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How can FOM better promote F1?


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#1 Nathan

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 19:29

I read many people saying FOM needs to reinvest in the sport, needs to promote it better etc., but rarely do I ever read ways to do it.  Generally it hinges on social media, and ticket prices.  However I'm not sure how good the former is at creating new fans, though I know it is great at retaining current fans and enriching their experience.  Lower ticket prices I can understand in developing countries, but when I go to GP's in Canada, UK, Italy the places are full, and I have to question if they have the infrastructure to take in more people.  I'm also of the thinking if you can sell 100,000+ tickets at $3-4-500/each you don't need to lower your ticket prices.  I get how doing so helps families and kids, but how do you guarantee you sell lower priced tickets to them, and the rich folk that can afford them tend to have kids and grand kids too.

 

So what can FOM do, and importantly, what can they legally do eg. the current inability to put race video on social media due to TV contracts.

 

Is anyone aware of the investment being made with Tata Communications regarding how the sport will be televised in the future?

 

How is FOM going to battle reduced interested from free-to-air broadcasters?

 

Should FOM subsidize GP2/3 so that nations hosting races in growing markets new to F1 can develop drivers in order to ingrain the sport?

 

Should such markets pay less in hosting fees so they can lower their ticket prices and ensure races can stick around for 10-years to give the domestic audience a chance to develop interest?

 

Should they financially assist teams to do like Red Bull and send cars and drivers around the world for demonstrations?

 

And I'm sure someone is going to suggest equitable payments, but I don't think your average new fan is even aware of the funding structure, nor do I think it deters people from becoming interested in the sport.


Edited by Nathan, 14 December 2015 - 19:31.


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#2 KWSN - DSM

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 20:06

* Re-open the franchise.

* Have engine regulations re-done to a powerful engine, which does not cover under any sort of glossy 'Green Speak', fast and winning is the only 'relevance' a manufacturer should look for.

* Work with the FIA to have rules written which are clear, easily understood by both Jane and John Doe.

* The re-written rules to massively cut down on available aerodynamics.

* The re-written rules to ensure that a race is never conducted with fuel saving as part of it.

* No forced pit-stops.

* No forced refueling.

* No forced tire changes.

* No mandated supplier of anything - tires, brakes, noses, gearboxes, wings, fins, sharkfins.

* No pit to car telemetry.

* No car to pit telemetry.

* No pit to car radio.

* No changing of settings by drivers, except for brake bias.

 

I could keep going.

 

:cool:



#3 Marklar

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 20:09

Well, in the first place the promoter could avoid to call his product "crap"  ;)



#4 Knot

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 20:26

I'm also of the thinking if you can sell 100,000+ tickets at $3-4-500/each you don't need to lower your ticket prices.

 

There's a bunch of reasons why F1 has lost 200 MILLION viewers since 2009. Pricing a lot of your fans out of your product really helps. It's not really all that surprising that neither you nor BE understand this.



#5 Imateria

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 20:34

* Re-open the franchise.

* Have engine regulations re-done to a powerful engine, which does not cover under any sort of glossy 'Green Speak', fast and winning is the only 'relevance' a manufacturer should look for.

* Work with the FIA to have rules written which are clear, easily understood by both Jane and John Doe.

* The re-written rules to massively cut down on available aerodynamics.

* The re-written rules to ensure that a race is never conducted with fuel saving as part of it.

* No forced pit-stops.

* No forced refueling.

* No forced tire changes.

* No mandated supplier of anything - tires, brakes, noses, gearboxes, wings, fins, sharkfins.

* No pit to car telemetry.

* No car to pit telemetry.

* No pit to car radio.

* No changing of settings by drivers, except for brake bias.

 

I could keep going.

 

:cool:

I think this just proves you can't read, non of this list has anything to do with promotion.

 

And pit to car telemetry has been outlawed since 2001.



#6 Risil

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 20:38

A lot of the tyre rules seem to be subject to the promoter's whim.

 

KWSN - DSM's post highlights something important -- no one believes F1 is ruled independently anymore. It's incredible to give soccer's governance any credit whatsoever, I'd like to see the FIA play the role of IFAB. Keep the rules under lock and key. A minor change to half a sentence in the offside rule is a once-in-a-decade occurrence. And in soccer terms that qualifies as activist government!



