I ghostwrite Educational Email Courses for motorsport brands so they can turn fans into fanatics | Creative Director & photographer

I am the founder of The Commercial Table, where I talk about the commercial world of sports and entertainment. 

We also help commercial executives turn partnerships into revenue through the newsletter and consulting practice.
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My career is far from traditional, almost paying catch-up at times - I spent 10 years as a photographer before transitioning to writing, lived across three countries (with more airport mishaps than I care to count), and somehow found my way into the niche world of motorsport marketing without ever fully stepping into the corporate world.
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My approach to LinkedIn mirrors largely my personality - more listening than speaking, trying to be more authentic than polished. My theory is If you treat LinkedIn like Twitter in 2021, you'll win. I am obsessed with how comedians and TV shows write, have dreams of working on a screenplay someday, and can talk your ear off about tennis.

I have coached 30+ clients globally, earned LinkedIn Top Voice recognition, and built my business by following curiosity and scratching my own itches - and putting ideas into action.

Nirupam Singh

Red Bull Racing launched their 2026 F1 car in Detroit - Ford's backyard

Let me catch you up to speed (pun intended).

Ford's name is on a power unit built in a brand-new 5,000 sq ft factory at Red Bull's UK campus.

They hired 600-700 engineers in four years to make it happen.

Recruiting 600-700 specialized engineers in one of the most competitive talent markets in the world.

We're talking hybrid powertrain experts who could work anywhere. Mercedes HPP, Ferrari, Cosworth. Red Bull had to convince them to bet on a startup engine program. 

That required serious employer branding. The comms budget serves fans as much as recruitment marketing. 

Every press release, factory tour, "behind the scenes at Red Bull Powertrains" video served double duty: validate the Ford partnership AND attract engineering talent.

Ford gets association with actual R&D and the factory itself becomes content—development stories, hybrid tech narrative, engineering deep-dives. Try putting a media value number on that.

The Detroit launch location tells you everything about who this activation is for. American automotive heartland with Ford's audience. This is a B2B play dressed up as a car launch.

Red Bull built infrastructure and Ford gets to tell that story for years with factory construction, engineering milestones and race performance.


So Red Bull turned their BUILD function into a GROW asset. The factory construction narrative attracted talent, validated commercial partners, and created years of content.

But yes the car livery looks pretty much the same.

Helping people master the commercial playbooks in motorsport | Founder @ The Commercial Table

Cadillac Formula 1® Team is capitalising on their entry into the grid with a series of creator-led YouTube videos.

But they're not hiring creators to do it; they're using creator tactics themselves.

I was watching their "Small Town Building Cadillac's First Formula 1 Car" video over the weekend, and what strikes me is how un-corporate it feels. 

You can hear the PR lead's (Annie Bradshaw) actual passion about bringing the public into the process. It's this unassuming warehouse taking on the F1 giants. Classic underdog framing.

Five years ago, this wouldn't have been allowed. Teams controlled everything, and with no transparency, no behind-the-scenes during buildouts. Rightfully so.

Cadillac's documenting the journey, bringing fans inside before the car even hits the grid.

What's interesting is that it’s a third-party sharing this, even though it's on GM's channel. Very run-and-gun style.

Obviously controlled and carefully edited, but you still feel like you're stepping into their story as an outsider. That's really hard to pull off when you're the brand publishing it.

Every team says, "We're here to race and win." Cadillac went deeper with the narrative—small town, first-timers, taking on the establishment. Story over statement.

That’s what I wrote about for Tuesday’s newsletter.

How marketing-led businesses use creator approaches without becoming media companies.

Major League Baseball (MLB) did this by partnering with Jomboy Media—the first league to take equity in a creator company. Cadillac's doing the DIY version where they adopt creator tactics internally.

Both work. Both strengthen the core business, which includes fan engagement, sponsor appeal, and identity. Without abandoning what they actually do.

