Ideas We Love Issue no. 5

Drive to Survive

We’re big fans of the Formats Unpacked newsletter. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s well worth subscribing to. As the name suggests, each edition takes a popular format from the world of TV, Radio, Podcasts and beyond and seeks to answer one important question: what’s the magic that makes it special? 

Some of our favourite issues have looked at formats ranging from the humble 2x2 matrix, to Desert Island Discs and Tom’s current favourite Podcast, The Rewatchables. 

The reason we mention this, is that the idea we love this week, could just as easily feature in the Formats Unpacked newsletter as ours.

That idea is the Netflix show Drive to Survive (DTS), which will shortly be going into it’s sixth series.

For the uninitiated, the idea behind Drive to Survive is simple: a 10 part documentary series that takes a behind the scenes look at F1. Each episode focuses on the trials and tribulations of a different team, and the drivers, directors and technicians attached to them. It chronicles the highs and the lows of the racing season. The podium finishes and the punch ups. 

It’s a soap opera set in the pit lane. 

Whilst F1 might look like a sport, it’s really a media distribution business. And viewing figures are key.   DTS has been genuinely successful at helping to revitalise F1 and bringing in new audiences across the globe, most crucially in the one of the world’s biggest entertainment markets, the US. Since the launch of the show, the average age of an F1 viewer has gotten younger and more female. Signs that the show is working to bring new people into the sport. 

The show is a success for Netflix, too.  In the first half of 2023, the five series of the show accounted for over 130m hours of viewing on the platform (Source: Netflix). So successful in fact, that it has spawned a series of look-a-like sporting exposés on the platform that ‘go inside the ropes’ of other sports such as Professional Golf, Tennis, Cycling and now Rugby & Nascar too. 

What we love about this idea

In a nutshell, it’s a great piece of modern media thinking. It subscribes to the idea that everything communicates. Not all advertising looks like an advertisement. 

A quick search on the internet shows how F1 had attempted to solve the challenge of decreasing popularity several times using conventional advertising assets. A big, glossy sixty second ad. Often made by some of the world’s best creative agencies. Now this isnt to say that those ads were bad. Just that there are some tasks which advertising is suited to and some which it isnt. Advertising is a weak force. 

Drive to Survive is a geniune answer to the reappraisal brief. An answer which is uniquely able to overcome to negative perceptions people had: that the sport was populated by rich, boring, primadonnas. 10 hours of telly is what was required to accomplish the objective. Not a 60” spot. 

At a time when media fragmentation makes reach harder and harder to achieve through conventional media buys, this idea lives behind the paywall. It comes with distribution built in, something that more and more media thinking is going to have to consider.  

What we’d love to do have done with this idea…

Unlike some of the cases we’ve looked at so far - the extensions for this idea are perhaps less obvious.  

As streaming reaches a stage of maturity - we’d guess that Netflix will encounter similar challenges to many other media brands - how do you maximise the share of time your audiences spend with you? One way to generate more time would be to create more media: an official Drive to Survive podcast or Youtube channel, acting as a ‘second-screen’ style experience for super fans who want more gossip, more insight or perhaps even a ‘watch along’ style experience. 

Similarly this could live on platform within a ‘premium’ tier of membership. Just as people will pay less for the inclusion of advertising in their streaming service, some will happily pay extra for greater access to their favourite shows or directors. Netflix could offer a Drive to Survive ‘membership’, a ‘David Fincher’ membership and so on.  How do you motivate a community of engaged fans to do more? 

The major storylines within the programme - Verstappen vs. Hamilton in 2021 for example - are so rich, that these could be blown out into their own ‘stories’. Living as standalone documentaries or even as theatrical releases. Equally, there is an opportunity to add these famous moments into other places F1 fans congregate. In console games for example. The amount of footage that this F1 and this show must generate during a season will mean there are many more ways to dice and slice the show. 

Conversely, rather than ‘rolling up’ and consolidating specific story lines, there is the opportunity to atomise them. Just as HBO are doing on Tiktok currently to mark the 25th Anniversary of the Sopranos. How could you create a ‘transmedia’ experience from DTS, splitting up the narrative across many different platforms? 

If you like this you’ll love this….. 

The Formation of the Premier League 

Just over thirty years on from it’s formation, it’s easy to think that Football has always been the way it is. The formation of the Premier League was a masterclass in marketing, taking a product which was down at heel and turning it into a media and entertainment giant. Football changed forever.

The Hundred

A new ‘lite’ version of Cricket that is big on drama and big on entertainment as well as providing a stage to a much more diverse set of players than audiences may ordinarily get exposed to. A great example of innovation in format to broaden appeal and drive re-appraisal.

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Movie

Swift has a very unique problem. Even when she plays the world’s biggest music venues she can’t accomodate enough people. The solution? Make a movie. And satisfy that unmet demand.

Triller : Tyson vs Johnson 

Reviving an old rivalry and documenting the journey. Compelling stuff. When it came to fight night, an interesting and unusual undercard as well an all-star line up of commentary talent (like Snoop Dogg). Are you not entertained?

A podium place? Or the pits?

For us, Drive to Survive represents an ‘outcome’ led approach rather than an ‘output’ led one. The answer is big enough and strong enough to truly deliver the intervention required to solve the real problem facing F1. It wasn’t just another response designed to satisfy the needs of a particular factory’s production line. As the old saying goes, ask a fish monger what you should have for supper and he’s likely to suggest fish.

What do you think? We’d love to hear.

Until next time, Cheerio.

Tom and Matt