Doritos Achieves Global Year-Round Coverage Through F1 Partnership

Even as global screens remain focused on the World Cup, football is not the only sport capturing consumers' attention. Doritos recently launched a new global marketing campaign and stepped up experiential marketing as part of its official partnership with Formula 1, centering on fans in a sport that 99% of enthusiasts choose to watch from home.

The strategy targeting home viewers is reflected in the "The Crunch Prix" campaign. Created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, with visual effects by Untold Studios, a 60-second hero video shows that biting into a Doritos chip transports viewers racing around the track on items including sofas, lounge chairs, gaming chairs, and even bathtubs. The campaign is part of the larger "Taste the Thrill" platform and will span social and out-of-home media channels.

Doritos and its parent company PepsiCo have announced they are becomingofficial F1 partners until 2030. Kyle Gore, Doritos' global vice president of marketing, said F1 brings three core advantages to the brand: global reach, an evolving fan base, and a race calendar spanning up to 10 months each year.

"F1 has consistently pushed us to bring more fun, excitement, and closeness to fans—honestly, that wasn't our initial expectation—and we've been surprised by the support they've provided for the partnership," Gore said.

Beyond enabling the brand to activate in more than 50 markets, F1 places Doritos in front of an attractive fan base. The Netflix documentary "Formula 1: Drive to Survive" has drawn more female, younger, and digitally and social-native consumers—key target audiences for the snack brand. Additionally, F1 hosts 22 Grands Prix worldwide, providing a platform for the brand's food innovation and experiential marketing.

In addition to the "Crunch Prix" campaign, Doritos launched the "Doritos Thrill Zone" at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last weekend. The experience area includes immersive activities and fan engagement, such as virtual racing games and live interviews featuring F1 commentators and content creators.

Doritos also deployed two food trucks at Silverstone as part of its "Doritos Loaded" program, which creates different meals based on the brand's chips. The menu includes recipes created bynewly appointed brand partner Gordon Ramsay, and consumers who purchase from the trucks have the chance to win exclusive prizes.

"We're mobilizing local markets to bring this partnership to life in the Thrill Zone," Gore said. "These races are almost like music festivals: they last several days, cover a large physical space, and the racing itself takes up only a small part of the day's activities. But people stay there for 12, 13, or even 14 hours, and they need a place to step away for a while."

Lessons learned

Doritos' F1 partnership draws on experience from its parent company's sports partnerships, such as how PepsiCo has expanded its long-standing partnership with the National Football League (NFL) beyond the United States, orLay's current activations around the World Cup in host countries the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. But F1's scale is unmatched for marketers.

"F1 offers a full calendar, which is very exciting and gives markets a sense of ownership over the partnership," Gore said. "When an event is held in just one country or market, coordination becomes more difficult."

While balancing the needs of different markets, Doritos is also figuring out its role in the content ecosystem, striving to find the most relevant and customized content for consumers—whether they are fans of Doritos, F1, Ramsay, partner team Mercedes-AMG Petronas, or drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

"It's a coordination effort to ensure the content we develop is, first, engaging for all fans, and second, protective of each individual brand," Gore said. "A lot of activity is focused on making sure we have enough space to accommodate all of it."

F1's global nature also gives local teams the opportunity to learn how to market around races not held in their own territories: a race in China or Australia is just as important to F1 fans in Brazil or the U.S. To that end, Doritos is increasingly publishing content across all social channels in its ecosystem. Gore likened this to the brand's work in the U.S. around the advertising industry's biggest sporting event a decade ago.

"During the Super Bowl, there was a war room where everyone gathered to get through those eight hours, striving to stay highly relevant," Gore said. "Now that has evolved into a global stage. How do we do this across all markets? How do we coordinate, find effective content, and spread it quickly?"