Anyone with even a rudimentary awareness of driving games will know about the two goliaths of the genre, Sony Playstation’s Gran Turismo (GT5) and Microsoft Xbox’s Forza 4.

To say they dominate the marketplace would be something of an understatement – and with driving games now a $2.5 billion industry, according to market researcher EEDAR, it would take a brave man to place any bets on a newcomer.

Ignite Game Technologies is that newcomer and Simraceway is the game they’ve invested more than $12.2 million and 2 years of their lives in developing. That may sound a lot, but as already mentioned, gaming is now a huge industry.

To provide some perspective, Polyphony Digital, maker of Sony Playstation’s Gran Turismo 5 is known to have invested $80 million over a 5 year period, so you’ll understand why we were keen to speak with the guys behind Simraceway to find out if they were trying to bite off more than they can chew.

Let’s talk about the McLaren deal first, then we’ll come back to a behind-the-scenes Q & A with Ignite.

Prepare to race the McLaren of your dreams..

Prepare to race the McLaren of your dreams – that’s how McLaren led into their own announcement earlier this month.

The significance of the deal with Simraceway is two-fold, firstly no other racing game is licensed by McLaren to include its cars and it’s not just the F1 and MP4-12C that are on offer, McLaren has chosen to provide its entire catalogue of road and race cars – 60 in total – all exclusively rendered for the Simraceway virtual environment.

That’s a huge commitment, don’t you think? Not only does this involve a room full of geeks and designers slaving over their Macs, but also a team of engineers scanning, measuring and gathering data on each and every car. The partnership breaks new ground for the videogames industry, representing the first time McLaren has licensed its entire catalogue of F1, Can-Am, sports and road cars for use in a game.

It also represents the first time that anyone outside the McLaren team will be able to experience the brand’s greatest cars.

Included in the line-up is the iconic 800hp, turbocharged MP4/4 F1 car that was driven into the history books by the legendary Ayrton Senna and his teammate Alain Prost. The MP4/4 is still the most successful car in Formula One history, having won 15 of the 16 races it entered in the 1988 season, capturing the same number of pole positions and leading no less than 1003 of the 1031 laps raced that season.

Joining the MP4/4 are the F1 cars driven by Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt (in 1974 and 1976) and of course this season’s Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-26, currently being driven by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. In total, 36 F1 cars, with the exception of the MP4-26 (which is already licensed for Codemasters F1 2011), will be exclusive to Simraceway.

Jonathan Neale, Managing Director of McLaren Racing said: “Choosing Simraceway as our licensor for all 60 McLarens makes perfect sense. We’re highly impressed with their gaming products, innovative technology and the drive of their people. We are very optimistic that this will represent the start of a successful co-operation between the two companies, and we look forward to seeing our rich and beloved heritage brought to life in the virtual world.”

To save me introducing them all, but realising that many of you would love to know the details, all 60 cars are listed in the drop-down display below.

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Let’s take a look at the game..

When we think of PC driving games, it’s all too easy to imagine controlling it via a keyboard or joystick, or if you’re a serious gamer then perhaps a dedicated gaming seat, complete with steering wheel and pedals.

Ignite chose a different approach, joining forces with gaming peripheral maker SteelSeries to develop the SRW-S1 Steering Wheel. The SRW-S1 is an affordable, high-performance PC controller that aims to open up a whole new racing world to players frustrated by the limitations of joypads.

The handheld hybrid racing controller combines the features and functions of a high-end steering wheel, with the portability and convenience of a joypad – the SRW-S1 includes a motion-sensor for steering and a patent-pending throttle and brake paddle system for a fully simulated driving experience without the need for floor pedals.

Sound like a gimmick? Well take a look at the video below..

Ignite Gaming Technologies recently launched the Simraceway wheel, a joint effort between the Steel Series peripherals specialist and Simraceway.

The controller was designed, tested and approved by a team of world-class drivers, including four-time IndyCar Series winner Dario Franchitti, double Indy 500 Champion, the late, great and much missed, Dan Wheldon, and SimRacing stars David Greco and Bruno Marques.

