Damon Hill on branding, cigarettes, and the parable of the appearing seal

That’s about as refreshing a take as you’ll get in an technology the place each and every athlete turns out to have a private brand, a podcast, and a skin care line. Hill, who made his title with Williams within the cigarette-sponsored heyday of 90s Formula One, isn’t fussed with the trendy mechanics of selling. “I spent most of my career selling cigarettes,” he says with a shrug. “But that was the era.”

And what an technology it used to be – when the one set of rules that mattered used to be your lap time and “engagement” supposed passing any individual into flip one. But occasions, as they are saying, have modified.

Hill’s candid, meandering musings (delivered with a type of zen detachment that just a guy who’s survived 200mph at Monaco can pull off) be offering one thing CMOs don’t pay attention continuously sufficient: authenticity wins. Literally.

Branding? First, win.

“You might be the most famous racing driver in the world,” Hill says, “but there’s no good to a team if you’re not quick.” In different phrases: marketplace all you prefer, however no person buys a loser.

For Hill, good fortune at the back of the wheel isn’t simply precedence one – it’s the one precedence. Drivers as of late, he admits, have extra leverage. They have Instagram, they’ve style offers, they’ve movie ambitions. “Lewis [Hamilton] wants to do fashion, film, whatever he’s into. He can, because of Formula One.”

The fashionable motive force has choices. And, crucially, platforms. Hill didn’t. Back then, the sponsor got here first, and the message used to be easy: right here’s a automobile, right here’s some money, don’t crash.

The tale’s the item

Despite his self-professed loss of branding nous, Hill will get it. He talks concerning the energy of reports – how lovers are interested in the narrative. “A man walks into a shop and gets hit on the head by a bath… You want to know what happens next.”

It’s why Sky commissioned a documentary about him – Hill – which he’s characteristically modest about. It’s one slice of his existence, formed by means of a director extra within the narrative arc, that took Hill from underneath the shadow of his mythical racing motive force Graham Hill, to grow to be a legend in his personal proper. The lesson for entrepreneurs? If you wish to have a character to entrance your model, you wish to have to seek out the tale they need to inform.

Because, as Hill places it, “There’s no arrival. Even after a win, it’s 20 minutes of celebration, then back to the grind. It’s a constant fettling and massaging of the condition.”

CMOs: Get within the automobile, however don’t take hold of the wheel

So, what will have to manufacturers do in the event that they need to paintings with a sports activities character? “Respect the fact that that’s what they do,” says Hill. “They’re not performing seals.”

He’s no longer being treasured. He’s being fair. “If you want them to muck about and put on funny hats, maybe think again.” The message? Work with them. Understand their targets. Support their venture. And don’t be expecting to show a Grand Prix winner into your subsequent TikTok big name until that’s one thing they if truth be told care about.

Some drivers have actual, private pursuits – whether or not it’s generation, sustainability, style, or AI – and when that’s the case, sponsorships can really feel like a herbal extension of who they’re. “Red Bull maybe, because that’s another story,” Hill says, hinting at brand-driver alignments that if truth be told make sense. But authenticity is the whole thing. Push a motive force right into a partnership that doesn’t replicate who they’re, and it gained’t simply fall flat – they’ll really feel it, and the lovers for sure will too.

The Grand Prix isn’t your advertising and marketing plan

Hill would possibly not talk fluent advertising and marketing, however he is aware of that people love tales – and game, at its core, is likely one of the maximum compelling tales available in the market.

So no, Damon Hill didn’t display up in Miami to ship a advertising and marketing masterclass. But in his laid-back, unfiltered approach, he reminded us of one thing extra necessary: actual connection beats manufactured polish. You don’t want your F1 ambassador to moonlight as a model strategist – you simply want them to care about what they do, and to do it neatly.

And in an international edging nearer to AI-driven the whole thing – even self-driving race vehicles – Hill makes one ultimate level that entrepreneurs would do neatly to bear in mind: the spectacle simplest works on account of the folk in it. “We’re interested in what it is to be human,” he says. “That’s where it’ll always come back to.”

So, for those who’re leaping into Formula One to lift your model, don’t attempt to automate the magic. Find the human tale. Respect the ability. And no matter you do, don’t ask the motive force to put on the humorous hat.