#7 ANF

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 20:46

Make the cars look faster on TV?



#8 GrumpyYoungMan

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 20:48

Talk up the benefits if the green technology

Like using less fuel than before

About the benefits of hybrids and the MGU-H

#9 KWSN - DSM

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 21:10

I think this just proves you can't read, non of this list has anything to do with promotion.

 

And pit to car telemetry has been outlawed since 2001.

 

I read fine thanks, of course it has to do with promotion, create a product which is promotable rather than change the promotable to the un-promotable.

 

:cool:



#10 jonpollak

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 21:11

Hotter grid girls in tighter clothing.

 

0c0ff6586a324b42e985d8316cfa8cb7.gif
Jp


Edited by jonpollak, 14 December 2015 - 21:40.


#11 KWSN - DSM

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 21:12

Talk up the benefits if the green technology

Like using less fuel than before

About the benefits of hybrids and the MGU-H

 

Will do nothing to increase viewers or followers, racing is about racing not who has the better green technology, or who can transform braking into battery power the best.

 

:cool:



#12 YoungGun

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 21:15

Hire Red Bull to do the marketing! :cool:



#13 ardbeg

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 21:20

They should let the organizers keep some money so they can do their own promoting. It's the way Bernie suck everyone dry that kills the sport. They joy. The playfulness. It's elsewhere. 



#14 Fastcake

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 21:43

By doing some actual promotion? Selling the product to consumers, advertising, doing events around Grands Prix, demo runs, social media, that sort of thing. At the moment the main activity of FOM is selling TV contracts and races to countries. The TV companies can try to advertise F1, but that's only going to have a limited reach particularly on pay TV, while the race promoters are either authoritarian governments who couldn't give a fig about the crowd, or cash-strapped circuits who are sucked so dry by Bernie there's no money left.

 

As for social media, it is perhaps a little oversold at times, but it does have real benefits, and having a basic presence is fairly cheap and easy. F1 only started a Twitter and Youtube account within the past year, and they still haven't got round to creating a Facebook page. That's the sort of thing that should have been started years ago.

 

It might also help if they didn't have a octogenarian chief execution who's recently been on trial for corruption and likes to make increasingly bizarre, and often completely unacceptable utterances. In an era with increasing pressure on sports organisations, this is not helping in the slightest.

 

Make the cars look faster on TV?

 

And better placement of the microphones (the sound of the engines has been off for years before someone starts on the current engines). Allowing the TV directors to get on with their jobs without interference from higher up would be another start.

 

Hire Red Bull to do the marketing! :cool:

 

I would say take a look at the World Rally Championship, but its utter invisibility should tell you all you need to know about Red Bull's treatment of events they don't own.



#15 DampMongoose

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 21:49

Hire Red Bull to do the marketing! :cool:


"If you don't watch F1 we're going home" that sort of thing?

#16 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 21:58

And the general consensus is that current F1 cars are ugly silly stupidly expensive irrelevant things. That do not sound like racing cars, in fact like a pile of kiddy cars.

The PC drivers are too.

Bernie has sucked the promoters dry.

The racing is so false and choreographed as to be silly. 5 lap tyres, flappy wings, drive fast drive slow depending on your tyres and battery.

There is not enough teams and cars because of all of the above.

And there obviously will be less and less in the next few years. 



#17 Talisman

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 22:02

Will do nothing to increase viewers or followers, racing is about racing not who has the better green technology, or who can transform braking into battery power the best.

 

:cool:

 

Nor will changing the regulations that only F1 geeks will understand the significance of.

 

With the new PUs F1 has done a terrible job of promoting them.  Only F1 fans realise they are hybrids, but the fact is that the efficiency of such PUs is incredible and some of the technology will likely filter down to road cars for a change.  Honda and Renault aren't having problems because they're incompetent, its because the PUs are more complicated than anything they've had to design and build before.  Why not promote the engineering challenge side of things instead of attacking the PUs and publicly calling for them to be replaced or at the very least highly modified.

 

F1 has lost popularity for several reasons.  One of the major ones is something F1 can do nothing about and thats reduced interest in cars especially among the young.   There are others that can be addressed though like withdrawing behind pay per view.  That said, given that PPV gives a better income for the teams than free viewing but increased sponsorship does (supposedly) that move may not be reversed.