“When we set out in 2008 to create a new kind of racing game, one of the first issues we had to confront was the age-old ‘interface problem’,” said Ignite CEO Jonathan Haswell. “For decades now, racing game players have been faced with the unenviable choice of spending a huge amount of money on a wheel-and-pedal set that is tricky to set up, store and transport or settling for a binary joypad that simply isn’t fit-for-purpose.

“It soon became clear that the only solution was to produce something completely new and unique. A controller that would be affordable enough for those who can’t justify spending fortunes on top-end racing wheels but authentic enough to convey the full exhilaration of the virtual racing experience.”

As an extra bonus the SRW-S1 controller is compatible with other PC-based driving games, which makes its €119.99 ($119.99) price seem even more reasonable. You can find out more at http://steelseries.com/srws1.

Q & A with the Simracing Developers

So far the Simraceway experience sounds worthy of a closer look, so we got in touch with the developers and put them on the spot.

We’re not developing a brand new physics engine — we’re perfecting an existing one using extensive real-world racing expertise. It’s also important to emphasize that, despite their popularity, we don’t accept that Gran Turismo and Forza constitute the last word in physics.

As with real-world racing, there’s always room for innovation! With Simraceway we believe we can not only match other titles, we believe we can offer a superior racing experience thanks to a number of important innovations we have made during the title’s development.

Not only has our development team been able to call on the expertise of three world champion drivers, we also have a real-world racing facility permanently available to us for research and development. We believe both of these factors have given us a vital edge over other games in terms of authenticity on the track.

Simraceway CEO Jonathan Haswell joins in the celebrations with 2010 IndyCar Series Champion, Dario Franchitti.

We’ve partnered with SteelSeries to produce a financially-accessible, high-performance steering wheel that integrates fully with Simraceway, giving players a viable alternative to joypads, which are patently not fit for purpose in the context of a racing game.

We have experts in the field of skill quantification developing and perfecting a skill-matching system that will blow existing methods out of the water, effectively bringing sim racing to the masses by producing perfectly-matched contests for drivers of all skill levels.

As well as racing for pride and points, our players can choose to compete in paid-entry competitions which will give them the chance to win big prizes and pit them against real-world professional drivers.

Unlike “packaged goods” games, Simraceway can be constantly updated, allowing us to add new licensed content, features and upgrades and keep the game in sync with the real world.

Simraceway is a PC game that employs a client-server model similar to that used by popular online games such as World of Warcraft™. However players will also be able to enjoy an ongoing connection with the game—and perform many gameplay-related actions like viewing leaderboards and engaging with the game’s community—using any web-enabled device.

To date, Simraceway has agreed over 600 licenses for modern and historic race and road cars from some of the biggest brands in the automotive industry, including Bentley, Bugatti, Mitsubishi, and Saleen. Many of these will be exclusive to the game.

By the start of 2012, we expect to be releasing over 30 laser-scanned models each month as we build up a comprehensive simulation library of motorsport history, which our players will be able to purchase content from. We like to think of it as an “iTunes for racing”.

Simracing drivers will be able to race on a combination of real-world and fantasy street circuits, ovals and road courses.

We currently have licenses for over 60 real-world tracks which we are in the process of laser-scanning for deployment in the game.

So, how can you get involved?

Simraceway entered into open beta last week and the Simraceway wheel was launched at the same time. You can sign up now at the Simraceway website, then download the game and try it for yourself. The software is free and you can win points and prizes in the Simraceway competitions.

Sound interesting? Let us know how you get on.

The reason for my request was to provide some background to the BBC’s coverage of McLaren’s new £50m Production Centre (MPC), which is being opened by British Prime Minister, David Cameron, this afternoon.

Journalism student, Beth Andrews, was one of the first to respond and selected to appear on BBC Surrey alongside Professor John Watts, from the University of Surrey. Here’s what they both had to say..

The MPC is the new production facility for McLaren’s MP4-12C supercar and will also house the bulk of McLaren’s race car collection, which up until recently was housed at the secretive Unit 2 Access Point in Portsmouth.

The Prime Minister met with the team’s F1 drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and was escorted around the MTC and MPC by McLaren’s Executive Chairman, Ron Dennis.

