[E90SLAM]

Wow!!! Really???!!!

Bernie Ecclestone does not believe Formula One should be chasing a younger generation of fans because they do not have the money to buy the products the sport advertises.

F1 television and live audiences have been declining in recent years, with teams struggling to find sponsors to alleviate the growing cost of competing in the sport. Caterham and Marussia's recent fall into administration has highlighted the financial problems facing smaller teams, but Ecclestone does not think embracing younger fans is a solution.

"If you have a brand that you want to put in front of a few hundred million people, I can do that easily for you on television," the F1 supremo told Campaign Pacific-Asia. "Now, you're telling me I need to find a channel to get this 15-year-old to watch Formula One because somebody wants to put out a new brand in front of them? They are not going to be interested in the slightest bit.

"Young kids will see the Rolex brand, but are they going to go and buy one? They can't afford it. Or our other sponsor, UBS - these kids don't care about banking. They haven't got enough money to put in the bloody banks anyway. That's what I think. I don't know why people want to get to the so-called 'young generation'. Why do they want to do that? Is it to sell them something? Most of these kids haven't got any money.

"I'd rather get to the 70-year-old guy who's got plenty of cash. So, there's no point trying to reach these kids because they won't buy any of the products here and if marketers are aiming at this audience, then maybe they should advertise with Disney."

While F1 has taken steps this year to embrace a more modern social media strategy Ecclestone does not see the benefit of sites such as Twitter.

"I'm not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is. I tried to find out but in any case I'm too old-fashioned. I couldn't see any value in it. And, I don't know what the so-called 'young generation' of today really wants. What is it? If you ask a 15 or 16-year-old kid, 'What do you want?' they don't know."

Ecclestone added: "How are you going to get all the fans to meet these drivers, who don't even want to meet their girlfriends? You are right that we should use social media to promote Formula One. I just don't know how."


Read more at http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/s...gCqfepC5ocQ.99

[E90SLAM]

Bernie Ecclestone has taken swipes at young Formula One fans, women and Ferrari in an astonishing and unusually detailed interview with Campaign Asia-Pacific magazine.

The Formula One boss dismissed concerns over Formula One’s declining viewing figures, saying the fall in viewers was explained by more people watching F1 via tablets and other devices.

Ecclestone said he had faced “a lot of criticism lately because the television audience has declined” but argued “we have seen that decline in nearly all sports”.

“Have the viewers declined? I doubt it,” he said. “The viewership is just spread in different areas because today people can watch on these iPads or on even telephones.”

“And it’s only now that we’re catching up and finding out that if we lose ten per cent of our free-to-air television audience how much we might have picked up elsewhere as more people watch Formula One through other means.”

Despite Formula One Management having recently embraced Twitter, Ecclestone said he was “not interested in tweeting” and refuted the suggestion that F1 should engage more with new media to develop its following among younger viewers.

“If you have a brand that you want to put in front of a few hundred million people, I can do that easily for you on television,” he continued. “Now, you’re telling me I need to find a channel to get this 15-year-old to watch Formula One because somebody wants to put out a new brand in front of them? They are not going to be interested in the slightest bit.”

“Young kids will see the Rolex brand, but are they going to go and buy one? They can’t afford it. Or our other sponsor, UBS – these kids don’t care about banking. They haven’t got enough money to put in the bloody banks anyway. That’s what I think.”

Yet in an apparent self-contradiction, Ecclestone admitted there was value to attracting fans at a young age: “I say to some of these people who start this nonsense about social media, look at what tobacco companies tried to do – get people smoking their brand early on because then people continue smoking their brand forever.”

In further remarks no doubt intended to provoke, Ecclestone added “women in particular like to criticise” changes in the sport and claimed Formula One’s most successful team were no longer the draw they once were.

“Ferrari used to have such fantastic fan support,” he said, “and now they’re not winning as much, and you can see that their popularity has dropped off.”

“In the old days you’d see people walking around with Ferrari flags and the whole place would be full of red. I don’t see that any more. It’s quite strange because you don’t see people walking around with any flags or waving them like you used to. The world changes.”

Ecclestone reiterated his view that Formula One would not miss the four cars lost due to Marussia and Caterham’s financial problems, which he blamed on the teams themselves overspending.

“Just don’t spend as much,” said Ecclestone. “These teams don’t need to be in financial trouble. They need to think about what they have got to spend and do the best they can with that.”

“Take Williams, for example. Years ago Frank [Williams] had a very small budget and was generally in trouble. Yet he always paid every dollar that he owed. He ran his team accordingly with the amount of money he could come up with. He didn’t have dreams about competing with Ferrari. Eventually things got better and he built the business and now he’s where he is today.

“It’s the same for everything in life, isn’t it, really? It’s the same problem with ladies and credit cards.”

