Engaging F1 fans through global growth – Steve Garland, Red Bull Racing

Sean Callanan (00:01.218)
Very happy to welcome Steve Garland. He's the head of content and social at Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Technology. Steve, welcome to the podcast.

Steve Garland (00:09.474)
Yeah, hi Sean. Thanks for having us. It's great to be along.

Sean Callanan (00:13.706)
Not a problem at all. I always start asking people trying to figure out what their sports biz origin story is, how they got into the world of sports. What about yourself? How did you get your start in the world of sports?

Steve Garland (00:24.598)
Yeah, so growing up, there was two sports that really mattered to me and that was motorsport and football. And growing up in South Wales, my local team was in the lower divisions back then, Cardiff City. And my granddad was my first kind of, gave me my first insight into football, me along from a young age. And fortunately, I just grew that passion for football then.

And yeah, my initial kind of step in the door was volunteering, quite frankly, doing a few match reports, doing a few kind of media duties at my local football club in Cardiff and yeah, matched that with a university degree and the rest is history.

Sean Callanan (01:09.774)
And so I mean, again, that was in that early time, like I founded Sportsgeek in 2009. It was sort of in that space where a lot of sports across the world were moving into more digital. I noticed that you became a digital editor and then you were a new media editor. Was that a lot of that in that digital space and social media and sort of expanding that for Cardiff?

Steve Garland (01:32.194)
Yeah, so I mean, just because the generation I am, I came through at a time when social media was just getting started. So in university, we were discovering what Twitter was and starting to work out how you could apply your kind of most basic journalism principles into social media. And as a result of that, when I started in the industry, my first jobs were actually founding the social media channels for the football clubs I was involved with.

Firstly, you know, exploring that with Cardiff in my volunteering role. But then when I started Norwich, was my first job out of university, very kind of junior level back then, my responsibility was to found that club on social media, which when you think of it now, is wild for a junior to actually take that on, given the prominence and importance of social media for any sport and organisation now. But yeah, back in the day, I founded Norwich on

on Twitter, Facebook, just introduced them to what Instagram was. yeah, it's that kind of timeliness of my age, the generation that I was coming into. But also because as of the age that was really engaging in social media back then gave me, you know, the kind of prime tools to really establish sports teams on social media for the first time. But also because I had a degree in sports journalism was able to really like

put a lot of those kind of principles that were found in more traditional everyday media, bring that into social media to make sure that the sports clubs were comfortable in taking on this kind of new platforms that they were bringing themselves into.

Sean Callanan (03:15.022)
So you're in that new space, like you said, of taking that, know, journalism that you've been taught, then, know, condensing it to 140 characters, figuring out, you know, how to get that community around it and sort of learning that in the world of football. And then you landed a role at Red Bull. What was that in around 2014? Like, what was the Red Bull digital team? What did that look like in 2014 when you started?

Steve Garland (03:43.594)
Yeah, certainly nothing what it looks like now, that's for sure. No, we basically, so after a number of years in football, the opportunity got presented to myself to take on Red Bull. And obviously, for me, having had that passion in football, but also Formula One, to be honest, Formula One always felt like it was a bit of a world that was never going to open its doors to me. And I think a lot of people feel like that now. Still, they feel like it's quite a closed off.

arena for opportunity. But I was, you know, it was as simple as seeing a LinkedIn job post, went for the job and was fortunate enough to get the job. And what I quickly discovered was that Formula One was actually a good few years behind football at that time. So where, I'd been involved, even though they weren't, you know, top level Premier League teams, we'd all had our own in-house teams. We'd had our own

you know, own video production in house, whereas at Red Bull, it was, you know, I joined a team of two that was covering everything from social media content generation to even managing our own website. And yeah, that team of two worked incredibly hard. When you then add in obviously the travel and all the other activations that you're responsible for doing back then, it was an incredibly

lean team, but one that gave you loads of opportunity to make an impact. you know, from taking all of those learnings from establishing social media in my football club days. And I think the reason one of the reasons I got the job in the first place is because I've been managing Cardiff social media during a period that they've had a lot of turmoil off the pitch. It was during that period of when they were playing in red, when they're traditionally blue. So yeah, that brought with it its own difficulties. But I've still managed to demonstrate that

Sean Callanan (05:12.781)
Yep.

Steve Garland (05:41.024)
even during those times of strife, we were able to grow the club on social media and we're able to really capitalize on that one Premier League season we had back then. And I think that, know, from what I understand now is a lot of the reason why I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity at Red Bull. And yeah, joined in 2014, small team then, I think the whole marketing team was about 20 back then. And yeah, 10 years on, still knocking about, so must be doing something right.

Sean Callanan (06:09.954)
Yeah, yeah. And so your role now head of content and social, you know, titles mean different things to different people and different organizations. What does what does it mean for you? What does your what is your remit and your role and what do you look after?

Steve Garland (06:23.586)
Yeah, so my main responsibilities are I purely oversee the strategic output of all of our content and social media channels for Oracle Rebel Racing, but also Visa Cash App Racing Bulls now as well. So as of, you know, start of last year, all of the marketing activities for Visa Cash App Racing Bulls was also brought into the unit we have here in Milton Keynes. So yeah, my main responsibilities day to day are really making sure that

You know, we are, I'm managing an in-house team here of, you know, up to 20 people. And, you know, my main day to day is to make sure that we're all, you know, working and achieving the kind of KPIs and content standards that we expect here at Red Bull. And making sure that, you know, we're pushing in the right direction towards the next activation or next race that we have coming up, as I'm sure you know is.

And anyone listening knows Formula One is a very, very fast paced industry, you know, especially now with so many races on the calendar. You know, as soon as one race is done, we're straight into the next one. And that in itself is a tempo and speed that, you know, really pushes you, makes no means that you've got to be on the ball pretty much every day. And yeah, my job is to make sure that the team are prepared, they're clear and aware of what the next target is and what the main objectives are.

for the next race but also for the year for the team and to deliver of what's expected of us as a content and social team.