When speaking to a small gathering of media and invited guests, the Prime Minister said, “Thank you for inviting me. It is incredibly inspiring to be here. I’ve been to a few car factories in my time but I have never been to anything like this. Formula 1 is an incredible British success story. It is not just McLaren. When Michael Schumacher races it is in a car built in Britain. Perhaps that is a point I will make to Chancellor Merkel tomorrow to break the ice!”

Ron Dennis was keen to point out that McLaren Automotive had already sold 2,000 MP4-12C road cars in 2011, and was well on target to achieving 5,000 cars in 2012.

“Just like our racing cars, the McLaren Group never stands still – and you may like some of the pioneering new directions we’re taking.”, said Dennis.

“McLaren is more than just a builder of beautiful and successful Formula 1 cars: we’re a relentlessly competitive entity, bred on high-performance and determined to bring to market ground-breaking products and solutions that are set apart by their top quality and dependence on totally unique and highly innovative steps in performance.”

Gallery

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]]> http://skiddmark.com/2011/11/prime-minister-david-cameron-opens-the-new-mclaren-production-centre-mpc/feed/ 0 http://skiddmark.com/2011/10/adwatch-vodafone-mclaren-mercedes-caption-competition-wvideos/ http://skiddmark.com/2011/10/adwatch-vodafone-mclaren-mercedes-caption-competition-wvideos/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:05:50 +0000 Steve Davies http://www.skiddmark.com/?p=25370 "To Infiniti and beyond" - where I also touched upon the significance of content marketing as a tool for brands trying to engage with users online. ]]> Last week I wrote about the effectiveness of online display advertising – in “To Infiniti and beyond” – where I also touched upon the significance of content marketing as a tool for brands trying to engage with users online.

This week I’ll explore the subject a little further, using the latest Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Caption Competition as the case in point.

The competition is built around the team’s F1 world champions, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, and encourages participants to have fun writing captions for a gallery of behind-the-scenes photographs of the lads and their engineers at work. To provide some creative inspiration a series of viral videos have been produced, which you can take a look at below.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Cap Signing. Ever wonder what Jenson gets up to when he’s not racing?

Hosted on the Vodafone Racing Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/vodafoneracing, fans are invited to choose a photo then add a witty caption, after which they can vote on other captions from the 800 or so already added.

Some of my favourites include a picture of Lewis saying, “I left Massa this much room and he still hit me..”, or one where Jenson is looking at a magazine with his engineer and says ‘..at least I’m sexier than Vettel in the latest Pirelli photo shoot..”. You get the idea.

The App can prove quite an addictive experience, especially once you realise there are prizes on offer. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes merchandise (including caps and t-shirts signed by either Lewis or Jenson) will be given to the highest points scorer each week, but the grand prize is a meet and greet for the main winner (and a friend) to visit either Lewis or Jenson at the McLaren Technical Centre in Woking, tour the facilities and pick up a signed copy of their winning caption. The team will even lay on flights and accommodation if the winner lives outside the UK.

The campaign which has been running since late July, has earned Vodafone over 500,000 views on YouTube (300,000 of those in the past month) but perhaps more importantly has fed plenty of positive social conversation about the playful side of the team and its drivers.

Now you might be thinking it’s easy for Vodafone, with access to two F1 world champions and a marketing budget equivalent to the gross domestic product of a third-world country, but there are in fact several lessons that can be applied to every campaign.

Gamification

A few years ago we ran a campaign with Volkswagen & Tribal DDB, called GTI Project, a Scaletrix-themed driving game with its own microsite supported by a series of cryptic display ads. You can still play the game today (http://www.gtiproject.com/), but make sure you’ve got plenty of spare time available – it’s thoroughly addictive.

I remember measuring yield figures 60 times that of other campaigns and it went on to win several well-deserved awards.

The lesson learned was that a successful social campaign should focus on the viewer’s needs more so than the brand, and that play (just as it was for all of us at one time) is the best tool for learning.

An article published on Mashable earlier this year – Gamification: How Competition Is Reinventing Business, Marketing & Everyday Life – provides a more in-depth look at the mechanics of the approach, but in simple terms the use of gameplay for non-gaming applications plays on our intrinsic desire for reward and recognition amongst our peers.

