campaign to survive | The series that promoted Formula 1

Only motorsport fans get up early on Sunday mornings to watch the F1 Grands Prix live. These events are now attracting a larger, younger, more diverse audience and campaign to survive She played a “very big role” in it.

William Tyrault
Journalism

Filmed since 2018, the series has been an instant hit thanks to its reality-TV format, where viewers can access scenes from the stables as well as the secrets of directors and pilots in front of the camera.

Produced in particular by Britain’s James Jay Reese, it now features four seasons of ten episodes, each summarizing an entire season of F1, and has won numerous citations for various awards. Seasons 5 and 6 are also planned. But above all, it has created an extraordinary enthusiasm for a sport that already aspires to reach a diverse clientele.

Pierre Houdi, the official descriptor of Formula 1 racing on RDS, noted the benefits.

In the past two years, including this year, I’ve been told a lot by people who have passed me on the street or by friends that they have escaped from the F1 ship and are back. […] Many flames have been revived campaign to survive. I was told this often.

Pierre Houdi, F1 racing descriptor at RDS

In 2018, RDS recorded an average of 146,000 spectators for every Grand Prix race presented on its airwaves. Since then, the audience has grown steadily every year. In 2022, after eight races, that number rises to 277,000: a remarkable 90% increase in four years.

“Formula 1 has adapted a lot,” says Frank Pons, director of the International Observatory of Sport Management at Université Laval. “There have been major changes since the purchase by Liberty Media [en 2016]. »

“Their rebranding is targeting a younger audience, and they stand out for their social media use,” he says. In fact, it is the sport that has had the most growth in terms of social media presence in the past three years. »

Expand your audience

Canadian Grand Prix promoter Francois Dumontier can easily attest to this surge in popularity, as F1 runs through Montreal this weekend.

“There are two Canadian drivers, yes. But the staple is the series on Netflix. Everyone explains it to us. I made new F1 fans. There are people I know who don’t know anything about Formula 1. They weren’t interested. They looked. campaign to survive Suddenly they became amateurs. And it’s not just in Montreal. This is a phenomenon we see in all Grand Prix racing. »

Pierre Houdy understands this: he has been passionate for decades, he is not part of the “target audience” campaign to survive. “I, do absolutely nothing for me to listen to a conversation between the driver and his team manager while they were eating a sandwich,” he quipped.

Par contre, le descripteur voit la chose comme un bon moyen pour la F1 de se rapprocher des partisans, après qu’elle s’est fait longtemps reprocher que son « gigantisme » l’empêchait d’établir un contact étroit avec ceux qui la qui la hard. “It is targeting a target audience that is more detached and wants to relate.”

Frank Ponce also praised Formula 1’s efforts in terms of data collected on its audience, allowing Liberty Media to create “good loyalty”.

“Knowledge sharing is the number one way to get involved,” he explains. The second way is emotional engagement. campaign to survive Displays content that brings emotion. What we do is real content of the scenario: like a well-presented reality show. This is what makes you quickly enter the story and find yourself on Netflix. »

Netflix’s only challenge now will be paying attention to how conflicts between athletes or teams are presented on screen. Some riders complained about this aspect last season.

For the rest, Pierre Hoody is enthusiastic. Youngsters such as Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and George Russell (Mercedes) are quietly taking over from veteran world champions such as Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine).

“I really like the younger generation of drivers who carry the torch,” admits the man who has been describing Formula One since 1993.

In collaboration with Catherine Harvey Benard, Journalism