Sean Callanan (07:57.25)
Absolutely. So you go from that team to two to roughly roughly 20. So you would have gone through those, those growing pains of having those wins and then then making that pitch for the next videographer or a dedicated graphic artists and or you know, dedicated social person or a dedicated social person for each team. Have you got better at that? Like, is there any tips that you've got that that sort of helped you, you know, give reasons why that while your team should be expanded?

Steve Garland (08:26.06)
Yeah, simply demonstrate ROI. It's as simple as that. Any way that you can, it's one thing saying you're under resourced or you're being stretched or, you know, the team's being overworked. But without that kind of data, without that evidence behind it, it's a non-starter. So being able to demonstrate, you know, the kind of return on investment that business can expect by investing in growing the team ultimately is where

where you earn that buy-in and where you're successful in growing the team. We were quite a small team for a good while here at Red Bull, like even into 2018, 2019, we were still operating on a team of five to cover what we were expected to deliver. And a mix of COVID, but then also an increase in success on the track as well enabled the foundations to really

put forward a bid to bring a lot of what we had been doing with third parties in-house and matching that with a return on investment of being able to not just own our own productions but also have that flexibility given the increased demands across the business for content, enable this really to put our best foot forward with the powers that be to justify the roles and responsibilities that we put forward.

Yeah, we're now in a position where, you know, we're running to Formula One teams, content and social output, which is unprecedented in the sport. You know, we're the only operation here in Milton Keynes that doing that in F1. And yeah, you know, we're also responsible, you know, for a good amount of the content that goes out. Being fortunate to say that that was all, you know, from ideation all the way to delivery done in-house, which is…

is a point of pride considering where we were back in 2014, that's for sure.

Sean Callanan (10:23.022)
That's an amazing effort. Do you think, I think this, from my point of view, looking from the outside, the way that Red Bull, I guess, treats digital and treats everything that they're doing in racing as an entertainment brand and the racing is part of that. And then also you're in Formula One, which is very data driven. Everyone's always looking at the numbers. Do you think a combination of those two help your fact and the fact that you do have to look at the data and return the…

you know, say this is how many impressions we're going to get for both Red Bull, but your other partners. Do you think that's sort of just ingrained in both your sport, but also Red Bull being your key partner?

Steve Garland (11:00.598)
Yeah, think data, I mean, without data F1 wouldn't run. But I think the challenge with digital is getting that level understanding of what metrics matter. And, you know, we've been working from a very early age here, you know, when I started to make sure that people saw engagements and, you know, video views and view duration as the key metrics that matter. Because so easily,

it is for many, it's so easy to see the kind of overall audience number or overall followers you've got and take that as verbatim the success that you're doing. And, you know, we were fortunate enough that we had, you know, really, really strong engagement from a very early stage. And I joined in a period where, you know, we were just kind of out of that initial success that we had. And actually,

you know, for 2015 was my first full season and you look back on Red Bull's career in Formula One and that's probably one of our least successful times for the team. But I actually remember that year so well because it was the year we really went back to our roots and went back to what our core for being in Formula One was and that was to bring, you know, some life, some energy, some kind of self-ironic, you know, fun to the grid. And it was that principle that really

enabled us to build that tone of voice, really go back to that kind of self-ironic nature with our output and enabled us to really use digital and our social media channels as a key point to land that because we weren't getting the coverage that we were when we were winning championships. So social media became the point for fans to get that first engagement with us and to build that initial loyalty with the team. And that was something I made sure we

because of that experience, that's something I made sure the team also knew when we were successful again in winning championships in 2021, 2022, 2023, that yes, we're winning championships, but we still can't take ourselves too seriously on social. We still need to maintain that kind of tone of voice, that self-ironic tone that people know and love us for, because otherwise we lose our true self of a brand. yeah, in terms of that kind of data.

Steve Garland (13:20.206)
knowledge from the brand and Red Bull. It's one of our of biggest USPs as a team. And for us, it's one of our biggest enablers being able to have a brand like Red Bull so entwined with what we do, but also given their kind of vast resources as well, not just within their global infrastructure, but also around the world and their local markets, being able to know

any race we're going to, there will be a local market there that will enable, will be available to support us given what we need. yeah, that's a massive, massive tool in our arsenal that enables us to keep up with the pace, but also ensure every time we're going to a race, we've also got that local insight that is so, so crucial to make sure that we're talking and delivering content that is locally relevant. And that's been massively important over the years.

Sean Callanan (14:18.062)
So one of the things with running a team and with F1 content, you've obviously got race day, but then you've also got 10 pole moments, 10 pole campaigns that are crucial for kicking off a season, launching livery and other things like that. How much, I mean, is that a key part of what you're doing, sort of having that 30,000 foot view to say, hey, this is what we want to achieve with these types of campaigns. Is there any particular campaigns that jump out at you of ones that have been special over your time?

Steve Garland (14:47.778)
Yeah, there's been so many. We've done so much great stuff over the last 10 years here at Rebel Racing. But the one that really stands out is actually one of my first ones, and that was in 2015, where we launched the CamelBall. I'll never forget it to this day, seeing that car kind of roll down the pit lane and everyone's faces in the pit lane just kind of turn and wonder what was traveling towards them. I also remember it so well because it was actually the first time Seb Vettel was driving out in Ferrari.

and all the media and all the media packs were all based down at the Ferrari garage waiting for Seb to drive out. And then suddenly we rolled down the pit lane with that black and white CamelBall and suddenly everyone's chasing down the pit lane to get a shot of us. And that was the kind of first, for me, that was the first campaign that we landed that really showed what I was here to do, what the team was here to do as well. And that was to…

just do things a little bit differently, but also disrupt the norm and do it with a of a twinkle in the eye as well. Like we knew that had been coming for a long time and just to keep that under wraps in itself was a mission. But then as a team, being able to then do that, it's not like it is now where every other race or every couple of races, there's another delivery being revealed for a race.

