Sports Marketing Summit: ‘Pale, male, and stale’ – Australian Grand Prix transforms audience after popularity surge
The Australian Grand Prix has experienced a remarkable transformation in its fanbase since the launch of Netflix’s Drive to Survive series.
This shift has compelled the organisation to diversify fan experiences and set new benchmarks in fan engagement with the help of the creative agency, WongDoody.
Presenting at Mumbrella’s Sports Marketing Summit last Thursday, Australian Grand Prix’s digital manager, Joel Mackenzie and WongDoody’s chief experience officer, James Noble, explored how strategic off-track experiences and innovative digital solutions led to unprecedented achievements, such as selling out a non-race day Friday for the first time and achieving record-breaking ticket sales.
Mackenzie said: “Formula 1 (F1) is very trendy at the moment with exceptional growth globally and locally, which we’re pretty fortunate to be able to back end of.
“We had a very pale, male, and stale audience, so we identified that we needed to go younger and more diverse.”
The downtime during COVID-19 was a perfect time to focus on this. Nationwide lockdowns enabled the team to dive deep into audience data, revealing key insights into demographics, travel patterns, and behaviours.
“[During COVID, people] had nothing else to watch and Drive to Survive happened to be the newest thing at the time. F1 was very safe to do, in terms of little contact, so it was also one of the first sports globally to come back.”
F1’s investment in gaming and social media acquisition played a pivotal role in reaching its newly founded audience.
Mackenzie continued: “Prior to 2017, F1 was very restrictive with what the teams and drivers could and couldn’t do on social media, but they removed all those restrictions and essentially made the drivers more accessible.
“It took the focus off the cars and made the drivers the stars.”
When the F1 returned to Melbourne post-lockdown, attendee numbers skyrocketed, with record-breaking attendance in 2022.
Attendance increased from 320,000 in 2019 to 420,000 in 2022. The number grew further to 444,000 in 2023 and 450,000 earlier this year.
In addition, in 2019, female attendees made up 24% of the audience, and by 2024, that figure rose to 43%.
“We’ve never, ever had to cope with crowds like that,” Mackenzie said.
As a result, the team adapted by introducing API integration with Ticketmaster and enhancing digital ticketing systems. These solutions improved the overall customer experience and streamlined the ticketing process.
By addressing server speed and information access, the event significantly reduced bounce rates and increased conversions, leading to record attendance.
“Ticketmaster said no one’s ever done this in the world.”
The investment in these initiatives has led to significant results.
Over the past three years, the Australian Grand Prix has doubled its social media following and quadrupled its database, gaining about 10,000 to 12,000 new subscribers each month.
With 80,000 pre-sale sign-ups for the next Australian event already recorded, the team is more prepared than ever to meet the growing demand and ensure a seamless experience for fans.
“We are becoming more like trying to buy tickets to Taylor Swift,” Mackenzie concluded.
“It’s a good problem to have.”
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topics
Australian Grand Prix Corporation
Drive to Survive
Formular 1
James Noble
Joel Mackenzie
Netflix
What a crock.
No one is going to challenge anyone who says “we had to change because we were male, pale and stale”, regardless of whether it is true or not. It’s an easy comment to hide behind. But chucking the very fans who helped drive F1 to the position it occupies itself with today under the bus is quite the modern move. How virtuous.
The FIA and F1 couldn’t care less; the only colour they care about is the colour of money, and you only have to look at the countries they are happy to stage races in to see that – Azerbaijan, Russia, Saudi Arabia – those hot beds of F1 interest I’m sure…
Also, direct question to Joel – why does your organisation refuse to publish actual attendance numbers? It is well documented that these are fudged every year. What are you hiding? Perhaps it’s YOUR pale and stale board driving this consistent narrative that the AUGP is actually of massive benefit to Melbourne when it has been debunked time and time again that it is in fact a significant resource drain on the state.
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