I talked to Jack Davis, who invested in Jomboy back in 2019 when Jimmy O'Brien had a modest Twitter account. He told me every league is figuring out creator strategy right now because media distribution changed more in the last 7-8 years than in the previous 40.

The MLB-Jomboy deal worked because neither side needed it, and Jomboy was already profitable and growing. MLB doesn't need any individual creator, but the timing was right because MLB was evaluating their entire creator strategy.

Jack's framework for evaluating it came down to community depth. 

Tuesday's newsletter breaks down how to evaluate creator partnerships, what separates community depth from vanity metrics, and why this isn't about becoming creators yourself.

It's about marketing-led businesses using creator strategy to strengthen their actual business—sponsorships, tickets, broadcast rights.

P.S. I am heading to London tonight for the Autosport Business Exchange, if you’re going or are in London. I would love to meet.

Newsletter drops Tuesday. Link in comments.

Just finishing a week in London. I was here for Autosport Business Exchange, The Race Media Awards, and a bunch of meetings crammed into four days.

Some observations from the events and meetings with people: 

Apple's F1 broadcast deal: The Global Head of Sports at Apple spoke. Didn't say much. When asked about integration plans: "We'll enjoy the first broadcast, then look at feedback."

That's unusually reactive for Apple. They typically ship with conviction. In F1? They're iterating because they don't fully understand what they're getting into yet.

Formula E's pivot: Alejandro Agag mentioned sustainability has lost its appeal with fans and sponsors. They're going all-in on performance with Gen 4. Also trying to crack China the way F1 broke into the US.

Not too late, but they're definitely trying to find their way.

The pitch problem I kept seeing: Properties leading with audience numbers and demographics instead of narrative. It's backwards.

Data tells facts. It doesn't sell emotion. The brands that get pitched successfully leave thinking "damn, they know our brand better than us."

Most properties are pitching themselves, not the brand's transformation.

The fragmented commercial process: Sales closes the deal. Strategy creates the plan. Data validates it. Activation executes what got sold.

But activation should be involved from day one. Otherwise, partnerships get sold that can't be delivered as promised.

IMO: The rights-holder is one product. The brand is one product. When they come together in a partnership, that's an entirely separate product requiring its own marketing, build, and operations.

Most teams aren't probably not structured for that reality. They're structured to close, not deliver.

The execution gap in motorsport commercial is widening.

Full breakdown in today's newsletter—link in comments.

P.S. If you were in London last week and we didn't connect, let's fix that. Always down to continue these conversations.

Photo Credit: Autosport Business Exchange, a Motorsport Network event

Claude and Williams' F1 partnership proves that not every partnership announcement has to be over-the-top

Earned media will pick it up, so the focus should really shift to: 

What can we say about this partnership without shouting it? 

The bare minimum should be a simple video from the founders at Anthropic announcing: 

1. Why it's happening 
2. Why should people care 
3. What can people expect 

I'm sure this video wasn't easy to execute, but it also doesn't demand your attention like a screaming toddler.

Cool partnership, hope we see some unique activations

I was having dinner with a racing driver yesterday, and the concept of media training and loss aversion theory came up.

It related to the newsletter I shared on Tuesday about how media training kills commercial value.

After reading the motorsport.com article about Andre Dovizioso, who’s spent 20 years in MotoGP.

His observation was "Today, with social media and smartphones, we can see a lot more, so everyone has become much more diplomatic and tries to present a more composed image. They hide a little bit to try and avoid problems. Ultimately, we see very little that is true.”

When it comes time to it.

Athletes find they won’t risk a £500k sponsorship for the potential upside of a deeper fan connection. Even though that connection is what created the £500k value in the first place. 

It got me thinking about the cycle that keeps repeating:

Authentic personality builds following → Commercial deals come in → Fear of losing those deals sets in → Media training strips all edge → Fans lose interest → Commercial value decreases anyway.

Not in all cases, Max Verstappen being a prime example of someone who still speaks his mind.

But he’s an anomaly.

