Analysis of Formula 1's Social Media Marketing Campaign and Strategies

This report provides a detailed analysis of Formula 1's social media marketing strategies, focusing on their approach to attract and engage millennials. It begins with an introduction to social media marketing and its importance in the current digital landscape, highlighting platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter. The report offers a background analysis of Formula 1, its values, and brand image, including the drivers' capabilities. The core of the report centers on the marketing communication campaign, exploring social media marketing techniques and the importance of targeting millennials. It includes research findings, strategy statements, and an outline of a social media marketing plan, including timelines, schedules, and cost breakdowns. The report also discusses the use of Snapchat as a marketing tool. The report concludes with recommendations and a summary of the findings, emphasizing the effectiveness of social media marketing in increasing customer base and brand visibility for Formula 1.

Social media strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
F1 Background analysis.........................................................................................................1
F1 Driver's Capabilities..........................................................................................................2
F1 Values and Brand Image...................................................................................................2
MARKETING COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN.......................................................................3
Social Media Marketing.........................................................................................................3
Millennials Research- Target Audience.................................................................................4
Summary of Research Undertaken.........................................................................................6
Important Findings.................................................................................................................9
Statement of Strategy...........................................................................................................10
Outline of Plan......................................................................................................................10
Timetable and Schedule with cost........................................................................................15
Summary and Recommendations.........................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21

Index of Tables
Table 1: Timeline and activities for Social Media Channels.........................................................18
Table 2: Timeline and activities for Social Media Celebrities services.........................................19
Table 3: Budget allocation for social media channels...................................................................20
Table 4: Budget Allocation for social media celebrity millennials tool........................................20
Illustration Index
Illustration 1: A Brief History of Formula One. 2016 ....................................................................2
Illustration 2: F1 Race .....................................................................................................................3
Illustration 3: Social media marketing strategies ............................................................................5
Illustration 4: Theory of Reasoned action .......................................................................................9
Illustration 5: Communication objective.......................................................................................13
Illustration 6: Social Media Channels Budget...............................................................................20
Illustration 7: Social Media Celebrity Millennials Budget............................................................21
Illustration 8: Total Budget............................................................................................................22

INTRODUCTION
Social media marketing strategies are the strategies which are used by the marketers
using digital technology, internet and social media platform in order to promote and advertise
their products and services efficiently (Tuten and Solomon, 2017). In the era of information
technologies, marketing management of organisations are rapidly changing their methodologies
and shifting from traditional methods to modern and digital methods of marketing. In accordance
with this context, the report will cover the aspect of social media marketing used by Formula 1
auto racing championship. The management of Formula one are constantly using digital media
marketing approach in order to seek more attention and attraction of young generations and
millennials. They are using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter,
etc. to deliver information about the upcoming races. Social media marketing strategies are very
effective as 99% of millennials are registered with one or more social media websites. This not
only helps in generating and increasing customers base, but also assist in growth and
development of the organisation. In depth research will be made in this report which helps in
identification of the use of Snapchat among millennials.
F1 Background analysis
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Formula one racing has its roots in the European Grand Prix Championships of the 1920s
and 1930s, through the foundation of the modern Formula One began in 1946 with the
Federation of Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA). In 1946 the idea was rekindled and in that
season the first races were held and the following year the decision was made to launch a drivers'
championship (A brief history of Formula One, 2017). In 1950, the organisers of F1 race
hammered out the details and the first Formula one race was held at Silverstone in Pau in May
1950. Out of twenty and seven Formula One races that counted towards the seasoned title
(Jenkins, 2010). There were plenty of non championship races of Formula one even after more
races included in championship. In 1983, the non championship races began to discarded as they
were unable to generate profits adequately. The first race or “Grand Prix” was held in 1901 at
Le Mans. It was also known as the French Grand Prix. Its roots lie in pre-war Grand Prix racing,
but it was in 1950 that the major races were brought together in the inaugural Formula One
world championship. Britain hold its first Grand Prix in the 1950s. Since the inception of FIA,
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Illustration 1: A Brief History of Formula One. 2016
(Source: A Brief History of Formula One. 2016)

many rules and regulations were formulated by the committee in order to improve the racing
criteria and protects the drivers from
Formula 1 racing championship is one of the most prestigious and expensive form of auto
racing in the world. Participants from different countries participates in the event by using
advance cars and technologies. The best drivers, designers, crew members and engineers
participates in the event in order to make the Grand Prix successful (Cheng and Jarvis, 2010).
They travel across five continents and different countries who hosted the race. The race is most
popular among youths and millennials and there are hundreds of millions global audiences who
watch race on their television. The main competitors of Formula one are NASCAR and MotoGP
race.
F1 Driver's Capabilities
Formula one cars are one of the most advance and fast cars which are difficult to control
and handle (Auto Sport, 2017). In order to control the cars drivers need to be capable and
focused enough. A strong technical acumen, supreme fitness and deep understanding of the car
are essential. Drivers capabilities plays important role in race (Henderson and et.al., 2010). It is
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Illustration 2: F1 Race
(Source: F1 launches the Formula 1® Esports Series, 2017)

