Speaking at 30 Euston Square on April 3, Morris said that the company, which owns the Supercar Blondie brand, has built a fanbase of 125m followers across a range of digital-first platforms. Having started out as an influencer-led Instagram account, the company now has an audience of 21m on TikTok and 21m on YouTube. It has also launched an auction platform for supercars called SBX Cars.
Perhaps surprisingly, the company has also seen a lot of success with its automotive-themed website, said Morris. “The website is all about breaking news, automotive tech, luxury lifestyle and so on. We publish around 30 articles a day and it’s now the fastest growing part of our business. We have found it to be a really powerful revenue generator, because creating articles is much cheaper than producing a video.”
That said, Morris noted that the firm is also focusing heavily on creating original video formats for YouTube. “We’ve created a production team and are making premium, non-fiction content like Revealed, Unboxed and Ultimate Builds. We’re seeing good returns for longer form content, because there is more scope for ads and sponsorship.” Morris didn’t rule out the possibility of diversify into the traditional TV space.
At the outset, SB Media’s content was completely based around the original ‘Supercar Blondie’ Alex Hirschi. Hirschi continues to be core to the company’s content proposition, but SB Media has also benefited from working with a wider range of onscreen talent. “We now have a team of six presenters, but we also work with loads of creators and influencers around the world,” said Morris. “What we realised is that we didn’t have to focus on one talent as long as the story is good, and we stayed true to the brand. And we learned that through a process of testing and experimentation.”
