LOS ANGELES — Formula 1 and Snapchat have announced a new partnership to cover seven upcoming Grand Prix races on Snapchat’s editorial platform, Discover. It’s the first major digital collaboration that Formula 1 has undertaken.
The content will be delivered through Snapchat’s “Our Stories” function of the Discover platform, which aggregates, curates and amalgamates Snapchats submitted from users at a given event into one cohesive story line.
Coverage will start Sunday with the British Grand Prix and will continue for Formula 1’s races in Singapore, the U.S., Japan, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
“It’s a great moment for (Formula 1) and for us,” Snapchat Vice President of Partnerships Ben Schwerin said at Variety’s Sports and Entertainment Summit. “We really believe, broadly, that young people are just as interested in sports content than they’ve ever been, they’re just consuming it on more platforms.”
“We really want to continue to make sports a part of (young people’s) conversation,” Schwerin added.
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Snapchat has been able to fulfill that mission statement by implementing unique creative tools into its “Our Stories” function — like dynamic score filters, stadium lenses and bitmojis — that help add depth to a fan’s overall sports consumption.
“Snap’s platform is one of the most popular among ‘millennials,’ a sector we are particularly keen on attracting, as it represents the future of our sport,” Formula 1 Head of Digital Business Frank Arthofer said in a statement.
At the Summit, Schwerin went on to state his belief that Snapchat’s presence in the sports world is actually complementary, and even promotional, to traditional television broadcasters.
“You look at the average of sports viewers on TV, and it’s about 40-50. Our users that are watching sports content, 80-90 percent of them are between the ages of 13-34,” Schwerin said. “So, we think we are really helping to develop the next generation of fans.”