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/11/1...ms-ecclestone/

[NickyC]

Bernie. I'll agree with anything you ever say if you do this:

- Remove paddle shifters from the cars
- Take the damned wings off
- Let the teams run any engines they want, V6T, V8, V10, wtf ever.
- Bring refueling back, no limit to how much you can use per race
- No more tire rules
- No more insane "freeze" periods. Teams can develop their cars all year round
- BRING BACK TOBACCO ADVERTISING WHERE THE BIG MONEY IS. If people are dumb enough to smoke now, even with all the evidence of what it does to you, let them.

I'm done.

[thebishman]

He really is an idiot as he ages. You can't knock what a mechanic from BRM(?) in the sixties has built the sport into, but honestly he has to go.

[Delta0311]

He's an idiot. If young people don't develop interest in the sport while they are young and broke then they won't give a fuck about it when they are older and have money. This is the strategy to follow if you want to end your business.

[hl0m4n]

bernie, i will forgive you with one of your daughter's hand in marriage .

[onatuesday]

Is there a way for F1 to somehow stage a coup and get this Bernie clown overthrown???

[GTB/ZR-1]

What do you want from Bernie--he's 100 lol

[954Stealth]

Look what else he said, lol

Ecclestone: 'Nobody will miss Caterham or Marussia'

"Nobody will miss the two teams because they're not front-running teams; they've only got a name that people would know because of the problem they’re in," Ecclestone told Campaign Asia.

"If you want to get recognised you've got to do something. This poor guy in South Africa [Oscar Pistorius], for instance, has got more interest because of what happened with him than when he was winning gold medals. He won medals and afterwards nobody thought about him. If this case hadn't happened he would have been forgotten, probably.

"Same with these two teams," stated Ecclestone, who hinted that he would only like big names in F1 such as Ferrari and Mercedes.

"You need teams like Ferrari. If you go anywhere and you say to somebody ‘Ferrari’, they'll know what you're talking about. If you say ‘Marussia’, they won't," he added.

"So that's it. It's brands again, isn't it? Ferrari's a brand and it's a brand that's particularly connected to a product and it's known for that product."

[KingOfJericho]

So basically he wants Mercedes, Ferrari, Lotus, and McLaren. You can't buy a Williams, Sauber, Toro Rosso, or Force India so let's let them fold as well.

Something needs to be done to help these upstart teams. A more even distribution of money would certainly be a nice step. The odds of finding another Red Bull, with their bottomless pockets, is very slim so you're going to keep seeing these teams failing year after year.

[David70]

Sometimes I wonder about him. 15 year old kids watching the races every weekend eventually grow up and a certain portion of them continue to watch and can afford the items they grew up seeing. I was a soccer and F1 fan when I was young and this hasn't changed, they got me possibly for 60-70 years. I have never followed golf or rugby and at this point it will tough to get me to. Some marketing strategy to wait for someone to care once they have the money to pay for the product.

I am guessing Honda's goal on trying to reach out to the younger generations through F1 are different than Bernie's.

I also think the "nobody cares about the teams that left" is more of an excuse than a legitimate belief. Like having a party where half the people you hoped were coming didn't show. Having 5 teams with 4 cars each wouldn't help the situation.

[TSM330i]

Bernie is a MORON!

I know, everyone already said what I think. He's old and doesn't care about anyone but himself. By the time these "young" fans the sport doesn't "need" he'll be long gone and won't worry about it.

[Chihuahua]

Nice statement from BE; yet more confirmation that he is less interested in the goodness and longevity of F1 and only interested in money. He is literally obsessed with money. F1 was slightly better off when Mad Max went away, and it will be even better once BE dies off, which is the only way F1 will be able to rid itself of him.

[954Stealth]

Lol

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by 954Stealth

Lol

Lol

[jkoral]

I wonder what he thought of Max Mosley's 1994 Simtek having MTV as the title sponsor in 1994?

[mike the snake]

I got into F1 when I was a wee little tyke. Now I'm nearing 50, and I find myself looking at younger kids and thinking "damn whippersnappers!"

I'm now one of the older folks that can, and does buy the higher priced items that grace the cars today, but I started out as one of the broke kids BE describes.

The world will always have the gaps between generations. The trick (and what BE is failing to realize) is how to impress the younger crowd so that it actually Has an interest in F1 when they do get older, and are able to spend their money on going to F1 races.

Today is changing a LOT faster than in years past, with electronics and technology, our young have more things to distract them from F1.

Maybe Disney should sponsor an F1 car.

[Wah]

In my eyes, two things will save F1. Competitive parity and younger fans. Unfortunately, Bernie sees it completely differently. So until he is gone, and replace by someone completely different than him, I can't see any growth in this sport.

[ptack]

He's an idiot and this point becoming an embarrassment to the sport. Who does he think Red Bull markets to, 80 year billionaires? Honestly, is he that stupid to basically not even know what his sponsors want from Formula 1? His comments about declining viewership are equally as ignorant. In the age of ever splintering media the shows that remain must-see and thus of ever increasing value are popular, live events. Maybe some of the sponsors or some of the people who actually own F1 will recognize that Bernie doesn't understand the 21st century and that they need to replace him with someone who can capitalize on the unique opportunities that F1 has. Soccer and the NFL have become media monsters because they understand how the system now works. Bernie has no clue.