Are Aston Martin the Masters of Fan Engagement?
FanMade is a collaboration between Aston Martin and their fans. Supported by their partnership with TikTok, the campaign is taking fan engagement to a whole new level.
About 18 months ago, I was preparing for job interviews in the Formula 1 space. I was anticipating what questions I may be asked around partnerships and any particular campaigns that impressed me. Immediately, the Aston Martin and TikTok partnership came to mind. Why? Well, the partnership came at a time when fan engagement and content creation was a huge talking point in the sport and they were leading the charge.
Following the influx of fans from Drive to Survive, predominantly young fans and female fans that the sport historically did not cater for, teams and brands were put under pressure to deliver access, content and value to keep these fans engaged. With the rise of motorsport content creators during the peak Drive To Survive era, which also coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, F1 content on TikTok was booming. By entering into a partnership with the platform, the team were able to leverage TikTok to provide fans with access to team events, a closer connection with their drivers and facilitate a two-way conversation with their fans.
Fast forward to the week of the 2025 British Grand Prix, and this partnership has evolved and strengthened to new levels. Last week, Aston Martin launched their FanMade campaign - a campaign inspired & shaped by their own fans. In what they’ve described as their “ultimate collaboration” with fans, the team have shown their appreciation for their loyal supporters and invited them to be a part of their brand’s story.
This is a really solid campaign for one key reason for me - it’s telling the story of why this partnership exists. TikTok is helping Aston Martin to connect with it’s fans.
There are some key stages of this partnership’s timeline and Aston Martin’s overall fan engagement and social strategy to look at that help to paint the picture of how the team are leading the pack in truly making fans feel like part of the team.
TikTok & Aston Martin
TikTok joined Aston Martin as a team sponsor back in 2021 as Official Creator Partner. Crucially, this deal came at time when F1 had onboarded an influx of fans just after the Drive to Survive boom and many digital eyeballs were on the sport. This move marked TikTok’s first venture into F1, however they have been partnering with sports teams and competitions globally.
Of the partnership, the team’s Chief Marketing Officier, Rob Bloom said “There’s a feeling that creator-driven content within the sport still remains relatively untapped – working together, we can really galvanise the team’s passionate and inventive fan community to build a legacy of landmark social content across the TikTok platform.". Again, a huge indicator of the value the team places on content creators.
The team have been able to capitalise on TikTok’s platform to create innovative content and challenge the way that a sports team engages it’s with fans in an ever-evolving content-first world. They have also been able to leverage the partnership to promote their I / AM campaign, their exclusive fan membership community which offers exclusive drops, access and content.
The Creator Collective
A key chapter in the TikTok partnership has been their Creator Collective talent search. In late 2024, Aston Martin launched a social campaign to search for digital creators to work with throughout the 2025 season. The talent search looked for creators who were offering unique & interesting perspectives on being a F1 fan and providing distinct insight into the sport. The successful candidates would be provided with elusive access to Grand Prix experiences, as well as team launches and events. The result was a talent pool with content spanning lifestyle, food, books, maths/data and photography.
The five chosen (female!) creators are linked below for you to check out - they have put out some great content over the past few days from their time at the British Grand Prix:
Rhe | @rhetms44
Ella | @ellasimpsforbooks
Chelsea | @mathschelsea
Alicia | @alicespaddock
Catherine | @cathbruce
A Masterclass in Recognising Fans
Fast forward to July 2025 when the team was preparing to race at their home ground in Silverstone, and they launched their #FanMade campaign.
When Aston Martin’s social team posted a video featuring Fernando Alonso sipping an iced matcha, fans were quick to point out the questionable colour of the drink (from what I gather as a non-matcha drinker, the shade of green is very important in the matcha community). The below comment in particular sparked a genius idea: why don’t we perfect our very own Aston Martin matcha?
The team paired up with matcha cafe, Matchado, to serve up the perfect iced matcha to fans in London. This is a great example of a team jumping directly into fan conversation in a light-hearted way, while also being able to encourage fans to directly interact with the brand by checking out the activation pop-up and purchasing a matcha, tonic or cookies. Needless to say as it’s also a current trending aesthetic, photos of the drink were also shared all over social media.
I talk a lot in this newsletter about the cohort of female fans in the sport and their importance to teams and brands due to their purchasing power, and it seems Aston Martin have realised it too. They teamed up with Glaize, a small U.K. company to create a set of custom Aston Martin inspired stick-on nails, perfect for fans to sport during the British Grand Prix weekend. We know that female fans are crying out to be recognised and to have team’s create products and apparel that they can wear at race tracks to show support for their favourite teams while also being stylish and trendy, and this particularly activation has hit the nail on the head (no pun intended!).
As part of the London pop-up, the team also took over Tottenham Court Road tube station (arguably one of the busiest in London), broadcasting content from their creators and fans across the the walls of the station’s entrance.
The activation launched in the lead-up to the British Grand Prix, and continued into the weekend with the team also activating heavily onsite at their home race, offering a fan-first experience to guests. The team’s sponsors also hosted at the track, including ELEMIS, whose partnership again ties into their acknowledgement and appreciation of female fans (see full post on that partnership here).
Smashing Socials
It’s also worth nothing that Aston Martin’s social media team have been doing some really impressive things in the last couple of years. They are the only team on the grid to have an in-house Art Director in the form of experienced creative James Horne - his visual and creative influence very recognisable across the brand’s content. Their Head of Social Media, Helen Crossley, has also worked with teams up and down the grid during her career, as well as in Premier League football, and she has done an incredible job since joining the Silverstone-based team in 2022 at elevating their social media presence. Some of the most viral F1 social content has involved the oldest and most seasoned driver on the grid, Fernando Alonso (who remembers those wild Taylor Swift rumours and this cheeky video?). Even with Lance Stroll (who is one of the more reserved drivers on the grid and less engaged with the media), the organic content the team produces with both drivers, which often taps into viral trends and chronically online memes, really helps to create a strong sense of personality and bond with fans. The way their partnership activity seamlessly translates to social is a win-win for both parties in getting the most exposure out of their deals.
The team is currently the 5th most followed team across both Instagram and TikTok, following just behind the top-four teams, who undoubtedly have lengthier and more established histories in the sport, but sitting considerably above the remaining teams on the grid who are also looking to carve out their own brand identities and fanbases.
The Broader Context
I touched on this in a TikTok video I posted about the campaign, but I think this campaign is also interesting when looking at Aston Martin’s fan engagement strategy in a wider context. I think the team is doing an excellent job at recognising the influx of younger, digitally-engaged fans entering the sport in their droves and are positioning themselves right where they need to be to capture these fans. Aston Martin is a relatively new team to F1 (re-entering in 2021 after a long absence), with the team itself having undergone multiple rebrands and name changes over the years under the ownership of Lawrence Stroll. It obviously does not yet hold the same level of fan loyalty and dedication as teams such as Ferrari, McLaren and Williams who have been in the sport for decades. However by nurturing it’s existing fanbase, as well as showing up online to hopefully capture the allegiance of new fans, the team are ensuring that in a couple of year’s time, when the team is potentially a top-field team, it has a loyal pool of committed fans cheering for the green team.
Content that Informed & Inspired this Post
🔗 Aston Martin and TikTok partnership announcement.
🔗 Aston Martin’s Creator Collective.
🔗 I / AM fan membership.
🔗 Lots more content from the British Grand Prix to explore on the team’s official TikTok page.
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