As Formula E takes on the giants of global motorsport, Ellie Norman explains how the electric racing series is using creators, technology and a challenger mindset to build the next generation of sports fans.
Damian Fowler (00:00):
I'm Damian Fowler and welcome to The Big Impression. And this week we're joined by Ellie Norman, the chief marketing officer of Formula E. Now, Formula E has never had the luxury of being the established player. It spent the last decade building a global motorsport brand while competing for attention against some of the biggest names in sports and is doing that with a very different playbook, racing through city centers, partnering with creators, and embracing sustainability and targeting younger audiences who don't always experience sports the way previous generations did. And one of the most interesting examples is Evo sessions, which put creators behind the wheel of Formula E cars and turned content creators into part of the story. It's all part of a broader effort to position Formula E, not just as a racing series, but as a challenger brand where sport, culture, technology, and entertainment meet.
(00:50):
So with that, let's start our engines. And Ellie, welcome to the podcast.
Ellie Norman (00:55):
Damian, really good to be with you. So thank you for the invite and we'll have to reframe what the engine of the future is.
Damian Fowler (01:03):
Exactly. One of the interesting things about Formula E, and not everybody knows about Formula E, is the sound. I was watching clips and it's not the typical sound of a roaring Formula One car. Could you explain what Formula E is and why it makes a different sound?
Ellie Norman (01:22):
Yeah, of course. So Formula E, for those that aren't aware, is a sort of 12-year-old global motorsport. It's the fastest growing motorsport in the world. It is the only motor sport to be 100% electric as a world championship. And that's unique to Formula E through to 2053. Now, in terms of the sound of it, I find this incredibly interesting. So certainly for a traditional motorsport fan, the sound can often be a barrier and they will hark back to the days of V10s and V8s. And even the V6 hybrid engine of today in Formula One for them doesn't sound like motor sports should sound like. However, what's incredibly interesting is when you think about the combustion engine, you have essentially a technology which is over a hundred years old. And the fascinating thing is the sound actually comes from the inefficiency within a combustion engine. Whereas when you look at how technology has evolved and electrification, this as a powertrain and a sort of mode of propulsion is the most efficient powertrain that is out there.
(02:39):
So number one, it's quiet because it is the most efficient way to generate the explosive power that you have within electric. But the second layer to that for me is really thinking about, well, who is the audience? And when you are a scaling, growing motorsport and we attract a younger demographic than other traditional motor sports, sound has never been an issue for them. And it isn't that signal and that cue that really symbolizes what motor sport is. And yet they will lean much more into, is this entertaining? Is it competitive? Who are the characters within the sport? And so we will really play into those as the kind of signals and the touch point that engages a future audience whilst just using the fact that the sound profile is different.
Damian Fowler (03:34):
That's amazing. Yeah. So as the CMO of this relatively new sport, what is the story you're trying to tell?
Ellie Norman (03:43):
So you're right. We are 12 years old and the story that we're sort of really being able to tell is going back to the DNA of first of all, why was Formula E created? And Formula E was created around three pillars. Number one, that was how do we really showcase the future of motor sports? So very competitive racing. Doing that in urban environments because let's face it, that's where the majority of our population lives. Number two, to really sort of focus on driving innovation and technology and being the sort of showcase for electric mobility. And number three is we can create all of that and to do it in a way that is sustainable and really thinking about the environment and being good for society. So when I wrap all of that up, very, very simply, our role is to bring to life how you make progress thrilling.
Damian Fowler (04:50):
Could you give us a sense of the scale of Formula E right now
Ellie Norman (04:54):
In
Damian Fowler (04:55):
Terms of
Ellie Norman (04:55):
Global
Damian Fowler (04:56):
Sports?
Ellie Norman (04:57):
So global sports growth is continuing, which is always a positive position to sort of be in. So we see that from a TV audience perspective. So a TV audience perspective for the end of last season was 561 million cumulative audience. So really sort of very sizable. Broadcast across 150 plus countries. And that is 422 million sort of fans. So we will always sort of focus on how can we continue to deliver that growth. And from my perspective as sort of CMO, I will have a three-track focus, which is how can we build fame for Formula E? So that is about growing cultural relevance. It's about growing demand. And then importantly, how do we convert that? And that's about making sure that Formula E is easy to find and easy to buy. So really understanding those fan journeys. How do we remove points of friction and ensure that that is seamless?
(06:00):
And the third track is very important, but it's actually how do we ensure we're hard to leave? So that's really understanding the communities we're building, what resonates with that community, and essentially sort of what's the ecosystem that sits around what I would describe as our product, which is the racing, the sort of content. But what's the ecosystem that sits around that to ensure that we can best serve our fan base and our communities with the content, the information, and the experiences that matter most to them.
