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Archive for May, 2009

Facebook reveals true measure of popularity in F1

You’ve heard of Q Scores… a US-based measure of popularity originally conceived to quantify celebrity (Mickey Mouse had the highest Q Score for ages) but extended to address the popularity of just about everything. I reckon Marketing Evaluations Inc., the owner of Q Scores, must be quaking in its boots because Facebook is about to steal its market.

I’ve just read an interesting piece of analysis by the very smart folks at Grip Marketing. Grip uses Facebook’s “number of fans” as a proxy for real world popularity in Formula One. Even allowing for the vagaries of Facebook’s international penetration, it throws up some interesting observations.

F1 analysts know that fans follow drivers more than they follow teams. Grip puts numbers to this: three times as many fans support drivers as support teams. The only team that garners any real support is Ferrari, a clear measure of brand strength beyond F1. McLaren is second, a long way behind.

Looking at the drivers, we see that Hamilton has more followers on Facebook than the other 19 drivers added together. When we relate fan numbers to on-track success by weighting them against 2008 WC points, Hamilton retains his lead but Button (lots of fans relative to hardly any WC points) begins to make headway. The rest are far, far behind: seven drivers have fewer than 1000 fans each.

Some drivers dominate their teams in terms of popularity. Hamilton has six times as many fans as McLaren, Alonso nearly ten times as many fans as Renault. Vettel and Button are in similar positions of strength with Red Bull and Brawn respectively, although at much lower levels. Ferrari is nicely balanced: Massa plus Raikkonen equals Ferrari. Again at a lower overall level, Heidfeld plus Kubica equals BMW. Williams, STR, FIF1 and Toyota are in oblivion: Facebook records no interest in either these teams or their drivers.

A further piece of analysis combines fan bases and performance to generate what Grip terms a Charisma Rating, which reveals that Hamilton is the only superstar in F1 and that only Alonso and Button in addition, have “positive charisma”. The vast majority of drivers have “average charisma” but there are stern warnings for BMW and Toyota, teams that have both of their drivers in the “negative charisma” category.

There are implications here for F1 team principals as they consider driver selection for the 2010 season. Do they want a big personality with lots of Facebook followers that can potentially dominate the team brand? Or do they prefer the team to be always bigger than its component parts? Only Ferrari is capable of always being in the latter position, although if Hamilton drives in red, he’ll run it close.

Recently, however, Hamilton’s popularity has lagged others. His fans have dwindled since “lie-gate” and have perhaps moved on to Button, whose rapid rise on the back of recent results will cause Brawn to move ahead of Red Bull in the Facebook popularity stakes after this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Who says Formula One isn’t exciting any more?

By Scott Garrett on May 6th, 2009

Tags: Default

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Betfair appoints Synergy as sponsorship agency

Synergy has won the brief to handle Betfair’s sponsorship planning and activation.

Following a competitive pitch, Betfair has hired Synergy to develop a long term sponsorship strategy and, short term, to manage its experiential, PR and digital activation around this summer’s Ashes Test Series.

Betfair is an official Partner of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and official Betting Partner of the Test Match Grounds. This summer’s campaign will be designed to build Betfair’s standing as the sports fans’ betting brand of choice.

Synergy’s fellow Engine agency, Altogether, has been appointed as part of the pitch process to manage the digital development and marketing of the cricket sponsorship.

Matt Booth, Head of UK Marketing at Betfair said: “We’re delighted to be working with Synergy – they demonstrated in the pitch their impressive reputation for sponsorship consulting and activation, coupled with a real understanding of both our brand and cricket. In addition, their digital marketing expertise under the same roof in conjunction with altogether was a critical difference for an online business like ours.”

Synergy CEO, Tim Crow said: “This is another fantastic win for us which further demonstrates that we are the sponsorship consultancy of first choice for the great brands and, increasingly, the great online brands. Betfair offers consumers a best in class proposition which sponsorship can really bring to life, and we’re really looking forward to making that happen.”

By Synergy on May 5th, 2009

Tags: Press Clipping