Where F1 can be more in your face is by aiming specifically at kids.  Having an F1 themed Disney cartoon with real teams represented would help a lot, as would the associated merchandising.  Cartoons and comics, puzzles, anything to improve its appeal for children and their parents.  If even a fraction of the kids who watch turn into F1 fans the job is done.

 

How about relaxing promotional rights so that manufacturers can use F1 footage and imagery for free on their premises?  Anyone who walks into a Honda/Renault/Mercedes/FIAT garage gets bombarded with F1 stuff?  The manufacturers would love it and it would promote the sport.  This is the exact mechanism that turned rallying into a global sport back in the 70s and 80s with the manufacturers finding a rally campaign a cheap way of filling their dealerships with sporty imagery involving their brand and introducing the sport to millions as a result.

 

In terms of global popularity whether the cars are propelled by complicated hybrids, V12s or parallel twins is largely irrelevant as long as the show is good enough and its well promoted.  Unfortunately there are too many people at senior levels who do think the technical regulations are what attracts or drives people away from the sport.  It is for those who would watch the sport anyway (and for manufacturers who have their own story to tell to the public) but it isn't for the casual observer.  As long as F1 thinks that tinkering with the regulations and finding the magic formula will propel it back to global dominance it will be doomed.


Edited by Talisman, 14 December 2015 - 22:03.


#18 Nathan

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 22:19

 

There's a bunch of reasons why F1 has lost 200 MILLION viewers since 2009. Pricing a lot of your fans out of your product really helps. It's not really all that surprising that neither you nor BE understand this.

 

OK, so I'm priced out of attending a GP, does that mean I just don't watch it at all then?  Only 1 in 50 or so Brit's that watch it on the telly could attend the British GP, regardless if tickets were £30 simply because Silverstone and area can only support so much traffic flow.  Putting 200,000 in the grandstands would probably end up pissing almost all off just from trying to get in and out - remember the fall out from the one April race.  I then have to ask if these people turning F1 off because they can't afford to buy a race ticket live, are they instead tuning into lower rung motorsports they can afford to attend? I have a tough time with this one because the race attendance figures are still up there - and they should really be the first to decline if pricing was an issue - and in every major sport the number of people watching far, far outnumber the amount of people that can attend live whether they can afford to or not.

 

 

Make the cars look faster on TV?

 

And better placement of the microphones

 

Hire Red Bull to do the marketing!

 

:up:  :up:

 

 

With the new PUs F1 has done a terrible job of promoting them.

 

Isn't that the job of the people that pushed for their existence eg. the companies making them to improve their breeds, perhaps even the FIA that promote eco-autos??

 

 

* too aerodynamics.

* forced pit-stops.

* forced refueling.

* forced tire changes.

* pit to car telemetry.

* car to pit telemetry.

* pit to car radio.

* changing of settings by drivers, except for brake bias.

Are you suggesting these things deter people from becoming F1 fans?  As in Joe Bob says "what!?!? Tire changing, pit-car radio....forget this I'm watching footie"?

 

 

At the moment the main activity of FOM is selling TV contracts and races to countries.

I think that is all it ever intended to do, plus push up the attractiveness to corporations.  This is a bit why I'm bent on saying it's up the teams, TV companies and race organizers to activate much of the market.  They are the people doing the direct selling to the people watching at home.  By basically subletting those rights Bernie passes that responsibility on to them.  I grant it is very tough for race promoters because as stated, they get bent over the barrel.

 

 

having a basic presence is fairly cheap and easy

And yet FOM (under F1) has more Twitter followers than any of the teams, including Ferrari, all of whom considering the value of fan engagement to their bottom line should be very interested.  If I look at F1's Twitter page and compare it to other sporting leagues like NFL, NBA, there really isn't much difference between them content wise.  The NFL's Twitter page is mostly reTweets from teams.  But F1's Twitter feed is very active, full of news, quiz's, fan engagement Tweets, pictures and videos like any other.

 

 

What I notice here is people are more pissed with the things the FIA are mostly responsible for (rules and regs), and perhaps the auto makers and how they market their involvement.  I don't think it is Bernie complicating the rule book for example, and he was the most outspoken over todays quiet race engines.  Things like DRS and Pirelli cheese tires are a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't because those came in to fix the nattering fans gave 10 years ago about the lack of overtaking. 


