Formula 1 is an "incredible match" for US software giant Adobe, which announced its first F1 partnership in the lead-up to the 2026 United States Grand Prix.
Speaking to The Race CEO Fabricio Drumond at 'Formula One's Premium Playbook', an event hosted by The Race and Axios in Austin, Adobe’s global VP of enterprise marketing Marissa Dacay explained why the company wanted to get involved in F1 through its new deal with Alpine.
“There's no sport that's more data-driven, more performance-driven than Formula 1,” she said. “So it's just an incredible match for us, because we live through data and performance and creativity as well.
"Right now, it's an incredible time to use tech, too, if you think about F1, 24 races, multiple languages: tonnes of culture and nuance.
“How do you scale the way you're going to reach and speak to your fans in a personalised and culturally nuanced way, every weekend throughout the entire year, at scale, across every channel that you're speaking to your fans?”
The partnership is centred around driving fan engagement, with the software company to deploy its AI solutions to engage audiences with Alpine.
Adobe GenStudio will enable Alpine to manage and curate its marketing campaigns for fans around the world, with Experience Platform and Brand Visibility also set to be deployed by the F1 team.
Meanwhile, fans will be given the opportunity to use Adobe Express in forthcoming activations involving Alpine.
Dacay said Adobe has a “shared vision” with the Enstone F1 team.
“This one is a brand new chapter for us. It's a truly global sport, which is really important to us. Sports are such an amazing way to connect technology, humanity, creativity, culture.
“And so, when we're looking for a partner, it's - how do we have this shared vision about how we're bringing the performance of the sport or the team, technology, creativity, AI all together to change the way fans are going to engage with the team or with the sport.
“Also, there's an opportunity now - fans aren't just consuming the content that we're pushing out in front of them. They want to be part of creating the content that tells the story.
“They want to be the story. I think there's no better tools out there than our own to help fans participate with the team and get closer to actually feeling like they're part of the team in the sport.”
Dacay added that Adobe’s suite is already deployed in major sports marketing campaigns, and that it is used in ways that many people are unaware of.
“You all probably already know us for PDF, for Photoshop, for all the things that Adobe has done for over 40 years," she said.
“Not a lot of folks know that we're in the marketing, customer experience orchestration business. So a lot of the personalised experiences that you get when you're engaging with an app for the team, or you're receiving an email, or you're seeing marketing just out hitting you, a lot of that is powered by Adobe.
“So the opportunity we have here is to go beyond the creativity and document kind of heritage that you know Adobe for, and start to build the connection that when you engage with a brand like Alpine or a team like Alpine, and you have an incredible experience as a fan, we're behind why they understand you and your preferences.
"We're behind the content that was customised for you in that moment. We're behind reaching you wherever you are, whether it's on the phone, on TV, on an app, on streaming.
"That's the thing that we're looking to unlock in these connections with sports.”