What happens in Vegas normally stays in Vegas. But in the case of the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend, it goes on ESPN.
Last year marked F1’s grand return to the Strip after more than four decades, and ahead of that race, American Express announced a regional sponsorship of the organization, which included the three US races on the calendar. The financial services company has since expanded the deal into a global partnership spanning more than a dozen races in 2025, but it’s still planning a flashy experience in Vegas this year meant to enhance the event for its customers in the market.
Vegas is “actually the No. 1 destination for US-based cardmembers,” Shiz Suzuki, VP of global brand sponsorships and experiential marketing at American Express, told Marketing Brew, later adding that “my North Star…is always to try to make that experience even better.”
Viva Las Vegas
For American Express, improving the Vegas Grand Prix race weekend for customers means providing access to experiences and products both immediately around the track and on other parts of the Strip, Suzuki said.
At the track, American Express is setting up a cardmember lounge at Turn 1 for fans with tickets to the East Harmon Zone and a two-story space in the same area where any fan can make their own driver intro video. The brand is also providing radios like it does at the US Open for fans to follow along with the action on the track.
Farther away, American Express will have a presence at the F1 Fan Experience on Friday and Saturday, including a Shop Small Village featuring local businesses. Cardmembers are eligible to pick up a complimentary glass of champagne to toast American Express’s global F1 expansion, and it is hosting meet-and-greets with Jessica Edgar from F1 Academy, a women’s championship that the brand also sponsors.
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The experience is meant to feel authentic to the sport as a whole and also to the city, Suzuki said. That means the activities in Vegas will have a somewhat different vibe than the American Express presence at the US Grand Prix in Austin last month.
“There’s going to be a lot of similarities, because, of course, the sport is still Formula 1,” she said. “But there’s going to be nuances that you see that are very much Las Vegas—a bit flashier, maybe more colorful, maybe more sequins—versus what you would have seen at Austin, which would have been much more Texas-themed.”
American Express is one of several sponsors showing up; Cash App, T-Mobile, and Heineken Silver will also have presences during the race weekend.
Gen F
Why’d American Express choose Formula 1 as its first motorsports partner? Beyond an affinity for Vegas vacations, “there’s a really strong alignment between our cardmember and Formula 1’s fans,” Suzuki said.
F1 also has a significant fan base among Gen Z and millennials, which are important customer segments for American Express, according to Suzuki. “That overlap is really, really strong for us,” she said.
Increasing F1 fandom among women was appealing as well, Suzuki said: Approximately 40% of F1 fans were women as of last year, a significant increase from 8% in 2017. The cultural relevance of the sport also stood out, as American Express considers itself to be a “lifestyle brand,” she said. F1 drivers like Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton are seen as style icons, Suzuki said, and teams such as McLaren Racing have collaborated with brands like Levi’s, Abercrombie, and K-Swiss.
“They’ve really entered into this cultural moment,” she said. “There’s a lot of great connective tissue there from a brand perspective.”