SCHOOLED BY SWIFT
How master of millions can help F1 find traction on social media
This weekend promoters of Formula One’s United States Grand Prix are using hugely popular performing star Taylor Swift in an attempt to bolster attendance and bring in new fans. Yet, if F1 is smart, Swift could be more than a one-day wonder for the sport. There’s a lot F1 could learn from Swift about how to use social media and relate to fans.
“She’s very relevant even when she’s not on stage,” said Circuit of the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein. “She touches people on a real emotional level.”
Swift, 26, is known for her singing and songwriting. But she’s also respected as a marketing genius, particularly with social media. When Swift tweets a picture of the circuit, as she did recently,
it can be seen by her more than 80 million Twitter followers. On Facebook she currently hovers around 75 million “likes.”
No wonder she can sell out concerts in a matter of minutes or move a million albums in a week. Swift doesn’t only feed her fans nuggets about her career but treats them as friends, right down to sharing her hugely popular pictures of her cat, Olivia Benson. She also doles out advice to the lovelorn, posts pictures of herself baking brownies with fans and donates to worthy causes. Two years ago she sent some big fans personalized gifts in a winter event that has become known as Swiftmas.
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, meanwhile, can come off as the Grinch — or worse — to many F1 fans. If you see his name on Twitter, it’s usually with a hashtag and a forum for people to complain about him.
As recently as two years ago, the 85-year-old Ecclestone dismissed Facebook, Twitter and other social media as “nonsense,” while claiming that the young people who used social media weren’t the ones relevant to F1 sponsors.
“Young kids will see the Rolex brand, but are they going to go and buy one? They can’t afford it. Or our other sponsor, UBS — these kids don’t care about banking. They haven’t got enough money to put in the bloody banks anyway,” Ecclestone told Campaign, an Asian publication.
“I’d rather get to the 70-year-old guy who’s got plenty of cash.”
In the same interview Ecclestone also delivered a classic line, expressing puzzlement about ballet and why ballerinas were always dancing on their toes.
“Why don’t they just hire taller girls?” Ecclestone mused.
It’s not known whether Ecclestone has since changed his view on dance, but he has revised his opinion about social media. Still, F1, which bills itself as the world’s most popular motor sport, languishes on that front and in attracting new fans.
“The vast percentage of the people who watch the sport are in their 30s and 40s and older, so we need a younger audience because the older audience will just get smaller and smaller as they get older,” 2009 world champion Jenson Button said Thursday.
U.S.-based Liberty Media, which is in the process of buying F1, has talked of plans to modernize F1’s media approach and make the sport more fan-friendly, but that remains to be seen.
“I’d like to see F1 make changes on the restrictiveness of things on the digital level,” said Leigh Diffey, NBC Sports F1 play-by-play announcer. “The sport needs to speed up in the digital and social media areas. They should be chasing a younger demographic. Be more user-friendly. Maybe the proposed new owners, who are in the media business, will help them along with that.”
Epstein has said fans can identify more easily with drivers than they could with a car.
Lewis Hamilton is as close as F1 gets to having a rock star, whether he’s dating one or hitting the slopes or the bowling alley with Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn.
He’s also among the most savvy F1 athletes at social media, where he has almost 4 million Twitter followers. At times, though, Hamilton has drawn criticism about whether his varied interests were distracting him from his main job of being an F1 driver.
“Lewis Hamilton got reprimanded for Snapchatting. Can you believe that?” Diffey said.
Recently Hamilton was taken to task for goofing around on Snapchat during an FIA news conference, and later ducked out of a post-qualifying Mercedes news conference without answering questions.
“I don’t really plan on sitting here many more times for these kinds of things,” an irked Hamilton told the media.
The disconnect was such that Niki Lauda, a three-time F1 world champion who’s now the nonexecutive chairman on the Mercedes team, said he’d step in to make sure Hamilton handles his media responsibilities this week here in Austin.
Hamilton was even chatty at his group interview in Austin on Thursday and took pains to explain that he does try to connect with fans, especially during the traditional drivers’ parade before the race.
Hamilton said, “If I was in the grandstand having come to support someone, and I’m waving at the dude and he’s not even paying attention, I’d be pretty pissed. So that’s what I try to do. I try to connect with every single one. If you look at it, I point out to everyone, let them know that I recognize them and I appreciate it because I never in a million years thought I would have fans — people who would consciously decide to follow me and not the dude next to me.”
The rivalry between Hamilton and the other Mercedes dude, Nico Rosberg, has provided most of the drama this season.
Like many other sports, F1 has seen declining TV ratings recently, and some events, such as the U.S. Grand Prix, have faced challenges with attendance.
Fans in some countries have complained about switches from free to pay TV, and the price of tickets has others grumbling. In addition, F1 has focused less attention on its traditional fan base in Europe while it has pursued hefty government guarantees in far-flung places such as Azerbaijan.
That’s part of an economic plan that’s not the norm for sports. Formula One now makes the as much money from guarantees, if not more, than from television rights.
Yet, outside of the money it gleans from its high-end paddock club, somewhat less than $100 million a year, Formula One doesn’t really make much money from the actual race attendance, one of the few revenue streams left to race promoters.
Epstein said that, in a way, F1’s customers might not be the fans, but the tracks, the promoters and the sponsoring government entities.
“I don’t want to decide what their business model is,” Epstein said.
However, having a business plan that was more affected by fan attendance might be a step in the right direction.
Another frequent criticism of F1 is that teams and drivers show up for the race week and then are out of sight and mind for a year.
“I think interaction with the fans is something we need more. Not just the drivers, but the sport,” Button observed.
That’s something Swift does, not just when a concert is coming up, but all year long.
Her show this weekend is her only concert in 2016, and that hasn’t kept her socially quiet. She also can cross boundaries in musical genres.
Epstein said the same could, ideally, be true for motor sports.
“You could be a NASCAR, IndyCar and an F1 fan. You don’t have to limit yourself to one,” Epstein said.
“You can make your appeal very broad. That’s something any sport could recognize.”