Red Bull Media House

Building a creator-powered content model from the ground up

When I joined Red Bull Media House, the company had a well-established network of talent, from artist to athletes. But creators were uncharted territory.

I was brought in as the first person dedicated to figuring out how to work with creators, and how to make it fit the company’s relationship-first approach.

There was no creator strategy, programme or infrastructure to build from. I had to create it.

From amplifying Red Bull to creating with Red Bull

The initial strategy focused on bringing creators into experiences they genuinely cared about through access to events, athletes and sports that were relevant to them and their audiences. As those relationships developed, I saw a bigger opportunity.

Creators could be more than people who amplified Red Bull. They could become production partners to create new editorial stories around the world of Red Bull.

That meant giving them creative ownership, whilst developing stories specifically for Red Bull’s channels in new areas like history, science and technology. This brought a social-first perspective to storytelling, in particular on YouTube, where we focused on format development.

Building the system behind the model

I built the creator strategy and infrastructure from scratch, defining everything from who we wanted to work with and why, to how we identified, approached, contracted and managed those relationships. My global team worked directly with around 20 creators, while local markets built and managed their own creator networks. We supported them through guidelines, webinars and hands-on strategic guidance.

Putting the model into practice

Origins represented the vision behind the whole strategy of using creators to help Red Bull make new kinds of stories.

Pitched by Andy Burgess, Origins followed athletes on journeys to discover the history and stories behind their sports. It combined creator-led storytelling, athlete access and a deeper editorial story from the world of Red Bull. Andy drove the creative development, while my team acted as executive producers throughout the process.

The result felt very different from a traditional Red Bull production. It was creator-led, personality-driven and built for YouTube, with a new format that Red Bull could genuinely own.

  • Why Bodyboarding Is the Unknown Origin of Surfing?

    Andy and bodyboarding champion Hugo Pinheiro travel to Hawaii to uncover the origins of bodyboarding and take on some of the island’s infamous waves.

    Watch It

  • Freeskier Tries 500-Year-Old Skis w/ Paddy Graham & Jon Olsson

    Andy joins freeskiier Paddy Graham in Sweden to trace the ancient origins of skiing and how it evolved from survival tool to competitive sport.

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  • How Fencing Became One of the World’s Fastest Sports?

    With Olympic gold medalist Olga Kharlan, Andy unpacks the history of fencing and the dramatic events that shaped the sport’s rules.

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  • This Sport Wouldn't Exist Without Viral Video

    Andy traces how YouTube and social media helped shape the evolution of parkour and freerunning, from viral videos to new movements and communities.

    Watch It

More creator-led work

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Changing how Red Bull thought about content

The work also began to influence how other teams approached content.

The global social content team adopted a more YouTube-native, title-first approach, while marketers saw how working with creators could make certain productions more nimble and cost-effective.

What started as a question — how do we work with creators? — became a new way of thinking about creators as part of Red Bull’s content operation.