F1 Managing Dir of Commercial Operations Sean Bratches wants to “put the spectacular back into the spectacle” that is the global racing series. Bratches, speaking on Day 1 of the ’17 NeuLion Sports Media & Technology conference, detailed his plans for the series next year, including new OTT offerings and a “reinvented fan experience.” Bratches joined F1 in January, and said upon arriving he realized what an “undermanaged asset” the racing series was. “I always joke with (F1 CEO & Exec Chair) Chase Carey about pulling me up and pulling a bait-and-switch,” said Bratches. “He asked me to come run the business. But when I got there, there was no research group, no digital group, no sponsorship group, no media-rights group. It’s like going from the Sears Roebuck catalog to the internet and trying to do it in a very compressed amount of time.” Bratches sees parallels between joining F1 and when he started at ESPN, where he spent 28 years. “We didn’t call it that at the time, but (ESPN) was a startup,” he said, “and you really didn’t know, I was being maligned by many for going from broadcast to this cable thing that was never going to work. And it worked out famously. Formula One is an asset that you can actually see an end game.”
ENHANCING THE FAN EXPERIENCE: F1 is building a responsive web platform from the ground up and building a live and non-live OTT product on the digital front. All will be launched before the ’18 season, Bratches said. He noted F1 has been perceived as an “incredibly exclusive sport,” so to counter that, the series is trying to create seams where fans “can play, can touch the brand.” F1 is introducing “Grid Kids” next year -- similar to what EPL clubs do with children walking on the field with players prior to a match. F1 also will hold five day-long fan festivals in Berlin, Milan, Marseille, Miami and Shanghai. “It’s a real opportunity,” Bratches said. “We don’t stand for anything [now]. We don’t have a social platform right now.”
IMPROVING THE BRAND: Bratches said F1 did a global brand strategy through Wieden + Kennedy, London, when he arrived, and subsequently “learned a lot about the consumer.” F1 learned the fan demographics were about 70-30 male to female, which for a motorsports platform is “actually pretty good.” Meanwhile, Bratches noted F1 is “underpunching our weight right now” on the sponsorship front with just five corporate sponsors. Bratches: “You look at the American leagues … and then Liverpool has 31 sponsors and ManU has 96. I don’t think we’re going to get to 96, but there’s an opportunity above 5.” Bratches said F1 retained CAA and is opening a sales office in N.Y. and also in Asia. “One of the things critically important to this is to expand the amount of sponsorable inventory that we can bring to the market and tell our stories. … This array of opportunities to invest in F1 if you’re a brand is expanding.”
ESPN'S NEW DEAL: F1 announced just a month ago that it would move from NBC to ESPN next season as part of a multiyear deal. Bratches said NBC was a “fantastic partner,” and his first instinct was to do another deal with that network. Bratches: “When you get down to brass tacks, the ESPN deal was more favorable in terms of where we were going. … I’d love to be able to see Lewis Hamilton drive up to the Oscars in his F1 car.” Bratches did say that F1’s content will not be streamed on Disney’s forthcoming OTT platform.
