Formula 1 boosts fan satisfaction to 88% by making every second count.
See how Formula 1 turns 3x fan growth into lasting engagement.
Formula 1 has grown at the speed of an open-wheel race car. After being featured in a 2019 Netflix series, “Drive to Survive,” the motorsports company has seen its U.S. television viewership nearly triple. It’s not just how many people are watching, but who. Unexpected new audiences, like young people and women, make up more of Formula 1’s 1.5 billion viewers than ever before.
But what comes next may be just as remarkable. Now, Formula 1 needs to find ways to turn that sudden popularity surge into longer-term sustained growth and fan loyalty. One big key to that shift: Experiences that feel personal, like a front-row seat on top of your favorite team’s garage or an email that recommends the cap worn by that team’s driver on the winner’s podium.
Fan engagement like this requires lockstep sales and service powered by much more than legacy spreadsheets. Einstein 1 turns Formula 1 teams into a personal pit crew for each customer.
With a shared view of customer data and powerful real-time insights from Salesforce Data Cloud, sales, service, and marketing pros can delight fans with well-choreographed speed and consistency. Here’s how they do it.
“With over 500 million fans worldwide, how do we understand who they are and continue to grow that audience? It’s those personalised journeys and always-on capabilities.”
“With over 500 million fans worldwide, how do we understand who they are and continue to grow that audience? It’s those personalised journeys and always-on capabilities.”
How Formula 1 Engages More Fans to Grow the Sport Worldwide
1. Achieve 88% fan satisfaction by connecting sales and service data.
Formula 1 interacts with thousands of fans over a race weekend. But service agents can feel overwhelmed if each inquiry appears to be a separate contact rather than a familiar face.
Matthew Kemp, Formula 1’s Senior CRM and Customer Operations Manager, had a vision for sales and service that anticipated fans' needs rather than functioning as a reactive call center.
“We’ve improved the processes, templates, speed of resolution, tooling, and how our teams navigate,” said Kemp. “In turn, that means the fan is getting a quicker response from a more knowledgeable agent.”
Now, fans can self-serve on a Formula 1 community page to report login and streaming issues on F1 TV, the brand’s live Grand Prix streaming service.
First-call resolution has also reached 86%, thanks to automated chatbots and refined processes agents can use to maintain consistency. Formula 1 service professionals have time to actually work on open cases instead of juggling new inquiries. This has allowed the brand to serve more fans in 2022 than the previous four years and even grow fan satisfaction from 70% in 2018 to 88% in the second half of the year.
Behind the scenes, Formula 1’s commercial sales teams were working in spreadsheets. Data was so out of sync that communication often lapsed between teams.
Today, Formula 1’s internal teams use Salesforce to communicate daily and create a sales process that everyone can understand. Reps have access to the same information, so it’s clear where prospects are in the sales lifecycle and what partners are responsible for at each event. And with service data connected in the same platform, sales has deeper fan insights to share with potential partners to scale growth.
2. Make the perfect recommendations based on fans’ favorite drivers.
Formula 1 has long wowed audiences with exciting motorsports action. But until recently, it had no way of knowing who its fans were — like the recent college grad who just purchased a Lando Norris shirt or the teenager who just watched her first Grand Prix.
Fan interactions differed across Formula 1 channels, including F1 TV, marketing emails, race-day pop-up stores, and social media, prompting a disconnected and inconsistent brand experience.
The data was there, but Formula 1 couldn’t connect in-person interactions with digital ones to draw the right insights and reach fans in the moment.
With Einstein 1, Formula 1’s sales, service, and marketing data will live in one place, so fan and partner experiences never fall short, whether at the track, on screen, or in the inbox.
The catalyst that will turn the data into meaningful interactions? Data Cloud, which enables Formula 1 to connect fan data across properties in real time, delivering better fan experiences and creating customer loyalty.
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3. Expand the fan base with a sky's-the-limit mentality.
Instead of executing its vision for in-the-moment personalisation on its own, Formula 1 turned to Salesforce Professional Services to co-create a clearer roadmap of the ultimate fan experience, desired future state, and technology that will enable that vision worldwide.
With expert guidance, Formula 1 was able to go live in just five months. Using Marketing Cloud Engagement, Personalisation, and Customer Data Platform, Salesforce experts are helping Formula 1 reach new fans and improve loyalty by:
- Analysing and segmenting its existing fan base to increase the number of known and contactable fans
- Sending personalised email and push notifications to race attendees
Harnessing engagement as its fan base grows is crucial, especially as Formula 1 adds new global events in 2023 and channels like an Esports virtual race series, podcasts, and even an F1 Arcade in London.
“We have over 500 million fans, and yet, less than 1% of them will actually attend a Grand Prix each year,” said Luisa Fernandez, Associate Director, Marketing. “It’s about increasing accessibility and opportunity to engage with our sport. We’re looking at the data behind those touchpoints and working with Salesforce to maximize our engagement.”
4. Reach net zero carbon emission goals by 2030 with data.
Sustainability is also top of mind for Formula 1 as younger fans express their expectations for responsible entertainment. Making racing sustainable is no easy feat, but with the ability to track, analyse, and report on carbon emissions, Formula 1 has pledged to go net zero by 2030.
One of the company’s largest sources of emissions is fan travel to events, which Net Zero Cloud will help monitor with predictions and reduction recommendations. In the future, Formula 1 could even connect the data with Einstein 1 tools like Marketing Cloud to email fans tips to travel more sustainably.
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