Brief:

Our team helped support Ford Performance understand the future of motorsports fandoms to inform their merchandising strategy for the 2026 F1 season. 2026 marks the first time Ford Motor Company will participate in the circuit since their exit in 2004.

Process:

Our team executed this project in 2 phases, first with a landscape audit of Ford competitors in the racing space and their respective merchandising strategies for fan gear.

This was followed by a fandom forecast where we used qualitative desk research to deep dive fan archetypes and cluster them into distinct fandom archetypes.

Impact:

Our team provided the Ford Performance team with bespoke strategies to engage with each fandom along with key items to focus on as merch offerings. These insights will manifest as creative capsule collections paired with specific races across the upcoming 2026 F1 racing schedule.