AI-Powered Marketing - Conversations about AI , and digital marketing
F1 & AI: Enhancing Data-Driven Fan Engagement | #191
Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the AI powered marketing show. I'm your host Keith Bell and today we're going to be diving into the exhilarating world of Formula One race car driving, enhanced by some groundbreaking AI technology. Welcome to the digital marketing revolution. This is the AI powered marketing show where the future of marketing is not just imagine it's already here. Are you an entrepreneur, a digital marketer, or a tech enthusiast, then you're in the right place, every day we explore the cutting edge tools that help you manifest and monetize your expertise through the power of funnel hubs supercharged with artificial intelligence. Unlock the secrets of turning your expertise into a digital powerhouse from actionable insights to transformative strategies we've got you covered. Now let's dive into the world where AI meets marketing, where ideas meet execution and where you meet success. Your journey to marketing mastery starts here. Here's your host Keith Bell bringing the future of marketing to you today. Hey everybody, welcome back. But before we get into the AI F1 deep dive, I've got to share my latest binge watch obsession on Netflix drive to survive. Now I first discovered the drive to survive docu series on Netflix back during COVID. And when I was a kid, I used to have the slot cars, everybody remember the slot cars you could put them in a little slot and you had a little, it was like a gun that had a trigger that you could pull, you could make a car go faster or slower. And I think you could even make the car go backwards and forward. Well, I had a slot track that went all over my basement. I just loved slot car racing. My friends would come over even for a while there, where I was living, there was a place where you could go and race against other people on like a six wide slot track. So my first experience with watching drive to survive was this is like giant slot cars. I mean, it was, it was amazing. So the drive to survive show takes a kind of behind the scenes looks into the high stakes world of Formula One racing. It is an intense journey through the drama, the rivalries and the pure skill that it takes to race these cars. I was hooked from the very first episode and this show is not just about the races themselves, it's about the incredible stories behind the drivers, the teams and their strategies. My favorite driver is Sean LeClaire from the Ferrari team. He is from Monaco and I was excited to see that this year he won his first Monaco gold Grand Prix. The Monaco Grand Prix is like the best way I can equate it is the Super Bowl of Formula One racing, the World Cup of Formula One racing, the Stanley Cup of Formula One racing is like, it's like the original first, one of the first race, I believe it is the first race and it is something that Sean LeClaire who's from Monaco has been trying to win for years and I've watched, believe it or not, I've watched over the last five years through watching drive to survive and the F1 channel, how things have changed with his team and how he's grown and improved as a driver. But anyway, let's shift gears. Let's talk about something that is equally as fascinating, the collaboration between Formula One and Amazon AWS. So since 2018 Formula One has been leveraging AWS to power the data on and off the track. So if you've watched any F1 race, especially if you've watched it through the F1 channel, you can not only watch the race itself, but you can switch between a couple of different apps on the side where you can see like the actual racetrack and then little dots with the names of your favorite drivers as they go around. I just noticed that when I was watching the Indy 500, they have the same thing, NASCAR has the same thing. So they're really trying to make it more interesting and exciting for the fans. But the other thing I noticed was you could see all the stats. You could see the split times or not split times, the lap times for each individual driver. You could see how far the person was behind them. So it was really interesting. So the partnership has led to some amazing innovations like the development of the next gen F1 car that was launched back in 2022. So if you've been watching Formula One for a while, you notice between 21 and 22, there was a huge change in the look, feel and appearance of the car itself. And a lot of that was as a result of a lot of the data insights that were derived from this partnership with AWS. These insights have become like a staple in the Race Weekend broadcast. They've got the commentators talking about the stats. They've got a separate program hosted by Jolien Palmer where he talks about the technology and the innovation and the race strategy and he incorporates the stats and that. I forget the other guy's name, but he does a complete technical tear down of the cars themselves and they talk about the stats and about the data. And you'll even hear when you watch the drive to survive show that Formula One has become a very data driven race sport. And I've noticed that especially last year, the year before Red Bull was just, they were constantly pulling away, Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen. Max Verstappen is the three time Formula One champion or drivers champion and his teammates Sergio Perez and him were finishing one, two, like nobody could touch him. Even the Ferraris who are typically one of the better teams, the Ferraris were really good in the turns whereas the Red Bull cars were much more efficient in the straightaways. They've added DRS, the drag resistance system and it's just gotten really, if you're a tech nerd like I am, you'll really enjoy Formula One racing and the way that they're doing things now. So one of the coolest outcomes from this collaboration is an AI tool called stat bot. And the reason I'm doing this episode is because as I've said in many podcasts, I get a regular daily news feed from perplexity AI and this caught my eye because it was dealing with one of my favorite hobbies, Formula One racing and it was talking about this collaboration between Formula One, the FIA and Amazon's AWS and how it's impacting the sport, how it's impacting the marketing of the sport, fan engagement, just it's incredible how it's changed things. So this stat bot set the revolutionized race broadcast by using generative AI to seamlessly analyze historical data from the F1 archive. So imagine being able to instantly answer questions like what was the last time a rookie won the first F1 Grand Prix and stat bot made this possible by enhancing the fan's viewer experience around the globe and the innovations don't stop there. Recently AWS and F1 introduced the first ever generative AI inspired trophy for the Formula One AWS Grand Prix in Canada. Whether you're optimizing sales funnels, exploring new AI strategies or staying ahead of industry trends, this newsletter has you covered. Don't miss out on the chance to supercharge your marketing efforts. Subscribe now. