May 21, 2025 • 31 mins
Rob Statham & Jake Smith: Behind the Pit Wall - F1 And The Power Of Experiential Marketing
🚦 This week, we’re going full throttle into the world of Formula One with Rob Statham and Jake Smith from The Events House, the creative minds behind some of the most memorable fan zone activations on the global F1 calendar.Â
From setting up Giant Jenga at local events to building 4D cinemas for Aramco in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, their journey is a masterclass in how experiential marketing has become a critical player in the modern brand playbook.
🎧 Hear how these large-scale activations come together, why race days in the region are more social phenomenon than sport and how brands are shifting focus from digital noise to real-world, high-impact experiences.
Whether you're in events, marketing, motorsport - or just love a good hustle story - this episode is for you.
Production Credits:
Presented by: Ian Carless
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producers: Ian Carless & Joe Morrison
Produced by: EventNewsDXB & W4 Podcast Studio
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ian Carless (00:00):
Welcome to Event News DXB.
Before we begin, I've got aquick favour to ask.
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(00:20):
Thanks a bunch.
You're listening to the EventNews DXB podcast.
Your behind-the-scenes lookinto the world of events in
Dubai, the UAE and the MENAregion.
(00:41):
I'm Ian Carlos and each weekI'll bring you the latest news,
industry trends and insiderstories from the people shaping
(01:10):
one of the world's most dynamicevent markets.
Jake, rob, welcome to thepodcast.
Hi, great to be here.
Likewise, I think we'll justdive straight in.
(01:31):
Normally, I get the guests totell us a little bit about how
they got into events, but youknow what?
I'm just going to jump straightinto the company that you work
for.
Rob, do you want to just tellus a little bit about the Events
House and what it is that youdo?
Jake Smith (01:43):
Yeah, absolutely so.
The Events House was founded 16years ago now by our two
founders, dave House and AdiTingle.
It was launched primarily as aclassic events company,
delivering what at the time wasthings like Giant Jenga into
local events, and kind of grewout from there, then started to
get more of a tech focus to itand we sort of started then
(02:03):
leaning into more around thesimulator world and digital
world and then a few years in,got the chance of a contract
with working with Formula One,and that's really led us to
where we are now being a globalsupplier of the Formula One fan
zone as one of our key sort ofstrings to our bow, and then,
outside of that, working with alot of partners and F1 sponsors
within the motorsport world,delivering experiential and tech
(02:26):
to partners globally.
We have a uk base now inswaddling coat in the midlands
and then also sort of in theprocess of expanding into the us
and the middle east as well,and we'll come on to the middle
east, obviously in the course ofthis podcast.
Ian Carless (02:42):
Just let's just backtrack just a little bit.
Can you give us a like a reallybrief sort of overview of how
you ended up in events?
I ask most guests this because,um, there's been a few
exceptions, but many people itseems that they fall into it
later in life.
Yeah, not many people sort ofwake up in the morning, you know
, you know at the age of 10 andgo.
I want to be an event producerno, absolutely.
Jake Smith (03:02):
I certainly when I was younger didn't have the
aspirations to be in working inevents been a motorsport fan
since I can remember, so that'salways been a kind of a constant
going through it and, you know,always loved when I was a kid
watching the overhead shots ofseeing kind of what was going on
around the track.
But yeah, I um, I very muchstumbled into it.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing in my sort of mid-20s,
(03:23):
ended up up running a marqueecompany of my own locally doing
the classic kind of weddings andthose kind of things.
And then went from there andagain stumbled into becoming a
partner in a structure supplycompany called Airclad.
And then stumbled into duringCOVID working with an
Australian-based companylaunching them in the UK called
Space Cube.
And then I've known dave and adat events house for quite a
(03:47):
number of years, having workedwith them sort of probably 10
years ago on some of their earlyf1 stuff, and they just
naturally became a point wherefor me coming on board as
creative director for thebusiness kind of made sense.
