By Brian Lebarron
The motorsports media landscape isn't short on ways to reach people. If anything, the opposite is becoming the problem. Publishers, creators, streaming platforms, social networks, events and brands are all producing more content across more channels. Artificial intelligence is making portions of that process faster and less expensive. At the same time, audiences are increasingly fragmented across those channels.
So, where does that leave motorsports marketers heading into 2027?
That question was at the center of the recent SEMA Motorsports Products & Media Council (MPMC) panel discussion on the state of motorsports media. The panel brought together perspectives from traditional automotive media, creators, experiential media and newer direct-to-audience platforms.
Across nearly 50 minutes, the conversation covered creator partnerships, events, social platforms, advertising, AI, trade shows and changing audience behavior. But several themes repeatedly converged.
Owning the Audience Becomes More Valuable
One of the first observations of the discussion also became one of its recurring themes: distribution is becoming decentralized.
The traditional boundaries between publisher, creator, promoter and broadcaster are becoming increasingly difficult to define. A creator can operate an event. An event can become a media property. A media company can produce live experiences. A YouTube channel can lead viewers into an owned streaming platform.
As Johnny Mills, president at FRDM+ and Cleetus McFarland, put it near the beginning of the discussion: “Owning your audience is going to be the next big trend.”
Matt Boyce, group vice president at F=ma, echoed the point while discussing FMA Group's combination of traditional media, experiential properties such as Gridlife and other automotive communities, saying: “Any manufacturer that’s coming to us should be asking us, ‘How should we show up? How should we communicate with our community? And most importantly, how are you going to help me own the relationship with the customer?’”
Social platforms remain powerful discovery tools, but followers, algorithms and distribution ultimately belong to the platform. Mills described YouTube as the “front door” to their audience and Freedom Plus, Cleetus McFarland's owned streaming platform, as the “owned venue.”
The lesson for 2027 isn't to abandon large platforms. It is to use them with a destination and purpose in mind.
Events Are Becoming Media
Perhaps the strongest consensus of the entire panel concerned live events.
Hot Rod reported a record-breaking Power Tour in 2026 and pointed to Roadkill Nights, Drag Week and Powerfest as additional bright spots. Boyce said all six Gridlife event stops were up approximately 30 to 50 percent.
The appeal extends beyond ticket sales. Events create communities, stories, video, social content, sponsor opportunities and direct interaction with enthusiasts. They can then feed digital audiences before, during and after the event. Mike Galimi, network director at Hot Rod, summed up the attraction simply: “Get out in the real world, away from the AI and social world, and just drive your car and have fun with it.”
Mills made an even sharper distinction: “You can't put on an event with AI. It's all about in person. It's all about that experience.”
The line between an event and a media property is consequently disappearing. A sold-out event can transition into livestream promotion. The personalities, rivalries and stories created at an event can generate months of digital content.
For marketers, that makes experiential marketing potentially much larger than a booth, banner or sponsorship logo. The event itself can become the source material for an entire content program.
People Come for Cars. They Stay for Stories.
Another recurring theme was the importance of storytelling over simple exposure. Cars may initially attract the audience, but machines alone don't necessarily sustain attention.
That idea helps explain the continuing influence of Formula 1's Drive to Survive model and why brands and racing organizations increasingly want documentary-style “shoulder programming” surrounding the competition itself. The race result is content. But so are the people building the car, the struggle to make the next round, the rivalry between competitors, the failure in the shop and the comeback the following weekend.
Morgan Evans of Torque n’ Tungsten reinforced that point from the creator perspective. Audiences increasingly want more than a polished highlight reel. Even failures can create meaningful connections because they reveal something real about the person behind the content.
For manufacturers accustomed to communicating through specifications, features and product claims, that requires a shift. The product still matters. But the story surrounding why someone uses it, what problem it solves and what happens afterward may be what earns the audience's attention.
Give Creators Guardrails, Not Scripts
That same thinking carried into the discussion of manufacturer-creator relationships. Mills offered one of the panel's clearest recommendations: “Give us the objective and the guardrails and not a script.”
