Over the weekend, before Met Gala madness took hold of New York City, the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix took over Miami.
With brands like Sephora and Charlotte Tilbury already activating around the sport, Formula 1, like basketball or soccer, is increasingly becoming a vehicle for beauty brands to engage with new customers and prove themselves culturally relevant.
In Miami, Dermalogica showed up at Fan Fest, a Formula 1-adjacent fan event running from April 29 to May 3. According to the brand, it’s about a 20-mile drive from the stadium where the F1 races were held. Previously, in 2024, Dermalogica hosted an activation at Fan Fest in Las Vegas. “The local hosts for these [Fan Fest] events try to find ways to get fans integrated into the sport, because it’s not always super accessible to get a ticket to go to the race itself,” said Becky Godlove, vp of marketing at Dermalogica.
The event was free to the general public, though guests had to sign up for tickets. Dermalogica focused on offering “face mapping,” or skin analyses, as well as sampling, skin education and photo opportunities.
The event attracted a diverse mix of guests — both F1 attendees and non-attendees, as well as couples, with women introducing their male partners to skin-care products, Godlove said.
For Dermalogica, the broad range of fans F1 attracts is particularly appealing, Godlove said. “We are not a brand that is super focused on one age segment or one gender; we appeal to both men and women, and [we attract] a wide variety of ages, because we are focused on skin health, versus just one skin concern,” she said.
As for product sampling, the brand distributed its sunscreen — fitting for the outdoor event — as well as its hero Daily Microfoliant exfoliating facewash and its newest launch, the Futurecode Booster, a longevity-focused serum. Customers could shop Dermalogica products on-site, but were also given cards for a special offer if they shopped the brand later at Ulta Beauty.
Because beauty and motorsports aren’t the most obvious of bedfellows, Godlove emphasized that fans of both appreciate being seen as “not somebody that’s interested in just one thing.” .
“People find it very exciting that we’re [here], showing people that skin care and beauty can fit in the motorsports space,” she said. “We got a lot of very positive comments — just general excitement from women to see brands like ours.”
What’s more, according to Godlove, further explaining the synergies, both motorsports fans and Dermalogica customers are driven by a curiosity around performance and optimization. “Motorsports fans are really interested in the why behind things, and if we think about Dermalogica as a brand, we are very invested in the why,” she said.
In addition to engaging with consumers who joined Fan Fest, the brand hosted members of the press, members of the Ulta Beauty Collective and motorsports-focused influencers at the F1 race, through which it generated content about its new product and buzz about its activation. Over the course of the five-day Fan Fest, Dermalogica provided samples and skin analyses to 3,800 guests, a brand representative confirmed.
Meanwhile, the hair tools brand GHD set up shop within Cadillac’s activation at Jungle Plaza in Miami’s Arts District. “They had a stage, they had a DJ, they had a number of local vendors curating food and drinks, and they had merch,” said Maiah Martin, vp of marketing at GHD. “They also had a bunch of their cars on display, and a visit from their driver [Sergio “Checo” Pérez], which caused a massive uproar.”
GHD is owned by Wella Professionals, which became an F1 partner in 2025, but it was the tool brand’s first time investing in an activation around the race and its associated events. At the Cadillac’s pop-up, consumers and select VIP creator guests could receive dry styling treatments and partake in photo opps.
The activation was timed to the launch of the brand’s newest product, a hairdryer dubbed Speed, which it claims is the “fastest hair dryer on the market without damage.” The product’s name alone provided the brand a logical inroad to the race, Martin noted, also mentioning women’s growing interest in F1.
“We felt there was perfect alignment to participate in this culturally relevant [moment] and to show up in a space where beauty and culture and sports are intersecting,” she said.
Summer 2025 research from Formula 1 and Motorsport Network highlighted a changing fan base, with women accounting for three of four new fans and Gen Z driving the sport’s growth.
Guests at GHD’s pop-up received gifts including a mini paddle brush and a heat protectant spray, “perfect for the Miami heat,” Martin said. And, like Dermalogica, the brand offered a special discount on future purchases: $75 off any online purchase of $250 or more for the subsequent week.
“It was a great way to not only drive trial and interaction and engagement with the brand, but it also drove traffic to our dot-com and drove some sales,” Martin said.
The lines were “down the block and around the corner” all day, Martin said, noting that waits exceeded three hours at some points throughout the weekend, with RSVPs for day one exceeding 8,000.
