality.

Across our key markets, we invited top partners & clients to Grand Prix weekends, giving them exclusive access to the team, the drivers and unforgettable experiences.

When we compared guests revenues before and after those events, we discovered the real benefit with incremental revenue and increased LTV and ARPU. Boom!

Not because our logo appeared on a Formula 1 car.

Because unforgettable experiences build unforgettable relationships.

3 lessons I’ll take with me:

A sponsorship isn’t a logo placement. It’s an entire marketing ecosystem of content, PR, social, customer engagement and experiences.

Great ideas don’t always come from the biggest creative agencies or brands. They usually come from the people closest to the customer.

Plan everything. Expect the unexpected anyway. That’s true in Formula 1, and even more true in marketing.

And finally…

If you ever get the chance to sponsor a Formula 1 team…

Take the meeting (tell them you’ll meet them at the race… you need to experience it by yourself… it worked for me perfectly well in Barcelona, before we signed our sponsorship with Aston Martin…).

The marketing lessons are priceless.

The champagne is pretty good too.