NITR General Manager Fred Porchet.

KitKat’s role as the ‘official chocolate bar of Formula 1’ is set to play a key role in Nestlé International Travel Retail’s (NITR’s) consumer engagement strategy in airports.

The three-year global partnership, announced in November 2024, marks Nestlé’s largest global brand partnership to date and is said to signal its ambition to ‘reach a wider audience and achieve a higher rate of global growth’.

With a million of fans around the world, Formula 1 continues to grow in popularity and KitKat is leveraging the partnership to bring its ‘Have a Break, Have a KitKat’ message to more people.

The collaboration will officially launch during the 2025 season, marking the 90th anniversary of KitKat and the 75th anniversary of Formula 1. It will then expand across the world throughout 2026.

For NITR, it provides a coveted opportunity to capitalise and build on its lineup of consumer activations and promotional prizes (such as tickets and merchandise), starting with Mexico this year (the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix is taking place from 24-26 October).

“With its global appeal and busy international schedule, Formula 1 offers KitKat the perfect platform from which to remind everyone to make time for a break,” said NITR General Manager Fred Porchet.

“F1’s global prominence also makes it perfect for the travel environment as a platform to bring together the fun of KitKat with the thrill of  motorsport and create memorable experiences for fans wherever they may be.

“Indeed, this makes the potential for the partnership in global travel retail sizeable, as we can leverage the full F1 calendar and worldwide events through airports globally.”

KitKat’s three-year collaboration with F1, announced in November 2024, marks Nestlé’s largest global brand partnership to date.

NITR reports it is now ‘working closely with prospective creative agencies to develop meaningful campaigns that will combine the excitement and thrill of F1 motorsport with the fun, cheerful and light-hearted KitKat brand’.

Simultaneously, the company plans to utilise global travel retail’s dded advantages of product exclusivity and sense of place.

All of this is ideal for the brand as it seeks to amp up engagement with Gen Z consumers.

“We know how important it is to focus on personalisation, sense of place and experience if we are to attract the attention of Gen Z consumers,” said Porchet.

“The Formula 1 KitKat partnership is perfect for this, bringing together two powerful brands that lend themselves to gamification, retailtainment and engagement.

“Formula 1 is a global phenomenon with a rapidly growing, diverse fanbase, especially among the younger generation and so is the perfect mechanism to introduce into GTR.”

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