From a behavioural standpoint it also lowers our guard, sustains participation over a much longer period and builds a shared experience, which as anyone involved in team building will know is crucial to the success of relationships in a group.

And of course groups of supporters and advocates are the goal of nearly every social campaign, so it makes sense for companies to start a campaign considering how they can facilitate the growth of these social groups using their brand as the catalyst. Gameplay is by far the best way to achieve this.

Content

Success in all of our relationships, hinges on the conversations we participate in and this is never more obvious than in the relationship between a brand and its customers online.

The problem as many brands have discovered, is without a constant flow of engaging content, audiences will swiftly move off topic, or worse, start talking about the brand negatively. Facebook pages become customer complaint forums and suddenly all those ‘fans’ turn from being an asset into a liability.

This is where content marketing comes into play. If gameplay is the mechanism, then content is the raw material which feeds it. Content won’t cover up a PR or customer service blunder, but it will provide the means to build a positive relationship with an audience and in many ways this is the main benefit of campaigns such as Vodafone’s Caption Competition.

It’s fun, it’s inclusive and brings us a little closer to the team which Vodafone are helping to sponsor.

There are plenty more examples in this sector which show how gamification can be used to great effect, including:

- MINI’s Getaway Stockholm challenge – where the City of Stockholm provided the backdrop for the world’s largest reality board game. [Link]

- Volkswagen’s The Fun Theory (The Speed Camera Lottery) – which tested the hypothesis, “Can we get more people to obey the speed limit by making it fun to do?” [Link]

- Ford Focus Rally – an interactive pan-American cross-country road rally with the grand prize of $100,000 and a brand new 2012 Ford Focus. [Link]

- Citroën DS4SEEKERS Competition – an online and mobile competition in a multi-player game of hide and seek for a chance to win a New Citroën DS4. [Link]

If you haven’t already scrolled past all the marketing speak, then take a look at the remaining viral clips featuring Lewis and Jenson overdubbed with the voice of an actor. They might just inspire you to create the perfect caption that wins you a visit to the most impressive F1 facility on the planet.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Hands Up

Just how hot does Jenson look in his new uniform?

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Coin

What does Jenson keep in his pockets when he’s driving?

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Jenson Excited

Ever wondered what goes through Jenson’s mind when he’s driving?

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Lewis Solo

Ever wondered what Lewis and Jenson chat about on the phone?

Disclosure: This article is sponsored in part by Vodafone, however all views expressed within are entirely our own. We’ve used it to illustrate our wider feature on digital marketing within automotive and motorsport. Sponsored articles are accepted at our own discretion and only where we believe such additional focus or analysis will benefit our readers. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this article further, then get in touch via email or using the contact tab on this page.

The Daily Mail Newspaper (the last bastion of truly fine reporting) claimed that “Felipe Massa was urged to ‘destroy’ Lewis Hamilton prior to their collision in last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix”, but then went on to clarify that Smedley told Massa, ‘Hold Hamilton as much as we can,’ and then added, ‘Destroy his race as much as we can. Come on, boy!’

So, Ferrari’s off-the-record spokesperson has sought to clarify the misunderstanding in a blog post on ferrari.com

So consider yourself verbally chastised for entertaining the thought of anything improper – it can be pretty grim up north in Middlesbrough and sometimes the vocabulary of the locals reflects this..

McLaren Automotive Asia Pte Ltd will be responsible for all of McLaren Automotive’s regional operations throughout its Asia Pacific network including importation, distribution, logistics, sales, marketing, technical support and financial services for McLaren’s range of high-performance sports cars.

The wholly-owned McLaren subsidiary will be based in Singapore with an initial team of around 10 McLaren Automotive employees managing retailers in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. Plans are under consideration for expansion into mainland China.

McLaren already have a strong reputation in the region from its Formula One success, having won races in the Asia Pacific region every season since 2007.

One fascinating statistic revealed last night is that around a quarter of all existing McLaren F1 road cars have their homes in the Asia Pacific region, so McLaren Automotive naturally assume existing owners will be keen to add an MP4-12C to their collection and indeed this is borne out by news that the 5 McLaren Automotive retailers in the region already hold an 18 months order book on average.