So that that happened last yearand that's kind of where I've
got to now in the events world.
I very much kind of stumbledinto it not through any kind of
plan when I was younger, but Imean great industry to be in.
Ian Carless (04:10):
Well, I'll come on to your role, Rob, as creative
director.
But yeah, Jake, how aboutyourself?
How did you end up in events?
Rob Stathem (04:16):
Yeah, so I actually got into it through the
simulator side.
So I was a bit of a sim racerand looking for a summer job
Came across Events House.
Started my career with EventsHouse, going down to Williams F1
, running their sort of in-househospitality over the race
weekends.
Continued that as I wasstudying.
I was studying engineering witha view of being an engineer in
(04:37):
Formula One and then eventuallythis events thing just grew and
grew.
I came out of university withthe opportunity to go into it on
more of a full-time basis and,yeah, the opportunity of
traveling the world around theF1 races was a bit too good to
turn down, so went for that.
Ian Carless (04:51):
And here we are.
Well, look it's.
It's your work on the F1 eventsthat's obviously piqued my
attention, hence this podcast.
So, rob, maybe you can tell usabout, and particularly, I guess
, in relation to the Middle East, because I know you were
obviously in the region justrecently with the F1 Circus.
So tell us a bit about what youdo there, what you actually do.
Jake Smith (05:09):
Yeah, absolutely so, a big part of the business now
and has, over the last few years, really expanded ours into not
just a supplier but more of apure agency.
And that's really where Jakeand I sit within the business
and myself as creative directorand Jake as creative director
and jake as a creative leadwe're working much more on
experiential activations, andthe one that you're referring to
(05:30):
was out out in the middle east.
It kind of kicked off there forthis season.
We worked with the clientaround co for the last two years
, but this is the first yearwhere we really put some, some
really heavy experiential focusonto it in delivering at bahrain
and then Saudi.
Um, it's a, it's a 4D immersivecinema experience, and we've
developed that, that wholeconcept, with some local
(05:51):
suppliers and with the agencythat we're working with.
They've created a whole pieceof nice immersive cinema.
We've created all the techaround it and then worked with a
Canadian-based company on theactual motion seats and plugged
in a lot of other tech aroundthat, which which Jake can
certainly dig into more.
But yeah, as I say, we're reallypushing now into this
experiential world more and moreand I think, as we're seeing so
(06:14):
many partners coming on board,especially with F1 and their big
push to to more and morepartners.
You know, over the last coupleof years we've seen some huge
brands come into it in the likesof, you know, lego, which we've
seen recently in someunbelievable experiential that
you know, the full-size legocars in in miami, which jake and
I were lucky enough to be thereto see, and then, and then
think you know, other partnerslike kit kat have come on board,
(06:35):
and hot wheels coming on board,and, and and several others
that we kind of hear therumblings about these big brands
coming on and they've such anappetite to to lead in the sort
of the experiential world aroundthe races, um, and they're all
finding really good tractionthere yeah sure, I wanted to ask
you both actually, becausewhere do you think this, the,
the, the renewed I'm not goingto say renewed interest, but I
(06:57):
think the increased interest inbrands wanting to get into the
experiential space.
Ian Carless (07:02):
I ran a production company for for years and we did
a lot of.
I mean, I stopped that 10 yearsago, but the 10 years prior to
that were the sort of heydays ofbranded content and we were
doing all kinds of video content.
But what I did notice was thatwith the rise of social media,
in particular short-form content, there was a direct correlation
between the appetite forbranded content, which declined,
(07:25):
and then the increase in brandswanting to get into
experiential.
I don't know whether, over thecourse of your careers, you've
sort of noticed the same, but Iam curious to know where the
increased interest is comingfrom.
Jake, do you want to have a goat that one?
Rob Stathem (07:40):
from my perspective of it, as someone who's
obviously grown up around aroundsocial media, I've sort of seen
that like explode and explodefrom a branded perspective.