Damian Fowler (06:33):
Now speaking of the fan base, and I mentioned this in the introduction, the Evo session strategy. The idea was to put creators behind the wheels of the
Ellie Norman (06:43):
Cars.
Damian Fowler (06:44):
It feels like maybe a big gamble. What was the thinking behind that?
Ellie Norman (06:50):
Yeah. You're right. I think when you are a challenger brand, you need to play to a different rule book and a different playbook. And if we're to achieve the growth and to really scale Formula E, we're not going to be doing that through sort of incremental tweaking around the edges. And I think it comes from how do you take calculated risks and calculated sort of big swings to really sort of understand how we'll achieve that sort of growth? The media landscape is changing fairly rapidly. It is very fragmented, but I think a combination of always looking at that media landscape, of understanding that from my perspective, it isn't an all, it is an and. But we need to recognize that in that changing landscape and often where these sort of future audiences and where we see that growth come from is very much with how do we sort of take Formula E out of the echo chamber and be confident enough to work with creators and to be able to hand Formula E over to those creators who have a shared interest and a curiosity about what is Formula E, but to create an experience which allows them to really sort of co-create and to tell the story in their own authentic voices to the communities that sort of hold them in the highest regard and with that sort of highest trust.
(08:21):
And so it's easy for brands to broadcast a message, but what we see is that sort of trust really comes from other people talking about you.
Damian Fowler (08:33):
It's a very smart strategy though, building the community, right? Using the community as the marketing voice or one of the channels, the marketing voice. I wanted to ask you a little bit about the partnerships with major. You mentioned global brands. What are sponsors looking for from Formula E right
Ellie Norman (08:52):
Now?
(08:53):
So having sat on the other side of the table and for five years I worked at Virgin Media and part of my role there was to sort of buy sponsorship. And anyone sort of looking at where a sponsorship and a partnership exists, typically it won't be the only marketing lever that you're using in terms of driving sort of promotion. But the real value comes from being essentially a 12-year-old sport. We have so much agility to be able to actually sort of put together what does value generally look like for you, the partner, and for your audience. So we always start with a place of what would you like to achieve? What can you help us achieve? And where is that sort of crossover in terms of where that real sort of value creation zone is for both the commercial partner and Formula E, thinking about it through the lens of a fan to then sort of create unique services and products and experiences that sort of serves both.
(10:03):
And that for me is when sponsorship is at its absolute best. And I think when you are a 12-year-old Challenger brand, you have far more flexibility to be able to create bespoke packages for sponsors. And inevitably you can cut through for many sports, what is a very, very kind of crowded marketplace.
Damian Fowler (10:29):
Are you seeing a different category of sponsors or brands wanting to get in on the action with Formula E than you might have seen and say at
Ellie Norman (10:36):
Formula
Damian Fowler (10:36):
One or even Manchester United?
Ellie Norman (10:38):
Yeah. So I think certainly when you think about Motorsport and particularly for Formula E, Motorsport really sits around software, strategy and intelligence. And the fact that you have about 1.5 million data points coming off the sensors of the cars real time means that we are incredibly attractive for a lot of kind of technology partners like a Google Cloud, like an Infosys that will work with us to again be able to utilize that data to generate sort of agents and build those kind of case studies that assist them in their sort of pipeline growth. And I also sort of think that what we see is because we have a typically younger, more diverse fan base, so the fan base is sort of between 47 to 49% female, which is quite unusual for motor sport. And the majority of our audience will be millennial and Gen Z as a demographic.
(11:49):
And so for brands like Feastibles, for sort of brands like on the sort of consumer side of Google, that becomes a very interesting sort of place because it really is that ability to connect with a much younger audience.
Damian Fowler (12:05):
And then in terms of being a Challenger brand, what kind of advantage do you have say over an incumbent?
Ellie Norman (12:12):
And I think the advantage that you have as a Challenger brand is one, we challenge the status quo. We never settle. So it's always about how do we drive change in the name of progress? And the ability to just move with such agility and to be able to kind of test and to experiment. And that's where so many sort of partners love working with Formula E because there is this ability to essentially just create things, test it, try it, optimize it. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But it's better to have no regrets and to know that you've actually tried something than to not do it at all.
Damian Fowler (12:51):
I love that. In terms of sort of takeaways and sort of what you might have learned over the last 12, 18 months, what are the clearest signs that Formula E is gaining momentum globally?
