Formula 1’s Emily Prazer on revving up American enthusiasm through an ‘always-on dynamic’

Formula 1 Chief Commercial Officer Emily Prazer joins The Big Impression to accelerate the motorsport’s hold on Americans with year-round content and venue in Las Vegas.

 

Episode Transcript

Please note, this transcript  may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio.

Damian Fowler (00:00):

I'm Damian Fowler.

Ilyse Liffreing (00:01):

And I'm Ilyse Liffreing

Damian Fowler (00:02):

And welcome to this edition of The Big Impression.

Ilyse Liffreing (00:09):

Today we're joined by Emily Prazer, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Grand Prix and the Chief Commercial Officer of Formula One. She's helping transform F1 into one of the fastest growing sports brands in the world, leading strategy partnerships and fan engagement across markets from Miami to Melbourne.

Damian Fowler (00:30):

Emily's here to talk about the road to the last Vegas Grand Prix on November the 22nd. Now, in its third year, the Vegas Grand Prix turns the strip into a global stage where sport, entertainment and culture collide under the neon lights.

Ilyse Liffreing (00:46):

I love that. From the 100 day countdown events to new sponsorship models and digital fan experiences, formula One is redefining what a modern sports brand can look like, especially in the U.S. market.

Damian Fowler (01:02):

In past years, the marketing around Las Vegas, the Grand Prix has felt like a crescendo building over several months. What's been your strategy this year as you build, it's the third year, right? As you build towards those?

Emily Prazer (01:14):

Yeah, this third year, so I think the difference this year is we've had two years of a foundation to figure out what works and what doesn't work, but equally we've had our building open all year, so prior, well the first year we're obviously building the building for those that dunno, it's called Grand Prix Plaza. It's the length of three NFL fields, so it's not small. It's designed and built to service the Formula One Paddock Club, which is the most high-end hospitality that we offer in Formula One. Underneath that is where the garages are and where the teams hang out, so it's quite a significant building. When we first moved to Vegas, we purchased the 39 acres of land and have invested around $500 million in this infrastructure and so the difference I think is obviously the first year we were building it, the second year we were getting to grips with owning such a significant property in Las Vegas and then moving into the third year of the event, the building's been open all year and we built something called F1 Drive, which is carting.

(02:10):

We've had a restaurant up there called Fool and Fork, which is Formula One, themed food and beverage as you'd expect. We built an immersive Formula one experience called F1 X and so the marketing's ramped up, but that's because locally we've been able to activate since the day after the race last year all the way through to this year, and obviously how we market is very different depending on what we're trying to do, whether it's selling tickets or whether it's driving foot traffic to the building. It's all the awareness that we need in Las Vegas to continue to grow our fan base.

Damian Fowler (02:41):

The a hundred day countdown, that's important,

Emily Prazer (02:43):

Right? That was a big one. We always go big around a hundred days. We did a strip takeover, we made sure people understood that it was a hundred days