With the 75th anniversary of Formula 1 and the newly released “F1” movie, everyone wants a piece of the action.

A 2024 Nielsen Sport report found that brand partnerships of Formula 1 teams are up 56 percent versus pre-pandemic figures — the average brand deal is now $5.08 million versus $2.87 million. And notably, the average duration of the deals has decreased from 5.2 years to 3.2 years, allowing for space and partnerships to be resold and renegotiated quickly.

This summer’s biggest movie rollout is “F1,” directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt, Damson Idris and Javier Bardem. The opening weekend hit the top of the box office charts, making $55.6 million domestically and $88.4 million internationally.

SharkNinja — most known for their beauty, lifestyle and technology products — is one of many heavy-hitters that are team sponsors of the movie’s APXGP team — as seen on the helmets and race suits for Pitt and Idris’ characters.

Neil Shah, chief commercial officer of SharkNinja, told WWD that the partnership between the “F1” movie and the brand couldn’t have aligned more perfectly. The company used the opportunity to formally market SharkNinja as one entity. Although current SharkNinja chief executive officer Mark Barrocas combined the brands back in 2008, Shark and Ninja have done sponsorships separately until now.

He said that over the past 15 years, the brands have both surpassed the $2 billion mark, where both Shark and Ninja have achieved individual brand recognition. The decision to market the name combination was made because consumers are Shark fans and consumers are Ninja fans, but fewer people know that they operate under one company.

“When the [sponsorship] came to us about 18 months back — the movie was in its pre-production phase — we were seeing this significant expansion globally in our business in the U.K., Germany, France and the rest of Europe. LATAM was growing quite aggressively too. For us, it was the right moment to look at it on more of a global stage,” Shah said.

Noting Formula 1 and movies’ global appeal, Shah said the timing seemed to be right to create a global campaign running across all markets and merging the Shark and Ninja brands. Moreover, he said the company’s marketing approach is to reach “as many customers globally in the best possible way.”

“Over the last three to four years, our focus has been on socials,” Shah continued. “That’s where consumers are engaging.…We signed David Beckham to the Ninja brand. It’s sports but he has a broader appeal globally. While it’s not necessarily that we are saying we want to be attached to sports but we want to be attached to the broader culture. Formula 1 has gained a lot of momentum over the last four to five years. Formula 1 is culturally relevant, has global acceptance and the moment felt right to get into this space.”

While the obvious answer to the alignment between the “F1” movie and SharkNinja is technology, Shah said that Formula 1 is all about being the best of the best. He likened the Formula 1 teams’ “relentless optimization to provide the best performance” to how the SharkNinja team operates.

Shah said the company employs more than 1,300 engineers to work on SharkNinja products — in 2024, the brand has developed 25 new products and expanded into two new categories.

“When it comes to technology and solving consumer problems, that’s what we’re best at. What we’re best at is identifying the white space, understanding where consumer problems are not being solved and developing solutions to be able to address it.”

With its global consumer reach, the SharkNinja team receives vast amounts of feedback for improvement before a product goes to market, similar to how the sensors on Formula 1 cars give teams insights into what works and what doesn’t. Fittingly, the SharkNinja campaign for the movie is “performance never rests.”

More than just including their name on the side of the Formula 1 car, SharkNinja hosted an activation at the red carpet for the New York worldwide premiere on June 16 with a Shark hair styling pop-up, Shark misting fans and Ninja slush machines. Idris also hosted a private joint Warner Bros. and SharkNinja event to celebrate the movie’s release on June 17.

The company released a limited-edition APXGP collection featuring the brand’s well-known products in the matching fictional team’s colorway: cooler, ice cream maker, cordless vacuum, misting fan, robot vacuum and mop, hairdryer and hair styler.

“With any partnership on this scale, we want to do as much of a 360-degree activation as possible. What we’ve learned throughout the years of advertising is that you have to be present where the consumer journey is throughout the journey,” Shah said. “We serve a very educated, discerning consumer who is reading reviews, going online, looking at videos, looking at recipes and making a very educated decision.”

Shah explained that the goal for the collaboration isn’t strictly focused on the number of units sold, but rather creating social buzz and connecting it back to the “F1” movie to help drive consumer excitement.

“We engaged with more than 3,000 consumers [at the New York movie premiere] and they were able to associate the performance of F1 with SharkNinja. Every opportunity we got to partner with Apple and Warner Bros. on a 360-activation, we worked with them to reach consumers in the right way,” he said.

As for future Formula 1 sponsorships on the horizon, Shah shared that the company would be interested in collaborating beyond the “F1” movie in the future.

“We’re always open for business and we’re always open to great opportunities. We’ve built some great relationship through this process with the teams within Formula 1. I’m sure more opportunities will come our way and we’ll be open to it,” Shah concluded.