Edited by Nathan, 14 December 2015 - 22:34.


#19 ardbeg

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 22:49

As an off season fix, I watched some stuff on Youtube. Season reviews. I started at 1974 and has come reached 1979 now. I think the 1977 season is my favorite so far. The 6 wheeled Tyrrell, the R1.5 litre Renault turbo, the Ferrari flat 12, the Matra V12, the DFV V8's. 6 different teams won races, 8 different drivers. No car looked like the other and seeing them drifting gave me that warm and cozy feeling of... nice!

 

There's no going back, but F1 is, to the general public, identical cars with different colors that for some reason goes at different speed. Always one color that is faster. Faster everywhere. But they do not look fast. It is so precise and clean that it looks as if anyone could do it. Far from the 1977 images. Watch it. F1 1977 Season review. Maybe that is where we have to go to find what went wrong.



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#20 Nonesuch

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 23:05

FOM is, amongst other things, selling a TV show. It can help promote the show in various ways, but it can already do a whole lot by improving its own product.

 

The way FOM films the races is dreadful:

  • Onboard cameras are woefully behind the times (see Indycar);
  • Minor innovations are counter-productive (the rotating camera has captured maybe one or two overtaking manouvres, and missed the rest due to being too slow);
  • Pertinent timing and other race information is hidden behind a paywall on a web-based application;
  • Most importantly: it has placed a seemingly ever increasing number of cameras at the far end of straights, slapped 800mm lenses on them and ordered their cameramen to minimize the cars so the (digital) sponsor logos can fit on the screen. Telelenses are needed, but not those of the 'one kilometer in one shot' kind.

F1 often looks very slow, and the way it is filmed is a very large part of this. Of course we like to complain about 2004 cars being faster than today's cars, but we're still talking a couple of seconds a lap at most.

 

By all accounts F1 cars should still look menacingly fast, even if they make a rather unimpressive sound while doing so.

 

These shots are terrible:

 

TlTEinw.jpg

 

8wU8pIw.jpg

 

Also: get the tracks to paint their tarmac run-offs a grassy looking green.

 

And to conclude for now with a personal pet peeve; in which other sport do we get the same commentators sticking around for the better part of twenty years? It's even worse for those countries where it's just one guy!

 

As silly as I know it sounds, I still think FOM should make it a part of their contracts to have different sets of commentators throughout the year. I do not for a second believe that you can't find ten or however many people to talk interestingly about F1 for an hour and a half.


Edited by Nonesuch, 14 December 2015 - 23:18.


#21 ardbeg

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 23:19

...adding to Nonesuch's list:
Have microphones trackside that are synced with whatever the producer decides to show on screen. There is a lot of talk about sound, but we hardly ever hear the sound of what they show us. Crossfading is not that hard.



#22 pup

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 23:22

1. Advertise, advertise, and maybe advertise.

FOM should be on the ground weeks prior to the races with radio, TV, billboards, etc., making the public aware that something exciting just might be happening, and the drivers should be on TV talk shows and other media.  Yes, social too.  

 

2. Quit the bitching.

No one wants to support a bunch of whiners.  Especially advertisers.  FOM should do what it takes to stop all the bitching, most of which is Bernie's fault anyway.  Pay the teams a living wage and if any of them bitch that they can't beat Mercedes this year, then show them the door and give the slots to someone else.  (Looking at you, Horner)  And if Bernie can't fill the slots with small teams, then give them all to Ferrari if they want them.  No one gives a flip about Manor.  Very few give a flip about Williams.  A small minority know who McLaren are.  Ferrari?  People will pay money to watch Ferraris.

 

3. Make YouTube your friend.  

Stop censoring youtube videos and start producing your own.  Hours after the race, FOM should have clip after clip of the races up to be shared. 

 

4. You can't sell something if you can't figure out what it is.

'Buy this thing, whatever it is!' has never been a good sales pitch.  Figure out the one thing that makes F1 different, and sell it.  Hint: the one thing right now is the outrageous amount of money being spent.  So sell that, and for Pete's sake, stop trying to cut the spending when that's the only thing you have going for you.  (Sad state of affairs?  Sure, but it is what it is).

 

So...maybe in addition to promo we need to make the sport more promotable.  

