Win on Sunday, promote on Monday: How luxurious style manufacturers are tapping into motorsport

As automotive legend goes, Bob Tasca, famed Ford dealer from the US, coined the line ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ in the early 1950s.

Whether or not that origin story is correct, ‘WOSSOM’ mentality took over and became a large justification for car manufacturers to enter motorsport; a victory on track meant sales in the showroom.

Today, the Global Motorsports Market is worth an estimated $5.5billion – and is expected to rise to $11bn by 2033.

That’s not surprising when you think that, behind those numbers are hundreds of millions of people tuning in to watch their motorsport of choice every year.

Some 1.55bn people watched F1 on TV during the 2021 season. Last year, a record-breaking 113m viewers across 196 countries watched 24 Hours of Le Mans. And MotoGP weekend tv audiences increased 20 per cent in 2023 with over 400m people tuning in across the season.

But these days automotive retail takes a backseat; win on Sunday, sell on Monday is all about fast cars and luxury fashion – the link between the chequered flag and the catwalk has never been greater.

So just how influential is motorsport as a driver of profit in luxury markets?

Motorsport and luxury – the partnership made in marketing heaven

Mai Ikuzawa, daughter of prolific Japanese racing driver Tetsu Ikuzawa and creative director of Team Ikuzawa and its luxury motorsport apparel collections, says: ‘Motorsport is high adrenaline and that’s always sexy’.

It’s true – the glitz, glamour and gas-guzzling hyper fast world has attracted luxury brands since Hugo Boss started sponsoring motorsports in the early ’70s.

Boss called motorsport ‘the perfect vehicle for promoting the BOSS brand image and fostering its popularity among a global audience’.

And Team Ikuzawa debuted its latest collaboration at this year’s Goodwood Revival – a lunar-based capsule clothing collection and a bespoke-livery for a Porsche 904 created in partnership with visual artist Daniel Arsham that builds on Arsham’s early work featuring the moon and Tetsu Ikuzawa’s affinity with the sun emblem.

‘There’s the beauty of the car itself, as well as the thrill of always taking things to the limit’, adds Mai, underlining the draw of high octane driving.

The particular motorsport sponsorship arena every luxury brand wants to get into, though, is F1.

F1 sponsorship began with the frenzied tobacco period of the late sixties and seventies and carried through until tobacco sponsorship was banned in 2006.

Who can forget the red and white Malboro liveries that adorned the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost?

At high speed, drinks makers like 7UP, hedge funds, watch makers, makeup brands and even sexual health companies – Durex’s 1976 sponsorship may have caused a lot of moral tutting but alongside womanising James Hunt it epitomised the hedonistic image of F1 – joined the F1 marketing circus.

Today all the luxury markets – fashion, jewellery, travel, fitness, lifestyle – have a slice of the F1 pie.

VistaJet flies Ray-Ban wearing Ferrari drivers around the world, Rolex was until this year the official timekeeper of F1, now replaced by Tag Heuer (which Team Ikuzawa also has a collaboration with), while Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Richard Mille, Hilton, Charlotte Tilbury, Moet & Chandon are all in on the adrenalined action.

What is it about motorsport that sells so much luxury and fashion?

According to Mai, it’s the ‘heritage’ of the brands.

‘Team Ikuzawa isn’t a motorsport merch brand – we have a unique heritage. That’s so important to success.’

This comes in the form of Tetsu Ikuzawa’s six-decade long racing career – in which he was the first Porsche factory driver from Japan, the first Japanese driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the private entrant winner of the 1967 Japan Grand Prix in a Porsche 906.

But the legend he built for himself was as much hinged on his flamboyant style as his prowess on track.

For Mai the collaboration with her friend Daniel – which brings Team Ikuzawa’s ’80s heyday to 2024 fans – is ‘different’ to many motorsport fashion collaborations because it combines ‘a curator’s eye and a streetwear culture’.

Team Ikuzawa’s customer buys into the history of the Ikuzawa archives – archives that Mai brings back to life across social media, herself the embodiment of a woman in a male-dominated world as she puts her cars around the track or bombs down the ski slopes in the Ikuzawa’s family ‘adrenalined’ style.

And the Team Ikuzawa luxury collection’s tagline ‘Choice for Racing Enthusiasts’ is crystallised by the pictures of Tetsu’s Team Ikuzawa taking pole position in the 1990 Le Mans 24 Hours or the Ikuzawa Toyota 85C at Japan’s Fuji Speedway in 1985.

Low-key, cool, crisp with a touch of bold aggression, the clothing sells itself thanks to the red and white Ikuzawa team colours that are the foundation of every collaboration, whether watches or clothing.

In fact, Team Ikuzawa is yet to do any splashy advertising. It’s as ‘grass roots’ now as Tetsu’s racing and set-up was originally.

‘Everything is through social media and my network of friends’, Mai confirms. ‘There’s so much goodwill in motorsport’.

Racing drivers bring authenticity to sponsorships and ambassadorships that customers can actually believe in.

It’s different to just another celebrity face. The drivers are some of the most famous faces in the world – Lewis Hamilton, as well as being a front-row favourite, is F1’s most valuable driver in terms of media impact with a whopping $186.4m EMV – but day-in-day-out they’re also delivering time-defying results.

‘Customers aren’t stupid’, Mai says who consults for brands including Aston Martin. ‘There are so many collaborations, and buyers will question them.

‘A celebrity can really help, ‘but [that approach] can be lazy, and people will know if the collab is superficial.’

How much fashion and luxury do fast cars really sell? F1 as a driver of luxury growth

In 1986 Benetton became the first clothing brand to own an F1 team. A stir was caused, but then Benetton went on to win two driver’s world championships and one constructors’ world championship, and today no-one would bat an eyelid at a fashion house owning an F1 team.

Tommy Hilfiger then started sponsoring F1 in 1991. Today Hilfiger (a massive motorsport fan) dresses the Mercedes F1 team – Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Russell’s girlfriend Carmen Mundt all have ambassadorships with Hilfiger.

In 2023 insights from Karla Otto and Lefty found that ‘Formula 1 emerged as the second fastest growing sport in Earned Media Value (EMV), surging 34 per cent in 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, as per Lefty data.

‘F1 drivers excel in engagement, boasting a top-tier 6.2 per cent ER average.’

F1 generated $18.8m EMV for Luxury fashion in 2023, just behind Automotive companies which led with $19.1m.

LMVH alone, which sponsors Monaco Grand Prix, amassed $6m in EMV in 2023.

As Sports Business Journal said: ‘F1’s fashion connections have turned into a commercial bonanza.’