Spotlight On: Digital Collectibles

Today, we’re diving into the world of Formula 1 digital collectibles. 

Over the past month, Williams and McLaren have both introduced new free NFT collections through their crypto sponsors (Kraken and OKX respectively), so it felt like a good time to have a closer look at what’s currently on offer.

NFTs are nothing new in Formula 1. In recent years partnerships have existed for paid NFT collections between Alpine (Binance), Aston Martin (Socios, crypto.com), Haas (renga), McLaren (Sweet), Mercedes (FTX [lol]), Red Bull (bybit, Sweet), Sauber (Socios), and probably more that got lost in between all of the spam google results. Obviously, Mercedes is the biggest failure on this list, but Socios is known almost universally for its poor fan engagement offerings, and well, there’s a reason you probably didn’t know most of these other partnerships existed.

But I digress, this post is all about the free offerings currently in the space.

McLaren

As part of their ongoing partnership with Crypto company OKX, McLaren have announced a new NFT collection. Free tokens will be available to collect during each race weekend throughout the rest of the year, and tied to these NFTs are a number of opportunities for prizes…unless you live in one of the many restricted countries (which includes Australia). 

The thing about this collectible offering is that - as I’ll discuss shortly – Williams did it first, and better. 

Okay, to be fair, McLaren also did the race-based NFT thing last year (with a different crypto partner), but Williams have been releasing their (non-crypto) race badges since 2022.

Now, I fully understand why McLaren have decided to make their collectibles NFTs as part of their partnership with OKX, however, there are a number of issues. And these issues are only amplified when compared to the Williams offering.

• It’s not McLaren’s fault per se, but the sign-up process for OKX was a pain. You have to undertake multiple verification steps, and then, if you’re trying to sign up in a browser (whether that’s on mobile or a laptop!), are forced to download the app before you can actually collect your badge. If I hadn’t been conducting this research project, as someone who is a crypto skeptic on a good day, and hater on a bad one, the effort involved in trying to sign up would have lost me. As it’s ultimately a financial platform, I am aware that opening a crypto wallet requires these kinds of steps, but not every fan wants a crypto wallet, and difficult registration journeys are a major barrier to the curious. 

• Each badge involves a two-step process, where you collect your token during the race weekend, and then have to check back in on the Tuesday to establish the “rarity” of your particular item. This rarity is connected to prizes, but outside of that fact, you have to ask: does the average fan care? Rarity is a big thing in crypto, but if you took away the real-world benefits, it’s ultimately meaningless for most fans. When you boil it down, all rarity is just fancy dressing on the phrases “major prize winner” and “runners up”. Because other than a slightly different image, that’s what the rarity leads to, with those who received “ultra rare” items getting a virtual driver briefing, and those with “rare” winning a cap.

• As I mentioned, this form of engagement is only open to their fans in particular countries. I got massive pop-ups telling me I wasn’t eligible for prizes as soon as I clicked the email link, and then had to lie about my country of residence to be allowed to collect the token (sorry not sorry, OKX team!). For the fans who live in countries where you can take part, awesome! Collect your tokens, have the chance to win exclusive prizes…but what about everyone else? As a fan who lives in Australia, I’m extremely aware of the UK, European, and increasingly American bias of the sport. It makes sense! Those are the locations where most of the races are held, and also where the teams themselves are based. But that doesn’t mean your fan engagement strategies should ignore fans in other parts of the world. 

Williams

While McLaren are going all in on equating digital collectibles with crypto, Williams have diversified their online offerings across two different categories: race weekend badges, and their new NFT collection.

Badges 

One of my favourite parts of the Williams fan offering is their collectible badges. Much like the McLaren NFT collection, fans are encouraged to log in during a race weekend to collect the specially designed race badge. But, unlike the McLaren collection, it’s crypto-free and extremely low-effort.

Fans can collect the badges through the Williams app or website, and badges are then displayed on a collection page that shows them their progress over both a season, and multiple years. 

These badges are an excellent way of getting fans to engage with Williams’ website and app (as opposed to the McLaren collection which occurs entirely through the OKX platform), and encourages repeat touch points across an entire season (aka what your fan engagement should be doing!).

