How an old man’s sport became cool again
Formula One for the 3rd year in a row has become the fastest growing sport on Social Media, a surprising statistic given what its former CEO once said about social media.
I am not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is, I’d rather get the 70 year old guy who’s got plenty of cash. – Bernie Ecclestone
So, how did Formula One transform its approach to capture younger audiences?
- The Power of the Logo: Formula 1 changed its logo from a very 90s outdated design to a more modern one, with two aims in mind, firstly to appeal to the aesthetic of the modern era and secondly to create a logo that is more memorable in the minds of modern consumers.
- Machine Learning, Big data, and Casual Fans: After researching F1 figured out which group of consumers it should be targeting and it does this by leveraging social media and its Netflix deal.
- The Hardcore Fans and a more personalized experience: To further increase engagement they have crafted experiences that are aimed at hardcore fans.
The Power of the Logo
In 2017 Formula One was bought by the Liberty group who immediately begin to rebrand formula one’s image so that it may appeal to younger audiences, the most noticeable change of which was the change of its logo.
Like many brands in the past few years, F1 changed its logo to a more modern look and feel but this was not met with praise from some of the old fans of the sport.
Why did Formula One really change its logo, is it simply an attempt to look more modern and “cool” for the younger generation? I think it’s much more than that and has more to do with formula one realizing that it’s more of a media company than just a sports league.
The new logo repositions Formula One as a forward-facing entertainment brand that works across a multitude of channels. The new logo unlike its predecessor was designed with its application in mind.
The new logo was designed so that it fits seamlessly on multiple surfaces and sizes. The new logo is much more flexible in terms of its use especially when it comes to its application on merchandising and in the digital world, it has an impact, the old logo was neither iconic nor memorable. The new logo is not as loud as the old logo but still commands aesthetically pleasing presents. In a world where every brand is trying to grab your attention and stay in your mind for a longer period, it becomes less important how many ads or billboards you can put your logo on and more important whether that logo fits the aesthetic of where it’s placed and if it is memorable enough. The F1 design team has managed to do just that by creating a logo for modern consumers. This makes it easier to plaster the F1 logo all over merchandise, events, social media, and video games without out it looking out of place or having its proportions looking weird. Helping it to be more recognizable, appealing to a wider audience, and most importantly memorable.
Machine Learning, Big Data and Casual Fans
In 2017 after conducting intense research on the sport, they were able to identify key information about their consumers(specifically which consumer groups they should target and how to effectively target them.) Where they found room for growth was not in the traditional hardcore fans who are often very old but they found room to grow with casual consumers, a group of consumers that for decades had been ignored by the former CEO Bernie Ecclestone. This group of consumers are not hardcore fans who watch every race or even attend races, they enjoy casually watching the sport and they are best targeted on social media. F1 realizing this has taken a page out of the Gary Vee playbook by posting tons of content on various social media platforms to drive engagements from these casual consumers. And to further target this group they have a deal with Netflix to produce a 10 part series every year that shows the behind the scenes of the most interesting moments of the F1 season, for casual consumers, this is a lot more engaging as Netflix crafts a story of rivalry and drama around the sport that demands further investment in the form of attention from the consumers and its only 10 parts which makes it perfect for binge-watching for those fans who find the F1 races too long or too many. In addition to appealing to casual fans, the Nellie series helps to bring in new people into the sport as with all sports, individual personalities play a big role in the popularity of the sport, and Netflix’s award-winning team can certainly portray the various races with their intriguing personalities that viewers can identify with.
Hardcore Fans and a More Personalised Experience
Not wanting to alienate its truly passionate fans and realizing that they are vital to the sport, F1 took the same approach it took with casual fans by trying to increase engagement from the hardcore consumer group. They did this by launching an app that shows in-depth analysis and real-time stats. In addition to this, they made partnerships that allowed them to launch video games of the sport for those consumers who want to get as close as possible to the feeling of driving an F1 car.
The key lessons for Marketers
- Logos: Good marketing begins with a good image specifically – a good logo, there is no point to having the most talented marketing team, if the sight of the logo that represents the brand is not memorable or appealing.
- Focus on the fringes: the secret to any company’s success is growth and how growth is achieved beyond your super fans and ideal consumer group is by targeting those at the fringes. Those who are casual but can be turned into super fans or consumers with due course. With these people you have to meet them where they are – F1 did not offer free tickets or any kind of incentives when it came to attracting casual fans, they simply met them where they are. They packaged their content for the various platforms where casual fans are and in turn they responded well. Eventually these fans will want more content and end up watching the races on tv and eventually buy tickets to go see them live!
- Do not forgot about the Super Fans: it’s easy to see all the changes F1 have made and assume they have alienated their pre-exsisting super-fan consumer group, but quite to the contrary they have simply used a different approach, they understood that the way they market to casual fans cannot be the same way they market to super-fans thus they created experiences that allowed their super-fans to feel much closer to the sport then they have ever been.
If you think about it, it’s like a well crafted funnel. The lead being the insane highlight videos of high speed racing that may pop-up on your social media feed followed by you watching the Netflix documentary then the actual race on tv and finally you buying the ticket to go see the races live. Which all boosts merchandise and product sales as well.