Ellie Norman (13:04):
We should never underestimate the importance of product. And we have our new race car that will essentially hit the track in December of this year. And again, just to see how quickly technology and electrification is evolving, this new race car is 71% higher performing than the current race car. It looks absolutely stunning. And I think a fantastic signal that we've seen is the amount of Formula One drivers who were in Monaco for the Formula E race pouring over this car and the genuine sort of excitement in terms of what this car is going to sort of offer. So I think I'm really very excited about, I've got a great product to work with. And that trajectory of where that will go for the next generation is just absolute sort of step change. Second thing that excites me about Formula E is the traction in terms of how are we co-creating and building community and working with sort of creators.
(14:13):
And that feels far more relevant in terms of how young Challenger brands drive growth in terms of that sort of ground up whilst continuing to build out the visibility through having a very strong sort of TV product and distribution.
Damian Fowler (14:33):
And then obviously you must look at TV ratings and attendance, but how do you know when someone's become a fan rather than a viewer?
Ellie Norman (14:42):
Yeah. Really small, but I love looking at what I would call those sort of signals. So seeing the commentary. So content being shared, fans talking. So if someone is kind of questioning what Formula E is, seeing your community almost kind of jump to the floor and actually start to drive that sort of education. And seeing that sort of shift in terms of the share of voice around Formula E, lessening in terms of coming directly from Formula E, and to see that community and the share of voice coming from the community start to increase is an immediate signal where you see that sort of shift happening.
Damian Fowler (15:23):
Formula E must attract people who care about sustainability. And then the sports fandom. What have you learned about those two communities, if you like? What have you learned about turning sustainability minded consumers into sports fans?
Ellie Norman (15:39):
I think historically those two things have never been able to sit together. And what I love about Formula E was the ambition that those two things can coexist. So no longer is this about compromise. You can have a highly entertaining, elite, competitive sport, and you can do it from a place of being sustainable and driving that sort of progress. So from my perspective, number one, the thing that opens the door with new fans and new audiences typically will be the fact that this is an entertaining elite sport. What keeps those fans in the sport is the fact that it's built on a foundation that is sustainable and has modern, purposeful values.
Damian Fowler (16:26):
Those are new fans, net new incremental fans. Correct. Yeah. Let's sort of zoom out and look at the big picture of live sports. We talk a lot about live sports on this podcast and the value for advertisers. But one, we've got a very crowded sports calendar. So how does Formula E kind of insert itself as it were into that global sports calendar and find the space?
Ellie Norman (16:52):
Yeah. So a colleague of mine, Alberto, spends a lot of time thinking about how do we get the most optimal sort of calendar. And certainly from a motor sport perspective, there is an awful lot of work that looks at ensuring that we minimize the clashes. So that's minimizing clashes with Formula One. That's avoiding clashes with huge kind of races. So if you're a motor sport fan, the 24 hour of Lemon race, the Indie 500, the Daytona 500, really big races. So when Alberto's developing that calendar, it's how can we minimize that? Yeah. That's the first thing. The second thing is ensuring that, again, you know your audience so well and what they're looking for. So that does come back into how can you ensure your product is as entertaining as possible? Because you've got a good product, that's half the job done. It then is really sort of understanding where is that audience and how do you best serve them with the content that matters?
(18:01):
And that is about how do we use hooks? So taking sort of action from the races out there, the role of highlights, the role of sort of short form sort of content. So certainly that content that will maybe sit in these sort of 10 to 20 minutes, that's really, really important to ensure that we continue to get that right and use that as a way to bring people into what is a all action, high energy sort of 45 minute race for Formula
Damian Fowler (18:35):
E. But given that all of those kind of short form pieces of content, how is that feeding into your media strategy? Presumably as a big
Ellie Norman (18:44):
Part of it. For me, it comes back to this and versus all. And it is recognizing
(18:52):
Who the audience is and where they are. And so for much of the audience, a broadcast of the full race is really important. And I work with a colleague, Michaela, who is our chief media officer. And Michaela is constantly ensuring that that race is broadcast in the best time slots, on the best channels to ensure that we are easy to find and we can sort of provide that engagement for those that want the full race. There's an awful lot of work of ensuring that we work with those broadcasters so that the short form clips, the hooks, the stuff that we can take from a race and to put that onto social, that we can do that as quickly as possible and sometimes whilst a race is going. So we use that as a means to take Formula E out to where that audience is, to capture their intention and to bring them into the race.
(19:53):
And for those that perhaps on a completely different time zone, the role of highlights and actually serialized content that we will create for YouTube specifically. So we have a couple of different series, which is how the race was won, really sort of dissects and distills the strategy that was used through the race. How is that executed to ensure the sort of podium? And the second bit is working on a series that we call Coding the Chaos with a creator called Big Time. And again, that's doing phenomenally well to really sort of take Formula E out into a brand new audience, drive the engagement through a different sort of angle. And then we see that really sort of convert into people seeking out, well, when is the next race? How can I watch it?
