SharkNinja Partners With McLaren In Five-Year Sponsorship Deal
SharkNinja has signed a five-year sponsorship deal with McLaren, treating F1 fandom as an asset. The partnership aims to increase brand recognition and sales among younger fans.
Original reporting · digiday.com
Original: “Future of Marketing Briefing: SharkNinja’s McLaren deal treats F1 fandom as the asset”
Read “Future of Marketing Briefing: SharkNinja’s McLaren deal treats F1 fandom as the asset” at Digiday →How this was written. Awesome B2B wrote this article with a language model from Digiday’s reporting (model: @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast); it describes that reporting rather than adding to it. The original, linked above, is the full story.
Key points from Digiday’s report
- SharkNinja has partnered with McLaren in a five-year sponsorship deal to increase brand recognition and sales among younger fans.
- The partnership will provide SharkNinja with access to McLaren's engineers, drivers, and labs, enabling the brand to create authentic content that resonates with F1 fans.
- SharkNinja's approach to the partnership is focused on creating organic content that showcases the brand's products in a natural way, rather than scripted ads.
- The brand is open to collaborating with McLaren's engineers to develop new products, with a focus on marginal gains and improving product efficiency.
- The partnership is part of a larger trend in sports sponsorship, where brands are seeking to engage with fans in a more meaningful way.
SharkNinja, a global brand, has partnered with McLaren in a five-year sponsorship deal, according to Digiday. This deal marks a significant move for the brand, which has never backed a sports property of this magnitude before. The partnership is expected to increase brand recognition and sales among younger fans.
The deal was finalized after SharkNinja's products appeared in a Brad Pitt racing film last year, which sparked fan interest in the brand. However, the buzz faded quickly, prompting the brand to seek a more long-term partnership. As Laura Dyer, svp of global brand and partnerships at SharkNinja, noted, the movie was great but the interest spiked and then faded.
The partnership with McLaren is expected to provide SharkNinja with a more sustained presence in the F1 world. The brand will have access to McLaren's engineers, drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and a direct line to the team's labs. This will enable SharkNinja to create content that resonates with F1 fans and increases brand loyalty.
SharkNinja's approach to the partnership is focused on creating authentic content that showcases the brand's products in a natural way. The brand wants to work with Norris and Piastri to create content that feels organic and not scripted. As Dyer explained, getting the drivers to do things they are comfortable with is way better than handing them a script.
The content created through the partnership will be distributed across McLaren's and SharkNinja's channels, with both parties having to sign off on the content before it goes live. The brand is also open to collaborating with McLaren's engineers to develop new products, with a focus on marginal gains and improving product efficiency.
The partnership is part of a larger trend in sports sponsorship, where brands are seeking to engage with fans in a more meaningful way. As Ryan Fischer, president at Fenway Sports Management, noted, brands are now looking to understand the fan base and create content that resonates with them, rather than just seeking logo placement and ad slots.
SharkNinja's goal is to increase brand recognition and sales among younger fans, who are a key demographic for the brand. The partnership with McLaren is seen as a key way to achieve this goal, by creating content that resonates with F1 fans and increases brand loyalty. As Dyer noted, the brand is really respectful of the fiercely loyal F1 fan base and wants to create content that feels authentic and engaging.
Questions and answers
What prompted SharkNinja to partner with McLaren?
SharkNinja's products appeared in a Brad Pitt racing film last year, which sparked fan interest in the brand, but the buzz faded quickly, prompting the brand to seek a more long-term partnership.
What is the goal of the partnership between SharkNinja and McLaren?
The goal is to increase brand recognition and sales among younger fans, who are a key demographic for the brand.
How will SharkNinja measure the success of the partnership?
The brand will track engagement metrics such as comments, shares, and dwell time, as well as brand recognition and sales, to determine the success of the partnership.


