#485: The Paddock Unveiled: Exploring Oracle Red Bull Racing's Digital Loyalty Program

PAULA: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals.

PAULA: I’m Paula Thomas, the founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: Today’s episode is hosted by Charlie Hills, Managing Director of MandoConnect, a UK-based agency that uses smart data to create brilliant partnerships, partnerships and rewards that really work.

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CHARLIE: Hello, and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty.

CHARLIE: I’m Charlie Hills, the Chief Strategy Officer for MandoConnect, WPP’s Loyalty Specialist Partnerships and Rewards Agency.

CHARLIE: We have created a white paper in partnership with YouGov that explores loyalty membership, appeal and impact across 24 European markets.

CHARLIE: And I’m delighted to be hosting a series of podcasts featuring European loyalty experts to help listeners better understand loyalty across Europe.

CHARLIE: Today, I’m delighted to welcome Elliot Warman, the Digital Product Manager at Oracle Red Bull Racing.

CHARLIE: He heads up Oracle Red Bull Racing’s digital loyalty program called The Paddock.

CHARLIE: Having worked in digital financial services for five years with HSBC, he made the switch to work in Formula One last June.

CHARLIE: He’s really passionate about building a sense of community amongst the team’s fans, particularly those that don’t have the chance to attend the races in person.

CHARLIE: He’s worked on various different marketing campaigns for the loyalty program since then, including the team’s biggest fan campaign in 2023, which was called Make Your Mark.

CHARLIE: It gave the chance for its loyalty members to design the car livery for the United States Grand Prix this year and win a trip to the races.

CHARLIE: Today, we’ll be learning about Elliot’s favorite loyalty programs, what loyalty looks like in Formula One, and of course, all about Oracle Red Bull Racing’s digital loyalty program, The Paddock.

CHARLIE: I hope you enjoy our conversation today.

CHARLIE: Hello, and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty.

CHARLIE: It’s brilliant to have you on today, Elliot.

CHARLIE: Welcome to the show.

ELLIOT: Thank you very much.

CHARLIE: Oh, fantastic.

CHARLIE: And look, we’ll just get straight into it.

CHARLIE: Let’s get started with Paula’s favorite question.

CHARLIE: What is your favorite loyalty program and why?

ELLIOT: So I think, I’m going to come with two answers to this, because the first one’s a little bit of a boring one.

ELLIOT: I think my favorite one would be Tesco Club Card, and that’s because I live within about 50 meters away from Tesco’s, so I’m pretty much using it every day.

ELLIOT: I can’t really get help to get drawn into the savings and the prices, and yeah, saving a few quid each shop kind of really helps day to day.

ELLIOT: And then secondly, I’m not even sure if it classifies as a loyalty program, but Annex Platinum Cashback.

ELLIOT: Being a rewards program, I love how like year in year out kind of tells you how much you’re saving, how much cash back you’re getting.

ELLIOT: I think, yeah, those are probably my two.

ELLIOT: They’re both financially motivated, which is probably interesting in telling about my background potentially in banking as well.

ELLIOT: But yeah, those are my two go-to’s.

CHARLIE: Two savvy, very savvy choices there and two programs that I’d be thrilled, I think, to be recognized for the value that they bring.

CHARLIE: I mean, member pricing is one of the biggest trends that we’ve talked about for a while.

CHARLIE: It’s come into the British market and it’s making such huge changes to membership.

CHARLIE: To have 90% of Brits now a member of at least one program and we think in large part driven by member pricing and then Amex, one of the flagship programs.

CHARLIE: And interesting as well that you’re pulling out the kind of cash back side of that versus some of the other benefits that they offer.

CHARLIE: So yeah, I don’t think you’re alone in those two choices.

CHARLIE: Particularly in a cost of living crisis, though I’m certain it’s because you’re HSBC and you were in banking, so you know how to spot a good deal.

ELLIOT: It is probably that, yeah.

ELLIOT: I mean, I actually rarely look at Amex and Tesco’s for the kind of the other offerings.

ELLIOT: It’s literally the cash back aspects.

CHARLIE: And are you saving up, spending Christmas?

ELLIOT: Probably, yeah.

ELLIOT: It helps a little bit.

ELLIOT: A little goes a long way, I guess.

ELLIOT: And yeah, lots of presents to buy this year.

ELLIOT: Brilliant.

CHARLIE: And how did you go from banking and that into Red Bull Racing?

CHARLIE: I’m sure our listeners would absolutely love to hear more about the brilliant world of Formula One and what’s it like to work there?

CHARLIE: And how did you get into that role?

ELLIOT: Yeah, sure.

ELLIOT: See, I guess I grew up always kind of wanting to work at a bank, which is a little bit of a weird aspiration to have as a kid, but I loved maths, loved economics.

ELLIOT: So I studied economics at university.

ELLIOT: And at uni, everyone would always talk about, I guess, like what investment bank you’re going to work for.

ELLIOT: So that was always the path I was probably gonna follow.

ELLIOT: So I left university, started at grad scheme HSBC.

ELLIOT: So I was there for probably the majority of my working career.

ELLIOT: So I spent five years there, all in digital banking.

ELLIOT: So I was rotating around digital optimization, risk management, digital product management.

ELLIOT: But after about, I think, yeah, five years there, it was an amazing experience.

ELLIOT: And I loved all the teams I worked in, but I really wanted to change.

ELLIOT: I think I kind of hit a little bit of a ceiling there, and I saw a job for Red Bull Racing within their Web3 and NFT team, and that was last year.

ELLIOT: So I applied for that.

ELLIOT: I really played on the angle that coming from financial services, I’d know a lot about cryptocurrency, which is a little bit of a white lie.