I really do feel like that was the instigator for what then followed and now is what's such commonplace in Formula One. Every big race has some kind of special livery by a team now. But that CamelBall, we'll always have a special place as being the kind of real moment physically that you saw what we were here to do and how we could disrupt the Apple Cup by doing something so differently. And I think the beauty of that…

livery as well was that it really had an engineering purpose to it as well. It's that the engineering team were involved in the development of that livery. And actually during testing, we were, you know, using that livery to hide, you know, certain parts, experimental parts on that car for the year ahead. I mean, it didn't necessarily work out. It was one of the of the worst seasons we've had. you know, that that that that car and the kind of storytelling that we were able to do around that, but also how we landed that on

Steve Garland (17:13.28)
on digital channels by having our website decked out in the same camera design, having our social media pages change. The moment that car rolled out, having all of our social media channels changed to that livery as well. It was a beautifully 360 degree campaign that really landed on our channels.

Sean Callanan (17:36.686)
And the thing is, like you were just saying, like, it's not just, the social and digital team comes up with an idea and they're going to execute it on social. It was the fact that it was integrated with engineering that, you know, the part of the car, wasn't just, hey, this is how we're going to capture the things that it's in front of us. That must've been the piece where it's like, if we can get this connectedness with engineering and the drivers and what's happening in the garage, then it will actually will, you know, will be that authenticity that people are looking for.

Steve Garland (18:06.318)
Exactly that. Yeah, the more authentic the story, the more engaging, right? It's quite simple. I think we're also, I mean, that was nearly 10 years ago now, but I think more than ever, fans can really see through when they're being sold something that isn't true and isn't authentic. yeah, the beauty of that campaign was that from the race team all the way to track.

Sean Callanan (18:11.885)
Yep.

Steve Garland (18:34.37)
there was a really authentic story that we were telling there. But also had that beautiful kind of twinkle in the eye of this car just looks amazing and it hadn't been done before. So it really kind of stood out in what teams and what fans we're used to seeing and we're to doing. yeah, that's something that I've held true during the rest of my time here with the team, making sure that any stories we are telling are truly authentic.

but also have a context and a purpose of when we landed them because without that, you're not going to get the results you want and you're not going to get the engagement from fans that you want. yeah, that really was the instigator for me in the set up a number of other campaigns that we did in the years following. We did a number of kind of testing deliveries in the years following that, all ran along the same kind of lines, but then also culminated in,

what was one of the most special liveries that we did in Turkey during the COVID years of running a Japanese white livery in Turkey. I mean, that in itself has its own unique story to it. yeah, it's been, liveries have been a core of what we've done over the years. yeah, I really do feel like what we did back in 2015 was the real kind of foundation of what we've started to see become commonplace in Formula One.

Sean Callanan (20:03.022)
So one of the things that has changed in Formula One in your time is they've just added more races. was 19 races when you started. Now it's up to 24 races and going into new countries in different countries. And so it's becoming almost like Premier League football or NFL where it's a week on, week off and those kinds of things. How do you go about managing a race week with and the travel from a digital team's point of view?

Steve Garland (20:30.606)
It's a big question and it's probably the biggest unknown for anyone who joins the team is how to manage the travel against the expectations that are put on you. And there's no off season now as well, by the way. It's 24 races and the season's done and everyone goes, great, well, we'll see you in March. No, there's no such thing. There's no such thing as that right now. But no, it really is a case of, and this is…

Sean Callanan (20:51.0)
Yeah.

Steve Garland (20:58.102)
also been enabled by the increased resource we've been able to bring to the team. But it's really been a case of just managing people's time and schedules to make sure that no one is overexerted. To be quite frank, if people are expected to do 24 races in a year, you're only going to get maximum one or two years out of at the very max. So all of that time that you invest in building that knowledge and seeing them grow within the team.

is only going to have a real short shelf life because to be honest, 24 races is an awful lot to ask of anyone these days. So a core policy that I hold within the team is that no one does more than 15 races. And even that, know, 15 races is a lot. But it's the kind of line that I found to be enough to keep people as fresh as possible, but also give them that time that they need to in between.

And also make sure that they can, you there's still that opportunity to manage some kind of, you know, work and balance away from work as well. So that's one of the core principles, you know, in terms of managing people's time.

Sean Callanan (22:09.422)
And so, do you have some people back at Milton Keynes and providing effectively back of house support and sort of people are on the ground? We're recording this a couple of weeks after Australia, have people in Melbourne or people in Shanghai in that content capture mode and then there'll be other people sort of back producing it and turning it around or is it a bit of credit on the track as well? Like how do you get that mix right?

Steve Garland (22:33.836)
Yeah, that's what we try and do as much as possible. So we've got like a number of remote systems in place that enable us to bring our footage back from the track and a team of editors to pick that up, which does help. But the sheer volume of content that is demanded now by our audience, by our partners, by our stakeholders.

means that even that can be be pushed to the max. And also then we are also reliant on a lot of the kind of network infrastructure that is their track side. And it was quite interesting. There was a few people's first race in Australia a few weeks ago and seeing the kind of setup that we were working in, it's not that kind of glamorous Formula One drive to survive kind of paint that you see. Our production room is essentially a desk in a temporary put up tent.

in a back office in Melbourne. know, it's very much, you just got to do what you can do with what you've been given. I think COVID was actually a big player in advancing this for us. you know, when COVID came along, we were massively restricted to the numbers we could take trackside. And remote editing became a real thing back then.

We also built support teams that were working for Milton Keynes to support the teams that were at Trackside. We've definitely taken a lot of those learnings and systems that we built during that time into the years that have followed. But now we're at a point where we're probably maximizing those and we're also maximizing the amount of people Trackside as well. So it's a real mix.