Ron Dennis, the company’s Chairman, also made his ambitions clear at a press conference last night – to grow into a multi-billion dollar business within the next 10 years.

Dennis confirmed that McLaren’s future was still very much in F1, but that racing would only account for around 10 per cent of the group’s income as other divisions expand.

They aim to sell around 4,000 cars each year (around 1,000 cars have been sold in the MP4-12C’s first trading year), with 43 per cent of sales in North America, 35 per cent in Europe and the rest in the Middle-East and Asia Pac. This compares with around 7,000 cars sold by Ferrari today, although their President Luca di Montezemolo has previously stated their ambition to reach 10,000 cars within the decade.

Dennis is determined to “..reach a turnover in the billions” and he said “we will achieve it.” Watch out Ferrari..

What better excuse to wheel out McLaren’s new supercar, the MP4-12C and cruise around the town pursued by Milan’s indigenous paparazzi.

If you’ve ever been to Monza circuit then you’ll probably have visited the remains of the heavily banked section of the old track, as it gently decays in the surrounding woodland. I’m fortunate to have visited a great many tracks around the world, but Monza is the only one that sends chills down my spine whenever I visit, especially on a non-race day.

To describe the sensation as haunting would be an understatement, there’s something so steeped in history about the place that you can almost still hear Fangio and Moss dicing just inches apart as they fight for the win. Little remains of the 4.25 km high-speed banked ‘speed circuit’, but you get the feeling that what does, retains the very essence of motor racing – all the reasons why young men risk their lives in pursuit of the chequered flag. Distilled into one stretch of track.

So, it’s fitting that we look upon a photo of McLaren’s MP4-12C, a car which in McLaren’s own words, “..captures everything McLaren has learned in Formula 1 – distilled into a road car”.

I like to imagine Fangio looking on at this image, knowing that it was men like him who contributed to making modern supercars, like the MP4-12C, the great machines that they are.

Feel free to download a copy of the image for your own personal use, and then immerse yourself in the full gallery of McLaren’s MP4-12C in Milan.

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Bonus Gallery

This has been Lewis’ most dissapointing season in F1 to date, admidst criticism that his celebrity lifestyle may be hindering his Formula One career.

To set the record straight, Lewis wanted to speak about the race and the preparations he makes as he approaches the unique challenge of Monza.

Questions and Answers

Lewis, can you describe the challenge of racing at Monza?
Monza’s unique. It’s a real challenge for the drivers because you go there with a special lowdownforce aero package that makes the car feel completely different. It accelerates faster, but it also feels quite unstable compared to normal and you have much less grip through the corners. You have to drive the car a bit like a go kart.

Do you expect the MP4-26 to be competitive?
Last year I won at Spa and failed to finish at Monza, so I’m looking to reverse that sequence this year! I think we’ll be massively competitive at Monza because we’re on full-throttle for 83 percent of the lap and we have a very powerful and driveable engine in the Mercedes V8. The balance of our car is also good and I’m expecting it to ride the kerbs well. You have to hammer the chicanes if you want to be quick and not all the drivers feel comfortable doing that, but I have an aggressive driving style and don’t mind!

What would it mean to win at Monza?
It’s one of the classic races on the calendar and I’d love to win it. I haven’t had much luck at the track for the last two years, but it’s a place that I associate with good memories. I won the GP2 Series at the track in 2006 and it was that same weekend that Ron [Dennis, Chairman of the McLaren Group] told me he was going to give me a chance. I finished second here in 2007 and I’d love to go one better this year.

Do you get used to driving at speeds in excess of 220mph?
You do and, as a result, you have to be very careful not to exceed the pit lane speed limit when you come into the pits. Monza is a track that you have to respect because of the high speeds involved. In 2009 I was pushing hard at the end of the race and I lost it between the two Lesmos. I hit the barrier on the inside and it was quite an impact. I definitely don’t want to be doing that again!

What’s it like performing in front of Ferrari’s home crowd?
It doesn’t worry me. If anything, the support for Ferrari spurs everyone at McLaren on! We get a fantastic reception as well: there’s some light-hearted banter from the grandstands, and there are some in the crowd that support us!