You know, social media content,social media activations and
then this sort of like biginfluencer phase that's come in
over the last like five years orso.
I feel like brands are receivinga lot of pressure now to try
and cut through the noise ofthat and do something that
(08:00):
really does stand out andsomething different from the
others, others and experientialseems like a perfect vessel to
do that rather than just anothersort of social media campaign.
And what we're seeing more andmore with our clients is is
these experiential activationsnot just being for the fan who's
there in person, but also beinga, a trampoline for the, for
(08:21):
the social media content aroundit.
I mean, we've just delivered a,a big job in in the states for
ebay and that activation wassort of half content studio,
half experiential space over thecourse of the weekend.
So the opportunity for them toalmost like double on their
return of investment and gethands-on feel with the brand but
then also be able to still useit as a vessel for social
(08:43):
content, I think think is, in myopinion, driving it.
Jake Smith (08:47):
Rob, yeah, I think Jake's made some really great
points there and absolutelyvalid.
Adding to that, your questionaround where we're seeing this,
whether that's in the West orout in the Middle East, I think
we're seeing it globally,certainly the Middle East.
There's a huge appetite in themiddle east for not necessarily
even middle east based brands,but global brands wanting to
(09:08):
activate there.
It's such a key market.
We're seeing that more and moreand advising our clients that
the middle east is a great placeto be activating, especially at
races.
I mean we saw both saw out in,you know, bahrain and saudi,
sort of why what a familyfriendly event they are and it's
a really big day out.
(09:29):
I actually don't think thatnecessarily that there's a huge
f1 fan base out there, but Ithink that people see it as an
unbelievably fun day out, likein the uk where you see the gold
cup or you know the grandnational.
They're big days out for people,but it's not necessarily people
that are hugely into horseracing.
It's just a day on the calendarwhere everybody gets together
(09:50):
and goes out and you know, insaudi, for example, they the
sunday was a national holidaythere or not a national holiday,
a regional holiday because ofthe race, and I think we're
seeing you see more and more ofthat.
But then on the flip side of it, out in you know, the us,
especially what 40 of allsponsors now that are involved
in f1 are us-based companies andwe're seeing a lot more
(10:13):
activation going over on and onin america and sort of which has
always been interesting because, as you say, kind of content
and tv advertising was a thingthat was really driving there.
I think that where that'sreally galvanizing now is that
the move for brands into f1 andphysical activation is now
trickling down and we'restarting to see it into indycar
(10:35):
and nascar as well, wheretraditionally spectators were
lower and the spend aroundactivation was lower, but we're
certainly seeing that more andmore the middle east is an
interesting market, especiallyin relation to sort of
motorsport.
Ian Carless (10:48):
I think we used to do a lot of work for the Dubai
Autodrome back in the day when Iran my production company, and
I think what people realisedcertainly myself who wasn't into
the motorsport scene beforeworking with Dubai Autodrome I
think what I quickly realised isthat whilst there's a massive
appetite in the Middle East forcar culture, that doesn't
(11:09):
translate to motorsport andsadly, you know no matter.
I think despite the bestefforts of Dubai Autodrome,
certainly on a club level, weweren't able to just get the
audience interested in the sameway as perhaps you know there is
in other parts of the world.
Moving on, though, I mean bothof you are involved in,
obviously, the the creativeaspect of of events.
(11:31):
So for someone who's a layman,tell me what does a create an
event creative director do?
Rob, do you want to have acrack at that first?
Jake Smith (11:39):
yeah, I can do.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of myjob is really telling jake to
what to do, but that's probablypretty mean.
But yeah, I like a lot of myjob is really telling Jake what
to do, and that's probablypretty mean.
But yeah, I mean a lot of whatwe do as a creative director is
really Jake and I work verycollaboratively on a lot of
projects and it helps having twoperspectives on it.