Yeah, we balance it out with having a team of remote editors back at base that also have got the luxury of having that kind of helicopter view of what's going on because it's weird. Sometimes you've almost got a better grip of what's happening trackside when you're actually away from it because it's a bit of a goldfish bowl once you're there. But then we've got people on the ground who are making sure that they're available to capture content and any kind of social opportunity.

Sean Callanan (24:41.378)
Yeah.

Steve Garland (24:53.142)
that comes along that you just need people on the ground to capture. So that's the type of balance that we try and strike. And that goes for wherever we are in the world, whether it's Australia or whether it's just European season. Yeah, time differences is also something you've got to consider, but I think everyone in Formula One knows and is well-tuned to managing those time differences. Waking up at 4am in the UK for the Australian race is something you grow up with. So you're well-deserved.

when you're at this stage.

Sean Callanan (25:24.846)
Um, absolutely. Then the other thing you've got to plan or schedule for is getting some access in the busy schedule of your drivers because they, you know, they're a big driver of your content and they're a thing. Is that again, a, you know, uh, something that is almost planned out to the minute cause they've got all of these different briefings and, and, and, and practice sessions and stuff. So it's like, how do you go about maximizing those windows that you do have, you know, with drivers like,

know, Max and the like, because their content, I'm assuming is the one that actually does drive the numbers for you.

Steve Garland (26:03.02)
Yeah, mean, driver engagement is crucial to any kind of success for the team on our channels. yeah, it's crazy. If you've got sight of their overall media schedules and their overall schedules for the race weekend, it's a hell of a lot for a driver to do, but then also then jump in a car and drive at 200 miles an hour in such a competitive environment. It's something actually from, you know, if I colleagues from football come and shadow us.

at races in the past, know, peers from other teams, and they really can't get their head around just how much, you know, is expected of two drivers to deliver around what they're already doing. It's, you know, in stark contrast to a team of 25 in a football team and the way their media duties can be spread within a squad compared to all of that landing on two drivers obviously at a sport with so much media interest. But for us, it all comes down to planning.

We're fortunate we do get some good time with our drivers, which for a top team isn't a given. I know some teams that don't get much time with their drivers, but we're fortunate enough that there's that acceptance because we are the brand that we are, that there's that expectation to be engaged in marketing activity and content. And yeah, it just comes down to planning. So we usually get some time on a Thursday with our drivers, either individually or together, depending on what the…

what the brief and what we're trying to deliver. And then it's a case of us, you know, giving the drivers and giving the management teams a pre-awareness earlier in that week of what we're looking to capture. And then from our side, you know, having a really strong and clear production plan of what we want to capture, how we want to shoot it, and also what we're delivering and what deadlines we're delivering that to in order to get that content out at the right time on our channels. When it works perfectly, it can…

Mean that you're filming something on a Thursday and you're able to deliver that, you know Even by Saturday morning, which you know is prime to be quite honest if you're able to capture something on Thursday in the environment in its right context and and deliver it with quality by the Saturday and That really enables you to kind of strike while they aren't hot so to speak and and get fans engaged in really really prime and current content But it's always a balance. You've got to make sure that that quality is high enough

Steve Garland (28:30.612)
And the kind of speed in which you want to work doesn't impinge on the quality that you're putting. But yeah, driver engagement is crucial. And also, you know, building those relationships with the drivers to make sure that you're putting things forward that you know the drivers will engage with. The worst thing is that you go into a shoot with a driver and it's content they don't want to be involved in because straight away you get a disengaged driver. And going back to what we saying earlier about that kind of authenticity.

Sean Callanan (28:47.469)
Yeah.

Steve Garland (29:00.046)
you're then trying to force something out of them that they don't want be involved with. So yeah, that's something that,

Sean Callanan (29:06.202)
Has that kind of stuff led to some of that more longer form stuff where you've got them in silly cars and got them doing racing or driving into doing those more longer form, which most likely aren't happening on a first day of a race week, but like they're more in your downtime or when you're in practice sessions to sort of understand the driver and understand that that is something they would like to do and it's something they would like to have fun with.

Steve Garland (29:29.89)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. then it's something that's, you you build up that trust over the years. You, you know, you some of those, some of those, you know, type of long form pieces that we've done with Red Bull over the years, they've come with an awful lot of pre-production between us as a team, but also Red Bull in order to make sure that we're landing in the right place for the drivers to make sure that,

we're putting something forward that we know the drivers will actually be engaged with, but it's also safe. It's also looking after their best interests, considering they're expected to be delivering a podium finish or win later that week. Especially with the kind of extreme sports that we're so fortunate to have such a great representation across with Red Bull.

And there's always some really outlandish ideas we want to get the drivers involved with. Obviously, we'd love to throw the drivers into all of it, but there's also got to be that reality that at times that we need to find the right balance, especially given the kind of their main purpose for being involved in the brand and in the sport, and that's to win races. yeah, we make sure that,

It's an enjoyable one. The drivers are engaged, but ultimately it's also something that's safe and isn't going to cause them any kind of harm or impinge on their ability to perform that race week as well.

Sean Callanan (31:00.078)
Absolutely. We've mentioned a couple of times, I want to sort of talk about directly the impact of Drive To Survive. You know, obviously it's brought in new fans and attracted, you know, new fans to the sport, brought new fans to the sport, but you've still got an existing fan base who sometimes can fire up at these new fans coming into a sport. How do you balance that welcoming in new fans who have been brought in the sport via Netflix and started to learn the drivers that way to, and, you know, welcome them in as well as

you know, keep your current fans on on board. I know we've had the same same. It's a good problem to have with you know, Taylor Swift bringing new fans into the NFL and how do you talk to those new fans as well as talking to existing fans? How is it something that you've managed?

