The weekend of Formula 1 at the Austin circuit is of paramount importance for several reasons, both sporting and marketing.

From a sporting perspective, Formula 1 has several reasons to celebrate. First, the rivalry between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton is giving the circus one of the most exciting and electric world championships in decades, thanks in part to an interesting midfield with very level values. Second, and probably thanks in part to the on-track spectacle provided in recent months, the attendance figures at the Circuit of the Americas have been nothing short of mind-blowing: as many as 400,000 spectators at the track over the course of the race weekend.

However, it is probably on the level of sports marketing that the top four-wheel competition must find reasons to celebrate. The ambitious relaunch plan organized by Liberty Media now bears the first obvious results both from a digital presence and brand development point of view. This Formula 1 is evidently rejuvenating itself and projecting itself into the future, taking off the dusty baronial jacket of the “pinnacle of motorsport” to put on more friendly, cross-cultural clothes.

Winking graphics, expertly managed social media, and plenty of online and offline activations are rapidly ferrying the leading open-wheel series into a new era, with a young audience and a promotion that winks more mischievously at a modern and jaunty, colorful and decidedly fresh communication. Clearly, it does not hurt the paddock to have a new generation of young and talented drivers (from Norris to LeClerc, Russell to Verstappen himself), who have no trouble spending themselves on teams and sponsors, while maintaining a very high level behind the wheel.

If, however, Europe has always been very responsive to four-wheel issues-and Formula 1 has an easy time in its historical nations such as Italy, Britain, France and Germany-the same cannot be said for the United States.

America has always been the great conundrum for the Circus, which has always raced in the star-studded states but never really broke through to the hearts of a public accustomed to different sports and entertainment settings. Without going to bother American football and baseball (sports that not surprisingly have little luck in the old continent), it is enough to remember that motorsport itself is profoundly different in the U.S., where racing in the Ovals and the great classics such as Indianapolis and Daytona still dominate the scene.

NBA and Formula 1: uniting platforms to broaden fanbase

It is precisely on this basis that one must read the partnership that the NBA, the American professional basketball league, and Formula 1 have entered into on the occasion of the American Grand Prix.

Numerous initiatives were launched in collaboration between the two leagues, and very strong throughout the event was the presence of details borrowed from American basketball, including, for example, the presentation of the winner’s trophy by Shaquille O’Neal (in a ceremony that, in keeping with tradition, had very little sobriety). Among other things, most interesting was the operation that saw the 30 NBA teams lend their looks to dress -albeit virtually- the next-generation F1 cars for a nice social media operation, and the shooting competition between NBA drivers and players with a prize to be divided obviously to charity.

Net of the folklore and color side , these are all activities with a strong sports marketing rationale and a clear objective: to bring the Formula 1 product to exposure on other platforms to increase brand awareness and above all to create the mnemonic rapprochement that can generate new audiences in the long run.

In terms of schools, this type of cross-platform operation (i.e., working between different platforms-in this case by audience) has two types of underlying reasons:

• the increase in awareness
• the value association

The goal of the business, evidently, is to grow the Formula 1 product in the United States, trying to leverage a very successful league.

NBA and Formula 1: raising awareness

Increasing F1 awareness in America is obviously the simplest, but also perhaps the most important, goal of the NBA-Formula 1 partnership. As crazy as it may sound to a European-who is already past the brand awareness stage and has already positioned F1 as a “top of mind” brand-not all of North America is familiar with the top Formula.

Not to be forgotten here is the highly multifaceted profile of the American audience, which is far more stratified and diverse than the European audience in terms of background, traditions, culture and consumption habits. In short, in such a large and diverse country, the first item on the agenda is certainly to get brand knowledge and awareness across.

In this sense, the NBA, its players and its teams are a channel of the highest order. In fact, American basketball shares with baseball the second step of the podium as the most beloved sport in the States (the first is, without a shadow of a doubt, football).

