Earlier this year, Williams Fan Zones won Best Live Experience at The Race Media Awards. Here's all you need to know about the pop-up experience.
Given that grand prix racing started its life as road racing through various cities, towns and villages across continental Europe, attracting huge crowds to the streets to watch, hear and smell those phenomenal early bolides; it’s perhaps not surprising that the sport has almost gone full circle, with an influx of street races and inner city activations once again taking the action to the people.
Chief among these are Williams’s Fan Zones, a pop-up experience placed in the heart of cities like London, Miami and Tokyo, that offer fans of all ages (and bank balances), the opportunity to get a sense of what it is that makes Formula 1 one of the fastest-growing sports in the world at the moment.
The concept began in Miami in 2022, will take place in seven destinations this year, and has proven to be a stunning success.
Aidan Lyons (second from left, above), chief growth officer at Williams Racing, came up with the concept. A history of working within sports such as the NFL and FIFA, had given him an insight into fan behaviour, in particular what they do in and around the host venues when the sport isn’t taking place.
When he joined, Williams weren’t enjoying one of their more competitive spells, and were struggling for a share of voice as naturally attention tends to be focussed around the winners. But with a history in F1 that only McLaren and Ferrari surpass, there was a heritage angle to play with.
“I was sitting in the hotel room in Austin and I'm like, ‘wait a minute, this is very eerily similar to a Super Bowl. And in a Super Bowl, everyone stays downtown and goes to a stadium. And in a grand prix, everyone stays downtown and goes to a track.
"So why don't we take something and put it downtown, give it a longer period of time, make sure the access is free, make sure it's immersive, show cars, sim rigs, merchandise, appearances, give them the access the fans want and see what happens.’”
With guest appearances by the team's drivers, what happened was that the fans flocked. Over 340,000 fans have now visited one of the Williams Fan Zones, which in turn has led to the venues more than doubling in size to over 22,000 square feet, and new Fan Zones planned across the globe, including potentially locations that aren’t currently on the F1 calendar.
“What I would really like to do is take them to beyond where they're just at a city where there's a race,” confirms Lyons. “We want to give more fans that aren't even in a race city the ability to interact with us.”
Williams, and partner FanCapital, faced stiff competition in the Best Live Experience Category, with FIA Motorsport Games, the Ayrton Senna Tribute at Silverstone and the TeamViewer Signature Series making up the shortlist. But the judges loved how Williams made this experience accessible for all fans, did it away from the track and made it free to enter, removing any barriers to attend. They acknowledged that it was an ambitious plan across multiple countries and venues. They also were impressed by the authentic way many of Williams’ commercial partners, in particular Kraken, were integrated.
“We stress to all our partners that when we integrate you there has to be some kind of experiential component to it,” Lyons adds. “Meaning don't come in here and just put up a logo and expect to get engaged. Some of the stuff Kraken has done with the hanging bar, with the Batak has been absolutely awesome.
“You have to give something to the fans that they're going to enjoy and engage with. Now there are certain brands which are more direct to consumer and suited to this kind of environment. And there's other brands which are more B2B and they're less suited to it. I think we've integrated everyone that has shown interest and wanted to integrate.”
Putting on something of this scale is neither cheap nor easy. Three different kits tour in Europe, the US and APAC. All this means that the onus is on ensuring they continue to perform well, and as such, winning a TRMA helps in demonstrating the wider impact.
“It was absolutely amazing. It meant a lot because I mean we've been doing this for three years now. Initially we were fighting for budget and were fighting for attention. It was a lot of hard work, so when you stand there on stage and you have your prize it feels very very good.”
The Williams Fan Zones will be in London, Singapore and Austin later this year, with London running from June 30 to July 6.
To learn more about The Race Media Awards, please visit https://theracemediaawards.com/.