ELLIOT: I’d done a lot of research into it for the interview, but I managed to do pretty well in the interview.

ELLIOT: So I came into the team within Web3 and NFTs last year.

ELLIOT: So I did that for about six to eight months.

ELLIOT: And at the end of last year, I then transitioned into managing our loyalty program, which is called The Paddock.

ELLIOT: So I’ve been doing that and product managing that program for about a year now.

ELLIOT: And it’s been an amazing experience, to be honest, having come from banking into Formula One, it’s a bit of a switch up.

ELLIOT: And yeah, Formula One as an industry is, it is an incredibly fast place to work.

ELLIOT: And that sounds like a really bad pun, but it is true.

ELLIOT: The team tends to work race by race.

ELLIOT: As a result, some weeks you might have like two weeks to deliver a project that doesn’t need to be completed by a certain Grand Prix.

ELLIOT: Yeah, it’s really, really lean.

ELLIOT: Our marketing team is really small in the grand scheme of things, but you get a lot of responsibility.

ELLIOT: Everyone’s working at a really high, high pace.

ELLIOT: And there’s a lot of freedom.

ELLIOT: And if you have an idea, you get the chance to deliver it.

ELLIOT: So yeah, I’m pretty happy with the switch up and loving it here at Red Bull Racing.

CHARLIE: Yeah, it seems like a silly question to ask, really.

CHARLIE: What is it that you enjoy about working in Formula One?

CHARLIE: Like, it’s crazy.

CHARLIE: Is it a personal passion as well as a professional passion?

ELLIOT: I always kind of watched it, but I think ever since working in Formula One, I’ve obviously started watching it more and more.

ELLIOT: I think growing up, sports was just one of my passions.

ELLIOT: So watching football, watching F1 with my parents, that kind of thing.

ELLIOT: So I think now working within sports, I wouldn’t really want to leave the industry because it is something that I just love in my personal life and getting the opportunity to work within that.

ELLIOT: It sounds like a little bit of cliche, but it is a little bit of a dream come true.

CHARLIE: All right, it must be, I think.

CHARLIE: I mean, it’s insane.

CHARLIE: I think when you work in those really passion led industries, it’s so exciting, isn’t it?

CHARLIE: And then when you can bring that out to the fans, because that’s one of the things I know that’s really important to you, isn’t it?

CHARLIE: It’s about taking that excitement of Formula One and everything you can do with Oracle Red Bull Racing, but taking it out to fans that actually can’t get to the races themselves.

CHARLIE: What are the best things about working in loyalty for Red Bull, you know, what matters to you?

ELLIOT: I’ll probably call out two main things.

ELLIOT: So firstly, as you said, fans.

ELLIOT: We have tens of millions of fans and they are already so, so, so committed to the team.

ELLIOT: So I love the challenge of trying to convert those fans into loyalty members.

ELLIOT: It’ll become even more engaged with the team and build a further, deeper connection with us.

ELLIOT: Secondly, it’s still relatively new for Oracle Red Bull Racing in terms of having a loyalty program.

ELLIOT: So that means every day is a new challenge for how we can grow, how we engage our members, how we retain existing members.

ELLIOT: So no two days are really the same.

ELLIOT: So it’s always exciting, always something new to talk about, new challenges, new problems, and that keeps everything completely fresh.

ELLIOT: So yeah, it’s been a fun, tricky, a steep learning curve this year, but majoritally just a lot of fun.

CHARLIE: Yeah, and I think as a loyalty nerd, I think the whole kind of growth of fan engagement and loyalty programs has been such an interesting thing to observe, you know, one of the things I guess I’m famous for is loving looking at learnings from one sector or one market and then applying them to another.

CHARLIE: And it’s awesome to see, you know, mechanics and loyalty programs from retail and QSR and travel, then suddenly inspiring this new type of like fan and sport engagement.

CHARLIE: I think that’s one of my favorite things about The Paddock.

CHARLIE: I mean, we all saw The Paddock win all its golds at the International Loyalty Awards, which was very cool for kind of those that watch these things closely.

CHARLIE: But a lot of our listeners might not know much about the program.

CHARLIE: Would you mind giving us the kind of program 101?

CHARLIE: You know, what is the program?

CHARLIE: How does it work and what do members get?

ELLIOT: Yeah, of course.

ELLIOT: So I can’t take all the credit for this setup and launch for it because I wasn’t actually here back in 2021 when The Paddock, which is the Loyalty Program, launched.

ELLIOT: So I’ll give the credit to the team for that.

ELLIOT: But in essence, The Paddock’s aim is to bring fans a lot closer to the team by rewarding them for activities that they already actually complete as a fan.

ELLIOT: So that’s things like reading articles, watching content, predicting how max and check are going to do during the Grand Prix.

ELLIOT: By doing those activities, they earn points.

ELLIOT: Those points can then be redeemed for different things like merchandise, prize draws, some pretty unforgettable experiences.

ELLIOT: So it’s really trying to gamify the fan experience.

ELLIOT: But from our perspective, the Loyalty Program allows us to create much more personalized digital experiences, not just across The Paddock as well, but also in our e-mail communications, that kind of thing.

ELLIOT: So there’s a bit of a benefit for us as well, because we learn more about our fans, their age, where they’re based, and that helps us build fan profiles out as well.

CHARLIE: That’s very cool.

CHARLIE: I think that lovely, the way you can go through the levels as well, can’t they?

CHARLIE: So there’s not a base level fan, because obviously every fan matters.

CHARLIE: But how do the tiers work?

ELLIOT: Yeah, we have four tiers, and as you earn the points, you progress through those.