 

5. Better looking cars.  

Not just better looking, but completely different to anything else out there.  If you don't follow the sport, what's the difference between an F1 car and a GP3 car?  Indy?  1982 Barber Saabs?  They all look the same.  Go watch a marathon of Speed Racer and get back to me.  

 

6. Faster.

If you want the sport to be about more than an exercise in writing checks, allow the teams to actually produce something worthy of the money they're spending.  Engines, aero, tires, whatever.  Open it up and let them compete.

 

7. Simplify the rules.

No one cares how many millimeters long your nosecone is.  Find a set of rules that allows for wildly different concepts to be competitive.  "You have X amount of fuel - go for it", might be a good starting point.  Fans like what they understand.  No one at a baseball game waits anxiously for the infield fly rule to come into effect.  

 

8. Get more classic names back in the sport.

Nostalgia sells.  Alfa Romeo?  Yes.  Maserati?  Awesome.  Porsche?  You bet.  SuperCoolAsiaF1AwesomeTeam?  Um, not so much.

 

Here's one, just for the US market -

 

9. Give Americans a sense of ownership of the sport.

Don't get your panties in a wad, Brits - you only have to humor us.  F1 in the US is a sideshow - a European curiosity.  Americans as a rule, don't follow international sports - we have too many sports of our own to follow already.  So if you want to make it interesting to the US, then give the US some sense of ownership - more races, an 'Americas Trophy', or some **** like that.  It's the thought that counts.

 

Oh, and one more - you'll love this one:

 

10. A tiered championship.  

Crowning a king of the points is boring.  Give the sport a sense that it's building up to something.  Why is qualifying better than it used to be?  It builds.  Most every sport starts with a points/wins phase and moves on to a championship phase.  You're a sucky team that constantly bitches about the cost?  No problem, we'll save you the cost of going to the last five races.  

 

With thought, I'm sure there's more.  But this is enough ammunition for the haters already.  



#23 Otaku

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 23:51

If F1 would be a real sport that provided real racing, it wouldn't even need promotion.



#24 jonpollak

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Posted 14 December 2015 - 23:53

Nice one pup..

Jp

#25 Nathan

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 00:03

 

which other sport do we get the same commentators sticking around for the better part of twenty years? It's even worse for those countries where it's just one guy!

That's a very North American thing.  Comfort food?

 

 

FOM should have clip after clip of the races up to be shared.

They do.  They also provide in-car videos not shown on TV...

 

http://www.formula1....n-at-monza.html

 

https://www.formula1...le_of_2015.html

 

I also find the F1 Twitter feed supplies some of the best pictures on the web, they are not watermarked, and they post plenty of videos and pictures from years past.

 

 

Something I'm finding interesting is it seems a lot of people that criticize FOM/F1 for a lack of social media presence have no idea what exists.  I think some of you should go to https://twitter.com/F1/media and you will probably find you can spend the next week scrolling through it.

 

 

Get more classic names back in the sport.

Do they get special payments to entice them and help make the busines case?

 

I really agree with the cars not looking good, not sounding good, not looking fast or challenging. 

 

Doesn't F1 position themselves as the most technological motorsport in the world?


Edited by Nathan, 15 December 2015 - 00:05.


#26 Imateria

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 00:40

I read fine thanks, of course it has to do with promotion, create a product which is promotable rather than change the promotable to the un-promotable.

 

:cool:

No, it doesn't. History is littered with cases of excellent products failing whilst their inferior competition succedes due to better promotion (VHS vs Betamax would be a good example).

 

Having looked through that twitter feed it is actually bloody good just as Nathan said, so why aren't FOM shouting about it to let everyone, and I mean everyone, know it exists? Putting those videos onto their website is a good idea but only current die hard fans will know about it, get them on youtube and force them at everybody. Getting the drivers and teams to help out here would be a good thing as well, if Lewis Hamilton occaisonally tweets a link to a cool vid on youtube from a recent race it'll be seen by millions of people.

 

Better camera angles is an absolute must though. Formula E is dog slow, no one can deny that, but the camera on top of the fast chicane barriers in Buenes Aeries last year made the cars look extremely fast and dramatic, F1 cars are twice as fast but look half as dramatic and that is completely FOM's fault.  



#27 KWSN - DSM

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 01:07

No, it doesn't. History is littered with cases of excellent products failing whilst their inferior competition succedes due to better promotion (VHS vs Betamax would be a good example).