But my role within the EventsHouse as creative director is
really kind of there's a lot ofhand-holding with clients when
(12:02):
they come to us.
A lot of the clients that wesee already work with agencies
creative agencies already.
But where Events House getsinvolved is because of our
knowledge of F1 and motorsportsand how to engage those fans.
So I think a lot of my role ishow we take a client's desire to
(12:22):
activate and translate thatinto sort of a motorsport or
Formula One language and alanguage that the fans would
understand rather than just yourgeneral public.
Because it is quite differentand the way that experiential
works at F1 is similar to thewider events world.
But there are some sort ofnuances and some differences of
how it works and some of that iseven just taken into
(12:45):
consideration the environmentthat you're in or the you know
the weather, or the fact that atcertain times of the day it's
going to be really quiet becauseeverybody's going to be in the
stands watching the races.
A lot of these things arethings that people aren't
considering, so it's it's how wetake, yeah, sort of the
creative ideas that clients arecoming to is, or creative wishes
, and then translate that intoexperiential that really works
(13:09):
within f1, and how we can like,how we can gather the data and
give them the output that theyreally need and manage their
expectations as to what thatmight look like so, jake, how
many of the clients that youdeal with, how many of them have
done experiential before?
Ian Carless (13:23):
I mean, how much of it is handholding and how much
of it is there?
Obviously an experience levelalready there.
Rob Stathem (13:31):
Ooh, I couldn't put a percentage on how many we've
got that have done experientialbefore.
I can think of a few examples.
I think it's probably easierwhen people have done it before,
purely because there's athere's an opinion of what works
and what doesn't already.
And if they've if they've cometo us for an f1 activation it
(13:51):
might be because they've donesomething before and it hasn't
sort of hit the mark.
Um, what we're trying to do nowis is everything that we we put
out needs to be creativelyaligned and also relevant to the
sport like it's.
I've seen so many brands sort ofpop up in fan zones, pop up
around formula one and not quitehit the mark and get it right.
So what we're trying to dointernally is is make sure that,
(14:13):
yeah, we are, we are on themoney every single time.
I think, yeah, as I said,probably a little bit easier
when there's a little bit ofbackground experience, but it's
also an exciting challenge tostart from scratch and and
really sort of like forge out anew path with it and have
creative freedom to, to be ableto sort of apply new tech to it,
apply new experiential to itand and really start to think
(14:33):
about things in a different wayand and almost push the
boundaries of what you could dowith these brands, which is one
of my favorite bits about.
Ian Carless (14:40):
So when you meet a client, if I think back to when
I was doing branded content, alot of my role at that point in
time was fairly educational inthe sense that obviously clients
, they want to sell, so there'san expectation from them to
certainly have a ton of brandingand preferably their product in
just about every single shot.
(15:01):
And that was one of the toughthings we found with trying to
pitch branded content back inthe early days was that a lot of
clients were fairly alarmed atthe idea that their product
wouldn't be in shot at all, orthe idea that some of the best
branded content didn't featurethe client at all.
Yes, there might have been somebranding here and there, but
obviously it was the adage thatyou know if the audience feels
(15:23):
as though they're being sold to,then they tune out.
So I wonder whether that wassomething that you have to build
into your sort of approach withclients, particularly obviously
the ones that haven't doneexperiential before, or whether
your experience has beendifferent.
Rob, do you want to have acrack at that?
Jake Smith (15:37):
yeah, it's interesting, um, several of the
clients that we work with thatthey're not selling a physical
product, especially a ramco.
Nobody that's going to an f1race is buying oil specifically.
You know, none of us are goingout buying a barrel of oil, but
it was very important for themto have their you know their
brand there and and puttingtheir brand message out and
(15:58):
obviously all very protective oftheir brand.
And you know at the races outthere that their logos are
plastered across everything.
So, yeah, I think we are stillfinding it very important but
trying to sort of guide clientsin ways to be subtle with
branding or clever with branding.
I mean, it was the same with theebay out in in miami.