ELLIOT: As you get to the higher tiers, we try and give them better rewards, better experiences, better access to the team.

ELLIOT: So it really encourages people to engage, to progress through them.

ELLIOT: It really tries to encourage that engagement.

ELLIOT: But it takes about, I think if you are incredibly engaged, it will take over a year to progress to the top tier.

ELLIOT: So it’s not an easy feat.

ELLIOT: But we see the people who do do that, they are the ones who are really, really keen, really involved.

ELLIOT: They’re kind of the hardcore fans from our perspective.

CHARLIE: I think that rewarding for real effort is another big trend that we’re really seeing in loyalty programs for a long time.

CHARLIE: Lots of programs thought they had to make it as easy as possible and as seamless as possible.

CHARLIE: And that’s still really important.

CHARLIE: But then actually recognizing when someone’s really put the effort into doing anything to get into that top tier is quite cool.

CHARLIE: And a year’s not a long time in loyalty.

CHARLIE: I know a year’s a long time in Formula One.

CHARLIE: Yeah, I bet it does when you’re going from like race to race to race to race to race.

CHARLIE: But for the rest of us, for some industries, that’s one touch point a year with the customer.

CHARLIE: So it’s fantastic that they can get there in only a year’s time.

CHARLIE: I really feel like you’ve sort of started a whole sector of fan engagement programs.

CHARLIE: And there’s lots of programs that are following where the paddock has gone.

CHARLIE: But what sets your program apart from the rest from these other programs that have set out since you were in the team did?

ELLIOT: It’s a good question.

ELLIOT: I think internally, we’re a really small team.

ELLIOT: So there’s not too many of us actually working on, let’s say the paddock alone, but everyone in the business is fully committed to delivering the results for it.

ELLIOT: So everyone chips in.

ELLIOT: If you need to run a campaign or if you need to run anything within the paddock, you know you can lean on our social team, for example, our comms team, our fan engagement team as well.

ELLIOT: Everyone within the team is really committed to help driving it.

ELLIOT: So whilst we are small, we work really hard and deliver a lot to be honest for how small we are.

ELLIOT: I think as well, no other loyalty program gets fans as close to their team as our one does.

ELLIOT: Even across wider sports and other teams that I’ve spoken to, not just in Formula One, I think that is true.

ELLIOT: So we run so many different campaigns, experiences that the fans can get involved with, whether that’s from designing our car, to meeting Kristian Horner, to attending meet and greets with Max and Checo at different Grand Prix’s, attending our car reveal club night in Las Vegas.

ELLIOT: The breadth and experiences of what fans can actually earn and redeem is truly unmatched, I think.

CHARLIE: Yeah, and there’s loads of detail on that online, everyone listening.

CHARLIE: So check it out, because it’s insane.

CHARLIE: I mean, that brings us on to some of the ideas and innovations that you’re particularly proud of.

CHARLIE: I know we were going to talk a little bit about Make Your Mark.

CHARLIE: I mean, it’s extraordinary that you let people do this and then actually executed it.

CHARLIE: Tell our listeners about that.

CHARLIE: That’s a crazy and brilliant, exciting thing.

ELLIOT: Yeah, it was a pretty amazing project to be working on and be a part of.

ELLIOT: But at the start of this year, we kicked off the season launch with the Make Your Mark campaign.

ELLIOT: So that was giving our fans the chance to design our car for the three United States Grand Prix’s this year.

ELLIOT: So for Miami, for Austin and for Las Vegas.

ELLIOT: And not only that, each winner would get flights and accommodation to the race of the team with them and a plus one, so they wouldn’t be alone and kind of spare by themselves.

ELLIOT: But they also got money can’t buy access to the race as well.

ELLIOT: So they were brought into the paddock for a garage tour with our operations team during those tours, obviously because they designed the car, they were getting interviews by F1 Media, by Sky Sports, all these different kind of media outlets.

ELLIOT: And it was amazing to see their experiences.

ELLIOT: So what I was really proud of with that campaign, which we ran through the loyalty program, the paddock was how everyone in the business needed to work on it to actually deliver it itself.

ELLIOT: I mean, even though it sounds potentially quite easy, like get a fan to design a Formula One car, it really wasn’t like, we started the year, our software engineer was developing the technology for fans to submit their designs.

ELLIOT: So that was actually a fan would download a template, they’d submit their design and see it on a 3D model of the car rotating around so they could see what it would actually look like in person.

ELLIOT: Our brand team was creating assets to push this whole campaign on our social media, promoting it, designing the car itself, that kind of thing.

ELLIOT: Our partnerships team was working with Oracle, our title partner to, let’s say, throw reveal events and to build the technology for the competitions.

ELLIOT: Our comms team were organizing the car reveals at the track.

ELLIOT: And not only that, it was not just marketing.

ELLIOT: We obviously had to work with the paint shop team who actually design and paint the cars to bring these fan designs to life and actually put it from a PDF template onto a car itself.

ELLIOT: So it was an amazing success.

ELLIOT: We had three fan design car liveries that had never really been done before in Formula One.

ELLIOT: We had three crazy reveal events in Vegas nightclub casinos at the Oracle HQ flying a car in with a helicopter.

ELLIOT: All these incredible crazy things that only we would really do as a team.

ELLIOT: That was really successful because everyone had really tripped in and made it happen.

CHARLIE: And how on earth did you tell the people that they’d won?

CHARLIE: How did those calls go?

ELLIOT: So I think for the first call, which was Miami, I was more nervous than the girl I’d spoken to.

ELLIOT: I had no idea how I was going to break the news.