Manufacturers know their products. Creators and media companies know their audiences. Effective partnerships respect both areas of expertise. Evans described creative freedom as one of the most important ingredients in successful manufacturer relationships, particularly after trust has been established.
“If people sense that it's an ad these days, they don't want to watch it,” Evans said.
That doesn't mean manufacturers should simply send products and hope for the best. Objectives still matter. Is the goal education? Awareness? A product launch? Reaching a younger audience? Sales?
But once the objective and necessary technical boundaries are established, the creator needs room to translate that message into something appropriate for their community. For 2027, the best creator partnerships may therefore look less like purchased media placements and more like collaborative media development.
Every Platform Has a Different Job
The panel also pushed back against treating social platforms as interchangeable distribution pipes.
Instagram may excel at quick discovery. Facebook can support somewhat deeper interaction. YouTube gives audiences permission to spend 15, 30 or even 60 minutes learning about a build, installation or story. Livestreaming serves another purpose entirely.
Galimi summarized the strategy: “The content is going to be the same, but you need to tailor that content to each platform to serve that audience.”
That also changes how success should be measured. Mills suggested marketers stop beginning with the question, “How many people did we reach?” A better question is: “Did we reach the right people, and did we send them somewhere after that?”
Paid media then becomes an amplifier rather than the foundation. His advice was to watch what connects organically and put paid support behind what has already demonstrated audience interest.
Content Is Becoming the Deliverable
The traditional advertising package is changing as well. Boyce was particularly direct about where spending is heading: “Everything has to include a content deliverable.”
He added that simply selling packages of advertising space is increasingly difficult unless the property includes something uniquely valuable, such as broadcast rights. Manufacturers increasingly want assets they can also use through their own channels. Publishers and event organizations are consequently becoming content producers, activation partners and service providers in addition to media sellers.
The implication is significant: marketers shouldn't evaluate a partnership solely by the placement they receive. They should also ask what the partnership creates.
AI Makes Content Cheaper. Not Necessarily Better.
No state-of-media discussion in 2026 would be complete without AI, but the panel's view was more nuanced than either wholesale enthusiasm or rejection. AI is already useful for research, transcription, clipping, organization, captions, editing and advertising targeting. Those efficiencies can dramatically increase production capacity.
But Mills drew a clear boundary: “AI makes content cheaper to produce, but it doesn't make it more interesting.”
As AI lowers the cost of producing competent content, human personality may actually become more valuable. Evans saw the same trend from the creator side. Audiences, she said, are responding to material that feels unmistakably human, including content that is imperfect, funny, nostalgic or unexpectedly simple. AI may therefore become an increasingly important production tool in 2027 without necessarily becoming the reason someone chooses to watch.
What Matters Going Into 2027
Taken together, the panel didn't describe the collapse of traditional motorsports media or the victory of one new platform over another. It described a blending of them.
Publishers are becoming event producers. Events are becoming content engines. Creators are becoming media companies. Streaming services are becoming owned communities. Brands are becoming publishers. And AI is making content production available to nearly everyone.
For marketers, the opportunity going into 2027 is not simply producing more. It is building stronger connections between media, creators, events and the channels the brand controls. Give partners an objective instead of a script. Design activations that naturally create content. Use each platform according to how its audience actually behaves. Treat paid media as amplification rather than a substitute for relevance.
For media and creators, the challenge is similar. Reach still matters, but community, trust, intellectual property, live experiences and the ability to create useful content for partners are becoming increasingly important parts of the business model.
Technology will continue to change how those stories are produced and distributed. The advantage in 2027 may belong to the companies and media organizations that give people a reason to care about them.
Understanding and building those relationships will occur at the MPMC Media Trade Conference in Orlando, Florida, February 2-4, 2027. Both manufacturers and media are encouraged to register at www.sema.org/mtc.
To watch the recording of the MPMC State of Motorsports Media Panel Discussion, click here.