With celebrity parades, live performances and media partnerships, motorsport race weekends are ushering in a new model of sports entertainment, says Charlie Brown of The Romans for the Drum's Entertainment Focus Week speaks.
In 2024, Formula E and Formula 1 are gaining more and more fans and getting hotter by the day.
It's no longer just about fast cars. Motorsport mixes music, fashion, and culture to give racing an overall atmosphere that everyone can enjoy.
F1 super bowl moment
F1's Drive to Survive Netflix series has helped win more fans and expand motorsport's influence around the world, but its success is not because of the racing, but because of the personalities and players . entertainment series brings.
The NFL has been doing this for a while. Watch the Super Bowl, perhaps the world's biggest entertainment show. This year, Taylor Swift was the most talked about person at the game, but she didn't even perform.
At the end of 2023, at Super Bowl moment, F1 held a race in Las Vegas, and what a spectacle it was from an entertainment perspective. The MSG Sphere is used frequently, not to mention by an avalanche of celebrities, from Cara Delevingne to A$AP Rocky to David Beckham.
F1 also teamed up with Jimmy Kimmel for the 'Jimmy Kimmel Challenge', which got more celebrities talking about F1. Guilhermo, Jimmy's sideman, was creating content at the race track, interviewing celebrities, drivers, and team principles, and exposing it all to new audiences. This vibrancy was contagious throughout Las Vegas. The nearby Wynn Hotel reportedly broke an 18-year-old record for the largest single-day tip pool.
Thinking back, who won the race? (Obviously it was Max Verstappen, but that's not the point.) For a five-day show that took over when F1 came to town, The winner of the race is mostly secondary.
Formula E: Where is the real innovation happening?
In the first Formula E race of the year in Mexico, Usain Bolt attempted a world record in a third-generation car.Was he ever going to do that? actually Break the world record? Probably not, but again, that's beside the point. It was about creating entertainment before the actual race, trying to appeal to a wider audience and gain more fans.
One Republic and Backstreet Boys then performed before and after the race in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. why? Because it's no longer just about race day, it's about the preparation, pre-race fun, and after-party. The world of motorsport is always pushing to create extravaganzas of entertainment to coincide with global race days.
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Driver as a brand
In 2024, we expect to see more from the drivers, especially not the race cars on race day.
F1 has done this amazingly well with its Netflix show, showing that drivers are looking for more opportunities to build their profiles.
For example, Charles Leclerc just burst onto the music scene with the release of his EP and signing with the WME agency. The agency said his current mission is to “represent the 26-year-old racing phenom in entertainment and commercial ventures.”
Meanwhile, Lando Norris is becoming big in the gaming world, and Daniel Ricciardo has launched a fashion brand, Enchanté..
Through these efforts, drivers can build deeper connections with current and new fans.
Where next?
Expect to see Formula E drivers continue to expand into the world of entertainment as the sport grows. It's not only an important occasion for them, but also for the sport itself. After all, more entertainment means more commercial opportunities.
At the moment, a casual fan may be able to name one or two drivers who compete in Formula E, but it's likely that those drivers have previously competed in F1. is. I mean, that's the job. Build their profile and entertain them off the course. By embracing their personalities and interests outside of motorsport, we create more fans.
The F1 season has just begun, and with Formula E races scheduled in Brazil and Japan, we can expect to see a wave of off-track entertainment that continues to reach and excite motorsport fans around the world. Masu.
Do you like games, movies, TV, music, and podcasts? We do too. Head over to The Drum's dedicated Entertainment Focus Week hub.