Grid Pass and History in the Making Collection

I wrote a LinkedIn post recently about how the sponsorship of Williams by crypto platform Kraken is the only exception to my dislike of crypto-based fan engagement. You see, what works for the Williams x Kraken sponsorship are some of the main things that McLaren have fumbled:

• Any friction in the initial Kraken registration process (which I found much simpler than the one for OKX) is offset by the fact collecting the Grid Pass comes with immediate benefits for all fans. Once you’ve signed up and grabbed your grid pass, you get 15% off all Williams merch, as well as access to additional offerings such as Q&A sessions, competitions, and in-person benefits if you attend their Kraken Fan Zones at select Grands Prix across the season (which occur separately to the actual event, so fans can participate even if they’re not heading to the race). They even gave me free barista coffee - aka the ultimate key to my heart! - at the Melbourne fan zone.

• They eased fans into the crypto partnership by launching the Grid Pass before their NFT collection. Their collection - History in the Making -came almost seven months after fans were first encouraged to sign up for the Kraken crypto platform, which is more than enough time for fans to engage with some of the initial Grid Pass benefits to increase trust and the likelihood of ongoing engagement with future crypto offerings. There are also only five History in the Making collectibles, which is far less of a crypto-commitment than the fifteen McLaren are asking fans to commit to across the rest of the season.

• None of their prizes and engagement offerings are geographically restricted. While I know that the barrier McLaren face with their geographic restrictions comes from the side of OKX, Williams have figured out ways around similar crypto-giveaway hurdles. While the Grid Pass is technically an NFT, they treat the benefits like any real-world fan club membership, with virtual Q&As, M&Gs, competitions, and offers sent to all fans across the season. Sometimes location-based restrictions need to happen, but organisations should be actively offering alternatives so that they’re not consistently leaving certain fans out of the fun.

Sauber

We have a bonus entry in the digital collection space, and it comes from the left-field: Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber’s Twitter account.

Outside of their social video content, Sauber’s fan engagement offering isn’t anything to write home about. So it’s interesting that this is where they’ve chosen to make an effort, especially considering they don’t even have a regular newsletter. But, nevertheless, throughout this season, Sauber have been sharing digital badges – or what they (at least initially!) called “race cards” – on Twitter.

I’m still not entirely sure what their purpose is, as it seems the team just wants you to save them to your Twitter bookmarks, and I’m not entirely sure the team knows what to do with them other than tweeting once a race weekend, either.

I can only assume this is a stop-gap measure while they sort out a greater infrastructure, but for now it just feels messy (especially because you need to have a premium account to use the bookmark folder feature they reference!). Something to watch and see, perhaps?

Concluding thoughts

My main issue with the fact the default for digital collectibles in the fan engagement space is still crypto is that most of them don’t require crypto for their basic premise. This is very clearly demonstrated by the Williams use case! Crypto has been positioned as the future of fan engagement, but we’re past the peak of the NFT boom and we’re left exactly where we started: with the real power of fan engagement lying nowhere near the blockchain.

But the thing is that ultimately these partnerships are not about fan engagement: they’re about driving customers to sign up for the relevant sponsor crypto platform. And look, through that lens, it works (at least in the very short term). I have no idea how many of the 100,000+ fans who collected the first of the McLaren NFTs over the weekend were new OKX customers, but you’d have to imagine it was at least a fair chunk of them.

While I don’t know if I can be bothered collecting any further tokens from the McLaren collection, especially considering I’m not meant to be participating in the first place, I am curious to see what the drop-off rate is going to be like as the races continue. I’m also extremely curious as to the conversion rate of new OKX members from this partnership who then go on to actually use the platform in any other way (aka the real test).

At the end of the day, fan engagement doesn’t need some fancy technology for you to consider it worth your while. And more importantly, you shouldn’t only be focusing on fan engagement because you’re meeting your end of a sponsorship agreement. Yes, sponsors are central to any sporting team or organisation, but so are fans. And finding ways to consistently reach your fans in equitable, accessible ways is how you build loyalty, fandom, and encourage the kind of commitment that leads to spending.