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Hilton liked McLaren before it was cool.<\/p>\n
The international hotel brand has been a sponsor of the Formula 1 team for two decades, sticking with them through thick and thin: Last year, McLaren won the Constructors\u2019 Championship, the top honor for an F1 team, for the first time since 1998, and since Hilton has been a sponsor.<\/p>\n
Hilton CMO Mark Weinstein wasn\u2019t particularly bothered by the losing streak ahead of last year\u2019s championship win. Being part of a championship team certainly doesn\u2019t hurt, he told us, but a sponsorship can\u2019t be based on a team\u2019s record alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile you wouldn\u2019t back a consistent loser, and while it\u2019s nice to have our brand on a winning team, you have to believe in all the other aspects of the culture and the people, and the other parts of the partnership,\u201d Weinstein told Marketing Brew at the Cannes Lions festival. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more fun to go to a race when they\u2019re winning, but we saw fans that wanted to be there when they weren\u2019t winning because they love McLaren.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilton\u2019s partnership with McLaren started with mutual values, Weinstein said during a Cannes panel with McLaren Racing CMO Louise McEwan. Those values boil down to kindness and optimism, he told us later, both of which seem especially on display at McLaren these days. Under the leadership of CEO Zak Brown and supported by the personalities of drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren has maintained a reputation for being a nice and welcoming team, which is partially by design, according to McEwan. Hilton, meanwhile, was founded with similar principles in mind, Weinstein said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realized the opportunity around inclusivity, being human, being warm, to welcome those new fans in,\u201d McEwan said during the panel. \u201cThat\u2019s always been front and center of mind for us as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of those new F1 fans started following the sport after Netflix released its F1 docuseries, Drive to Survive<\/em>, and, on a separate panel, McEwan said the \u201cNetflix factor\u201d has helped to further \u201chumanize the brand.\u201d The show also adds a little something extra to Hilton\u2019s sponsorship, Weinstein told us. While Hilton has run some ads on Netflix, Weinstein said he doesn\u2019t feel the need to advertise against Drive to Survive <\/em>because of the attention already being paid to the show.<\/p>\n Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019re getting, essentially, embedded advertisements,\u201d he said. \u201cWe bring Paris [Hilton] a lot of times to the races, and she gets great coverage with Lando and the Oscar, so that makes it into the show. You\u2019re seeing us on the [uniforms], you\u2019re seeing us on the car\u2026It plays more naturally than interrupting that show with an advertisement for Hilton.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the Hilton logos that appear on McLaren uniforms and car liveries, the brand provides lodging and hospitality services for the entire team when they travel for races, creates social video content with the drivers, and activates through race experiences with fans, Weinstein said.<\/p>\n On the heels of next weekend\u2019s British Grand Prix, Norris\u2019s home race, Hilton is offering a McLaren-themed suite at one of its London properties that fans can book from July 8 through July 20\u2014part of Hilton\u2019s \u201cStay Like\u201d campaign that has also included Wicked<\/em>– and Paris Hilton-themed suites.<\/p>\n Weinstein said he views activations like these as perhaps more important than static branding on the cars themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThe livery is probably the least interesting part of it, I\u2019m being honest with you,\u201d he said. \u201cThe car should never be slow enough to see our logo. If it\u2019s going too slow, something\u2019s gone wrong.\u201d (With that said, he added, he likes seeing the Hilton logo on the McLaren team\u2019s uniforms.)<\/p>\n Engagement with content featuring the McLaren team is central to the partnership, according to Weinstein. Posts like the \u201cStay Like a Winner\u201d video starring Norris and Piastri after McLaren won the Constructors\u2019 went viral, and fans also specifically noticed the Hilton brand in a livestream of Norris doing yoga in Miami ahead of his first race win there last year, Weinstein said.<\/p>\n And while hotel bookings are also important, it\u2019s not his primary focus.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have an awareness problem,\u201d Weinstein said. \u201cWhat I have is a depth-of-story opportunity, where not everybody knows about who we are and what we stand for. The fans that McLaren has, our ability to tap into that, can unlock a connection back to us…The main goal is to get people excited and engaged, and then, ultimately, we can convert them later with our marketing tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nGet marketing news you’ll actually want to read<\/h5>\n
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