F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone may have recently expressed his aversion to social media, but he insists Formula One is doing all it can to engage with fans.
Bernie Ecclestone stated last month he is “not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is”, claiming himself to be “too old fashioned” and he “couldn’t see any value in it”.
It is because of Ecclestone’s views that F1 comes across as a sport that lacks interaction with the fans.
But at Formula One Management’s Knightsbridge offices, Ecclestone has revealed there is a team of eight people fully committed to raising F1’s profile via social media.
At a recent end-of-season media briefing, the 84-year-old said: “I was surprised at the number of people that use our app.
“Seems it’s quite successful. I don’t know for what. What does social media do? It doesn’t make any money for a start.
“What we need to do is keep our TV audience up and help the promoters sell more tickets.
“That’s basically what we ought to do. I don’t know whether social media actually does that.
“Since people have been telling me about social media I have been looking at this Twitter thing and I can’t see anything on there, except (Mercedes motorsport boss) Toto Wolff and one of my daughters!”
Pace’s contribution
Marissa Pace, FOM’s digital media manager, provided Ecclestone with a helping hand to explain the company’s current output and future vision.
“We are rebuilding Formula1. com and from Singapore onwards you may have noticed we have taken a more active role in social media,” said Pace.
“With Twitter, our impressions were over 80 million from Singapore until the end of the season.”
Contrast that, though, with 160 million for Mercedes for the same period and you can appreciate F1 is still playing catch-up.
Despite that, Pace added: “We will carry on through to YouTube in the future, and eventually Facebook when we get it past the legal team.
“But on Twitter specifically we are putting out live data graphics, anything from lap charts to live timing which no-one else is doing.”
At present FOM’s rights restriction means that an unauthorised clip posted on YouTube is immediately taken down.
That is to protect the television companies who pay multi-millions of pounds for the rights to grands prix every season.
As far as Ecclestone is concerned, television will remain one of F1’s bread-and-butter revenue streams until he can work out a ploy on how to make money from social media.
Asked as to how Ecclestone could rake in the cash from social media in the future, Pace added: “Mr Ecclestone asks me that all the time, and eventually we will.
“We are increasing our visibility, so we are starting from the grass roots and growing up.
“It ties in with what we are doing with the new website, which will have a membership area.
“We are also trying to make the experience at the races much more interactive or complete so the app now has live commentary.
“Our intention is definitely to keep viewers on TV, but to supplement that experience and make it more exciting, as well as getting people in the grandstands.”
As Ecclestone concluded: “So you see, we’re doing something.”