Piastri enters next weekend’s Australian Grand Prix among the favourites and has capitalised on that by featuring in several sponsorship activations.
One, through McLaren team sponsor Mastercard, has sent fans on a scavenger hunt around Melbourne in a novel activation.
In addition to that, Piastri has inked a personal deal with Australian burger chain Grill’d, which is looking to cash in on the local favourite’s surging popularity and profile.
That has seen the creation of the Oscar Piastri burger, designed by the 23-year-old himself, and according to Grill’d’s chief marketing officer, Julian Dunne, is selling “exceptionally well.”
Grill’d bills itself as healthier fast food, though it doesn’t consider itself a fast-food restaurant.
It offers a vastly different experience to the usual chains both in terms of its ambience and product range, while its marketing plays on the quality of the ingredients used.
The company was founded in Melbourne in 2004 and has grown to more than 150 locations over the past two decades.
Piastri, however, marks a first for the organisation.
While there are other athlete endorsement agreements in place, he is the first in motorsport and the first with a truly international reach and profile.
The potential associated with the young Melburnian is not lost on those at Grill’d, who see strong upsides by working with him directly,
“You can put a sticker on his car, or paint his car, and we can go and buy signage through different sports, but we want to have a genuine relationship and association with the athlete,” Dunne explained to Speedcafe.
Grill’d’s marketing strategy is to emphasise the quality of its ingredients and position itself as a healthy alternative to the traditional options.
It has relationships with the Australian Institute of Sport and is quietly ubiquitous within AFL and NRL clubs, especially in Melbourne, where it features among the catering options.
“We know athletes prefer our product,” Dunne reasoned.
“The athletes like the taste and they like the way they feel afterwards, and the sports dietitians like the convenience and the quality of the produce.”
That has seen a limited number of direct athlete endorsements prior to the Piastri deal, though that roster is poised to expand in the near future with six AFL/AFL W players set to join the books.
While a first for the business, Piastri is in keeping with the brand’s marketing strategy, which has cherry-picked events, organisations, or industries with a view to creating an understanding of the brand and its philosophy.
In many ways, that’s reflected in F1, which is sophisticated, cutting-edge, and physically demanding. There’s an emphasis on speed, but with world’s best technology and components.
It’s all very on-brand and with Piastri, Grill’d spotted an opportunity to drive home those elements with greater visibility than its endorsements ever have.
“We’re an Australian brand and we’re Melbourne born. And Oscar is obviously a young start, and probably still on the way up… we just saw great alignment,” Dunne explained.
“From a personality perspective and brand perspective, there’s a lot of alignment with what we’re trying to achieve with our brand.
“He was really excited by the opportunity personally, as well as being a big fan of the product, so it was actually a fairly seamless discussion with his agent, Mark [Webber] and with Oscar.”
The difference is how Grill’d is now telling that story with Piastri.
Where its relationships have previously been comparatively low-key, a result of both circumstance and design, the latest deal gives the brand a huge boost in visibility – particularly in some key demographics.
That includes the younger, ‘smashed avo on toast’ generation.
“He appeals to a younger audience, which is important for us as a brand,” Dunne explained of Piastri’s value proposition.
“He’s got a huge following amongst that teen/Gen Z demographic as well, which is important for us from a brand perspective.
“And he’s got a very significant social media following as well.
“They’re not the sole reason [to work with Piastri], but they contribute to the decision-making.”
That stance will likely see Grill’d’s marketing efforts spill over into other sports, though expanding its involvement in motorsport is also on the table; as with Piastri, the focus is on identifying individuals they feel represent the brand.
Like Grill’d, Piastri has been selective with his endorsements.
Aside from McLaren, his only other personal backer is Quad Lock, a relationship that stretches back to 2023.
The relationship with Grill’d also makes sense as now is the time for Piastri to begin developing his public profile.
A race winner and secure in F1, he’s nothing left to prove and can showcase his personality a little more freely.
That is exactly what he has done with Grill’d in a low-risk association that’s on-brand with McLaren.
His face is now on advertising material country-wide as he becomes more than a helmet in a racing car; it introduces the wider population to one of Australian’s brightest sporting stars, but one with little name or face recognition outside of F1.
For a racing driver, whose professional career is typically 15 years at most, it’s an important step in capitalising on what the sport has given him, knowing full well that the opportunity could be taken away tomorrow.
It’s a relationship that will be prominent in Albert Park, too, with a pop-up store set to appear with discussions about a longer-term relationship with the event taking place.
The collaboration has been well received and formed a strong relationship with Piastri, even before more specific metrics can measure his impact.
“We’ve really enjoyed working with Oscar, and hopefully that feeling is mutual; we feel like it is,” said Dunne.
“He’s designed a burger and we’ve got a bundle product, so we’ll measure that and how that performs.
“But also, there’s other things that we will track and measure: the impact on our brand over the period of time; the impact on our socials.
“The content that we’ve done with Oscar on our social channels has had huge amounts of views and engagement, and we get a lot of live feedback from that younger audience.
“We’ve got thousands of comments about how excited they are around a) the collaboration, and b) the product.
“So you can tell pretty quickly with these things whether you’re engaging your audience and whether that’s something that’s going to move the dial”
For Piastri, it’s the latest personal endorsement as he begins to embrace life as an F1 driver more fully.
Embarking on his third season this year, the Australian has gradually begun to show more of his personality as he’s grown into his role in the limelight, even if it’s not something that comes naturally.
Such is the fame now associated with F1 that Piastri has even been recreated in Lego form, not something which sits easily with the Melburnian.
“There’s a lot of things with my name on it or my face on it that are a bit weird or you wouldn’t dream of as a kid,” he told Speedcafe as part of the most recent Summer Grill series.
“But it’s cool. It’s very cool.”
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