 

 

Apples and Oranges, so we disagree.

 

:cool:



#28 KWSN - DSM

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 01:09

Anything pimped on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram is still selective and money making. They need free access, not more boxes to put it in. They can social media to their hearts content, THAT is only for the existing fanbase and will not help improving the base of viewers and fans.

 

:cool:



#29 alfa1

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 05:22

There is a new Star Wars movie coming out, apparently it cost about $200 million to make, and Disney know how to market it.

 

The public can buy official Star Wars branded Oranges, Grapes, Coffee, Chocolate drink, Mascara, Humidifiers, kitchen Spatula, Cookies, Soup, breakfast cereals of many varieties, tea infuser, potato chips, Apples, Cinnamon toast, Body wash, Vacuum cleaner, Water, Hearing protection, and of course all the bazzilions of toys and other merchandize that you'd normally expect.

All these things have been arranged to be on the shelves of places the everyday public normally visit, so they cant help seeing them.

 

---

 

FOM are marketing a 2 Billion dollar product.

 

The public can buy official F1 branded... practically nothing at all.

 

And apart from books and DVD's, those items that almost don't exist can only be found at specialist websites like the official F1 shop website, that the general public would never visit.

 

---

 

Edit - I just took a quick look at the official F1 store at the official F1 website, and while there seems to be plenty of TEAM merchandise, I did not find a single thing apart from magazines and videos that were "F1" branded.

Nothing. Not even a F1 watch, not even a F1 polo shirt..

 

http://f1store.formu...om/stores/F1/en

 

Just say for example that I wanted a polo shirt like the quick fictitious mockup below.

Doesnt exist.

 

cgL8Swx.jpg


Edited by alfa1, 15 December 2015 - 06:18.


#30 lustigson

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 07:26

OMGWTFBBQ

 

Is the 'promotor' actually supposed to 'promote' anything?   :eek:



#31 Disgrace

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 08:49

F1 usually promotes itself with demonstrations in the host region in the run-up to a Grand Prix weekend... with cars equipped with V8 engines. How is this not false advertising?



#32 Nonesuch

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 08:50

That's a very North American thing.

 

If it is then it's not at all exclusive; when you watch English clips from the 1990s you can already hear the same old Brundle shouting about what is readily obvious from looking at the video. The Dutch have had Mol since at least the early 1990s as well, and the German pitreporter Ebel has been around just as long. I'm not sure about the German lead commentators, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were as well.

 

To everyone who only watches national broadcasts, these three people have been the face of F1 to a potential audience of roughly 150 million people. Three people. They write in papers and magazines about F1, they are invited to TV shows to talk about F1, and are by virtue of these facts one of the most important public faces of F1. For twenty years.

 

I hadn't watched Dutch broadcasts for a while, because I refuse to pay extra for F1, but recently switched in to a one-off free broadcast (the Mexican GP). It featured the same hobby horses, the same pet peeves, it was completely the same routine as it had been a few years ago when last broadcast for free. The commentator has a huge influence on how the broadcast is seen by millions of viewers, as he steers the narrative of the race and commentates on other events happening in the world of F1.

 

FOM should make sure these people are doing their part in promoting the sport to new and existing audiences alike, and one of the better ways to keep them on their toes is to rotate them in and out. To keep them focussed on the sport, and not their own grudges or personal favourite topics.


Edited by Nonesuch, 15 December 2015 - 08:51.


#33 GoldenColt

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 09:06

 

 

cgL8Swx.jpg

 

Seriously, would you ever even consider buying something like this? 



#34 Disgrace

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 09:09

I don't think football governing bodies produce their own merchandise either. I suspect it's because they realise consumers would rather wear a Messi or Ronaldo jersey.



#35 Marklar

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 09:12

and the German pitreporter Ebel has been around just as long. I'm not sure about the German lead commentators, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were as well.

Wasser since 1993, Danner since 1998

#36 Rinehart

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 09:14

In many ways I don't want F1 to improve its promotion as that will lead to an even more contrived-advertising-on-wheels-mainstream-x-factorish product, basically they'll just whore the sport out with text boosting, reverse grids, and one-direction concerts etc, anything to chase the new younger fan and in doing so they will just alienate the core fans by undermining the DNA of F1 even more. And ultimately higher incomes will raise costs and F1 will become even more exclusive and business over sport than it is already. And then that bubble will burst and we'll be back to where we are now and the cycle will begin again.



