Inside FMCG has compiled a selection of partnerships that have held their ground. They span global sport, national fixtures and local circuits, each one built with a clear sense of placement. Some operate at scale, moving through broadcast, venue and retail simultaneously, and others repeat across seasons until they are absorbed into routine. Beer at the footy, skincare in the athletes’ village, wine in the F1 paddock, vodka in the desert, L’Oréal at the Festival de Cannes. The strongest ex

gest examples hold position, return to it, extend it or create a legacy. Taken together, the partnerships detailed here demonstrate how FMCG now shows up in public. They are repeated, refined and extended until they become part of the event. Over time, they shape how products are used and how often they are bought.

In part one, we highlight Red Bull x Air Race World Championship, L’Oréal x Festival de Cannes and G.H. Mumm x Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Red Bull x Air Race World Championship

The energy drink giant built an event – and its audience.

Perhaps not an event partnership but a proprietary global sports platform built and controlled by Red Bull itself. The Red Bull Air Race World Championship launched in 2003 while the brand placed its titular drink at the centre of its own global sporting property, with host cities spanning Europe, the Middle East and the Apac region.

In Australia, the series launched in Perth in 2010 and later in Sydney across 2017 and 2018, drawing large waterfront crowds before concluding in 2019.

Red Bull owned the format, controlled the broadcast and built the audience from the ground up. Pilots raced through low-altitude courses marked by inflatable pylons, a format designed for both live spectatorship and television.

For Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, the approach reflected a broader view of the company’s role. “We are not a beverage company with a marketing department. We are a marketing company that sells energy drinks.”

The Air Race became a working model of that idea. Millions attended events globally, with strong Australian turnout reinforcing the country’s place within the circuit. Beyond attendance, the series generated its own media ecosystem, from live broadcast to highlight packages and digital content, all produced under the Red Bull banner.

From inside the cockpit, that scale was not always immediate. For Matt Hall, one of Australia’s most successful pilots in the series and a Red Bull Air Race world championship winner, the event revealed itself in fragments. “It hits you afterwards,” he told Inside FMCG. “When we went to the podium, you’d see all the people sitting on the roofs, a million people in the crowd. And that’s when it hit home. It’s like, wow, there’s a lot of people here just to watch 14 pilots race.”

Budapest, where pilots flew along the Danube beneath the Chain Bridge, stood out on the tour for its course’s proximity to the city itself. Porto and Barcelona drew comparable scale, crowds pushing toward the million mark. Each course compressed speed, risk and visibility into a tight visual frame, something that could be grasped instantly, whether from the shoreline or through a broadcast lens.

The racing itself left little room for error. At speeds approaching 400 kilometres an hour, results were often separated by thousandths of a second. Margins collapsed into centimetres. The theatrics of it all may have drawn the crowd, but precision held it. Red Bull created a system that combined sport, media and place into a single, controlled output.

This championship engineered brand, creating, owning and distributing its own sporting event at scale, shaping the experience from first ticket sold to final frame broadcast.

L’Oréal Paris x Cannes Film Festival

From premieres to filmmakers, a partnership built for longevity.

For almost three decades, L’Oréal Paris has maintained a presence at the Cannes Film Festival. Since becoming the event’s official makeup partner in 1997, the brand has returned each year, building one of the longest-running partnerships on the Croisette. It is long enough to outlast trends, and equally long enough to shape them.

At last year’s festival, held from May 13-24, more than 30 international makeup artists worked across the red carpet and backstage. The ambassador line-up, which comprised Eva Longoria, Viola Davis and Jane Fonda, among others, functions as a distributed network, carrying the brand through press lines, premieres and global media in real time.

The partnership has also found form beyond the red carpet with the Lights On Women’s Worth Award, now in its sixth year. The award is presented during the festival alongside its short-film selections, backing emerging female filmmakers and extending the brand’s presence into the structure of the industry itself.

“We remain committed to amplifying women’s voices and paving the way for a more inclusive future in cinema,” said Delphine Viguier-Hovasse, global brand president of L’Oréal Paris, during the brand’s festival program.

G.H. Mumm x Melbourne Cup Carnival

Eighteen years of turning race week into a luxury ritual.

At Flemington, in November each year, G.H. Mumm takes its place at the centre of the Melbourne Cup Carnival, a partnership that now reaches toward two decades.

Renewed through to mid-2028, the agreement now marks 18 years between the Champagne house and the Victoria Racing Club. Over that time, the relationship has moved beyond pour rights and the G.H. Mumm Birdcage marquee has become a destination in its own right, known for its design, its pace and its ability to hold a crowd from morning through to late afternoon.

Inside, the details accumulate. Fine dining, DJ sets, international guests and the now familiar ‘tap tap’ ritual, where Champagne arcs into the air from a sabred bottle. In 2018, the partnership extended into a permanent fixture, with the construction of the first official Mumm bar outside Reims, a marker of how deeply the brand has embedded itself within the event.

More than 12,800 bottles were consumed across the four days of the 2024 Carnival, reinforcing its role as the opening note of what the brand calls “Champagne season” in Australia.

Victoria Racing Club’s CEO Kylie Rogers noted that G.H. Mumm has become synonymous with celebration at Flemington. “For 15 years, their presence has elevated the Melbourne Cup Carnival, and we’re excited to continue raising a glass together through to 2028,” she said.

“G.H. Mumm is renowned for pushing the boundaries with world-first moments and adventures, including becoming the first Champagne in space, joining pioneering Antarctic expeditions, and even launching the highest Champagne dinner party,” Pernod Ricard (owner of G.H. Mumm) Pacific marketing director Kristy Rutherford said. Rutherford explained that it is that spirit that places G.H. Mumm as an iconic Champagne at the heart of modern culture.

Originally published in the July edition of Inside FMCG.