ELLIOT: So I’m pretty sure I was shaking as I started talking to her.

ELLIOT: But that was probably a highlight of mine.

ELLIOT: Getting to tell each winner that they’d won.

ELLIOT: I had to drop them an email, pretend like I just wanted to chat to them about their entry, even though it’s probably quite obvious.

ELLIOT: And I think by the time I’d spoken to the Vegas winner, they knew that it was a little bit of a ruse.

ELLIOT: And her partner was saying, he knew that I was going to say that she’d won it.

ELLIOT: But yeah, getting to see their reactions, like screaming on camera, the guy for Austin, his dog was in the background of the call and he got up and shouted and screamed and his dog kind of turned around and looked more shocked than he was.

ELLIOT: So yeah, that was a pretty amazing part of the year.

CHARLIE: That’s really cool.

CHARLIE: I think those moments as well, where you can change somebody’s life in all honesty and create such a rich emotional connection between them and a brand they already love.

CHARLIE: I mean, nobody grows up thinking they’re going to get to design a Formula One car.

ELLIOT: How mad?

CHARLIE: And then you made that real.

ELLIOT: For sure.

ELLIOT: I think when we’re out in Miami, so two of the winners are actually from Argentina, from Rosario, which was, yeah, there was a little bit of a coincidence, but I think once everyone in Argentina had seen the first winner, they all started, I guess, applying and signing up and submitting designs.

ELLIOT: So yeah, perhaps it wasn’t too much of a surprise, but yeah, whilst we were out in Miami, she was getting phone calls, job offers.

ELLIOT: It was pretty incredible to see the reaction they were getting, not only in the media, but at home as well.

CHARLIE: That’s amazing.

CHARLIE: I get excited when one of the partnerships that we’ve delivered comes to life and I can call my mom and go check it out.

CHARLIE: I can’t imagine how that feels when you’ve designed a Formula One car and it’s all over the press.

CHARLIE: That’s insane.

ELLIOT: But it was also, it was funny seeing the actual race start and everyone was very nervous that the cars would finish the race and also finish in P1.

ELLIOT: Didn’t really want to be, I guess, the unlucky curse that meant the car didn’t win the race, but fortunately it was a pretty successful year and all the special liveries we did finished in P1, which was a great result.

ELLIOT: And I think all the winners who designed the cars were completely relieved by that as well.

CHARLIE: Yeah, I bet, right?

CHARLIE: Gosh, yes, I hadn’t even thought of that.

CHARLIE: Of course, you don’t want to be the jinx, do you?

ELLIOT: Yeah, exactly.

CHARLIE: Oh, that’s fantastic.

CHARLIE: Yeah, I think that’s amazing.

CHARLIE: Where are the cars now?

CHARLIE: Have they kept the liveries or did they get, I mean, presumably they didn’t get to take the car home with them.

ELLIOT: They don’t.

ELLIOT: I mean, they can get a mini replica modeler, but I think they’re like one to 43 size.

ELLIOT: Like they’re pretty small.

ELLIOT: But no, the actual cars, they, good question, I actually have no idea.

ELLIOT: I mean, we have static show cars, which are used at events that don’t have an engine in them.

ELLIOT: And there are a few of those around in the US, I think.

ELLIOT: But yeah, I’m not sure with the actual cars.

ELLIOT: I think that’s already in the pack down for next year’s races.

CHARLIE: Yeah, before the next season starts again.

ELLIOT: Exactly.

CHARLIE: I mean, that emotional connection is unreal, right?

CHARLIE: A brand that they love, a program that they love, and then an experience like that.

CHARLIE: But you know, a lot of programs really struggle with building that kind of emotional connection.

CHARLIE: And a lot of the people that we interview on the Let’s Talk Loyalty podcast, a lot of people that we work with at Mando Connect, you know, that’s their number one thing.

CHARLIE: How do I actually build an emotional connection with my audience over the kind of the transactional nature of the relationship?

CHARLIE: So I’m guessing that in Formula One, building the emotional connection isn’t necessarily as much of a challenge, but is it still a focus for the program or is it more about something else?

ELLIOT: No, I think that’s a huge part of what we’re trying to achieve here.

ELLIOT: For two reasons, I think a lot of fans tend to follow drivers and not teams as well.

ELLIOT: So as part of offering The Paddock and our digital experience, we want to turn those fans who potentially might follow a driver into fans of the team so that they’re kind of building this richer emotional connection through these digital experiences and sticking with us in the long run.

ELLIOT: So I think that is an important part of what we’re doing.

ELLIOT: But I also think a lot of our fans don’t actually attend the races.

ELLIOT: The races might not be in their country or potentially it’s too expensive or for whatever reason.

ELLIOT: So what we’re trying to do is bridge the gap for them to deliver an experience that makes them feel like they’re just as much as part of this team if they’re at the race or at home watching on TV.

ELLIOT: That kind of by engaging with us and being part of the loyalty program, they’re really kind of part of our team and the success that we experience.

CHARLIE: And what kind of things would you specifically be doing again?

CHARLIE: Because a lot of people, I’m hoping as they listen to this podcast, we’re going to go and join the program and find out more about it, but some might not be members.

CHARLIE: What kind of things do they actually get and do to bring them closer?

CHARLIE: How do you bring the fan that will never go to a race into the world of Red Bull Oracle Racing?

ELLIOT: It is a challenge at times, to be honest.

ELLIOT: I think we are trying to give different rewards, different that actually make a difference, as well as give them decisions and aspects for the team that actually make a difference and important to us.

ELLIOT: So I say that as an example, for the Austin Make Your Mark event, when we were revealing the car, we gave our loyalty members the chance to attend that reveal event.