#37 Disgrace

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 09:20

F1 certainly isn't going to survive by swallowing any millennial-bashing nonsense that will cause it to appeal to nobody at all.



#38 Marklar

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 09:22

In many ways I don't want F1 to improve its promotion as that will lead to an even more contrived-advertising-on-wheels-mainstream-x-factorish product, basically they'll just whore the sport out with text boosting, reverse grids, and one-direction concerts etc, anything to chase the new younger fan and in doing so they will just alienate the core fans by undermining the DNA of F1 even more. And ultimately higher incomes will raise costs and F1 will become even more exclusive and business over sport than it is already. And then that bubble will burst and we'll be back to where we are now and the cycle will begin again.

The current fans are getting older and one day they wont be able to watch races anymore, what then?

#39 thegforcemaybewithyou

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 09:25

An exciting product promotes itself...



Advertisement

#40 Rinehart

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 10:05

The current fans are getting older and one day they wont be able to watch races anymore, what then?

Obviously I was talking from a purely personal perspective that I hope they don't chase audience and in doing so further ruin F1, so the answer to your question is "I couldn't give a ****"!

 

But it would survive without particularly chasing fanbase growth. I would guess if they did nothing to promote if for 50 years it would still have more viewers and followers than say WEC.


Edited by Rinehart, 15 December 2015 - 10:08.


#41 Jonnycraig37

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 10:49

The simple answer is that an all encompassing overhaul of the sport is needed.

Distant teams and drivers and uncompetitive racing at the front makes the promoters job impossible.

Even Bernie, the ultimate promoter is the first to say that the sport is an impossible sell at the moment.

#42 Marklar

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 10:52

So basically 'it's already ****, so lets make it even worse' or what?



#43 Nonesuch

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 11:15

Wasser since 1993, Danner since 1998

 
Thanks. Much as I expected then.
 

The current fans are getting older and one day they wont be able to watch races anymore, what then?

 
It's a fallacy anyway; there are plenty of 'old' people who are singing the praises of DRS and Pirelli's terrible tyres, and there are millions of 'young' people who are zealous about sports and events that haven't meaningfully changed in a hundred years.

 

Formula One is already well known, at least in Europe. Ask someone about fast cars and F1 will be by far the most common response. European Le Mans Series? Forget it. The World Endurance Championship? The what? Le Mans, maybe. GT racing? The WTCC? No.

 

If F1 is failing to live up to its own reputation, there is no need to look outside of itself for solutions.

 

How many people got into F1 because they're enthusiastic about saving tyres? Not once or twice to make a novel strategy work, but after three laps. It's an embarrassment.


Edited by Nonesuch, 15 December 2015 - 11:16.


#44 DampMongoose

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 11:20

<snip>

 

Just say for example that I wanted a polo shirt like the quick fictitious mockup below.

Doesnt exist.

 

cgL8Swx.jpg

 

That's a relief!



#45 Marklar

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 11:30

Thanks. Much as I expected then.



It's a fallacy anyway; there are plenty of 'old' people who are singing the praises of DRS and Pirelli's terrible tyres, and there are millions of 'young' people who are zealous about sports and events that haven't meaningfully changed in a hundred years.

Formula One is already well known, at least in Europe. Ask someone about fast cars and F1 will be by far the most common response. European Le Mans Series? Forget it. The World Endurance Championship? The what? Le Mans, maybe. GT racing? The WTCC? No.

If F1 is failing to live up to its own reputation, there is no need to look outside of itself for solutions.

How many people got into F1 because they're enthusiastic about saving tyres? Not once or twice to make a novel strategy work, but after three laps. It's an embarrassment.

I think that part of the problem - besides that many fans have turned off for various reasons - is also that people have generally lost interest in cars which also affects the motorsport.

Therefore you have either to satisfy the current fans and the real racing fans (which are currently fed up) and hope that this might cause some kind of 'family tradition' (eg I started watching F1 in a very young age because my father was enthusiastic) or you are trying to promote it in a different way to the young people, in a way nobody of us probably like it...Personally I prefer the former of course.

