As part of this month’s Blended Republic Study, F1 marketing and brand experts were asked to judge the most successful sponsor and team videos of the 2013 F1 season. There were two outright winners, with Johnnie Walker Step Inside: Jenson Button The Ultimate Walk receiving 70% of the votes for best sponsor video, and the Bruce McLaren: McLaren 50th Anniversary video receiving 60% of the votes for best team video.

This month’s Study has also revealed that branded video content is becoming an increasingly important part of the marketing mix for F1 sponsors according to 9 out of 10 F1 marketing and brand experts.

With F1 experts looking for innovative ways to reach and engage with their target audiences, the F1 world is increasingly turning to branded video content for that solution.

And it seems that this increasing confidence in branded content having a strong future in F1 will be backed up by marketing spend, with eight of ten of those surveyed in this month’s Blended Republic Study believing that marketing budget spent on branded content will be increased in 2014.

Reasons for this predicted increase in marketing spend include;

· As sponsorship becomes less about a logo, video content is becoming essential to allow a brand to tell its story in an articulate and engaging manner.

· The type of sponsors that are coming into the sport are much more consumer facing companies. Video content is a core component for using their sponsorship as a platform to communicate with the consumers

· Video is more interesting and attractive to much of the target audience than written or printed material, especially to the younger generation

· Compelling content is becoming increasingly important to provide brands with an engaging point of difference and needs to be funded

· Due to the growth of social media and the need to increase viral marketing using platforms such as YouTube, video footage is increasingly valuable

However, as F1 enters 2014, a number of challenges to creating successful branded content will remain that will need to be overcome in order for it to play a pivotal role in the future.

Over half of those surveyed believe that successful branded content relies on being creative to make the most of limited driver time or team assets, and measuring ROI was cited as another challenge (43%).

The Blended Republic Study has revealed that the top four perceived benefits of branded content are;

· It gives brands the opportunity to amplify their sponsorship in an engaging manner through TV and social media (68%)

· It creates a deeper emotional connection with the target audience (64%)

· It allows the brand to tell a longer story that captures its values and messaging (54%)

· It helps brands cut through the competitive noise of sponsor logos (42%)

However, there still remains some question marks over the best way to go about create successful content with 66% of those surveyed citing ‘knowing how to create content that will secure audience reach’ as the biggest challenge they face to creating successful F1 branded content.

Commenting on the survey results, Chris Sice, Managing Director of Blended Republic says: “It is clear that F1 sponsors are keen to invest further in content marketing in 2014. The rise of social media coupled with F1’s huge broadcast audience makes it increasingly attractive.

The main challenge is how to create content that secures distribution and the audiences needed to deliver a significant ROI.”

Driven Communication