Last month, Formula E, the motorsport championship for electric cars, invited creators to test its cars and compete in a live, knock-out style race streamed on its YouTube channel. The event drew 5.8 million viewers, the league reports.

As a challenger sport, Formula E has recognized the power of creators in building brand awareness and connecting with new consumers. Instead of strictly promoting clips from the actual races on social and hoping viewers tune in, the brand is leaning into original digital content that drives broader interest.

“It's our job to take the sport to where the target audience is, and often the best way to do that is to not think about ourselves as broadcasting to an audience,” said Ellie Norman, CMO of Formula E, “but really identify and work with those trusted voices in really [established] communities.”

Expanding on live opportunities

The opportunity for digital integration, whether watching the game directly or building brand awareness, is clear.

• Digital live sports viewers will make up 69.8% of total live sports viewers in 2025, according to a September 2025 EMARKETER forecast.

“We don’t have the constraint of legacy that many other sports do,” said Norman. “What’s always key is maintaining that sporting integrity…but there’s so much flexibility and agility to move quickly and test things.”

If race scheduling acts as the TV advertising and brings the reach, creator content gives those moments excitement and momentum, she said.

Norman previously held roles at Formula 1 and Manchester United, where she could tap a full media channel mix and “traditional marketing channels” like out-of-home, TV, and cinema.

“We have a relatively small budget and team, and with that constraint comes opportunity,” said Norman. “We intend to really sort of upweight what we are doing with creators and are very much thinking as a social and digital-first brand.”

Integrating creators into the sport

Formula E trained 10 creators and put them in championship cars. Their experiences made the professional drivers more relatable while building respect for the sport, said Norman.

“The reactions getting out of the car were, ‘That was the best 10 seconds of my life,’ quickly followed by ‘How do you do this?’’’ she said.

Formula E worked with YouTube group The Sidemen and its talent agency Arcade to build the sessions. Creating collaborative content can only come from “being brave enough to essentially hand over control,” she said.

“We were able to bring the infrastructure…and trained them to be in a position to step into a championship car,” she said, adding that every creativity and storytelling component came from the creator side of the house.

The foundation of the creator mindset

Norman has taken some of her Formula 1 learnings into the Formula E role, understanding fans’ interest in content beyond the game or race.

• 49% of sports fans worldwide follow sports influencers, according to a June 2025 IBM survey.

“One of the aspects that I was very clear on from an early stage was ‘people by people,’ and sports at its very best is an unscripted drama,” said Norman. “We needed to very much allow the characters in the sport to really be able to be themselves.”

Understanding their interests beyond the sport helped humanize them and build relevant partnerships.

“From there it was an opportunity to say ‘You’re really passionate about music.’ Who do you admire in music and can we start to bring celebrities, influencers and creators together?’’’ she said.

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.