Edited by Marklar, 15 December 2015 - 11:32.


#46 noikeee

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 11:33

Anything pimped on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram is still selective and money making. They need free access, not more boxes to put it in. They can social media to their hearts content, THAT is only for the existing fanbase and will not help improving the base of viewers and fans.

 

:cool:

 

Bullshit. The whole point of social media is that you can share stuff to your friends. I'm not saying tweets of random PR/advertising crap by F1 teams, like they currently do, will ever help in bringing new fans; but exciting videos of racing action might. Unfortunately the only time I've ever seen common random people in my FB feed sharing F1 videos, is compilations of the old times loaded with nostalgia, because recent action not only is unimpressive but also quickly blocked on Youtube. I've never seen anyone ever share anything on a "wow this is great" vibe regarding modern F1, and certainly not among my friends in their 20s and younger. Instead I see people in their thirties and fourties lament the good old days and how they'll never come back. Surely something's very wrong here. 20 and 30 years ago the sport was seen as something cool by youngsters, these days it isn't.

 

But I do think promoting the sport goes way way beyond social media. Social media isn't the holy grail that some people make it to be, it's just another tool to communicate. You need to get the sport back in TV (even if less people watch TV these days), you need to let people know about the events and let them in at not-impossible prices, you need to make F1 merchandise more accessible, you need F1 racing to have some crossover with other entertainment channels like movies, cartoons, music, whatever; you obviously need to make the F1 product in itself more appealing, etc.


Edited by noikeee, 15 December 2015 - 11:36.


#47 ANF

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 11:55

They do.  They also provide in-car videos not shown on TV...
 
http://www.formula1....n-at-monza.html
 
https://www.formula1...le_of_2015.html

I wonder how they make these videos, because even in HD they end up with shitty quality.

#48 jjcale

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 11:59

Hotter grid girls in tighter clothing.

 

0c0ff6586a324b42e985d8316cfa8cb7.gif
Jp

 

Subliminal cigarette advertising confirmed ..... and you know which brand too :p



#49 Fastcake

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 12:16

[quote name="Nathan" post="7403628" timestamp="1450131592"]
I think that is all it ever intended to do, plus push up the attractiveness to corporations. This is a bit why I'm bent on saying it's up the teams, TV companies and race organizers to activate much of the market. They are the people doing the direct selling to the people watching at home. By basically subletting those rights Bernie passes that responsibility on to them. I grant it is very tough for race promoters because as stated, they get bent over the barrel.[/quote]

It's not what they're meant to do. The job of the promoter is to sell the sport, the job of everyone else is to sell themselves. The likes of the teams and others have their own interests that don't necessary coincide with the aim of promoting the sport, and no one who wants a job done can rely on others doing it for them without any guidance or recompense.

[/quote] yet FOM (under F1) has more Twitter followers than any of the teams, including Ferrari, all of whom considering the value of fan engagement to their bottom line should be very interested. If I look at F1's Twitter page and compare it to other sporting leagues like NFL, NBA, there really isn't much difference between them content wise. The NFL's Twitter page is mostly reTweets from teams. But F1's Twitter feed is very active, full of news, quiz's, fan engagement Tweets, pictures and videos like any other.
[/quote]

The difference is they've only started doing so this year. FOM are very, very late, and even now they're only really doing Twitter and a few videos on YouTube.

#50 Kristian

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Posted 15 December 2015 - 12:40

It sounds crass and controversial, but bringing back potential for spectacular crashes would help -  I remember reading an article saying after Spa 1998 viewership rocketed for a bit, as the start crash was broadcast. In 2014, the two times F1 made it to the front page of the Metro on my commute was Bahrain and Germany, both because there were great pictures of flipping cars. The most popular F1 videos on YouTube are the crashes. 

 

Be honest - 90% of people on here who got into F1 as a 90s child probably were only watching TV for the crashes, then once they learned about the sport properly then they become hooked for life. Where's that childhood hook now? Also I've lost count of the amount of times the non-F1 sports fans have said to me "F1 is good when there's a crash, otherwise its boring". 

 

If you want raw viewing figures, play to the lowest common denominator. 

 

 

(NB I'm writing this objectively, not what I actually feel.... but give me less complicated tyre regs and more sound) 


Edited by Kristian, 15 December 2015 - 12:43.