Blis has unveiled insights from the recently concluded Singapore’s Formula One 2017 race, which found that the race brought in a huge commercial benefit to the local economy.

The analysis showed a 173% jump in mobile activity at key local restaurants and an 82% lift at local shopping malls during the race weekend, as compared with normal weekend activities.

The location technology company tracked mobile user activity at key locations around Singapore during the week, from 11 September to the 17th, and found the top tourist destinations across retail, restaurants, hotels and casinos.

ION Orchard Shopping Mall was the most popular retail location, with a 1333% jump in mobile activity from Friday to Sunday, compared to Monday to Thursday, with Iggy’s restaurant in the mall seeing a 1233% spike in mobile activity. The best performing hotel was the Mandarin Oriental, up 514%, while Marina Bay Sands casino proved most popular with gamblers, leaping 237%.

Overall, the weekend saw a 413% increase in traffic to key restaurants and a 332% jump at shopping malls, when compared to activity observed throughout the week. F1 grandstand locations were also nearly 500% busier on race weekend.

Blis then broke down tourist mobile location activity by nationality, to find who preferred motorsport to shopping and recorded a 700% jump in Italian tourists for race weekend, while also finding them nearly twice as interested in the F1 as shopping. They also found that British tourists were the clearest motorsport fans, being nine times more likely to appear in the F1 grandstands as in local shopping malls.

Tourists from India were the most prevalent, rising 749% for race weekend, compared to the previous week, while Indonesians jumped 507%, showing the least interest in F1. Only 1% of observed Indonesian mobile users were detected in the grandstands, while 76% appeared in shopping malls.

Andrew Darling, communications director at Blis, explained that the insights show how brands can use location data to enrich existing data stacks. “Every piece of anonymous data we captured during the campaign has the potential to change how brands see their customers and isolate new opportunities to engage them. Location data offers a powerful new lens for marketers when it’s layered over other data sets.”

“More importantly, tracking mobile behaviours from certain areas can help brands find audiences with shared interests and movement patterns. It can help them discover new things about an established audience, or find an audience group they never knew existed,” he added.

The Drum also spoke to McLaren Technology Group execs Zak Brown and John Allert before the race weekend about the company’s troubles on and off the track.

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