(16:18):
Ebay themselves are not aproduct that you can buy, it's
just a platform where you canbuy other people's products.
So they were quite clever inthe way that they did that.
But yeah, I think that I thinkthat, going back to the point
before around the social mediaelement of it and how those two
things combine, there's still abig want and need for brands to
have a presence there, becauseit then translates into sort of
(16:41):
their online presence throughsocial media and that, that,
that sort of instagram momentthat everybody's looking for.
So, yeah, it is still veryimportant, absolutely feeding
the beast.
Ian Carless (16:51):
I wanted to ask you then, what's the first thing
that you look for then when youget in a creative brief, when a
client new client comes in androb, I'll ask you this first,
but I'll obviously also ask jake, because I know you guys work
together very closely, as yousaid.
Jake Smith (17:02):
As you said, the first thing I look for is a
budget, but now, after we've hada skim through to see if
they've given us a budget yeah,it's really looking to see that.
I think the first thing reallyis is whether they've got any
steer on it as to how it can bemotorsport related or how we
translate it to a to amotorsport or an f1 fan.
You know, we'll see briefswhere we look at them and think
(17:25):
it's it's going to be quitedifficult to translate that into
a language which works or worksin the environment which we're
working in.
So I guess that's that's thefirst thing and that will really
guide us down the directionthat we're going to go
creatively.
You know, for both jake and I,jake, do you want to add to that
?
Rob Stathem (17:41):
yeah, I think, not dissimilar, maybe not quite so
so fixated on the motorsport.
But what's the story like?
What's the why?
Why are we doing this?
What are we?
What are we trying to convey topeople and what are we trying
to make them understand and,ultimately, what's the desired
end result in terms of a fan?
What?
What do they need to leave thisexperience with?
Obviously, a smile on theirface, but what needs to be in
(18:03):
their memory?
And, yeah, what do they need totake away from it?
Ian Carless (18:05):
that brings me on to a good point.
I mean, we talk a lot aboutstorytelling in events, don't we
?
I mean, how important is it?
I know this is going to soundlike a dumb question, but hey,
how in just how important is it?
Can do you find that you justcan't stress this enough to
clients rob yeah, absolutely.
Jake Smith (18:21):
I mean it's absolutely key, I think, in
understanding their wider um,the wider context of what
they're trying to link this into, like wider campaigns, so it
doesn't feel like the theactivations are just a
standalone piece.
Being able to tie that intotheir wider storytelling and
some clients is easier thanothers.
Certainly some clients don'tget that or they really silo
(18:43):
different elements of their youknow their campaigns and you
find that it is totallystandalone.
We're working with a client atthe moment and they have been
very forthcoming with what theirwider campaign across the whole
of their f1 partnership isgoing to be from tv to print to
experiential and makes it somuch easier for us to be able to
like guide that story and guidethe experience to something
(19:04):
which is actually going to hitthe brief, jake.
Ian Carless (19:06):
How do you manage the?
There's a fine line, isn'tthere?
I know Rob alluded to it justthen.
Obviously, if you've got abudget to work with, then you
can manage your ideasrespectively, can't you?
But often clients are reluctantto give you a budget.
They want to hear all the ideasfirst.
But how do you?
How do you then manage thatbalance between the creativity,
(19:28):
the practicality, uh, and theclients?
You know ever decreasingbudgets yeah, tell us about it.
Rob Stathem (19:35):
Yeah, it's a tricky one.
I I've I've had a projectrecently which is is the same.
It's it's balancing what is theimpact this is going to have
versus what's the lowest we canpossibly get.
This budget.
I'm of the feeling, I'm of theopinion, and I've been to lots
of Formula One events.
Brands are showing up in a bigway.
It's very easy for a partner topartner not even a partner, a
(19:56):
brand in general to come in nowand sort of be lost in the noise
, purely because there is somuch going on.
