Welcome to another week of the Formula 1 Fan Engagement Tracking Project. Let’s have a chat about fan clubs!

Fan clubs are a particular interest of mine, as I believe they’re one of the most valuable parts of any fan engagement strategy. I like to use the term “fan club”, but they might also be described as “membership programs”, “loyalty programs”, “fan hubs”, or “reward programs” (just to name a few!).

I’ve previously shared an overview of what fan clubs look like for individual drivers, but what about for the F1 teams themselves?

Currently, only five teams have named fan clubs: Aston Martin, Haas, McLaren, Red Bull, and Williams. This means that five teams are currently missing a significant piece of fan engagement infrastructure.

You might be wondering why I think it’s so important for a team to have a fan club. To put it simply: Fandoms are imagined communities. This means that fans feel a sense of belonging and connection to a larger whole - and others who belong to that whole - even though they’re never going to encounter most of them*. This feeling can be strengthened in a few ways, but two of the most important are through:

1. A collective name

This usually refers to the names fandoms give themselves (e.g. Swifties), but it’s also helpful to think of in terms of the names of official spaces. While a team may not be able to create the fandom-level name, by naming their fan club space they’re providing an additional layer of belonging. It’s the difference between saying “I signed up for their newsletter” and “I’m a member of XYZ”.

2. A central “hub”

While fans are always going to congregate in their own fandom spaces (think Tumblr, Ao3, personal Twitter bubbles, etc. etc.), providing somewhere official for them to “go” is extremely important. While you can never replace fandom spaces, creating an official source of truth trains fans to think of you as a core piece of their participation puzzle, increasing engagement with your marketing ecosystem. The imagined part of the community happens away from you and outside of your control, but you can help make the overall experience real.

Creating a fan club should be seen as the core of your fan engagement strategy. It’s what underpins all other sources of engagement and is a way for you to capture membership and add value while layering other touch points such as newsletters, giveaways, and exclusive news and content.

Somehow this post ended up over 2,500 words long, so I apologise in advance!

Jump to:

• The Fan Clubs

  • Red Bull: The Paddock

  • Williams: Driver Card/Grid Pass

  • Aston Martin: I/AM

• The Newsletters-In-Disguise

  • McLaren Plus

  • Haas+

The Fan Clubs

Of the five teams with named fan clubs, only three of them actually operate as fan clubs: Red Bull, Williams, and Aston Martin.

Red Bull: The Paddock

Red Bull’s fan club/platform The Paddock is perhaps the most sophisticated on the grid. However, I have two large (related) issues with it.

The first of these is to do with CX design.

When you log in to The Paddock, you’re greeted with this speedometer-esque tracking view. At first, you might think that your progress is the white, but alas, if you’re me, it’s the tiny bit of yellow on the edge of the white.

Even if I was Red Bull’s biggest fan (I try to be impartial when doing this research, but let’s just say that’s far from how I would describe myself), this would be immediately off-putting. What do you mean I have 6,950 points until I reach the first level? Most of the quizzes on the platform are worth 50 points, and you don’t have to be a math whizz to realise…that’s a lot of quizzes.

While not every activity is a quiz (you can also receive 50 points by submitting a question for their podcast, for example), 50-point increments when levels require so many thousand is a huge barrier to participation.

It reaches the point where you have to ask yourself - do you care enough to even bother trying?

This leads us to the second issue: A reliance on labour-based rewards.

Now, I’m no stranger to thinking about fan labour. In fact, I have whole sections of my PhD devoted to it.

And while - as my PhD explores – this labour isn’t always problematic, and is often freely participated in by fans – I do take issue when it’s the centrepoint of a strategy. And this is the case with The Paddock, which is primarily described as a rewards platform.

You see, fan labour can’t be an expectation, or the first thing you ask fans to do. Willingness to work – or indeed exert any particular effort – comes after a level of trust has been built. Taylor Swift’s fans weren’t born searching websites for coded messages: she’s spent seventeen years encouraging their labour through a process of baby steps, consistent output, and recognition. They know there’s a payoff, and that the payoff is worth it to them.

While people may argue that the forms of participation encouraged by The Paddock are only for a certain segment of fans, I have to wonder if they realise what the aim of a fan club should be. If we go back to the idea of fandom as an imagined community, it’s the idea of belonging to something because of your love for it, not because of how you can participate. Fan clubs, then, should be places for fans to join and feel valued, regardless of how they can participate at any given moment in time.

As my PhD thesis explores, you can’t equate the amount an individual participates in any particular way with their level of passion. Different people face different levels of leisure constraints, including those related to finances, employment, studies, and caring responsibilities. Nothing frustrates me more than when I see marketing teams describe fans who are willing to conduct more labour or participate in certain ways as “super fans”. They’re not super fans. They’re simply fans with the free time to participate – and interest in participating – in a specific set of ways that are being deemed “valuable” at that moment in time.

As mentioned, The Paddock markets itself as a rewards platform where fans are offered “rewards” redeem with the points they’ve earned. But whenever I’ve logged in throughout this season, the only options I’ve been shown are NFTs. Apparently they do offer VIP experiences and exclusive items, but again, these are often limited to the fans with the most points, creating an ecosystem where most members are shut out of opportunities.

If you’re a new fan, it’s not exactly a welcoming platform to dip your toes into, which means Red Bull are stumbling at the first step.

Red Bull also have a Discord server connected to The Paddock. I’m not going to explore it in any more detail in this post as it’s a whole thing on its own, but stay tuned for a future deep dive into how teams are using the platform.

Williams: Driver Card/Grid Pass

While Williams don’t have a fancy platform like Red Bull, their fan club is by far the most accessible, and offers the most benefits to their fan base.