Steve Garland (31:44.398)
Yeah, it's a great question. I think it all boils down into what is your target audience and having a really clear strategy on what audience you possess, but then also what audience are you looking to target and also engage to grow the business and grow the audience for your channels. we…

We've always been a team that wanted to be the entry point to fans into the sport. We've got a younger demographic that we engage. We're fortunate enough to have the brand behind us that also skews to that younger demographic. And for us, it's really making sure that we're able to engage and be a safe space for those new fans who want to explore and find out more about Formula One. But then also…

You know, we are true to that core fans who, you know, maybe started to support us when Seb Vettel was winning his championships all those years ago. It's a hard balance. Don't get me wrong. It's a hard balance, but we've actually found that just being really getting that data and getting that insight of what's working is where and that enables us to find the balance basically. So we do weekly monitoring of all of our, you know, accounts, all of our content that's going out.

And also benchmark that against other teams as well. So we really can see, you know, what's working in, in, you know, benchmarked against other teams and other sports. And yeah, without that, we wouldn't be able to kind of strike the right mark, but we actually see the, the, you know, the new wave of, of audiences has come to the sport as a real opportunity, especially for, you know, what we're looking to do with these are cash out, cash out racing balls. We want that team to be the team for.

you know, for Gen Z and that new audience. And we've really targeted that team and the content that we're delivering to be a safe space for, you know, for Drive to Survive fans, because we did recognize that quite often on not just on team channels, but within the F1 community, that if someone just wanted to find out a bit more about Formula One, or perhaps when came in with a comment that was

Steve Garland (34:03.694)
you know, they weren't to know and they were then they were shouted out of town by a hardcore audience. They really did, you know, our analysis showed there was this whole audience actually wanted to engage but didn't feel comfortable to because of the kind of engagement they were receiving in the background. So yeah, we've actually used Visa Cash and Racing Bulls as an opportunity to do something different again with that team than even what Red Bull have been doing on our digital channels and find

you know, that new audience and talk to that new audience in a way that we don't feel like any other team is doing. And in doing so, we become a bit of a safe space, safe space for them as well. And, you know, really kind of earn that, that engagement and be an entry point into the sport to, and, and, and, at a point where, you know, there's no risk in asking, asking questions. That also plays into the content that we ideate as well, making sure that we have a nice balance of, you know, in, in

introducing people to the sport with some how-to's and bulls guides that we do, but then also marrying that up with content. Like we ran last year for our 20th season where we were running the RB1 against the RB20 and doing 20 years of Formula One, content that really kind lends itself to its hardcore audience. So I think as long as you find that right balance, there is that way of still earning and building that audience of new generation fans, but also keeping the hardcore engaged as well.

Sean Callanan (35:32.962)
Yeah, I mean, it's tough when everyone's in the the trying to reach new fans and then when you fans come on board, you know, there is that sometimes that resistance but like not every bit of content is for every single person. And so, you know, having some of those changes and you know, the hardcore fans will, you know, dive deep on the technical stuff and want to want to know all the rules and all that kind of stuff. And, and, and yeah, so just having that variation, I did want to, I did. last thing I want to ask you about was the, Red Bull fan charter. I saw that you posted that in

in sort of how you're going about it. Is that sort of your, you know, your North Star, if you will, of what you're trying to do from a content point of view?

Steve Garland (36:11.458)
Yeah, so that piece of work has been in the offing for a couple of years now and it's taken an awful lot of work by our fan engagement team to get that over the line. And yeah, that really does ring true to what we have been doing for a while within the business. We've really been putting fans first in what we've been doing. We've relaunched our…

PADC loyalty program a few years ago that really rewarded fans' engagements, not just in content but in a number of our digital activities. And which I think, you know, again was a first in Formula One, the way the PADC really did engage and give fans a new way of getting involved with the team. But yeah, the fan charter that we launched a couple of weeks ago is really a culmination of all of the work that we've been doing over the…

over the last few years and putting that out there to say, you know, this is how fans are so core to us as a team, but also have a real role to play in pushing us forward. And now obviously have the opportunity as well to put their thoughts forward on where we should be going or where we're against, where we perhaps we're not at the moment. yeah, it's been a great piece of work that we work collaboratively on with.

with our fan engagement team and will 100 % be one of our North Stars for some of our content ideation moving forward as well.

Sean Callanan (37:41.902)
I because like you said, you were living it. It's just like now that it's written down and also then circulated internally and externally sort of does better down. It's probably that's the path you've been walking on for the last seven or eight years. But now that it's formalized and that's where your fans can see it. I think it is sometimes really essential to say not only this is what we're doing, but this is sort of the why we're doing it. What I did what you sort of touched on before we wrap up.

Steve Garland (38:05.026)
Yeah, 100%.

Sean Callanan (38:11.022)
some of the tools and platforms that you rely on and especially working with effectively all but two away races. I'm gonna count the Dutch and the British as home races for you guys, but effectively everything else is an away race. What are some of the essential tools that you're both using at Milton Keynes, but on the track that are helping you do your job?

Steve Garland (38:36.364)
Yeah, I mean, it comes to being a whole host of it, a whole host of tools that we that culminate in ultimately what we end up being able to deliver. But yeah, from a social perspective, you know, we're using, you know, a mix of social aggregators, but also social publishing tools like sprinkler, to make sure that we're looking at real time engagements, but also analysis of what's performing well, you know, what the local sentiment is on any any recent output. And, you know,

but also from a core basis also make sure that we're delivering content in adherence to the most recent and best practice of the channels as well. It's pointless putting content out on social channels if it's not tailored for the latest trends of the algorithm or to the right formats that that channel is asking for, which has been a challenge over the last few years especially because each channel has grown.

you know, its own arms and legs of offerings. So just being able as a team to be able to keep on top of that is, is, has been mission one. But yeah, from a, from, you know, from social tools all the way through to, you know, our production resources, one thing that's been most crucial to us over the last few years has been the adoption of Lucidlink in our production workflows, which has really enabled us to bring that remote

remote workflow into play and being able to upload our content in its most raw form, trackside, and then that being available to a team of editors to dive into has been crucial in not just maximizing the efficiency of that workflow and enabling that off track team to dive into content, but also to make efficiencies trackside as well. It means we don't have have editors trackside, for example.

which, you know, when you've been into the paddock, you realize actually space is a real premium. And that goes for teams very much so as well. Like as a marketing team, you know, we can only have a certain amount of people because of the space, the physical spaces that we're operating in. So any space that you can save trackside also brings efficiencies, not just in terms of, you know, space trackside, but also in obviously efficiencies of cost for travel.