That's, that's exciting and andpushing things forward,
implementing new technology,like really, yeah, pushing the
boundaries of what experientialcan be.
So, yeah, it's, it's sellingthat message and and allowing
clients to understand thatsometimes, you know, it's not a
(20:18):
case of doubling the budget fordouble the result.
Always it's sometimesexponential.
Sometimes the differencebetween, you know, a
medium-sized budget and a largebudget will just allow us to do
something that's so much betterand so much tighter to the
storytelling that we mentionedand allow us the creative
liberty around different partsof the activation and really
going in and focusing on thedetails as well.
(20:39):
I think that's what rob and Ican say that we've both learned
from this.
Aramco project is just theattention to detail on
everything was another level,but we had the timelines and the
finances to allow that tohappen, which was great, because
it allows us to put together anexperience that is almost
exactly how we wanted it.
Ian Carless (20:57):
You mentioned the Aramco project.
You've obviously been in Saudirecently as part of the F1 tour
in Bahrain.
I'm always curious when I getguests on that have worked
across different markets.
What was your experienceworking in the Middle East and
how different was that from, say, europe or the US?
Jake Smith (21:16):
I'll just give you a little insight.
Jake was on the ground actuallyfor both the Bahrain and saudi
build, so he's probably a betterplace.
But yeah, jake sent me amessage and said it was.
We had a bit of accreditationfor f1 races.
There's always a bit of a bitof a headache because you're
accredited through the localpromoter and then you're
accredited through f1 and it'salways, you know, you're never
getting the information from theuh, from the suppliers, quite
(21:37):
in time.
And we're working with a, withthe local supplier, on the
structure and normally it's thesort of sort of thing where
you'd expect maybe a crew ofmaybe 15, 20 guys maximum to do
the structure and the av andjake messaged me saying there's
60 people accredited.
We've got to accredit 60 people.
How on earth are they sending60 people in?
Labor's cheap.
(21:58):
You know labor is cheap, yeah,and I thought what are all these
people doing?
But Jake can probably give youa much better idea of what all
these people are doing becausehe stood and watched them all.
But yeah, certainly, I mean thequality out there was great,
like what we delivered from thesuppliers was fantastic.
You know we were using Maestra,you know the arena company, so
the attention to detail wasgreat there.
(22:19):
We've got really a goodexperience from them.
So I think over the last youknow, since I've been in the
events world, you know reallyfocusing on this kind of stuff
for the last 10 years, you seethe quality has really increased
out in the Middle East.
So but yeah, jay can give you amuch better insight as to what
it was like working boots on theground over there.
Rob Stathem (22:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think, going into theSaudi-Bahrain project, I was
expecting it to be a bit more ofa battle than it actually was
in terms of the eye that we comewith.
The UK and Europe is good forlots of things, and our event
delivery is one of those.
The standard of events overhere is is something else like,
(22:56):
I think, of festival of speed atgoodwood as an example.
I was lucky to go to watch somewonders at the start of this
year and that absolutely blew mymind in terms of the, the level
of production and the level ofbudget that's going towards
these booths.
So sort of going straight fromthere to to the middle east,
like I've I've been out inbahrain, I've been out in saudi,
I've been out in dubai workingat events and the, the standard
(23:16):
of what what is expected outthere is, is definitely a few
years behind what we're used to.
It's.
It's coming up there's no, nodoubt about that and it's coming
up at a fast rate.
But, yeah, we were lucky thatthat we were working with the
partners, that we were workingwith and and and partners from
from a european background aswell who who have that same sort
of eye.
It's.
It's easy when you go out tothese different markets, and
(23:37):
especially dubai, I, I think,well, dubai and, and saudi and
bahrain, the same.
I remember being at an event inin last year and looking at the
, the level of finish onsomething, flagging it to
someone, and it was like theycouldn't see it.
It was like we were talking twocompletely different languages.
It's like, whereas in our worldyou would never send something
out the door looking like thatit's.