Damian Fowler (20:45):
Yeah, that's really reshaping the future of sports
Ellie Norman (20:49):
In lots
Damian Fowler (20:49):
Of ways, but especially for
Ellie Norman (20:51):
This
Damian Fowler (20:52):
Challenger.
Ellie Norman (20:53):
And it is thinking about it in terms of the entire sort of ecosystem. So there is the content, the product, and then there is all the kind of marketing that we do around that, which is understanding who is the audience? Where are they? What are the platforms? What are the channels and what are the formats? And that is there to drive that sort of conversion and that engagement into the content, the product.
Damian Fowler (21:20):
On that point, where do you see globally audiences growing?
Ellie Norman (21:26):
So we see big growth, China. So sort of already over six vehicles, all new vehicles in China will be battery electric. And so we see huge growth in China because there is no education required. In some respects, we're the leader in China because we are about the future and not about where the past has been. Growth for motor sports and US, sports crazing. So high growth from sort of the US and that's a key market for many of our sort of teams and manufacturers. And Europe is the DNA of motor sport. And so that sort of core European countries, your Germanys, your Italys, your sort of France, the UK, very, very important. And that's how we sort of really think about it. And the Middle East. So that the way that sport is really capturing a golf audience and region is also where there is a lot of growth, particularly as many of those countries are really sort of looking to diversify where income will come from in the future.
(22:43):
And tourism and sports is a big part of that.
Damian Fowler (22:46):
Yeah. I mean, they're really leaning into football of course already and golf. So yeah, I can see that that must be a big growth market. We're almost there, but you touched on this point, which is interesting about China, but just wanted to. The narrative around EV and smart mobility, obviously as you say in China is huge. How much does that broader shift in any given market help Formula E? The
Ellie Norman (23:13):
Shift
Damian Fowler (23:14):
Towards EV, the narrative about electric vehicles?
Ellie Norman (23:16):
Oh, it's huge. I mean, when I think about the role that Formula E plays, we are a live, living laboratory. And the more that. If you think back when Formula E was created, when Formula E was birthed, there were only 300,000 battery electric vehicles sold in the world in 2014. Where we are today, 2026, 20 million vehicles sold is what's being predicted for end of calendar year. 2030, 40 million. So the role that we play in essentially demonstrating the no compromise, the fact that this is just about driving sort of progress, this is just where the efficient progress and performance is going to come from. What our manufacturers do on a race day through software can be rolled out through their cars overnight. So there's a wonderful story about sort of Jaguar made a change to the battery in the powertrain that essentially in the race meant that they could take that learning and deploy that into their electric vehicles and the range increased by sort of 30 miles.
(24:33):
So that for me is a fantastic sort of demonstration of the role that as a sport we can play because the proximity from the racetrack for our race teams is just so small into impacting the sort of manufacturers and the automotive. In the last 11 seasons, there have been 10 different world champions. So there is such an unpredictability because the field is so competitive and so close. And sports fans want that jeopardy. They want to know that anything can happen. And you can't really say that for so many sports.
Damian Fowler (25:10):
That's very true. Yeah. You get a lot of, well, I guess legacy teams that have so much money that they aggregate power at the top of the table. I won't mention any names.
Ellie Norman (25:22):
Yeah. But it's true. The cost cap in Formula E is sort of circa 15 million versus 50 million.
Damian Fowler (25:33):
Yeah. Wow. But I've got some quick hit hot seat questions here for you. So the first one is, from your point of view, what's missing from sports marketing today?
Ellie Norman (25:44):
So quick thinking about it. For me, what's missing is are we taking enough inspiration and being curious about what other sectors, industries and audience are doing and how does that play back in sports?
Damian Fowler (25:59):
What's one outdated assumption that many people still make about motor sport fans?
Ellie Norman (26:04):
That is just for guys.
Damian Fowler (26:05):
If you could stage a Formula E race anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be?
Ellie Norman (26:11):
Take us back to Africa.
Damian Fowler (26:14):
Wow. What's one brand outside of sports doing marketing that you really admire right now?
Ellie Norman (26:20):
So I take inspiration from an awful lot. I really like still within sports, but I love looking at the younger sort of sports bursting onto the scene. So whether that is Baller League, Kings League, seeing what the sidemen are doing with a charity match, there's a lot to be learned from that and how that can sort of play into your tier one and your tier two sports. Our role is to bring to life how you make progress thrilling.