HOW SOCIAL MEDIA MADE FORMULA 1 ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR SPORTS EVER
Formula 1's turn to social media changed the sport from being an "old man's" Sunday watch to one of the most viewed sports in the world.
Fast cars, exciting racing action, touring the globe, Formula 1 is one of the most spectated sports in the world, with over 500,000,000 people watching every race. But, even more interestingly, it is by far the fastest growing sport on social media. Not too long ago, this was not the case.
Former Formula 1 CEO, Bernie Ecclestone, was without a doubt a legend in the sport, and knew exactly how to get Formula 1 viewed around the world. However, he made a critical error towards the end of his career, he failed to see the potential of social media. Around this time, Formula 1's spectator data clearly showed that the sport was not popular amongst younger people, and this had a direct influence on the sponsorships the teams could secure.
At the end of 2016, the Formula 1 group was sold off to Liberty Media, who then put Chase Carey at the head of the Formula 1 brand. Carey and Liberty Media made drastic measures to bring Formula 1 back to be one of the biggest sports in the world. They started off by analysing their audience's data and, based on the demographic and findings, rebranded the entire sport to appeal to a whole new generation of Formula 1 fans.
Over the last few years, Formula 1 has grown its online presence to a point where they are some of the biggest channels on social media today, from TikTok to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. On a side note, their YouTube channel increased by 3,000,000 million subscribers over the last year, which is record-breaking!
Furthermore, they signed deals with Netflix to produce an exhilarating docuseries called Drive To Survive, to further share the Formula 1 spirit around the world. They have even released a mobile app for die-hard Formula 1 fans to get exclusive insight into data, telemetry and historic data around the sport, as well as offering alternative live streaming options with multiple camera viewpoints.
Take a look at the video below by YouTube channel, Athletic Interest, on How YouTube Changed Formula 1. It's a couple of years old, but is loaded with fascinating information that is still relevant today.
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