CASE STUDY: ABB Uses Formula E Sponsorship to raise Awareness

Provided by Fifty Technology Ltd
How ABB activated its Formula E sponsorship using audience insights.

What was the Challenge / Background of the Campaign?

ABB is one of the largest technology corporations in the world, yet its consumer-facing name recognition is low compared to brands such as Siemens and GE. When it decided to become the first title sponsor of electric car series Formula E in 2018, it was met with a collective 'but who are they?'. Under a decade old, Formula E is still a relatively nascent sport and lacks the recognition or heritage of other motorsports. For ABB and Formula E, the sponsorship offered an opportunity to grow the audience of both brands, but first they needed to understand that audience.

What was the Campaign Objective?

In partnership with Endeavour, Fifty was set the task of identifying Formula E's global audience, so that ABB could better tailor its sponsorship story to them. The scope of our study included not only the engaged audience of Formula E's official account, but also ten teams, as well as individual drivers. The combined study resulted in almost 23 million accounts, which had over 130 million connections between them. The challenge was to find the nuances within this data to provide Endeavour with a focused activation strategy for ABB.

What was the Solution?

Within the 20 tribes we uncovered, World Changing Technologists, a smaller tribe of 1.12 million people, stood out to ABB, Endeavour and Formula E as an untapped opportunity - not only as fans of the sport but also as a channel to attract new fans. Fifty performed a second-layer analysis to understand who this audience was and what their passions were. A notable discovery was a tribe of Business Leaders engaging with motivational brands and media companies, indicating that the sport also appealed to those who loved innovation - a key trait ABB wanted to emphasise.

What were the Results?

This study within a study enabled Endeavour to create a video campaign around innovation and inventors called The Pioneers, which was then activated in global markets. The campaign consists of short webisodes featuring local pioneers making an impact through technology. Fifty was then able to target this campaign specifically to the tribes within the World Changing Technologist segment, consistently and on a global scale, serving up to 10 global markets during each race weekend.

What were the Key Learnings of this Campaign?

Our platform reveals unexpected insights. Fifty's network science swiftly discovered surprising insights like tribes of business leaders and digital innovators. Fifty can turn huge data sets into action points. Fifty turned 130 million connections between Formula E followers into insights that informed ABB's marketing strategy. Nuance makes for a more efficient sponsorship. ABB's title sponsorship of Formula E was made more efficient by building a marketing strategy tailored to those interested in their products.

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BudgetReach & FrequencyTarget AudienceMedia Used
Contact for details
All adultsMale
Both
ABC1
UNUSUAL
Campaign LocationCampaign DurationMarketing ObjectiveCampaign Type
NATIONAL, All Regions, INTERNATIONAL01 Oct 18BUILD AWARENESSSPONSORSHIP / SPORT / MOTORSPORT
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