very important and essential that drives must have competent skills and adequate knowledge
about the track and cars. In this way, they will be able to participate in the race efficiently.
F1 Values and Brand Image
Formula one is one of the prestigious auto racing in the world. Since, it's inception, the
management of formula one and authorities formulated certain rules and regulations that
strengthen its brand image and values (Abelson, 2011). The brand image and values of formula
one are described below: Excellence: The value of formula one is to be outstanding and extremely good. Innovation: The team and management uses innovative measures to increase the
effectiveness in races and seek attention of viewers efficiently. Exclusivity: The race conducted are exclusive in nature. Speed: Formula one is all about speed. Excitement: There is thrill and excitement in the race.
 Glamour: Celebrities participate in the race in order to support their favourite racer or
team.
MARKETING COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN
In order to increase the customer base and profitability, the management of organisations
uses different types of marketing techniques and methodologies. This aid in promulgating the
customer base and productivity of the organisation. As Formula 1 is one of the most prestigious
and expensive form of auto race in the world, the organisers of race and management seeks more
and more attraction of customers and viewers. Since, the inception of Grand Prix, the Fédération
Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) uses different modes of marketing in order to increase the
customer base effectively and efficiently. From traditional approaches to digital marketing
methodologies, the management using marketing in order to increase the number of viewers and
customers. This aid them to increase the profitability simultaneously (Saravanakumar and
SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). As per the recent trend of using social media as marketing tool, the
management of Formula One constantly using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter in order to provide brief information about the race and display
videos of previous races. Now the management of Formula One decide to use Snapchat as their
marketing initiative campaign to increase the number of customers and viewers. Before
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proceeding towards the marketing campaign, a brief understanding about social media marketing
are described below.
Social Media Marketing
In present era, internet and information technologies plays vital and essential roles in day
to day life. With the help of internet, an individual can acquire information and knowledge about
anything and everything he or she desires (Hoffman and Fodor, 2010). Information and digital
technologies like personal computers, smartphones, tablets, etc. helps users to interconnect with
each other with the help of internet. Social media is the platform or web based application which
helps people to communicate, share message and information with each other effectively. It is
fast, efficient and time saving and users can also acquire information like recent trends and
affairs (Kim and Ko, 2012). Business organisations and marketers are greatly benefited by the
rise of social media platforms. They can advertise, promote and delivers the information about
the products and services to the customers at large.
Social media became popular since the inception of Facebook in 2004. It was created by
Mark Zukerberg. Facebook becomes one of the most social media platforms among youths and
millennials. More than 2 billion people are registered on Facebook and approximately 1.74
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Illustration 3: Social media marketing strategies
(Source:How to avoid obsolete social media marketing strategies, 2016)