The National Basketball Association is an industry of about $9 billion in revenue per season that has 30 teams located in 22 states across the nation. Last year’s finals between the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks saw national viewership of about 10 million per contest, an interesting number but down from more than 20 million per contest in 2017 when LeBron James’ Cavaliers and Stephen Curry’s Warriors were on the floor.

Using the social media of the league, teams, and even individual players to convey content related to the world of Formula 1 is the most straightforward but also the most effective method of exposing the very large American basketball audience to open wheels and putting the F1 logo in front of as many eyes as possible.

So why not use if popularity is the determining factor, the NFL, the American football league that dominates the U.S. sports scene instead of the NBA?

The reason here is probably twofold. On the one hand, the NBA starts the new season right now, with great media buzz around the restart of the league to be exploited as an additional driver. On the other, there is probably the limited popularity of the NFL league for European and Asian audiences, who likely care little or nothing about football content and players.

NBA and Formula 1: the value association

As we have already read several times on these pages, in the world of sports marketing and sponsorship the value association plays a major role. Associating a brand to be promoted with a successful team will project onto that brand the values, qualities and peculiarities of that team and sport. It is, in a nutshell, what Red Bull has always done, associating its energy drink with adrenaline-pumping, youthful and “extreme” sports, thus ending up positioning itself as the extraordinary brand it is today. But it is also what thousands of global brands do on a daily basis with sports sponsorship, on every field, track and arena on the planet.

This kind of reasoning-which we have simplified for the sake of brevity but which finds solid scientific grounding in studies of behavioral psychology-is the same reasoning behind a partnership such as the one in question between the NBA and Formula 1.

It is necessary here to imagine Formula 1 somewhat as an empty box in the eyes of the American spectator. The circus has not had the time-but especially the tradition-to build in the mind of the U.S. public a sufficient agglomeration of associations and characteristics to frame the product as it has in Europe. Bringing it closer to a sport that -in fact- is very deeply rooted in U.S. culture is the first way to form an idea-cognitive but also emotional-of Formula 1.

The NBA is a league that is international, modern, extremely rich, culturally diverse and wonderfully embedded in the socio-political context: it has, in short, a first-rate positioning in the eyes of the American public. It is also a league whose leadership, first with David Stern and now with Adam Silver-a role Americans call commissioner-has a long-term project that it manages with integrity and professionalism. In essence, an excellence.

Thus, putting the NBA alongside Formula 1 means enriching the latter with the values and qualities of the former, filling that infamous box mentioned at the beginning of the paragraph. It is clear that the results of such operations are not and cannot be short-term: those who expect that thanks to such an initiative F1 has gained thousands of U.S. fans are not only taking the wrong end of the stick, but are missing the mark in the long run. In an age when choices about entertainment are numerous thanks in part to technological advancement, the fan must be gradually brought closer to the enjoyment of the sport and its culture and understanding.

In conclusion

Without a shadow of a doubt, the partnership between Formula 1 and the NBA must be well contextualized in order to best reconcile the marketing of F1 with that of the basketball world. While one should not think that the conquest of America is guaranteed by a shooting competition between drivers or a hall-of-famer delivering the cup aboard an impractical vehicle, likewise, one should not make the mistake of misunderstanding these activities as a fling for its own sake.

The truth is that the United States is a difficult country to interpret, and evidence of this is the always unique opening moment of the Grand Prix, with country singer Joshua Ray Walker singing the national anthem as helicopter gunships zoom over the Austin sky , Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders wave pompoms, a paratrooper glides the star-spangled banner from above, and a drover releases the eagle that symbolizes freedom into the air.

To think of entering such a market head-on is something of an impossibility, Stefano Domenicali and the men at Liberty Media know well: those who have tried in the past have failed. Now, as America prepares to see F1 return to the Miami track in 2022, a strategy of cautious rapprochement may be the most appropriate one.

In the meantime, it has chosen to be accompanied for a piece of the road by one of the most successful American leagues at home and around the world. It is not the ultimate move, certainly. But it is still a good first step.