What do fans think of the F1 Disney partnership?
A licensing deal puts a brand everywhere except the car, which is the position that produces the best memory on this grid.
Formula 1 extended its Disney agreement to the end of 2028 and brought the Cars franchise into it. A licensing partnership buys none of the surface a sponsorship usually pays for, which is exactly why the audience data is worth reading before calling it soft.
What does a deal without a car produce?
The measurement takes a brand mark, blurs it, removes the name and asks three questions: name the brand, name the team, say where it appears. Across the grid, 94.3% name the brand, 82.2% name the team and 46.1% can place it.
Read brand by brand, the ranking on that third question does not follow the money. The official timekeeper leads at 90.3%.
A confectionery brand with no bodywork anywhere on the grid follows at 84.6%, built on Grand Prix activation and on the product itself. The most exposed title partner of the grid reads 27.9%.
KitKat
Gatorade
Honda
Oracle
Tommy HilfigerWhy does a licensing deal travel further than a logo?
A logo on a sidepod competes with a dozen others in the same frame and gets one second of attention at a time. A character on a helmet, a livery or a product is met rather than shown, so the audience can say where it met it. That difference is the whole gap between 84.6% and 27.9%.
The same logic decides which activations stick, which is set out in the activation reading. What a sponsorship really buys is in the cost article.
Does the audience reject a cartoon in a technical sport?
Asked in an open question which brand feels out of place in this sport, the audience names the artificial intelligence category in 8.9% of answers, four times the next single brand.
Entertainment and licensing do not appear in that list at anything like the same level, which is the useful part of the reading for a partnership like this one.
A category the audience rejects needs a use it can see. A category it already enjoys needs presence it can meet. The rejection map is in the category the audience rejects.
Frequently asked questions
What is the F1 Disney partnership?
A commercial agreement running to the end of the 2028 season, launched around the Mickey and Friends characters and now extended to the Pixar Cars franchise.
Does a brand need to be on the car to be remembered?
No. The best placed brand after the official timekeeper reads 84.6% while appearing on no bodywork, against 27.9% for a serving title partner.
How is sponsor memory measured?
On a blurred logo with the name removed, three questions in order: name the brand, name the team, place the branding. Grid averages read 94.3%, 82.2% and 46.1%.
Which sponsor categories does the audience reject?
Artificial intelligence leads the brands called out of place, at 8.9% of unprompted answers, four times the next single brand.
Want this reading on your own brand?
The full report behind this article, with the split by team audience, market composition and the change across the season, is available to teams, brands and agencies.
Source: BoxBoxd, the motorsport social network. The measurement shows a blurred sponsor logo with the name removed and asks three questions in order: name the brand, name the team, say where the branding appears.