Does the history of Monza mean anything to you?
It’s pretty spectacular to see the old banking right next to the pits. I tried walking up it once, but it wasn’t possible. I had to get down on all fours and actually climb up it! You have to wonder how many cars disappeared over the top of the banking because there was only one layer of Armco holding them in if they had failures.

Would you have been happy to race on Monza’s banking 50 years ago?
It was dangerous, but I would have raced on it back then. It must have been thrilling to drive around a really high speed corner. You probably think I’m nuts, but I’ve always been like that. When I was a kid, if someone told me not to do something because it was dangerous, I’d go and do it!

The remit of the Advisory Council includes providing strategic input into the product, technology, quality, brand, marketing and distribution plans of Group Lotus.

Murray was Chief Designer for the Brabham team in F1, working directly for its boss Bernie Ecclestone, before joining McLaren where he designed the McLaren F1 road car. During his time in F1, Gordon was responsible for designing many Grand Prix winning cars and introducing many of the most pioneering new technologies.

More recently Gordon established Gordon Murray Design to develop an innovative and disruptive automotive manufacturing technology trademarked iStream®. The design and prototyping of their T.25 Petrol and T.27 Electric Ultra Compact City Cars has been central to both the development and validation of this process.

Commenting on his appointment Gordon Murray said: “For years I’ve been a huge admirer of Lotus, I have great respect for the legacy that Colin Chapman created and I think what Dany and the team are doing is a really good thing for the brand. He’s taking the strength from Chapman’s principals and taking the business to the next level whilst still keeping the general ethos – not an easy task! I’m really looking forward to contributing to Group Lotus during this exciting time.”

Following his podium finish at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Jenson flew back to the UK on Sunday evening, ready for his demonstration run through the streets of Manchester the following day. Button also treated one lucky Vodafone customer to a thrilling drive through Manchester city centre in a McLaren MP4-12C, and ended the day with an on-stage, public Q&A appearance.

From Friday to Monday, Vodafone customers and up to 3 of their friends were give the chance to access the Vodafone VIP Fan Zone in Albert Square, which hosted a bespoke Go Kart track and a number of interactive F1 experiences, including a pit stop challenge, the opportunity to sit in the McLaren Mercedes car, an F1 simulator and an exhibition of race suits and helmets. Throughout the weekend there was also a pit garage in the forecourt of the Hilton Deansgate hotel in which customers were given tours.

This three-day celebration was part of Vodafone’s initiative to give more people the chance to experience F1 first-hand. Previous Vodafone events have taken place in central London and at the McLaren Technology Centre in Surrey, so this was the first (of hopefully many) regional tours for the team.

Gallery

If you were in the crowd, then perhaps you can find yourself in the pictures below. If you’d like a high-res version for personal use, then send us an email using the ‘Feedback’ form on this page or via a mention on Twitter at @DriversRepublic letting us know which picture you are in.

Hi-Res Image Downloads (just click on a link to automatically open a download panel)

The number on the link refers to the position of the image in the gallery below. If you’d like to request an image that is not currently listed, then please contact us with details of the image you’d like and we’ll add a link below.

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“With this new deal not only have we delivered significant savings but we have also ensured that through our live and extended highlights coverage all the action continues to be available to licence-fee payers,” said the BBC’s Head of Sport, Barbara Slater.

The new deal will save the BBC £16.5 million per year, which is not an insignificant sum.

The deal means that the BBC will broadcast half the races and qualifying sessions, along with other key races such as the British Grand Prix, Monaco Grand Prix and the final race of the season, while Sky Sports will broadcast all the races, qualifying and practice sessions on their Sky Go service.

BSkyB recently launched Sky Go combining their web and mobile TV services and this will the be its first major sports rights deal, although not Sky’s first foray into F1. Back in 2002 Sky and Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM organisation launched F1 Digital, commentated on by Ben Edwards and John Watson with studio guests Damon Hill and Perry McCarthy – pit lane reports were provided by Peter Windsor. The service was ahead of its time, offering a multi-camera real-time broadcast for £12 a race, but less than 10,000 viewers subscribed to it, compared with the 6-7 million viewers who now watch F1 on the BBC.