Steve Garland (41:02.132)
and accommodation as well. I'd say they'd be the most kind of two, two most crucial pieces that we rely on day to day. But yeah, there's a whole suite of assets that we use for, you know, weekly analytics, on monthly reporting as well, as well as third parties who also help support us do that. yeah, but I'd say those two have definitely been the most crucial for us over the years.

Sean Callanan (41:27.374)
Definitely. especially that, you know, I think you're right in COVID sort of accelerating some of that, you know, one remote working, but then also being effective at remote working. So remote teams have become more effective. I mean, if we can have some positives come out of that, that time, that's definitely one of them. The last one I want to touch on, which was, you you sort of mentioned there, you're looking after two teams and that's, you know, that's where we met in Las Vegas at the V-Carb.

launch in Vegas last year, what you know, how do you go about managing because I've spoken to people who manage multiple teams, but that's a that's a soccer team and a netball like the different teams, different sports under the same brand. How do you go about managing two teams that are in the same, you know, in the same competition in, you know, you've already sort of touched on giving them a different voice and those kind of things. How have you got about, I guess, managing that as a process?

Steve Garland (42:22.582)
Yeah, it's been a real learning curve, to be honest. And like I said before, it's really an unprecedented position that we're in, in terms of managing two teams, but also, like you say, we're in the same realm that we're operating. For us, we really found that just having dedicated resource on each team, so each brand does live and breathe its own tone of voice, has been the most crucial.

So while I oversee it from a strategic level and a senior level, we have dedicated social media managers, we have dedicated content creators that are working on both teams because we found that actually at times if we were asking that resource to change hats between two teams, quite quickly that line blurred in our content output and our social channels tone of voice. So yeah.

Sean Callanan (43:14.274)
Yeah.

Steve Garland (43:18.636)
I mean, we've learned quickly and yeah, by summer last year, we really found the need to make sure we had that dedicated resource on both teams, which who now own and live their own teams and their own brands. So while we look after it strategically to make sure that, and we're able now because of how we're set up, we're able to utilize the same tools, we're able to open up the same kind of processes to both teams.

At the core of it, in that kind of end execution, that all lives with a dedicated team of digital experts and social experts who are there responsible for landing the brands of their respective teams. it's as simple as that really. We haven't really found much apart from that, that has been the most crucial point in order to make sure that both teams are living and breathing on their own essentially.

Sean Callanan (44:11.254)
And the efficiency come in the tools and infrastructure and then I guess the ideation process that you're having, you go, well, we did this over at Red Bull. What does that look like? How does that get unpicked and rewound and done again for VCAR? But it's the process that is getting redone, the idea. The idea is getting done by different people.

Steve Garland (44:30.582)
Exactly, yeah. The kind of core processes of what we've established over so many years at Red Bull is what we were able to bring to VCARB. But now, because they've also got the kind of permission to be those disruptors in Formula One, it's take those processes, but really push them to the limit, but take them in your own direction as well. And that's it's been a massive opportunity for.

or the whole team that's been involved in VCarve over the last 18 months. It's been a massive opportunity to essentially sculpt a new brand within sports, which is very rare. Very rare those opportunities come these days. And to have that kind of clear and open brief to be the disruptors and do things differently again has been something that they've really taken on well.

And you've probably seen it just by, you know, some of the kind of outputs that we've had over the last couple of races, you know, they've been able to explore those typical kind of post-session interviews, doing those very differently to what you've seen in the paddock. And that's purely because they've been empowered to, with that ability to do things differently. And, you know, we don't have, you know, all those kinds of strict approvals in place that I'm sure are in place at other sporting organizations.

We just have a very talented, very young and energetic core team there to deliver on what they've been briefed to do. And that is to kind of tear up the rule book again and do things differently and do things that even, you know, Red Bull Racing can no longer do because we are in the position that we are. So yeah, it's been, it's been an interesting 18 months to kind of discover that, but it's also been something that's been really empowering for a lot of people.

in the business who've been given a lot of freedom and a lot of empowerment to deliver a first of its kind approach to a brand and start to land, like I saying earlier, start to land a team towards that audience demographic that we feel had been underserved in the past.

Sean Callanan (46:46.638)
absolutely reminds me of Rachina Warren at the Women's Tests Association. Her thing was let them cook. Like if you've got talented people in there, let them cook. And then that's when you really get the good stuff. it's all boxes and lines and spreadsheets, then you'll end up with a social media and digital that looks like an accounting firm. So, you know, it is a bit of that. The last one before wrap up, and I'm pretty sure you'll appreciate your time. 75th year of Formula One.

Steve Garland (46:53.111)
Yes.

Steve Garland (47:06.987)
Exactly.

Steve Garland (47:13.646)
That's fun.

Sean Callanan (47:16.526)
at the launch, you really leant in and paid homage to the London's emerging car communities. And again, sort of talking about different communities to come up with that launch video. One, how did that come about? Tell us a little bit about that and sort of why it was important to sort of lean into those new communities.