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up today and remember the future of marketing is here and it's powered by AI. See you in the newsletter. It was designed by a UK based silversmith, this unique trophy blended traditional elegance with advanced technology, featuring elements that celebrate Canada like the Maple Leaf and the St. Lawrence River to further engage F1 fans and AWS launched a competition using the party rock F1 trophy generator. So there was an actual trophy generator that you could design your own trophies for a chance to win a trip to a Grand Prix in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship. So that was pretty cool and I'm a fan of F1 and I had no idea about this trophy. A lot of times I don't pay attention to when they hand out the trophies. I'm just happy to see my guy win or not win and then I like to look at the stats and where he stands in the driver's championship and where the team stand, the constructor's championship. So I have to apologize. Sometimes I don't watch and look at the trophies because they're just trophies, but anyway. So the obvious question here is we've been talking about Formula One, we've been talking about artificial intelligence. What the heck does all this have to do with marketing? Well it has a lot to do with how Formula One has been using this partnership to enhance their marketing efforts and I've got five or six things here that I want to talk about. So the first one is enhanced fan engagement. So by utilizing AWS's cloud and machine learning tech, Formula One can offer fans a more immersive data driven experience, so if you're like a tech junkie like me, a tech nerd, you definitely will like the stat aspect of it and all the little apps that you can have on the F1 television stream broadcast. The creation of 20 data powered F1 insights for live broadcast provides fans with exclusive insights in the race strategy, car performance, and competitor dynamics making the action a lot more engaging and interesting. Unified fan data. So with the unified fan data, they have fan personalization program. It's supported by AWS and Salesforce, F1 can create a unified 360 degree customer view. This allows F1 to better understand and personalize its fan experience. And we've talked about predictive analytics. This is kind of an application, I'm going to have to dig deeper into this, but it seems like it's an application of predictive analytics, sentiment analysis to develop a more personalized fan experience. Red Digital Footprint number three. This partnership has significantly grown F1's digital presence, and I think the drive to survive show has also boosted their engagement and definitely boosted their fan base. AWS hosts the F1 TV streaming product. I didn't know that. So the F1 TV stream product that I pay for every month so I can watch my races is reaching a much broader audience and growing fan base. And one of the things that I found is that I'm so engaged now that I have never been to a motor sport race ever, not NASCAR, not Indy, NASCAR would have probably been my best opportunity based on where I live. But I actually want to go and watch a live race. I'm going to either go to the one they have in Miami or Las Vegas. They also have the Formula One E cars, which I watched on TV last year, which is pretty interesting. These are cars that are completely electric. The race now is only 35 laps because obviously that's how long the charge will hold. But those cars were, they were fast, not as fast as the gas powered Formula One cars, but you know, they were getting up there into 160, 170 miles per hour range. So I thought that was pretty amazing. Number four, growth and fan base since partnering with AWS in 2018, Formula One has seen its fan base grow remarkably, expanding the directly engaged fan base by 20 times between 2017 and 2023 and increasing its global audience from 500 million to 700 million people. Number five, data driven marketing, real time, data analytics enables F1 to generate insights that bring fans close to the action, facilitating more effective marketing strategies. Just to point out how much of a tech nerd and a F1 nerd I am, I actually have the F1 app on my iPhone. So that's how engaged I am as a fan, innovative fan experience, AWS and F1 are exploring new ways to engage fans through machine learning, AI and cloud technologies, including regionalized media offerings and integrating gaming with live events. That should be interesting more to follow while to keep an eye on that. And number seven, STEM talent focus, the partnership also promotes fan engagement through tech-related entertainment, competitions and educational opportunities, like the AWS deep racer and AWS game day programs helping develop future talent and machine learning and AI, interesting. So by leveraging AWS's advanced technologies, Formula One has transformed its overall marketing approach by creating a much more personalized, much more data driven and engaging experience for fans worldwide. Well, they definitely have got me because, you know, I love looking at the stats. I think there was a race not too long ago where I believe it was Max for Stappin and George Russell and I believe it was the Grand Prix of Canada. It was a Grand Prix of Canada where they had the exact same time down to the hundreds of a second. A lot of times these lap times for qualification are differences of plus or minus, minus hundreds of a second. That's how much it's data driven. This has definitely boosted their fan base and has positioned the sport for continued growth, I think, going forward. So exciting stuff. You've got to check it out. That wraps up today's episode. If you loved and enjoyed our deep dive into the world of Formula One racing and artificial intelligence, make sure you check out the Netflix series Drive to Survive. Stay updated on the latest innovations from Formula One and AWS Partnership. As always, stay tuned for more insights and updates on the AI-powered marketing show on Keith Bell, signing off. Until next time, keep your engine running and your data flowing. Stay had a curve. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]