I shared more core insights in the newsletter:
→ The Authenticity Paradox
→ The Self-Defeating Cycle
→ Loss aversion
→ Brand Blindspot
→ The Solution

I broke down the full cycle in Tuesday's newsletter: why "safe" athletes become commercially invisible and what commercial assets and right-holders can do to address this.

Link in comments.

“We couldn’t finish the race because we had a Microsoft auto-update”

To be honest Mercedes and Microsoft couldn’t make more sense, very serious very professional. 

Side note: anybody else finding it tough to keep up with all the partnership announcements?

I'll be honest—my sports watching bandwidth is maxed out.

F1, Tennis, Premier League, MotoGP. That's it. Something has to get cut if another property gets added to that list. That's already too much for many. 

So when Formula E shows up asking for my attention, I have to decide: what bumps off my list? And that's when I started thinking about the sustainability positioning as a differentiator.

Formula E is entering its 13th season, with the series claiming it has 422 million fans. 

They're building some of the most technologically advanced race cars in the world. Gen4 launching this season has 600kW of power and active all-wheel drive.

The manufacturers are committed, and the product looks great.

And Blackbook Motorsport's Cian Brittle asks a great question: Does sustainability still carry enough weight to impact fans?

Because as rights holders chase growth for their fanbases, they're all running into the same fundamental problem: 

People have limited attention bandwidth and, frankly, way too many options in the sporting realm to choose from.

Just look at motorsport alone: F1, MotoGP, IndyCar, WEC, NASCAR, rally, Formula E. We understand the concept of racing. But we choose to watch certain series over others.

Why?

It's about memorable positioning, stories over statistics, and conviction over credentials.

It's about how you market those stakes and communicate that messaging through your channels.

Formula E does not face this challenge alone. 

Most rights holders face this despite their product being top-notch.

Here's what I've learned working with properties, trying to build commercial value:

People remember 2-3 things about you. Don't let them be random.

When I think of Formula E:
→ Electric Racing
→ Sustainability
→ Street circuits

Those are operational facts, not reasons to watch.

When I think about why my friends watch F1:

→ Driver rivalries spanning seasons
→ Technical regulations create winner-takes-all eras
→ Underdog teams occasionally shocking the grid

Those are reasons to prioritise it over alternatives.

What are your property's 2-3 memorable things?

Do they answer "why should this be a must-watch" or just "what is this"?

I broke down the entire framework for how properties break through limited bandwidth—the displacement question, the 60-second stranger test, why stories trump statistics, and what Formula E's Gen4 pivot reveals about conviction vs. credentials.

Read the full breakdown in this week's issue of The Commercial Table 👇

In an effort to be 5% better at writing The Commercial Table. 

To become a better marketer and deepen my understanding of commercial strategy, I am going through my list of 12 books.

Starting with "The Making of The Masters."

I'm not a golf fan, and I don't expect to be. I tried it, I'll stick to my racquet sport.

But there's already gold in Chapter 1.

Augusta started with a clear point of view. Bobby Jones believed that once money was placed on a match, the game changed from passion to profit. He called it contrary to "the spirit of amateurism."

That stance shaped everything - from how the tournament was structured to what it stood for.

90 years later, people still talk about the green jacket more than the prize money.

P.S. I am consumed by that Lego Set build I built over Christmas.

I took two weeks off from this platform. How do I write on here again? Anyways, this is my way to say. Go subscribe to the newsletter. Happy New Year!

Contributing to the marketing communications of world-leading motorsport events, including the Festival of Speed, Revival, and Members' Meeting.

As a marketing professional with a first-class degree in Marketing and Media Communications, I have hands-on experience in content creation, strategy implementation, and leading brand developments.

Passionate about creativity, I constantly strive to craft innovative and unique communications that engage and drive results.

Outside of my marketing role, I pursue my creative passion for photography, capturing the unique and charming side of the motoring world.

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The Battle

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Seb Hughes

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nirupam Singh's LinkedIn Performance

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