Ian Carless (23:58):
It's just a yeah, there's a little bit of of
quality uplift to be done, Ithink, but yeah, as I said, it
certainly now, I know this isprobably in neither of your
roles business development butyou know, at the time of
recording we've just had, uh, mrtrump visiting the middle east.
So clearly the region isenjoying a a large spotlight at
the moment.
So how important is it for youas a business to perhaps get a
(24:20):
foothold there, rob?
Jake Smith (24:22):
yeah, I mean it's.
I mean it's huge, and theamount of money that's being
spent in the middle east onsports is phenomenal, you know,
and the appetite aroundmotorsport, especially an f1, is
kind of at the top of that.
It's really important for us.
We, we have some kind ofoperational base out there, we
have some kit out there.
I think as the business grows,it's going to be a, you know, as
(24:42):
with all sort of european basedevents, businesses, it's where
everyone's kind of putting theireyes.
At the moment I don't think it'sgoing to be something that's
going to change.
I don't see that the tap isgoing to be turned off at any
point in in the middle east.
So it does absolutely makesense.
I think it's going to be prettykey for our business over the
next few years how that sort ofplays out.
I'm not sure the us expansionagain is something we're sort of
(25:05):
focusing on quite heavily.
So, yeah, certainly two bigelephants to eat there and you
know you just need to take itsort of step by step.
But yeah, I mean it's going tobe absolutely critical and jake.
Ian Carless (25:15):
Just going back to aramco again, I wanted to ask
how open are clients in themiddle east to sort of taking
risk and innovation?
I mean, I think of aramco and Ithink of a very large
conservative company, so howeasy is it to pitch in some, you
know, really innovative ideas?
Rob Stathem (25:31):
I think we can speak to that pretty well over
our experience working on theproject over the last sort of
two and a half years.
The project came to us on aMost of our projects do come to
us on a pretty crazy timeline.
It seems to be a pattern withinthe world of events, and
especially in Formula One events, and a creative concept was
turned around very quickly butwe were quite limited by what
(25:53):
was producible in the time andat that point going towards a
model where we were building inthe UK and then shipping around
the world.
So ultimately what we were ableto achieve creatively was
limited.
I think the results from thatafter-a-two-year campaign were
pretty evident.
We had lots of other fan zoneactivations that are more
(26:13):
involved, that are more techforward and immersive, and
unfortunately the previousconcept just didn't stack up to
that.
So it put us in quite a niceposition whereby we were able to
sort of push some new ideas andand take some risks and as a
company they've been super opento it and willing to to to push
the boundaries and once we'vegot a few things through now the
(26:38):
ideas tap is very much turnedon and we're thinking about how
we can continue to push thatexperience more and more, put
more tech into it, more touchpoints and really stretch the
messaging.
It's a nice one.
As Rob said, they're notselling product to anyone in the
fan zone, so we do have alittle bit of creative liberty.
When it comes to the brand,we're very much focused on their
(27:00):
synthetic fuel, which is cominginto Formula One in 2026.
So anything that we can dothat's forward leaning, that's
tech heavy, that's innovative itdoesn't really matter what it
is, because it all sort of stillticks the same boxes in terms
of representing aramco in a waythat is pioneering and doing
something exciting and industryleading and just following on
(27:22):
from that, I mean, I knowobviously you guys work across
the across the world, but areyou seeing any, any trends in
the experiential sort of fieldcoming into play, specifically,
you know, in the europe, us andeven in the middle east?
Jake Smith (27:35):
good question.
Um, I think the quality ofexperiential is going through
the roof.
I think that everybody istrying to outdo everybody and I
think, yeah, the absolute, thequality of the finish and the
delivery, is just upping all thetime and jake touched on there
on goodwood festival of speed.
The level of um delivery thereis, you know, is next level.
