F1 together with The Insights Family has shared a new research, showcasing an increase in the number of younger fans of the sport.
A new research in association with ‘The Insights Family, has shown increase in number of active kid fans by 2.85 million in ‘key European’ market. The research shows a 17% faster growth year-on-year of fans, from 17.3 million to 20.1 million.
F1 growth is faster than football, which only grew by 6% in this period. The Insights Family ran an qualitative and quantitative research across seven markets, with a sample size of 162,774 kids, aged 12-18 years. This was done to understand the fans of the future.
As per F1, the key findings are:
• Generation Z now has a greater level of interest in esports than traditional sports.
• Instagram and TikTok are where young people are consuming content now, rather than Twitter and Facebook.
• Content on the official F1 social media channels was very well received by the group.
• Having behind the scenes access helps them understand more about a sport’s participants and their back stories. Those interested in the engineering and innovation of F1 cars are particularly attracted to documentaries too.
• ‘Drive To Survive’ viewers tended to enjoy it thoroughly and valued the additional insight it gave them.
• There was strong interest in hearing about the history of F1, including the evolution of the cars and icons of the sport. Formula 1 on pole position in race to engage next generation of sports fans.
• Interest in engineering and technology was more often spoken about as an entry point than races themselves, with UK 10-18s who aspire to be an engineer being 86% more likely than average to watch F1.
Expanding more on stats, F1 states that they are the second fastest growing sport on oscial media taking in year-on-year numbers, with a 36% increase. The fans visit the platforms for ‘race highlights, driver content and behind the scenes clips’, where Instagram and TikTok play a big role for the 15-18 age range.
Elsewhere, F1 is banking on YouTube as well, along with behind the scenes footage, especially via Netflix’s Drive to Survive show. Moving on to ESports, the sport stated a global number of 41% of kids of age 3-18 years engage with gaming.
It is a 22% increase year-on-year according to the report. Generation Z finds more interest in ESports than traditional sports, where research found that a good proportion of younger males are huge fans of the official F1 video games.
The interest in engineering and technology side is growing, as well, with STEM education getting popular to make it into F1. The data shows that youngsters, who favour STEM subjects at school are 64% more likely to be a fan of the sport.
Upon the release, Ellie Norman, Director of Marketing and Communications at Formula 1, said: “We are always thinking of creative and innovative ways to engage with new audiences and showcasing the sport that hundreds of millions of fans around the world already know and love, so it’s great to see that the work we’re doing to target new and younger audiences is paying dividends.
“Through the use of social and digital platforms, we’ve been able to break down our often complex sport for the next generation of fans, as they begin their own Formula 1 journey.” At the same time, Nick Richardson, Founder & CEO at The Insights Family, added:
“This generation are super-informed and constantly connected. They have access at a very young age to every bit of content they could possibly want. This presents both challenges and opportunities for content creators, brands, and properties. The proactive approach of Formula 1, to invest in research and develop a new generation of fan strategy is very much a best-in-class approach. The results we have seen in our Kids Insights trackers across their key markets speak for itself – its working.”
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