ELLIOT: So that was at Oracle HQ.

ELLIOT: It was an amazing event.

ELLIOT: We had food, we had drinks, we had giveaways, and we had Max, Christian, and Cheko all speaking at the event.

ELLIOT: And that was predominantly made up by members of The Paddock.

ELLIOT: So over 200 people were invited down.

ELLIOT: It was amazing to meet a lot of them in person and chat to them.

ELLIOT: But it’s really giving them access to events that probably they wouldn’t really get a chance to experience normally.

ELLIOT: And it means that even if you’re not going to the race, you can feel like it’s part of the race lead up, part of the race week, that kind of thing.

ELLIOT: I think secondly, we do try to give, I guess, decision making as much as we possibly can to our fans.

ELLIOT: So for the fan liveries this year for Austin and for Las Vegas, we actually put the decision and we gave them the power to make the decision.

ELLIOT: So by voting on their favorite livery within the paddock, they were able to select the one that we actually ran for the race.

ELLIOT: So we don’t always do that, but it’s trying to really make them feel involved, part of decision making that is genuinely important for us.

ELLIOT: It might sound like that’s a small thing, but having a say on the livery is incredibly important, not from just a design perspective, but things like what weight will come to the different colors that are used because of that, that actually makes a big difference to us.

ELLIOT: So we’re really trying to give them experiences that they wouldn’t get elsewhere and bring them into decision making as well.

CHARLIE: I think that power and control that you’re giving fans really comes out from the program, actually, because a lot of programs just go one way.

CHARLIE: It’s the loyalty program centrally issuing stuff to members and sharing with members.

CHARLIE: Five years ago, people would put a discussion forum on the back of their loyalty program and think that they had two-way discussion covered.

CHARLIE: That really stands out about The Paddock.

CHARLIE: The fact that you’re actively asking fans for their opinions and actively giving them control over what could be a very big brand decision, what the car looks like, I think that’s really cool.

CHARLIE: What about the need to keep people regularly engaged?

CHARLIE: If we compare Formula One to something like a utility company where you’ve perhaps got one major engagement a year or telecommunications where it’s every 18 to 24 months, you have a lot more regular contact points through all the races throughout the year, but how do you keep them engaged above and beyond the races?

ELLIOT: I think, as you said, there’s not really much downtime within Formula One.

ELLIOT: So whilst the season is going on, there’s not really too many times that we’re worried about them not being engaged.

ELLIOT: We’re always putting content live, quizzes live, things they could read, get involved with live.

ELLIOT: So that’s not really ever the worry.

ELLIOT: But I think what we try to do within the loyalty program itself, we try to mirror how the season goes.

ELLIOT: So in December and January, the sport or a large part of the sport tends to have a little bit of a holiday, a little bit of downtime.

ELLIOT: And we try to mirror that with the loyalty program itself as well.

ELLIOT: We find that fans get a little bit of fatigue.

ELLIOT: So we see our engagement and our visits to the program decrease as the year go on.

ELLIOT: So we try and mirror that a little bit and give them time to recharge.

ELLIOT: And once we’re back in the new year, our season tends to start with our season launch, where we launch the new car and get ready for preseason testing.

ELLIOT: And that happens at the start of February or towards the start of February normally.

ELLIOT: So it’s not too much downtime.

ELLIOT: We tend to give fans the chance to have a little bit of peace and quiet during that time.

ELLIOT: And then as soon as February starts, there’s a whole host of opportunities for ourselves, to plan engagement during February, March, before the races properly kick off.

ELLIOT: And we start ramping up again then for them.

CHARLIE: It’s a really interesting way of managing cadence actually, because we see a lot of programs, particularly during the lockdowns period, where actually brands are really struggling to connect.

CHARLIE: Actually, the loyalty program became the primary vehicle to actually talk to their audience.

CHARLIE: So it’s interesting you’ve actually taken a strategic decision to almost go the opposite way to mimic the season and mimic the passion and then give them that downtime.

CHARLIE: I bet there’s a lot of people listening going, I wonder how that could apply to my business?

CHARLIE: Because actually, that’s quite a rule breaker for the industry.

CHARLIE: Actually, that’s very cool.

ELLIOT: I think as well, we tend to see people who are on holiday as well, that kind of thing.

ELLIOT: So there’s fewer people in the business.

ELLIOT: So it is harder to keep things running during that time.

ELLIOT: And there isn’t things like races to be talking about the whole time.

ELLIOT: So there’s less opportunities to promote things, activities to earn points, to redeem rewards.

ELLIOT: So yeah, we’re kind of conscious that January just tends to be a quiet time for us.

CHARLIE: Yeah, it’s quite an authentic way of doing it.

CHARLIE: And I think that’s really important to members across the globe, actually.

CHARLIE: That’s for that genuine approach, rather than artificially trying to create things in a downtime to create stories.

CHARLIE: They probably do appreciate the break.

CHARLIE: That’s made me think actually, I’m like, oh, what programs do I work on where actually that could apply?

CHARLIE: What about other sort of trends and things you’re seeing in loyalty and fan engagement in sports?

CHARLIE: Because it feels very much like actually, you know, fan engagement has learned from loyalty and brought a program in, but what could loyalty learn from that?

CHARLIE: What sort of trends and stuff are you seeing in your space?

ELLIOT: I think a lot of different sports teams are starting to see the benefits of having a loyalty program itself and probably haven’t traditionally had them.

ELLIOT: I think they see the benefits of probably growing a larger database in terms of being able to connect with fans more regularly.

ELLIOT: But also, I guess, what that looks like to potential partners and prospects.