2002 was a challenging time for F1, with Ecclestone floating his holding company SLEC and investor, Kirch Group, over-stretching themselves in their appetite to gain control of motorsport’s crown jewel. With the banks (Bayerische Landesbank, JPMorgan Chase and Lehman Brothers) taking over the 75% stake in SLEC during 2002/2003 it’s of little surprise that the expensive F1 Digital service was closed down, ending Sky’s association with F1 until now.

During the last few years I’ve been fortunate enough to work with the man behind F1 Digital and subsequently spoken with a number of teams about F1′s grasp of social media and the internet. Teams and their sponsors are frustrated by their ability to reach F1′s 500+ million audience and deliver better value to their shareholders. Bernie on the other hand distrusts the internet, seeing it as the home of pirated content and is happier charging for a handful of rights agreements which earn him money up front.

But the potential audience for F1′s sponsors are far greater online than on television, with the added opportunity of engaging directly. Television suits the rights holder and broadcasters, due to the control they can maintain over content and the revenues earned from broadcasting, but the brands who invest in F1 get an increasingly poorer deal. The tension has been building for some time with Renault, Williams F1 and McLaren being the most outspoken, so with today’s BBC/Sky announcement, expect to see more fireworks over the forthcoming months.

So this is bad news, right?

Yes and No. Reaction by the fans and pundits to this morning’s news has been predictably negative and teams are seeking clarification this morning on the implications for their sponsors and the business of F1. FOTA’s chairman Martin Whitmarsh has already been quoted as saying “..it may breach the Concorde Agreement”, but the implications are much broader than that. Martin Brundle, lead presenter of the BBC’s F1 coverage had this to say on Twitter..

I’ve worked within digital media since the mid-90s and since as long as I can remember we’ve talked about the convergence of web and TV, which initially assumed would see us watching TV programmes through our computers, then more recently that TV’s would become smart devices able to browse the web simultaneously as broadcasts are received. But the pace of technology moves faster than products can innovate, so the industry has already moved on from such a premise.

The Entertainment Industry comes of age

You may already have heard about Augmented Reality, assuming it was some form of web-geekery with little use to those without the nerd gene, but it actually represents the future path of broadcasting – both for live and on-demand transmissions.

Digital broadcasting, just as with digital publishing involves much more than merely producing content on a different platform. It opens up the possibility of combining different types of content and personalising the way a viewer engages with that content.

Augmented Reality is one of the ways this is being achieved and is best described as the process of adding layers of digital information or content to a users viewport, thereby enhancing their experience. You’ve already seen it working in the Head-up displays of BMW’s premium models, or in the display of lap countdowns, KERS displays and rev-counters in today’s F1 broadcasts. Information is added from separate sources benefitting the primary viewing purpose.

Whilst the approach has thus far been controlled by whoever initiates the broadcast, that’s not likely to remain so. In fact we’ve been working on a piece of technology that transfers the control of which content gets augmented to the user, thereby enabling an F1 viewer for example to watch the broadcast on Sky, take the audio feed from BBC 5Live and the telemetry/race-data from McLaren. Over time we will see many more of these layered feeds available in an AppStore environment enabling the viewer to customise their experience to suit their preferences.

So what happen’s next?

There will of course be plenty of argument (and discussion) about who should really own the commercial rights to F1 – especially since the boundary to these rights is becoming blurred by the internet. The Concorde Agreement is due for renewal (i.e. renegotiation) in the next few years, so this will become an even more critical focus.

An augmented reality headset from ABB, but we’re more likely to see tablet apps leading the way for sports and entertainment such as F1

But with the uptake of Twitter, you can already follow the teams and their drivers in real-time, keep track of each practice session and even catch updates on team strategy before they are broadcast on TV. Nearly every team produces their own pre and post video content and will increasingly invest in this off-broadcast form of media. Perhaps we’ll see the teams eventually licensing their own content to broadcasters as an augmented layer over the main F1 transmission.

As with any sport it’s ultimately the sponsors and advertisers who will win out, so rather than see today’s news as a nail in the coffin of F1’s television experience, consider it as a catalyst that may finally see F1 embrace digital media in today’s social age.