When Coca-Cola became the official soft drink, non-sparkling water and sports drink provider of Austin, TX-based Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in the summer of 2023, the brand was on a three-month time crunch to prepare its trackside activation for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix. Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages partnered with the corporate sponsorship team to create a race-themed environment that engaged fans from around the world with the iconic brand.
For the 2024 U.S. Grand Prix, Oct. 18-20, Coca-Cola built on the momentum from the first showing at the Austin race and returned to COTA with a Coca-Cola Zero Sugar-branded fan zone. Located near the Main Grandstand, the footprint was splashed with the brand’s signature red, checkered flag patterns and illuminated marquee signage. Coca-Cola leaned into the racing theme and created several hands-on experiences to draw F1 enthusiasts in.
Fans could sit on a replica F1 pit wall, where team bosses and strategists usually observe and make calls during a race, and test their motorsport knowledge with trivia questions. The Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Pit Wall featured classic box seats and several screens showing questions, car parts and technical imagery.
The most popular game was a reaction test station. Participants took hold of one of six F1 steering wheels lined up in a row in front of five lights made to look like the starting lights on the grid. Just as the F1 drivers anticipate the green lights on the track, fans hit a buzzer when the lights flipped, and the competitors’ reaction times were ranked on a leaderboard, which also highlighted the fastest times of the day and the weekend, prompting replayability.
Messaging like “Refuel with an ice-cold Coca-Cola Zero Sugar” all around the fan zone encouraged sampling, with plenty of cans to go around. Fans jumped in front of a branded black-and-red checkered flag backdrop to snap digital commemorative photos and created their own driver intro videos.
“It’s interesting because the U.S. Grand Prix is such an international event, whereas most of the events that we go to are very city specific, like Dallas around the State Fair of Texas has a different feel from a Houston rodeo event,” says Ben Hailey, sales center manager at Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages. “So we have to make sure that the activation ties back to the F1 experience and not something that’s just specific to Texas or the United States.”
While the Coca-Cola Fan Zone setup was similar to the year-one activation, Coca-Cola noticed a lot more engagement this time around, aided by a heavily trafficked location and fans returning to the experience after first encountering it in 2023. Across the 3.41-mile track, other traffic drivers included digital and static signage at COTA’s entry points and COTA’s official app that offers an interactive map with walking directions to brand activations and entertainment areas.
Anticipating higher attendance, the brand made sure to have more product available for distribution. By the end of the weekend, Coca-Cola had passed out more than 20,000 samples of Coke Zero Sugar, and 5,000 registered fans tried their hand at the activation’s games, Hailey says.
“We had a lot more interaction with it, and feedback from the Circuit of the Americas was that it was a big draw for kids and families now that it’s a repeat staple activity for the fans coming out every year,” he says. “For an F1 event, where families are out there for three days and the race is only a small percentage of that, it’s really important for venues like COTA to have activations that are experiential to give those families a reason to stay out there for the entire weekend instead of just trying to go in and out for a race.”
An Austin resident, Hailey says he’s seen more of a local audience attend the U.S. Grand Prix over the last few years, and Coca-Cola continues to grow its global F1 involvement, including a long-term partnership with McLaren Racing as its Official Soft Drinks Partner.
“The Netflix series [“Formula 1: Drive to Survive”] has helped drive a lot of U.S.-based excitement, so now, not only are we getting visitors internationally, we’re getting visitors from around the U.S., and obviously a lot more people from Austin and within Texas, whether it be Houston, Dallas or San Antonio,” he says. “Last year, COTA had about 430,000 total people out here for the weekend, so it’s just a massive draw and a massive boon for Austin… We’re looking at the success we’ve had the last two years and figuring out how we can go even bigger and better next year.” Agency: Momentum Worldwide.
