Billy Loizou: How F1 Aussie Grand Prix Leveraged Targeting and Data to Drive Deeper Connections
Guest post by Billy Loizou, APAC Area VP, Amperity
With brands across Australia, New Zealand and APAC strapped in and ready to carry out their 2025 marketing campaigns, it can be valuable to recall recent success stories that blended digital innovation with human connection.
While sophisticated data analytics, AI, and emerging technologies are reshaping marketing strategies, success increasingly depends on using these tools alongside efforts to remove barriers between brands and their audiences.
The Australian Grand Prix’s recent growth surge provides a compelling case study that illustrates this principle in action—demonstrating how organisations can leverage targeting strategies, emphasize human elements, and utilize data to transform their audience engagement.
Popular Culture and Gaming Helps Draw Fresh Eyes
F1 in Australia saw record breaking sales in 2024, and this feat is expected to be topped again this year. Its huge growth in popularity can be attributed to a combination of media timing, fresh audience targeting, social media strategies and reducing friction in ticketing.
Speaking at a recent marketing event, Joel McKenzie, Division Manager, Digital for the F1 Australian Grand Prix, said part of the surge of F1’s popularity in Australia could be attributed to Netflix’s Drive to Survive. The show came out during Covid-19 while Melbourne was in lockdown and was a major hit, resonating with viewers due in large part to a focus on people rather than just race cars.
However, McKenzie also highlights some savvy marketing actions of F1 Australian Grand Prix’s parent company Liberty Media in drawing in new audiences.
“Something that sparked this growth was that [Liberty Media] invested in gaming, which is a big thing, because they identified the audience,” McKenzie said. “They had a very ‘pale male and stale’ audience and identified that they need to go younger and more diverse.”
This gaming investment strategy included partnerships with popular racing simulators and the development of the official F1 esports series, helping the brand connect with younger demographics who might not have previously engaged with the sport.
Humanizing the Brand Through Social Media
The other successful engagement area was on social media, McKenzie added, noting that prior to 2017, the organisation was quite restrictive with what F1 teams and drivers could and couldn’t do on social media.
“They removed all those restrictions, and essentially wanted to make the drivers more accessible,” he said.
“What Drive to Survive did was take the focus off the cars and make the drivers the stars … That’s what the social media element of this has done, even to the point where drivers are instructed not to wear the helmet when they’re walking around. We want to connect with their faces.”
This strategic shift to humanize the brand by showcasing drivers’ personalities has transformed F1’s digital presence, allowing fans to feel more connected to the individuals behind the helmets and creating stronger emotional bonds with the sport.
Improving the Digital Experience Through Data Integration
Another big change the team made was to improve ticketing, reducing friction for existing fans and those they sought to draw in.
The F1 event is assembled (and disassembled) at Albert Park in Melbourne every year. Grandstands and hospitality venues change, creating challenges for facilitating upwards of 130,000 visitors each race weekend. This means ticketing and seat assignment in particular can be confusing for users, because of how the layout changes year-on-year.
“One of the problems we were noticing is when we would get this surge in ticketing, we had the front-end of the site built, where people could do their research, pick their grandstand, then click through and get to the Ticketmaster site and [then see that the space] was sold out,” McKenzie said.
The lack of visibility on availability was causing a lot of frustration for users, leading to high bounce rates, McKenzie said, so the team worked with James Noble and the team at digital marketing agency WongDoody to build a solution. They created a data connection (API) between their website and Ticketmaster that showed real-time seat availability directly on the F1 site. This integration meant fans could see exactly which seats were available before clicking through to purchase, eliminating the disappointment of discovering sold-out sections after navigating to the ticketing platform.
Lessons for Marketers in 2025
This practical application of real-time data to solve user experience challenges reflects a broader transformation at the Australian Grand Prix. By combining data insights with audience understanding – from ticketing solutions to social media strategy – the organisation has created a more accessible and engaging experience.
The F1 Australian Grand Prix case demonstrates three key principles that marketers can apply to their 2025 strategies:
1. Identify and pursue new audience segments through platforms they already engage with
2. Humanize your brand by showcasing the personalities behind it
3. Use data integration to remove friction points in the customer journey
As 2025 unfolds, brands across sectors have the opportunity to follow this example—thoughtfully applying data to reduce barriers while simultaneously strengthening the human connections that drive meaningful engagement.
Billy Loizou (pictured below) has 15-plus years experience in design, technology and marketing. He has worked with some of the world’s most renowned and respected brands, helping them improve their customer experience and drive profitability.
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