Steve Garland (47:35.746)
Yeah, well, our whole core campaign for Oracle Rebel Racing this year is Rebel car culture. And this campaign really stems from that being that inherent passion for cars within the team that is so apparent every day here, to be honest. Whether it's lunchtime and someone's under the hood of their pride and joy kind of tweaking it or getting the opinion of one of their colleagues on their car.

or all the way through to when you go trackside and the kind of talk away from track is all about their latest pride and joy or should they make this kind of dive into purchasing this car that they've seen on Auto Trader? Yeah, it's inherent within the team and within the sport. And we felt that that car culture was something that had not been brought to Formula One or not been kind of, you know,

re-engaged in Formula One for a while, celebrated, yeah, exactly. It hadn't been celebrated in Formula One for a while. And ultimately, when you look at it, that car in the garage is just your ultimate kind of kit car, right? It's got a team of 2,000 people and so much budget behind developing it, but ultimately, it's still a kit car that the guys are putting together, dismantling every race weekend and then going off to the next one on.

Sean Callanan (48:32.76)
celebrated.

Steve Garland (49:00.64)
So, and it really came to light for me in Las Vegas last year where there was work being done onto the rear wing of the car in order to make some downforce efficiencies. And it was so raw that it got to the point of, you know, they were literally cutting bits out of that rear wing. And it got to a point where it was so few times that F1, which is kind of on this pedestal of being the ultimate in technology.

and kind of speed and it's the pinnacle of motorsport. But there's these odd occasions where F1 is dragged right back to its roots and moments like that, or if the gaffer tape comes out to secure a rear wing, it's those moments that really ring true that goes, yes, you know what, there is still these synergies between Formula One, the pinnacle of motorsport, to your local carter who's racing on a weekend, just doing it for fun. There is still these moments and synergies there.

And that all stems from a love of cars. And I have a son, he's like, he's nearly four now, and he's absolutely obsessed with anything with four wheels. And that kind of passion, know, is everyone who's involved in my age now, you know, that passion stemmed from, you know, a love of cars from when they were really young. yeah, we wanted to embrace the kind of car community for F175.

essentially to launch the campaign that we're running this year. And yeah, it was awesome to engage the kind of diverse communities that we were able to engage for that event and really use that moment in London as an opportunity to put some of London's emerging car communities forward for and have them on stage with us to launch the car. And ultimately, this is something we're going to take through the season now. yeah, we've got Japan coming soon.

and we'll be engaging at a number of the kind of real core car communities in Japan very soon as well. And then you can kind of see the world tour that F1 goes on. There's so many passionate and really engaged car communities at every stop of the tour that we go on. yeah, it's just been an opportunity to really find that authenticity of a love of cars to Formula One.

Steve Garland (51:24.268)
And with it comes all of that storytelling potential that we've got for our content output for this year. And yeah, it's going to lead us to some really interesting, but different places to where we are typically going to. We've been well versed in action sports or putting the drivers into different disciplines within Red Bull or maybe some lighthearted, more fun content. But yeah, what we're doing with this campaign is to really kind of

dive in to these communities, but also find some really engaging but unique stories that probably have never been heard before, but have been existing for so long. And really giving those stories and those communities a step into a new audience.

Sean Callanan (52:14.306)
Yeah, I mean, that's what the community piece is the bit that I love. Like you're tapping into these already communities, then, you know, amongst those communities, there'll be influences or, you know, people that are, you know, have Instagrams that are just because they're fixing that car. And so you just, it's another way, but it, you know, very small, you know, everyone says influences is this big wide thing, but like, this is just, you know, for a particular vertical and it absolutely, absolutely fits for, like you said, cause it's a starting point of fandom. So

I'm interested to see where it goes. mean, I'll share the links in the show notes for the, you know, was all fast and furious through London, effectively videos. must've been a lot of fun to shoot it and a lot of organizing to shoot it, but it looked amazing.

Steve Garland (52:59.97)
Yeah, eight night shoots in 12 days. So if there's anything to say what it takes to deliver content in Formula One, that's about it. Yeah, was, I mean, as a whole, the event was a real step into the unknown for the whole sport. You know, I think all teams really shared that as well. It was a real stab in the dark for all of us because, you know, we'd never done it before, you know, collectively as teams, but also as Formula One. And it was really interesting to see how all teams took a different approach on it.

Sean Callanan (53:03.873)
Okay.

Sean Callanan (53:16.183)
Yeah.

Steve Garland (53:29.838)
But that in itself is refreshing as a sport to see. We shouldn't be afraid of doing things differently. We shouldn't be afraid of just doing the same race calendar, just doing the same type of events that the sport's ever done. Because it doesn't grow, it doesn't evolve without doing that. it was, and I think what was really interesting to see was how marmite some of the art reactions were to the event. And I think

Sean Callanan (53:34.573)
Yep.

Sean Callanan (53:48.215)
and

Steve Garland (53:58.412)
That's something we've always had at Red Bull. If we're at a point where some people love it, some people don't, then you're doing the right thing. And I think that's where F1 actually managed to be with this event as well.

Sean Callanan (54:12.462)
I think, and we all know it's very competitive off track, but we do know that the Digi teams get very competitive and the content teams get very competitive. So the bar will continue to be raised. So I look forward to see what everyone pulls out next year. Steve, I really do appreciate the time. I want to get to the SportsGeek Closing Five. Do you remember the first sports event you ever attended?

Steve Garland (54:18.03)
you

Steve Garland (54:34.254)
Well, first sports event. was actually my first football match. So my dad's a Chesterfield fan and he took me along from a very young age to trying to indoctrinate me to be in the Chesterfield fan. It didn't work, but yeah, I still remember it. It was Northampton and they lost actually. They lost 2-1. So yeah, I remember it well.

Sean Callanan (54:57.422)
And you would have been a lot of different sports events and a lot of different tracks around the world. Do you have a favorite food memory or a go-to food at a sports event?

Steve Garland (55:06.926)
I mean, I was just in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and had one of their mince pies at the AFL, meat pie with sauce. was, yeah, just feels right in that time and place. So that's definitely up there. But no, I'd say my favorite would always be in Japan and in Tokyo. Just, yeah, the food out there just hits differently. And it's the only cuisine.

Sean Callanan (55:13.762)
Meat pie with sauce, yep.