ELLIOT: They want to partner with teams who have a big database of fans.

ELLIOT: They kind of communicate and talk to them as well.

ELLIOT: So teams are seeing a lot of those benefits.

ELLIOT: And I’ve spoken to teams within sports who have apps but haven’t really explored and investigated loyalty within that.

ELLIOT: They have apps which have great content offerings, like great articles, newsletters, but their kind of registration aspect is quite light.

ELLIOT: And they’re a bit ahead of the curve in terms of their digital platforms, but they don’t have that kind of loyalty offering.

ELLIOT: And other F1 teams have mobile apps and I think are still building their loyalty platforms out as well.

ELLIOT: So I think teams are seeing the benefits to it and are moving into the space.

ELLIOT: And I think it will pick up quite quickly over the next year or two.

CHARLIE: Yeah, I think we’re definitely seeing that.

CHARLIE: It feels like every time you check in, actually, there’s a new team expanding with some new features and some new developments.

CHARLIE: So yeah, I reckon if we recorded this in three years time, actually, you might not be such a unique program because actually so many of those other kind of sports and games programs are catching up, but you’ll always be first, which is very important.

ELLIOT: Stay ahead of the curve.

ELLIOT: Yeah, exactly.

CHARLIE: And keep innovating.

CHARLIE: And I know that’s a big part of the culture anyway.

CHARLIE: I mean, how important is the paddock at Red Bull?

CHARLIE: I mean, I can only imagine the prioritization list.

CHARLIE: Where do you sit?

CHARLIE: And you’ve already talked about business alignment and actually everyone working together to deliver stuff.

CHARLIE: But how important is the program?

ELLIOT: I think it is really important, especially within marketing itself.

ELLIOT: So for two reasons, I’ll say.

ELLIOT: The first, the paddock is powered by Oracle technology, Crowd Twist, and as the benefits of having a successful loyalty program are shown and the program grows and we have these events and these campaigns, it shows how important our partnership with Oracle actually is and they’re our title partner.

ELLIOT: It’s a really important metric for our team to show how successful that partnership is.

ELLIOT: So from that perspective, the loyalty program is seen as one of the key pillars for that.

ELLIOT: So I think that itself really helps drive the importance and I think within marketing, most people understand the benefits of having it as well, having that database we can speak to, that prospective partners and clients would like to speak about and understand, I guess, what information we have on our database, where fans are sat, all that kind of thing.

ELLIOT: So I think the importance is growing.

ELLIOT: It’s really known in marketing, but I guess the wider business, we’re probably on a mission to spread the word for it.

CHARLIE: Yeah, I think that’s a common challenge across loyalty, let alone when half the team are flying all over the world and focused very much on the race calendar.

CHARLIE: And growth, we’ve talked about a lot actually and how quickly the program has grown, but growth in itself is an opportunity and a brilliant achievement, but it can also cause some challenges.

CHARLIE: What are some of the challenges that you know the program has faced since it’s been there or in the time since you’ve been working so closely on it?

CHARLIE: And what did you do to fix them?

ELLIOT: I think one of the challenges we saw this year is something that you mentioned towards the start around the tiers that we have.

ELLIOT: And it was a little bit unfortunate because it was a challenge that arose pretty much as soon as I started looking at it at the start of the year, which is quite classic.

ELLIOT: But the fact that we have a tiered loyalty program, and as I said, if you’re really, really engaged, you’ll hit that top VIP tier after about a year, means that we launch at the end of 2021.

ELLIOT: So towards the start of this year, end of last year, we started seeing more and more users hitting that top tier of our loyalty program, but really only have a limited supply of benefits that we can offer them or merchandise.

ELLIOT: We don’t have a never ending supply of merchandise.

ELLIOT: So we had an issue where we had a ballooning top tier of the members, the limited supply of benefits, but we wanted to keep them happy and engaged.

ELLIOT: So I tried to think of something that was, I guess, scalable and wouldn’t break the bank and pretty much was free.

ELLIOT: So at the start of this year, I set up a Discord channel for the VIP tiers, which I’m in myself as The Paddock.

ELLIOT: So it’s not my face or anything like that, but our logo.

ELLIOT: But I set this up as an exclusive channel for everyone within the loyalty program who hit that top tier to be able to enter.

ELLIOT: And it’s been an unbelievable success.

ELLIOT: It’s given them a channel to discuss all things F1 and The Paddock because there wasn’t really that community forum aspect within The Paddock itself.

ELLIOT: So this gave people a chance to actually engage with different members and speak to each other.

ELLIOT: And all done pretty respectfully, to be honest.

ELLIOT: I was a bit worried about that.

ELLIOT: But it’s also given me real-time user feedback as well from our most engaged fans.

ELLIOT: And that’s probably, from my perspective, being one of the most valuable things.

ELLIOT: We put a new feature live or we put a new competition or campaign live.

ELLIOT: And within minutes, if something’s wrong with it, we’ll be told.

ELLIOT: And that’s incredible to have.

ELLIOT: But not only that, we have, for example, our website team are looking to develop a new website, for example.

ELLIOT: They want to get some user feedback and survey some of our fans.

ELLIOT: And I can literally go to that group of people and say, would anyone like to take part of this?

ELLIOT: We might have like a mini helmet for you as a reward after that kind of thing.

ELLIOT: And there’ll be always more than 10, 20 people who like putting their hands up.

ELLIOT: And that’s something you normally have to go out and pay for, right?

ELLIOT: In terms of getting user feedback.

ELLIOT: So it’s been amazing for that.

ELLIOT: But I think given it’s now coming up to over two years old, the program, we’re probably going to run into a similar issue soon of the number of that Discord channel expanding and being like, okay, how do we keep them happy now?

