Goodwood Festival of Speed 2025: Why Immersive Experiences Are the New Currency in Automotive Marketing
Every year, Goodwood Festival of Speed is a highlight for petrol heads and automotive enthusiasts. Beyond the stunning vehicles and high-octane hill climbs, the event offers a glimpse into how brands are evolving their approach to marketing and engaging with consumers. Once static event displays are now being replaced with fully immersive, multi-sensory experiences.
At Brand Motion, we’ve been tracking this shift closely and taking note of how brands have adapted their experiential activations to keep on trend. Experiential marketing has replaced traditional event marketing and is becoming the key differentiator for brands looking to truly connect with their audience in an authentic and credible manner.
Experiential Marketing: More Than Just Events
Gone are the days when simply having a showstand and a few polished, high spec cars was enough to capture attention (of course the custom multi-million pound Rolls Royce builds will always be a thing of beauty). Today, visitors want to see, touch, and engage with the brand - not just be a passive bystander. Consumers want to be active participants rather than observers. This shift has made once dormant brands who rested too much on their laurels create activations that go beyond the physical product, creating moments that evoke emotion, spark curiosity, and invite interaction. The new currency is all about storytelling, live demos, digital overlays, and social-media-friendly content zones to produce user generated content.
With test drives almost impossible due to the grid-locked roads around Goodwood, some brands incorporated VR experiences that let visitors virtually test-drive vehicles on iconic tracks, while others used augmented reality to showcase vehicle engineering or sustainability features in real time.
This trend reflects a broader consumer expectation: people want authenticity and engagement, not just information. Brands that deliver experiences which stimulate multiple senses and create emotional connections will build deeper loyalty and stronger demand.
The Shift in Brand Presence: From Tradition to Innovation
Goodwood also highlighted a noticeable change in who’s showing up and how. The once packed grid of automotive brands has seen an evolution over the years. Several manufacturers scaled back their presence or withdrew altogether such as Polestar, BYD and Genesis signalling a strategic pivot away from big-budget, static event stands. In contrast, a fresh wave of brands, especially ambitious Chinese EV manufacturers like MG and Denza seized the opportunity to make a splash with immersive, tech-led activations that blended live engagement with digital storytelling.
With the competitive landscape that automotive brands find themselves in, rewarding loyalty is a must. BMW and MINI have tweaked their offering slightly over the years, with the move from a complimentary tea or coffee to a paid for bar. Instead, the real reward is having access to view the hill climb and feeling part of the club. Of course if you have been invited to Goodwood by Bentley and have a spare £1,000 it buys you access to hospitality and a helicopter charter into the event to skip the queues.
Years ago, people would have dismissed the idea of owning a Korean or Chinese car. Now the appealing price, high tech focus on customer centricity has lured owners of BMW, Mercedes and Audi who have fallen short of delivering a premium experience. The Denza Z9 GT launch combined sleek product design with interactive displays that highlighted its tech credentials and sustainability ambitions. MG’s Cyberster Black Edition didn’t just showcase an electric roadster, it resonated strongly with a younger, tech-forward audience.
Why Experiential Marketing Matters More Than Ever
For marketers and agencies who flocked to Goodwood for the annual pilgrimage, the lessons from Goodwood are clear:
- It’s About Connection, Not Just Promotion: Experiential activations build genuine emotional engagement, moving beyond the transactional and into meaningful brand relationships. Brands who want to be noticed must work hard to create authentic connections with their customers and give them a reason to engage with the product.
- Multi-Sensory Engagement is Key: The best experiences stimulate sight, sound, touch, and even smell or taste, making them more memorable and shareable. Jaguar’s marmite stand proved just that. Jaguar went beyond just showing cars by creating an immersive space that showcased its heritage and future. Visitors were captivated by the iconic engine sounds paired with ambient music, while premium materials and textures inside the vehicles highlighted Jaguar’s craftsmanship. Sleek lighting and dynamic displays emphasised design and technology, making the stand a fully sensory brand experience.
- Content Creation is Built In: Well-designed experiences generate authentic content naturally, which fuels social media and digital marketing in ways traditional advertising cannot.
- Flexibility and Innovation Win: Brands that experiment with new tech and formats from AR to interactive installations stand out and can pivot quickly as consumer tastes evolve.
What This Means for Your Brand
Goodwood Festival of Speed showed us that in today’s crowded marketplace, standing still is falling behind. If you want to cut through the noise, you need to offer something your audience can feel and experience - not just see or hear about.
At Brand Motion, we help brands craft these kinds of immersive experiences that resonate deeply, inspire action, and create lasting memories. Whether it’s integrating digital technology with live activations or designing fully bespoke brand journeys, experiential marketing is no longer a ‘nice to have’ - it’s essential.
If you’re ready to explore how experiential can transform your brand’s impact, get in touch. Let’s create something unforgettable together.
