Aston Martin's F1 sponsors don't ask reach

The what: Aston Martin built a free fan membership platform, building a fanbase worth keeping engaged beyond social media.

Largely, sports properties treat their email newsletters as an afterthought. They build massive social followings, millions on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, then discover they can't tell sponsors anything specific about those people.

When FC Barcelona signed its Spotify deal in 2022, due diligence revealed it had first-party data on just 1% of its 350 million fans. Roughly 3 million addressable contacts from a third of a billion followers.

Aston Martin entered F1 in 2021 with the smallest fanbase of any team. They launched I/AM—a free-to-join membership platform- at the 2021 British Grand Prix.

The breakthrough was treating the membership platform as commercial infrastructure from day one. I/AM was designed to create a place to deepen the fan relationship.

Between 2021 and 2024, Aston Martin grew from the smallest fanbase to the fifth largest—454 million global fans, up 68% in five years. Their TikTok following tripled. But the commercial payoff came from what they could prove about those fans: 54% under 35, nearly a third female, segmented by behaviour, preferences, and purchase intent.

The result: $93.2M in sponsorship revenue in 2023, with partners like Aramco, Cognizant, and Citi. A 52% increase in retail spending when they activated their audience data strategy. And co-marketing partnerships, like the Rolling Stones I/AM DROP.

The blueprint: build the infrastructure to prove who your fans are before you start selling access to them.

Most properties wait until they have millions of followers to think about first-party data. By then, the audience lives on platforms they don't control. Every follower is rented.

We spoke about this concept in the Alex Albon article.

What they built:

A named program

F1 team emails are usually corporate dumping grounds. 10-15% discount codes. Race result summaries and Content that screams like it’s an afterthought. Aston Martin gave theirs a name.

The name creates tangibility, a thing that fans, sponsors, and the team itself can point to. "Join I/AM" carries weight. When Rob Bloom pitches a partnership, he's offering integration with I/AM. And sponsors can visualise it; they can reference it in internal presentations. The name turns a marketing channel into a commercial asset.

Take this newsletter, for example: you recommend (hopefully) The Commercial Table to colleagues because there's a name and brand attached, and the email program name creates something concrete.

The word "table" was also intentional; tangibility in a name was important. If you can drop it on your foot, you can visualise it.

Free membership with zero friction I/AM launched requiring only an email, and a PIN to verify. A suggestion to them would be to add some friction through a short survey to get more information about the fan and remove the pin verification. The intent becomes higher.

Centralised marketing platform Kate Dalton, Head of Brand and Marketing, describes I/AM as "the central marketing platform for our brand and fan membership program." Every digital touchpoint—website, content, experiences, merchandise—feeds back into the same database.

First-party data architecture Working with the agency Zone, Aston Martin augmented owned data with third-party sources to build holistic fan profiles. They created "rubrics"—scoring mechanisms that translate business objectives into acquirable data points. This lets them segment fans by purchase intent, engagement level, and brand affinity.

Why this works:

Social media followers are anonymous. You know roughly how many people saw your post. You don't know their names, spending habits, or what products they care about.

When a fan registers for I/AM, Aston Martin captures identity, location, language, and behavioural signals. Over time, they build a picture of each individual—what content they consume, which drivers they follow, and what merchandise categories interest them.

This data becomes sponsorship inventory. Instead of telling Aramco "we have 10 million social followers," Aston Martin can show exactly which segments over-index for energy sector interest, which have high purchase intent for automotive products, and which respond to specific activation types.

Replication framework:

Strategy Playbook: A named program becomes commercial infrastructure. The difference shows up in partnership rates.

Having a database solves the identification problem. If membership only means discount codes and race recaps, nobody stays engaged. DROPS solve fan retention and sponsor value simultaneously.

What they built:

The Rolling Stones collaboration (April 2025)

The first I/AM DROP launched with British rock royalty. Co-branded hoodies, t-shirts, and caps ($50-$110) blending the Stones' tongue logo with Aston Martin wings. I/AM members got priority access at an exclusive launch event at RS No.9 Carnaby Street on April 24—limited to a few hundred guests—then online access 24 hours before general release. A one-of-a-kind guitar signed by Alonso and Stroll went to one member.

The experience funnel: competition entry → exclusive event access → priority purchase → collectable prize. Each step deepens the relationship.

The FanMade Silverstone DROP (July 2025)

Winners received a full hospitality package on Saturday, July 5: exclusive access to "The Lawn" at AMR Technology Campus with gourmet food and live music after-parties. All-access HQ tours, where fans saw where cars are designed and manufactured. Covered grandstand seats at Luffield. Live Q&A with Fernando Alonso and CEO Andy Cowell hosted by Sky Sports' Rachel Brookes. Race simulators and "The Cube"—a VR experience simulating an F1 lap at Silverstone.

You can't buy this experience. You have to be a member, enter through the I/AM DROPS portal during limited windows, and win.

The relationship funnel

Social followers are anonymous and rented. I/AM members are known and owned. DROPS create something deeper—fans who've had one-on-one experiences with the team, who've stood in the factory, who've met drivers. Those fans don't leave.

Why this works:

DROPS are the mechanism that moves people down the funnel—from casual follower to registered member to deeply invested fan.

The commercial payoff comes from what this funnel produces: fans who engage repeatedly, who buy merchandise, who attend events. When Aston Martin shows sponsors their database, they're showing engagement depth.

For brands evaluating partnerships, the Rolling Stones collaboration proved the model. Aston Martin could show exactly who entered the competition, who attended the event, who purchased, and which segments converted. ELEMIS is buying access to a 30% female, 54% under-35 audience that's already demonstrated engagement through DROP participation.

Replication framework:

Strategy Playbook: DROPS are the mechanism that makes the database worth joining. Relationship depth is the commercial metric.