billion people logged in every day (Evans, 2010). Majority of business organisations have
created their own page on Facebook and they promote their products and services freely and
efficiently on it. There are ample number of benefits associated with social media marketing. It
helps the organisation to demonstrate about their products to the large number of audiences. It
also helps in saving time and cost to the organisations. With the help of social media marketing,
organisations can gain real time comments and feedbacks of customers.
Social media marketing strategy used by management of Formula 1
Social media marketing strategies are used by the management and organisers of Formula
1 since the rise of information technologies and digital marketing trends. Over the summer, F1
became the fastest-growing sports brand on social media, outstripping the likes of Premier
League football and the NBA (Walker, 2017). It was an extraordinary result for a sport with little
official social media presence one year ago. The content displayed on social media platforms by
management of Formula 1 includes videos, articles, race history, future race schedules, etc. The
motive is to increase the number of viewers and customers. The Formula One has its own
personal website “www.formula1.com” and it's official mobile application.
Impressions are up 124 percent and video views up by 283 percent, while there is a
+1090 percent increase for minutes visited. The number of Formula 1 followers has eclipsed 10
million, with an overall increase of 56 percent compared to the end of 2016. Particularly
significant is the growth in subscribers to YouTube (+178 percent) and Instagram (+104 percent)
(Walker, 2017). Social media marketing strategies helps the management to increase the number
of viewers and customers. The main target of the organisers are millennials and young
generations who are more interesting in Formula One race. Over 99% of Millennials have an
account on one or the other social media platform. They spend at least 1 hour and 40 minutes on
surfing of stuff everyday on social media websites. Thus, the management by advertising on
social media can generate ample amount of visitors and customers, thus increasing their
productivity and profitability (Gezici and Er, 2014). There are several ways in which
management of Formula 1 uses social media platforms in order to increase the publicity of race.
Millennials Research- Target Audience
Millennials grew up in an electronics-filled and increasingly online and socially-
networked world (Rouse, 2017). Millennials are the generations who are receiving the most
marketing attention. The millennial generation are more interested in adventurous and thrilling
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sports like Formula One, MotoGP, NASCAR, etc. According to survey conducted by various
researchers, it was identified that most of the social media users are millennials. Marketing on
social media helps the organisers of Formula 1 to increase the number of customer base.
Approximately 148170 fans of Formula 1 completed the Global F1 Fan Survey in 2017. From
the analysis of survey, it was identified that 26% of the F1 face in 194 countries are of age 25
and above. There are immense opportunities for the management of Formula 1 to target
millennials by promoting merchandise store via advertisements to spread awareness about the
great sport. These generations love to spend time using social media to interact with each other,
using internet for online shopping and surfing online to play games for entertainment.
Thus, targeting millennials via social media will increase the number of customers and
viewers as it is used by majority of active millennials. The best and efficient social media
platforms recorded were Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter (Erdoğmuş and Cicek,
2012). The use of Instagram increases and surpassed Facebook by the millennials. In order to
increase the number of viewers and customer base, social media marketing strategies can be the
master stroke of the organisers. As millennials tend to spend times on social media and internet,
the organisers of Formula 1 can increase their advertising and promotion on social media
platform to target the audience. Targeting millennials will help the management of Formula 1
race to increase the sale of tickets and revenue. Further, using social media platform will help
them to accomplish their desired goals and objectives (Evans, 2010). Formula 1 race is one of the
most prestigious and expensive form of auto race in the world. As per the analysis made by
senior researchers, it was identified that youngsters and millennials are more attracted towards
this thrilling and exciting sport. Thus, social media marketing strategies will help the
management of Formula 1 to promulgates the viewers and audiences efficiently. Social media
marketing strategies are very essential and beneficial for the management of Formula 1 race.
Since the inception of social media platforms, millennials online activities increasing rapidly
(Flanagan, 2010). Further, government of various countries are providing subsidies on internet so
that everyone can have access to the internet. Millennials are the first completely digital
generations. Those born in the period between 1980 to 2000 are termed as millennials. The key
practices Formula 1 should follow for marketing strategies addressing to millennials to be
successful are as follows:
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 It should be authentic: The promotion of merchandise and advertisements of Formula 1
should be authentic and genuine. Millennials prefer authentic and precise informations
about the brand. By showing authentic stuff, the management of Formula 1 can
promulgate its customer base efficiently. It should be multi dimensional and multi cultural: Millennials prefer multi dimensional
and multi cultural advertisements that covers every aspect of the race and shows the
information about the culture as well of the country where race going to take place. It should be engaging: If the advertisements are short, then it should be precise and if
advertisements are lengthy, then it should be made appropriately so that millennials keep
engage till the last. Millennials dislike boring and long advertisements without any story
or purpose (Neti, 2011). It should be fluent in every form of media: The advertisement must be fluent in every
form of media including video message or stories. This will aid in increasing the
attraction of millennial towards the Formula 1 race.
 It should incorporate a higher brand purpose: The advertisement must incorporate the
purpose of brand and aid in increasing the goodwill and reputation of brand
Summary of Research Undertaken
In order to target the millennials, the organisers of Formula 1 decided to use Snapachat
mobile applications to share live photos and videos of the race. Snapchat is the smartphone
application developed by Snap Inc. It allows users to share live pictures, stories, videos with their
friends or relatives who are connected on the application. Social media marketing strategies are
the strategies which are used by the marketers using digital technology, internet and social media
platform in order to promote and advertise their products and services efficiently. In the era of
information technologies, marketing management of organisations are rapidly changing their
methodologies and shifting from traditional methods to modern and digital methods of
marketing. As social media marketing is the current trend being followed by the organisations,
the management of Formula 1 and Snapchat have announced a new partnership to cover seven
upcoming Grand Prix races on Sanpchat's editorial platform (Savage, 2010). Young people are
more interested in sports content than they've ever been, they're just consuming it on more
platforms. Snapchat certainly appears to tick the right boxes as a new channel for Formula 1,
with more than 166 million daily users creating over 3 billion Snaps every day. In order to
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analyse the customer behaviour, attitude and belief, researchers and philosophers proposed
several theories.
Theory of reasoned action developed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen in the late 1960s
who identified and analysed the importance of pre-existing attitudes in the decision making
process. As per the theory, specificity plays crucial role in the consumer decision making
process. A customer makes specific decision only if he or she gets specific result. From this
theory, the marketers and organisers of Formula one can learn multiple lessons. First, when
marketing a product to consumers, marketers must associate a purchase with a positive result and
that result must be specific. Second, marketers must understand that that long lags between
initial intention and the completion of the action allows consumers plenty of time to talk
themselves out of a purchase or question the outcome of the purchase. As millennials tend to
spend times on social media and internet, the organisers of Formula 1 can increase their
advertising and promotion on social media platform to target the audience. Targeting millennials
will help the management of Formula 1 race to increase the sale of tickets and revenue. Further,
using social media platform will help them to accomplish their desired goals and objectives. Use
of Sanpchat is increasing day by day in millennials (Standaert and Jarvenpaa, 2016). Its
interactive story telling feature, going live feature, interesting and attractive filters and stickers
attracting users to use Snapchat. For the management of Formula 1 it can be considered as the
golden opportunity to increase their promotional activities by using Snapchat feature.
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Illustration 4: Theory of Reasoned action
(Source: Sullivan, 2017)