ELLIOT: Because there’s so many of them.

ELLIOT: And it’s a never ending problem, but it’s a good problem to have.

CHARLIE: Yeah, I think that’s a really interesting problem and a brilliant solution.

CHARLIE: You’ll be horrified to know that one of the brands that did that first and best in the industry is Marks and Spencer’s.

CHARLIE: They used to have Meet the Manager events for their top tier before Sparks was relaunched.

CHARLIE: And it was one of the most popular things that they could do.

CHARLIE: And actually, I feel like you’re taking the 21st century version of that actually and taking it out to the fans.

CHARLIE: But I love that you’ve baked the program benefit into it as well.

CHARLIE: I mean, you’ve effectively got an expert panel of people that you can test things with and develop and we all know how important that is in loyalty.

CHARLIE: And again, it’s another really great example, I think, you’ve got of genuinely asking the fans and involving them and giving them control, not just sort of constantly push, push, push.

CHARLIE: If any listeners have got any good ideas for Elliot and what he can do as that develops, please message him.

CHARLIE: We’ll share his contact details at the end.

CHARLIE: And I’m sure that some of you listening are already on the Discord channel.

CHARLIE: Is that the most important lesson you’ve learned since you’ve been working on The Paddock or are there other things that have stood out too?

ELLIOT: I think that’s probably one of the most important challenges we’ve had this year.

ELLIOT: I think just personally I’ve learned that I’ve had to be really, really flexible in terms of working in loyalty and within Formula One.

ELLIOT: I think I said towards the start, no one week is really the same within Formula One.

ELLIOT: Whilst you’re working towards a roadmap of implementing new features or new campaign or new projects, an issue might crop up that’s related to a race, for example.

ELLIOT: You have to change your priorities and the team starts focusing on a completely different aspect.

ELLIOT: That might be your focus, but it might not be in it, but it might be the people you’re depending on.

ELLIOT: You have to think on your feet.

ELLIOT: I think it’s important from my perspective to not lose sight of the long-term plans and goals, even if week to week it might be impacted.

CHARLIE: Yeah, that bigger brand.

ELLIOT: More often than not, yes.

CHARLIE: It’s always key.

CHARLIE: In such a fast-moving industry, I imagine you get a lot of calls on a Monday going, oh, we’re doing this now.

CHARLIE: Or sometimes maybe you don’t get the call, maybe you have to see it happening and then pivot and change direction.

CHARLIE: What about overall success?

CHARLIE: As you’ve said, the program is now two years old.

CHARLIE: I’m guessing you’re constantly looking at strategy and planning for the program.

CHARLIE: What does success look like?

CHARLIE: What sort of KPIs are you looking at at this point in the life cycle?

ELLIOT: This has been something that’s been cropping up a lot recently because for the past two years, success has primarily been measured by membership growth to the point where our main target this year, for example, was to double our membership database in size, which hasn’t been an easy feat at all.

ELLIOT: It’s meant all hands on deck focusing towards that.

ELLIOT: We have been tracking engagement on the program too, so things like monthly active users, daily users, that kind of stuff.

ELLIOT: But to be honest, it’s mainly been membership and trying to grow as we’ve started out and try to find our feet and build our name within Loyalty itself.

ELLIOT: But going forward, I really want to put more of a focus on engagement and have it, I mean, I think internally here at the business, it might never be as important as database size and membership size, but I want it to get to that level because fundamentally, it’s all amazing having a big database, but you want a database of people who are regularly signing in and regularly engaging.

ELLIOT: So in 2024, I think we’re going to be tracking membership size, our engagement primarily, and then also starting to look at revenue.

ELLIOT: The paddock is a free loyalty program.

ELLIOT: We’re not going to start charging for that, but how can we look at improving our revenue for the team through the paddock, looking at things like merchandise, I guess that would be relative only for the paddock or specific ranges, lines, that kind of stuff that only they can buy.

ELLIOT: Ideas like that that we probably want to start promoting a bit more.

CHARLIE: Yeah, I think we’re seeing that across the industry actually, a real drive in 2024 and 2025 to work the programs as smartly as possible, so to measure the business case, measure the member engagement, but then actually bring in incremental revenue in a credible way that engages members to then fuel the rewards that you can then put into the program.

CHARLIE: Therefore, I always talk about it with our clients as a fantastic virtuous circle.

CHARLIE: You bring more money in so you can invest more back, and that helps you save your top tier problems and things like that.

CHARLIE: You’re not alone in that challenge.

CHARLIE: That’s great.

CHARLIE: And what about kind of communicating internally your program as well?

CHARLIE: Because I guess the business case is something you get asked about a lot, as well as what you’re up to.

CHARLIE: How do you communicate across Red Bull and Oracle internally what’s happening?

ELLIOT: So our team, Fan Engagement, we tend to give regular updates on our KPIs and our growth to senior leadership.

ELLIOT: So as I said, that will be things like membership growth.

ELLIOT: At the end of the year, we’ll look at how engaged our fans were, all that kind of stuff.

ELLIOT: So we tend to communicate those sort of stats at a relatively high level.

ELLIOT: And then we leave more of the fun updates to our wider kind of marketing and communications team in our regular team meetings.

ELLIOT: So yeah, those would be the kind of what’s gone well in the past week or month or so.

ELLIOT: So things are updating about our car reveal, the Las Vegas nightclub called Omnia that we did last month.

ELLIOT: I was going to say this month, yeah, last month.

ELLIOT: The more exciting updates and things that are more brand and marketing focused, I’d say.

ELLIOT: But we also like to, we shout about our successes.