Steve Garland (55:34.67)
that I feel like hasn't been replicated to its best form outside of Japan. To get that real kind of best Japanese cuisine, you've got to be there. yeah, I'd say some of the Japanese cuisine out in Tokyo.

Sean Callanan (55:49.55)
with a global calendar and waking up in different parts of the world, in different parts of the world, what's the first app you open in the morning?

Steve Garland (55:59.765)
It's actually Instagram. shows just how much the digital world has changed in the last few years because it used to be Twitter, because that was your source for news. But yeah, it's now Instagram and that's usually what's serving me with the latest news that I may have missed overnight or the latest exploits of some of my mates, basically.

It's actually Instagram would be first and then that'd be closely followed by my Fitbit app actually, to analyze my sleep performance. Exactly. Yeah. It's crazy. You could need apps to tell you that these days, but yeah.

Sean Callanan (56:33.614)
to find out if you had a good sleep or not.

Sean Callanan (56:40.534)
Yeah. I mean, it reminds me I saw a Stephen Wright joke where someone said, Did you sleep good? He goes, No, actually made a few mistakes. And I'm like, that's, you know, that's one of the good lines when someone asks you about sleep. Is there someone that you follow? might be an author might be someone on social media that the podcast listeners should follow and why.

Steve Garland (57:01.902)
Um, that's a really good question. always suggest Smith, I'd say in digital, um, it's someone I've always looked up to massively. Um, during, you know, the last 14 years of my career, um, she's, I feel like Jess was one of the first real voices for digital, um, on starting on Twitter, but has now obviously taken a lot of that to LinkedIn.

but also being a real kind of voice of reason for the place of social teams and digital teams within sports. but does it so eloquent? Yeah.

Sean Callanan (57:34.114)
Yeah. Yep. And making that pitch up to the sea level and all of those things. Absolutely.

Steve Garland (57:43.198)
Exactly, exactly. she always does it so eloquently as well. So yeah, I'd say if you're not following her already, Jess Smith for sure.

Sean Callanan (57:52.148)
Absolutely, she's been a multi-nominee. Lastly, I ask people what social media platform is your MVP? And so you can put your Red Bull hat on for this, and then you can put your personal hat on for this, and you can have different answers.

Steve Garland (58:05.998)
MVP. I'm gonna start personal. So personal is actually Reddit. think Reddit is, it's almost like what Twitter was back in the day, in its most raw form. But I also find that in terms of finding kind of community sentiment, in its truest sense, Reddit is

Sean Callanan (58:15.383)
Okay.

Steve Garland (58:33.506)
the kind of best voice of reason across all platforms at the moment, but also the kind of easiest aggregator of some of that. so many channels just kind of unfortunately fall into really aggressive or negative sentiment quite quickly in their common feeds these days. And Reddit still has that tone of reason. So I think Reddit would be my personal kind of go-to. And it's also a bit kind of under…

under acknowledged, I think in its place. Yeah, a bit under the radar. But maybe that's why it's kind of still got the still got the kind of community that engages with it. And yeah, from a from a from a team perspective, you know, I'd still say it's Instagram. In terms of an MVP, we've got, you know, TikTok still got a lot of opportunity and it's still got a lot of growth.

Sean Callanan (59:03.542)
It is a bit under the radar, yeah.

Steve Garland (59:28.942)
But yeah, Instagram is definitely the kind of base that you're also judging performance on. And it's also the kind of main channel that a lot of seniors also get, understand. A lot of them also have their own presence on Instagram, but don't obviously have their TikTok account, et cetera. And definitely, if a senior member of staff, the CEO, team principal, has their own place on a channel.

they're better, their understanding is of it. So yeah, Instagram has played a key role for us over the years in not just kind of building that understanding of digital in general within our senior management, but also in a lot of buying. And yeah, for us, Instagram definitely is the kind of first point of reference for any of our performance metrics as well.

Sean Callanan (01:00:22.638)
I mean, and it is the, I guess the platform now of, of note and the main platform for most athletes and drivers, like, cause it's not as toxic as, as the Twitter. It's a little bit easier to manage. You can do it yourself. I know a lot of them will get other people to do it, but it is easier to manage and you can, you can scroll it. So it does, it is becoming that fulcrum for a lot of things in the world of sport.

Steve Garland (01:00:45.272)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Sean Callanan (01:00:47.832)
So Steve, really appreciate you taking the time. If people have listened to this podcast and wanna reach out and say thank you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Steve Garland (01:00:57.922)
Yeah, so either find me on LinkedIn. I'm just Steve Garland on LinkedIn and or reach out, know, on my Instagram account, which is SteveGarland19. And yeah, no, thanks so much for having us along. Sean, it's been a pleasure to be part of the pod and, you know, also add my name to so many other faces within digital that have been on the podcast over the time. So yeah, I really appreciate the invite and yeah, thanks for your time.

Sean Callanan (01:01:22.988)
And not a problem at all. And apologies for what Melbourne weather gave us during the Grand Prix, which didn't caught with, which made it impossible to meet anybody. hopefully we will reconnect potentially at a future race. But yeah, for those who don't know, was bloody hot on Saturday and then rain on Sunday and there's mud everywhere. So Melbourne absolutely delivered everything and a great race as well. But like it really turned it on and made it for a really

Steve Garland (01:01:28.483)
Ha

Steve Garland (01:01:33.144)
Transfer.

Sean Callanan (01:01:52.076)
special special Grand Prix.

Steve Garland (01:01:54.638)
Yeah, it was something. And to be quite honest, it was great to be back in Melbourne in its rightful place at the start of the season calendar where it always should be. no, despite the differing weather and the definite trench foot I got on Sunday because of how wet it was, it was, no, it only felt right to start the year in Australia. And yeah, no, we look forward to being out there again for the start of season next year.

Sean Callanan (01:02:14.242)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (01:02:25.803)
Absolutely. Looking forward to it.

Steve Garland (01:02:28.897)
Awesome. Well, thanks for your time,