CEO Reigle raves about new Formula E brand design: "Feels like pop concert or DJ festival"

Formula E has changed its appearance significantly after the end of the 2022 season: In addition to the introduction of Gen3 cars, ABT Cupra and McLaren are not only two new teams and Maserati a new sports car manufacturer. The racing series has at the same time launched a revised brand design. Formula E is thus aiming to increase its audience, but - as it has always done - is not focusing on classic motorsport fans.

"If you look around here this year, we're a completely new brand," Formula E CEO Jamie Reigle told 'Sportskeeda', describing Formula E's new "look and feel". "We've repositioned our entire brand. If you look closely, you can see the blue color, which is our racing color, and the culture, which is purple, yellow and pink. We made a conscious change to that. Last year, when you came to an event, I think it felt cold."

"This year, on the other hand, it feels like you're coming to a pop concert or a DJ festival," Reigle continues. "You don't just come to a car race. We're trying to combine motorsports with that cultural element."

"But it's not just about doing more on Instagram," the CEO says, not just targeting the Internet audience. "It has to be fundamentally embedded in the guest or fan experience. The sport is really important to us, but the question is whether we can present a fresher and more optimistic future. I think that's what we're going to do with the events."

Reigle: "Brands, sponsors & manufacturers want to see us on TV"

"We launched a new app in 2023, a new website, a new digital platform," he further described. "That helps us target a younger audience. I think big brands, big sponsors and big manufacturers still want to see us on TV. There's no substitute for live events or big screens, but digital engagement is what we're looking at very closely."

"We invest quite a bit in the content we produce," the Canadian explains. "We're doing TikTok shows and a lot of other things that we weren't doing a few years ago. We're trying to figure out how to create more entry points for new fans and then hopefully get them to sit down for an hour and watch the whole race."

"What's really encouraging and kind of lost in this whole debate is our live audience," Reigle posits. "Our live audience has more than doubled in the last three years. That's not exponential growth yet - I wish it was. But we've still grown our live audience really significantly, and that's the most important metric for me. That's why I tell my team we don't have to worry about it: It's all about the live audience."

The next race for Formula E is the Berlin E-Prix. Seven grandstands will be set up on the apron of the disused Tempelhof Airport for the "double-header." Saturday's race is already sold out in terms of grandstand seats, with only a few tickets left for Sunday's race on five of the grandstands (as of April 13).