Lights out and away we go...for successful content marketing

Formula One’s content marketing strategy for reaching new audiences, and utilising social media is something we can all learn and take notes from!

At this point, you have probably binged the last four seasons of Netflix’s ‘Drive To Survive’, and you’re probably highly anticipating the 2022 series to be released, and the F1 race season is not even over yet. With the British home GP at Silverstone this weekend, we thought there was no better time to analyse how Formula 1 markets itself, the impact and success of Drive To Survive, and what we can learn from it.

The hit show has been hailed as a marketing “silver bullet” by Adam Crothers, Formula One’s head of digital media rights, and there is no doubt that it has already had a major impact for the sport. According to Nielsen, interest in the series last year grew by 73 million – equal to 20 per cent – in ten of the motorsport series’ key markets, which were Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

Nielsen also cited the 'Drive to Survive' docuseries as a key reason for Formula One’s growing popularity among younger audiences. It seems as though the docuseries has brought a lot more attention to the sport since its debut, and it is still rising as more of the season’s drama is exploited. 

There is no shame if you only started to get into the racing sport after bingeing the show (two of us at DATS are guilty of this - and wish we started it sooner!). The drivers, the unbelievable mechanics, epic rivalries, cut-throat realpolitiks, as well as its melodrama - some could say more than Love Island - it’s near impossible not to be hooked. 

But how did ‘Drive To Survive’ bring a whole new audience to the 1890’s pioneering road race, now called Formula One in 2022?

Times have changed, and Formula One struggled to reach certain audiences, and so they switched up their marketing strategy and this included the docuseries Drive To Survive - which was developed as part of Liberty Media’s - the parent company of F1 - strategy to expand F1 into new markets. 

Looking at ratings data, in 2018 F1 viewership was around 547,000. After the docuseries launch, it jumped by 18% to 672,000. By 2021, that had escalated to 934,000 - an incredible 54% increase, and rising in 2022! 

The interest in the show also appears to be rubbing off on the races too. During the first event of the 2021 Formula One season in Bahrain, UK pay-TV broadcaster Sky Sports recorded its highest-ever viewing figures for a Grand Prix aired on its channels, reaching a high of 2.23 million. In the US, meanwhile, the Bahrain Grand Prix delivered an average 879,000 viewers for ESPN 2, which was bigger than any audience that tuned in to the channel during the entire 2020 season.

The docuseries showed a different side to F1, which sparked the sport interest in many - as the statistics show - which brought new audiences to the races itself, not only in viewership, but to the race weekend itself in-person.

A very clever idea, that paid off!

The series is not the only way F1 has shown brilliant content marketing!

F1 has not always been a global phenomenon, as it has been in the last couple of years, there was a very clear turning point in their journey, and marketing strategy. This happened in 2016, when Liberty Media acquired the Formula One Group. Since then, their vision took effect, almost immediately, the F1 had always targeted older, wealthier men and this had steered the sport away from many audiences. By deep diving into audience attitudes, and big data, they discovered what the fans wanted, and how to reach the audiences they wanted. 

The conclusion of the data helped them understand who they must target, how they must target, and what their positioning should be. To achieve this, they worked on a series of SMART targets. 

What are SMART targets?

Put very sim­ply, SMART objec­tives (or SMART goals) are a form of objec­tive set­ting which allows man­agers and employ­ees to cre­ate, track and accom­plish, short-and-long-term goals - this is essential when creating a successful content marketing strategy.

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Relevant

T - Time-bound

Formula One created their strategy, and tactics through a series of research, and planning and then it was a green flag for them!

They invested in digital, and social media. On all their social media accounts, followers rose pretty much straight away, particularly among younger people - this would probably be down to social media being more popular among this generation - and in just under a year, the number of subscribers on the F1 YouTube more than doubled. Having the social media presence allowed them to acquire a deeper understanding of their audiences and what they want, which influenced future content. 

Formula One also had a rebrand and changed its logo, launched video games on consoles such as XBOX, and PlayStation, and they also established eSports partnerships - which just continue to grow in users every year. They partnered with Amazon Web Services to provide insight on races, drivers, and their teams. The intention was to reach a wider and younger audience through as many channels as physically possible, in doing so they wanted to create the best experience possible for all types of people.

The Formula One brand relaunch is a perfect example of the power of diagnosis, strategy, and tactics, and of the importance of sophisticated, targeted content marketing, and multi-channel approaches.

But don’t just take my word for it….

A survey conducted by Nielsen and Motorsport Network offered an opportunity for fans to tell Formula 1 what they want and what they value about the sport to enable the championship to make strategic decisions for the future.

Nielsen said the sample of 167,302 responses was the largest and most diverse sample ever, with female participation doubling and the average age of a participant dropping four years (since the last survey in 2017) to 32.

The number one brand attribute for Formula 1 is “exciting”, up 7% from 2017. “Competitive” and “entertaining” made into the top five for the first time, while fans also say F1 has improved in terms of providing “exciting racing”, “fast cars”, “close competition” and having “the best drivers”.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Here’s some key takeaways for delivering audience-focused content marketing that are likely to drive brand growth:

• Pay attention to the content that really resonates with your audiences - for example, F1 focused on humanising their brand by sharing driver-focused and behind-the-scenes content which generated much more engagement than just tweeting out race results

• Consider innovative new marketing approaches that will reach audiences in their native environment

• DO YOUR RESEARCH - this is extremely important when trying to be specific in who you are targeting, and who your audience is - use the trusty SMART targets method, it works a treat every time!