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Motorsports is tapping into a younger, female fanbase through the energy and charisma of a small but influential group of women race car drivers. For the beauty industry, it’s a new world of opportunity.
In a major step for motorsports marketing, Elf Cosmetics has become an official partner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 auto race while sponsoring British driver Katherine Legge. She’s the only woman to race in the 2024 edition of the Indy 500, the largest single-day sporting event in the world.
Legge, 43, competed on 26 May for Dayle Coyne Racing in a race car, helmet and motorsport suit all splashed with Elf Cosmetics branding.
“Our sponsorship of Katherine and empowering legendary females — and future legends — who will blaze new trails into this largely male-dominated sport complements our ethos to disrupt norms, shape culture and connect communities,” says Elf Cosmetics CMO Kory Marchisotto. “We hope to normalise equality. It’s important that female athletes have an equitable platform to highlight their skills, their passions and drive,” she adds.
Legge previously partnered with Elf Cosmetics during the 2023 Indy 500 and believes this initial collaboration encouraged others to follow suit, she tells Vogue Business. “I think a lot of other beauty brands in the space were watching very closely from a distance. We built on our partnership from last year for Elf to be the first-ever beauty brand to be a primary sponsor in the Indy 500 in 2024, but I’m confident they won’t be the last.”
For Legge, the backing from mainstream beauty brands sends a signal: “[It shows that] I’m respected not because I’m good as a female athlete, but because I’m just a good athlete.”
Charlotte Tilbury: New to motorsports
In February, cosmetics brand Charlotte Tilbury announced a milestone partnership with the Formula One Academy, an all-women, single-seater series running alongside the F1 calendar for its second season. For the cult beauty brand’s first global sports sponsorship, Charlotte Tilbury helped to design the race car livery and the race suit of F1 Academy’s Lola Lovinfosse, who is 18 years old. The French racing driver is happy with the deal, despite some initial concerns. “I was quite worried about what people were going to think about this partnership. Just because I didn’t want people to think, ‘Oh, it’s too much. It’s too girly,’” she says.
Lovinfosse’s fears quickly dissipated. “I’m very proud to be inspiring young girls because I have been at the same stage as them,” she continues. The driver, who will race in the upcoming Barcelona Grand Prix weekend, hopes the partnership will open new doors. “I think it’s nice to show this kind of diversity around every sport, and we can be proud that this is happening in the motorsport world.”
Rodin Motorsport, the team behind Lola Lovinfosse, Abbi Pulling and Jessica Edgar in this season of the F1 Academy, is delighted. “We got the chance to welcome Charlotte herself to the garage in Miami, and she is truly invested in the partnership. From our side, we couldn’t be happier with the relationship we’ve begun building this season.”
Cosmetics companies have dipped their toes into motorsports in previous seasons. Huda Beauty partnered with Nascar’s Toni Breidinger, the first Arab woman in the racing series, for her track debut at General Tire 200 at the Talladega Superspeedway in 2021, driving the Huda Beauty 02 Chevrolet SS for American racing team Young’s Motorsports. The beauty brand’s makeup artist-turned-founder Huda Kattan was an inspiration for Breidinger growing up. “I am beyond honoured to continue to tell the story of the importance of inclusivity and diversity through our work together.”
In November 2023, Anastasia Beverly Hills worked with Bianca Bustamante, then aged 18, as she made her Macau Grand Prix Formula Four debut. Bustamante’s race car featured the Anastasia Beverly Hills logo front and centre, while the Filipino driver created pre-race ‘Get Ready With Me’ content for social media using the brand’s products. Anastasia Beverly Hills flags that a priority of brand founder Anastasia Soare has always been “to support women, so this partnership felt organic”.
Creators and influencers
Beauty brands are also entering the motorsports content creator and influencer arena. Kate Byrne and Nicole Sievers, the faces behind popular social media account @TwoGirls1Formula, were taken to the 2024 Miami Grand Prix by Hero Cosmetics, which provided accommodation, transportation and tickets to the three-day event. “The simple fact that they included us, motorsport content creators, in the experience speaks volumes about their goals of breaking into the space,” say Byrne and Sievers. They believe their experience with Hero Cosmetics is “a clear sign that if beauty brands are interested in entering the F1 world, they will be able to find loyal customers, as long as they show the passion and commitment to truly understanding the sport”.
Hero Cosmetics, also a multi-year sponsor of WNBA team the New York Liberty, says, “We deeply understand racing’s ability to bring people together. As long as F1 continues to uplift female drivers, we’ll continue to target that audience.”
“Formula One is the fastest billboard in the world,” says F1 commentator Toni Cowan-Brown, who believes the increased prevalence of beauty brands is a no-brainer addition to the marketing of motorsports. F1 has often relied on business-to-business relationships, but a shift towards business-to-consumer may allow fan bases to feel more welcome and represented within a more elitist sport. “If we’re going to start seeing more fashion brands and more fashion houses inside of motorsports, then it makes sense that you start with something like makeup, where everyone can pick up a lipstick or a lip gloss and a bit of cream,” says Cowan-Brown.
Legge agrees: “You have to find new and innovative ways to engage with fans of anything — sports, music, film, etc… The key to this is empowering female fans to meet them where they are.”
Luke Smith, a motorsports and F1 journalist with over a decade of experience in the industry, says that beauty sponsorships “give drivers and teams greater relevance, particularly with their female fans… There’s now a concerted effort to champion and profile the female talent on the ladder through these series in particular.”
Following Charlotte Tilbury and Elf Cosmetics’s forays into motorsports, further partnerships can be expected. “All of these brands are contributing to the growth of women’s sports,” says Cowan-Brown. “Formula One is about to celebrate 75 years — we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
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