Membership to their program is actually a two-step process, in which fans must initially register on the Williams platform to receive their Driver Card. Then – if they so desire – they can link their account with Crypto-partner Kraken to receive a “Grid Pass”.

As I discussed in my post on digital collectibles, any friction fans encounter in this second step is almost immediately offset by the fact the Grid Pass comes with immediate benefits such as a 15% discount on all team merchandise.

A lot of the perks of the program – such as engagement with the drivers and exclusive giveaways – are similar to those on offer through The Paddock. The key difference is that, unlike the paddock, opportunities aren’t restricted to those fans who have been able to participate in certain ways and rates.

This season alone, I’ve received access to virtual (group) Q&As with Alex, Logan, and Alex’s trainer Patrick, and met James Vowles at their Melbourne Fan Zone. Last season I also got the opportunity for a 1-1 virtual autograph session with Logan. By allowing all of their fans to enter lotteries for these opportunities, they’re sending the message that everyone is deserving of their time and special treatment.

While it’s not at the core of their fan club strategy, Williams also offer quizzes on a regular basis through their app and their website.

I have seen some individuals critique the fact that fans aren’t rewarded for completing these, to which I say: why should they be? Not everything in fandom is a competition or something that deserves a reward. If you don’t enjoy quizzes for the sake of doing quizzes, nobody is forcing you to complete them. You’re not a more deserving fan for having that kind of knowledge and interest. Sometimes it’s just fun to do things for fun!

When it comes to fan quizzes and activities, however, I do have to point out something that makes me laugh every time I see it. Williams run a competition every race weekend called Pit Wall Predictions, where you can guess things like what tyres you think the drivers will use, how many pitstops they’ll make, etc. etc. It’s some easy fun, and a good way to remind fans just what strategists do. The thing is, though, it’s always shortened to “PWP” which in fandom spaces has…a very different meaning.

Aston Martin: I/AM

Aston Martin win the award for the best fan club name. It obviously helps that their initials make it possible, but it demonstrates a level of consideration to what a fan club should be.

Aston Martin are also the best out of all of the teams at telling the stories of their fans. When they say things like “we see you, we hear you”, I actually believe them.

While their program is less flashy than, say, that of The Paddock, it feels more authentic. The way they engage with fans and tell their story shows they see them as more than the number of points they’re able to accumulate, which goes a long way in fostering a true sense of belonging.

While – as I plan on discussing in an upcoming post – their content is heavily UK and European-centric, I appreciate the time and care they put into featuring a wide range of fans and types of participation.

I do have a nit-picky issue with CX design when it comes to the I/AM platform, although it’s much smaller than my issues with The Paddock. Rather than having sections for competitions, registering your interest in driver cards, etc. etc, they’ve clumped everything together under a profile updating “survey” page.

While navigation is clear from their home page, the first few times I clicked through I did get confused as to whether I was in the right place as the messaging at the top of entry page doesn’t feel like a competition hub. It also doesn’t show you whether you’ve already entered a competition. This can be an issue as a lot of giveaways are restricted in their terms and conditions to one entry per person, so if you’re forgetful like me, it would be handy to have those options greyed out once you’ve entered!

The Newsletters-In-Disguise

So, we have the three teams with a solid fan club infrastructure, which leaves us with two who – while named – are…just newsletters.

McLaren Plus

McLaren Plus is extremely well-branded as a “fan engagement programme” on the McLaren website, however, in practice, it’s really just the name of their newsletter.

While there’s nothing wrong with this approach, as I discussed earlier in this post, there’s potential for it to be so much more than this. A newsletter is a separate fan engagement touchpoint to a fan club, and while they should work together, they shouldn’t be the same thing!

At the end of the day, I’m just left wanting more.

Like Red Bull, McLaren do also have a Discord server connected to their fan club. As previously mentioned, I’m not going into those today, but watch this space!

Haas+

One of my favourite parts of watching F1 coverage during race weekends is when the commentators inevitably bring up the fact that Haas are a tiny team with a fraction of the staff that their competitors boast. I bring this up, because I do appreciate that despite the fact their marketing team is likely a fraction of the size of some others, they are still in the 50% of teams who have branded their newsletter and created the shell of a fan club.

Much like McLaren Plus, Haas+ mainly exists as a newsletter, however, they do let you login to their website. Right now, it’s pretty much just a welcome banner, however, I like to think that there are plans to make it more of a hub like we’ve seen with other teams (and if there’s not, Haas, hire me to help you build from these bare bones!).

Haas do also refer to “Haas+ members” and “Haas+ exclusives” within their newsletters, which interestingly, is something McLaren don’t do. It’s a small step, but it reminds fans that they are part of a club and encourages a sense of collective belonging.

As you can see, fan clubs come in a lot of shapes and sizes. However, when you put them side-by-side it becomes pretty clear that some are focused on appreciating fans and encouraging membership while others put up hurdles and emphasise hierarchies, and others still think newsletters cover everything.

Clearly teams are working to very different KPIs (which is an issue in and of itself when it comes to fan engagement, as these are often set by individuals who know little about fans and fan behaviours), and I would bet good money that the overall reasons these programs even exist vary wildly. That said, I would encourage anyone who works in a role that works on a fan club (or could have scope to work on a fan club) to remember that fandom is not a monolith that looks or behaves in any one way. Please don’t centre the ranking and rewarding of fans over the chance to be inclusive and create a broad community, especially in the early days of your engagement attempts. And please also see the value in expanding past membership being a newsletter sign-up. If you want to know more about why this should be your focus, please get in touch! Nothing would make me happier than helping you succeed in building a program that truly values fans.

*this is some A+ paraphrasing of Benedict Anderson, in case you were wondering