ELLIOT: So if we throw in a great fan event through The Paddock, we’ve had positive feedback.

ELLIOT: We like to share that with the wider marketing team because it is easy to get, I guess, lost in stats and figures.

ELLIOT: And we have an e-mail inbox that fans are aware of and that they’re e-mailing.

ELLIOT: So I know I spoke about that Austin event we threw in the Oracle HQ.

ELLIOT: But after that, we had, I think, three or four fans in to e-mail to say thanks, but also say how genuinely how amazing of an event it was, but how important it was for them as well to feel part of the team and be there to experience it and get access to the drivers and Christian as well.

ELLIOT: So we like to shout about those.

ELLIOT: So I did a little bit of a shameless e-mail to the wider marketing team with a few of the quoted e-mails that we’d received, just trying to remind people that, I guess, at the end of the day for us, the stats and KPIs and communicating about them are important, but also to remember that these are the fans at the end of the day and they drive the support on the team.

CHARLIE: And I think that’s why, well, I hope why most people are in loyalty as well.

CHARLIE: It’s when you can kind of create brilliant little moments for your members that actually mean something.

CHARLIE: A lot of programs are, you know, you probably, we started the podcast talking about Tesco, you love getting your savvy little deal on the way it is, but that’s one level of an emotional experience right up to, oh my god, you know, I’ve been to the HQ and actually seen the kind of car reveal at the other end.

CHARLIE: So yeah, it’s really nice, isn’t it, when you can kind of humanize the stories.

CHARLIE: We love an infographic, but I also love a kind of a real, you know, kind of Vox Pops.

CHARLIE: We always try and do the two together, I think.

CHARLIE: It’s lovely to see the hard numbers, but it is.

CHARLIE: It’s the real stories that matter.

CHARLIE: And as we move to the close of the podcast, is there anything else you think we should share with our listeners?

CHARLIE: Or do you feel you’ve covered the highlights of The Paddock?

ELLIOT: I think I’ve covered the highlights of it.

ELLIOT: I’d say sign up and have a go next year.

ELLIOT: We have loads of fun activities that you can get involved with if you’re an F1 fan.

ELLIOT: And I think we’re going to try and make a push as well to start creating more exclusive and better content for The Paddock next year as well.

ELLIOT: Because as Oracle Red Bull Racing, we create a lot of amazing content, and that’s a lot of the brand work we do.

ELLIOT: So there’ll be a lot of stuff next year to be getting involved with.

ELLIOT: So I’d say get involved with that.

ELLIOT: I think as well, when I saw this question, I was thinking, is there anything else I’d like to share?

ELLIOT: And I was trying to think of something that didn’t sound like I was preaching.

ELLIOT: But for me, I found that having worked in banking and then getting the job offer to come to work at a marketing team within Formula One, it was quite nerve-racking to make that switch.

ELLIOT: But I think it’s worth, whilst you can or if you can, to kind of roll the dice with potential jobs and take a risk with it.

ELLIOT: For me, it’s been an incredible experience.

ELLIOT: I loved my background in banking, but I haven’t looked back in terms of working within marketing, working within loyalty, and it’s given me some incredible stories, incredible campaigns, like incredible people to work with.

ELLIOT: And I’ve gotten to go to a few of the races this year, most recently in Las Vegas, and it’s just been an incredible time.

ELLIOT: And that wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t roll the dice with going for a job I didn’t think I’d be able to get.

CHARLIE: I think that’s great advice.

CHARLIE: It’s not preachy at all.

CHARLIE: Again, I think we talked about it before, but one of the wonderful things about loyalty is that people come to it from so many different disciplines, from finance, from research, from data, from CRM, from advertising.

CHARLIE: And I think what we all have in common is that love of the fan engagement.

CHARLIE: And I think that’s pretty awesome.

CHARLIE: I think Roll the Dice is a really lovely bit of advice.

CHARLIE: Go for it, people, particularly at this time of year.

CHARLIE: It’s time to start fresh.

CHARLIE: And I’m sure people are going to listen.

CHARLIE: I’m sure everyone’s going to join The Paddock.

CHARLIE: You’ll probably see a surge in loyalty people as this podcast gets published.

CHARLIE: Yeah, we’ll be loyalty people kind of checking in, seeing what’s happening.

CHARLIE: How can people reach out to you if they have more questions?

CHARLIE: Obviously, we’ll put your details in the notes, but how should they get in touch?

ELLIOT: Yeah, just drop me a message on LinkedIn.

ELLIOT: That’s probably the easiest way.

ELLIOT: I’d love to chat with more people in the industry.

ELLIOT: I’m still, as I said, relatively new to it, so I’m sure I’ve probably got more to learn from the listeners than they do from me.

ELLIOT: But yeah, I’d love to connect with more people and hear about their experiences too.

CHARLIE: Brilliant.

CHARLIE: Well, look, thank you ever so much for today.

CHARLIE: You’ve been a brilliant guest.

CHARLIE: It’s an awesome programme.

CHARLIE: I think we in loyalty have got a lot to learn from fan engagement and probably vice versa.

CHARLIE: So thank you ever so much for your time today.

CHARLIE: And we’ll see you again soon, I hope.

ELLIOT: Amazing.

PAULA: The Australian Loyalty Association is proud to bring you the Asia Pacific Loyalty Awards to celebrate excellence, innovation and best practice in the thriving loyalty industry across the region.

PAULA: Tickets are now available for the awards gala event.

PAULA: Taking place on the 14th of March 2024 at the Glasshouse, Melbourne, Australia.

PAULA: Book your ticket or table at australianloyaltyassociation.com.

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