Williams's 'Director of Smooth' shows how to cut through in F1

Formula 1's transformation under Liberty Media - and especially its shift in attracting a younger generation of new fans - has made it a no-brainer for consumer brands to get involved.

But while a gold rush of companies coming on board is great news for F1 and teams, it has created a different kind of challenge for sponsors themselves: how do you get your message targeted to the right audience in a crowded landscape?

This is something that Williams sponsor Wilkinson Sword, which is the squad's official men's grooming partner, aims to do this week with the use of a bit of humour and personality.

The personal care company has just launched a fan campaign platform called 'Partners in Smooth', which includes a new hero film that revolves around a character known as the Blade Master becoming the Williams team's first ever Director of Smooth.

The campaign runs across social and digital advertising, creator content, fan experiences and retail activations – and makes full use of Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, reserve Luke Browning plus team boss James Vowles.

The tone is playful and witty, with a clear intention to stand out. For as the Blade Master himself nicely sums up about the F1 landscape: "We are competing in a tough market in this sport. Even the pets are famous."

Jonathan Norman, senior marketing director of Wilkinson Sword's parent company Edgewell Personal Care, said that doing things differently is critical now for sponsors when it comes to activation.

This is what prompted it to think a little bit outside the box.

"It provides a bit more personality rather than just your standard sponsorship," he told The Race.

"So whilst we recognise the importance of seeing the brand within the arena, as the growth of the sport has brought more partners in than ever before it feels quite important for us that we actually cut through that.

"We wanted to do something different, and the campaign is designed exactly to do that: become more meaningful to the fans, and have not just visibility for our brand as we move forward."

An old brand chasing a young audience

Wilkinson Sword is one of the oldest companies that is involved in F1 sponsorship (Barclays Bank may hold the record from 1690)  – having originally been founded as a firearms manufacturer in 1772.

Having taken on its current moniker in 1824 when it added sword protection, the shift into shaving happened in 1903 following the invention of the safety razor.

It has clearly had to move with the times, but when it found its target audience aligning with the kind of fans F1 was getting more recently, that prompted its entry into sponsorship with Williams at the start of this season.

The partnership with Williams came hot on the heels of Wilkinson Sword Intuition, its female shaving brand, sponsoring the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2025.

Norman is clear though that its own iconic name, and sports partnerships like with rugby or F1, are not enough alone to maximise success. Brands cannot just be present; they've got to get out there and shout about it. 

This is why it has put so much effort into its Partners in Smooth campaign.

"What's important for us as you walk into those situations is that you offer value within that space," he said. "It's no good coming in and sheltering our name within what is quite a competitive space.

"We have had to work for it. We had to offer the value, but we had to do it in an authentic way.

"I think what we have found through sports partnerships, first with the Women's Rugby World Cup, but now with Williams, is an opportunity to reach a growing audience, and reach quite a changing audience that is more diverse and younger than ever before.

"That really is a huge opportunity, and probably why there are so many more brands actually operating in this space than we've seen before."

F1's attention value

As became obvious during last week's announcement of the Gucci title sponsorship of Alpine, brands are jumping into F1 because of its audience demographic.

The metric that matters is not the number of people that are watching; it is who those people are.

The increasingly younger fan dynamic is falling into a sweet spot for companies to know they need to be present to grab attention.

Norman added: "We need to reach a young level of audience, because it is a changing audience, and we need to grow. We need to recruit within that space, and with F1 that younger audience that was growing was perfect for us.

"Certainly that under-40 age group is of particular interest. I think primarily because they are quite involved in terms of their personal care and their routine. 

"They look for quality and they want products and brands that are very effective, and that offer them that precision and that performance.

"When you take a step back and you look at what activity represents that, F1 absolutely ticks all of those boxes."

And while the Williams deal is currently as men's grooming partner, the explosion in female engagement in F1 is something Wilkinson Sword is aware of for its wider company interests.

"That growth of the younger female fan certainly becomes quite interesting for us as we go forward across our portfolio," he said.

Where F1 appears to be in a particularly interesting place is that the attraction for companies like Wilkinson Sword is not just that it is a top sporting competition. It is where it fits into people's lives and what it is competing against.

"I think it's entertainment per se," said Norman. "I think it's quite difficult to cut things down into silos or segments.

"Ultimately, we're competing for people's attention, and that's exactly what F1 is doing - irrespective of whether it's another sport or something else.

"Consumers don't necessarily look at things in such distinct ways. What they're really looking at is: what's going to entertain me? What do I find interesting? What excites me?

"I think that's the real battlefield, which can take you from sport to TV to cinema to style to fashion to whatever.

"When you look at F1, what it's done incredibly well over recent years is it's transcended sport, so it's become more of a cultural movement, which encompasses art, style, music, and whatever else.

"That I think has really fuelled its growth. Having that perspective is quite important, because ultimately it's about entertainment, and it's about attention."