(27:55):
But I think we're seeing thattrickle down into to everything
that we do now and clients havereally high expectations, maybe
not always budgets quite tomatch them, but yeah, I think
that's a big thing, that'sthat's happening for sure and
then, very briefly, I justwanted to touch on on on a sort
of logistical side of workingwith F1.
Ian Carless (28:13):
I mean, as you mentioned earlier, accreditation
can be a complete ball achesometimes.
How have you found that?
How have you found thechallenges of fitting into that
F1 circus as an experientialevent company?
What have some of thechallenges been over?
The last sort of what did yousay?
Two years, two and a half yearsthat you've been working with
them?
Jake Smith (28:32):
Yeah, I think it's an interesting question.
I think and this going back toa point before this is very much
where we, where we try and holdclients hands is that we try to
be their sort of localknowledge on a global scale.
Like I had a call the other dayand an agency says I will just
rent a lute and van for gettingthe kit from there to there
during race day.
I will restock the stand duringthe race day and you know our
(28:54):
operations head of operations,track side operations says well,
you can't do that because youcan't get a Luton through that
tunnel.
Oh right, you know, they wouldhave happily just rented a Luton
and got to the tunnel and gotstuck.
And so it's all of those littlenuanced things that's working at
F1 and knowing the promotersand knowing what you can do and
what you can't do, where youpark and all of those little
(29:17):
things and how the accreditationworks, and the fact that you
know, we know f1 and we know thekey people in there so we can
call them and get the answersfor that.
That's really where we'rehelping out clients a lot with,
with the global circus that isf1, shipping everything, it's
everything.
It's just a huge beast.
Ian Carless (29:34):
And then Jake.
Before we wrap up, what's nextfor you guys?
Rob Stathem (29:37):
Ooh, lots in the pipeline.
I think we're in a reallyexciting place, not just as a
business, but in Formula One ingeneral.
Formula One, as you'll haveseen, has exploded on a
phenomenal scale over the lastfew years and it's now
attracting some of the biggestbrands in the world.
But some of the biggest brandsin the world who aren't just
interested in putting a logo onthe side of a car or just having
(30:00):
their logo next to, next toformula ones in, in, in press
releases it's, it's really aboutcoming and activating and
showing up for fans.
They, they gain a pretty uniquemarketing opportunity when they
sign up to a formula onepartnership of being able to,
you know, have a captiveaudience within the track.
So, yeah, I think we're we'rein an exciting place in terms of
(30:21):
lots of new opportunitiescoming on board, a move towards
doing more touring setups and,just yeah, continuing to, to
pump out cool stuff and then,finally, I know you're both f1
fans.
Ian Carless (30:32):
I'm going to go out on a limb here.
Not much of one, but I'm goingto.
I'm going to guess that you'reboth music fans as well, and
we've been asking everybody thison the podcast.
I think it's quite an oftsometimes offers an interesting
insight and sometimes gets a bitof a giggle.
But music then?
What's on your playlist, rob?
What have you got on yourplaylist right now?
Jake Smith (30:51):
jake's the music one in this, uh, for sure.
Yeah, my mine's quite, um,mine's quite a collecting is it
depends on what the day is,absolutely.
But yeah, I've been listeningto quite a lot of sort of
ambient hip-hop type stuff atthe moment just when I'm working
.
Uh, that's been quite likequite big on my playlist at the
moment jake.
Rob Stathem (31:08):
Uh, mine's completely the other end of the
spectrum.
I spent my university yearsding in nightclubs and festivals
, so my playlist is very muchsort of drum and bass, jungle,
heavy, very high energy.
I think some of the people inthe office would be terrified at
the sort of thing that's goingon in the headphones while I'm
still managing to get work done.
Ian Carless (31:25):
Brilliant.
Well, listen, guys.
Can I wish you the best of luck.
Thanks for joining me on thepodcast and, yeah, thank you
very much.
Thank of luck.
Thanks for joining me on thepodcast and, yeah, thank you
very much.
Thank you so much, appreciateyour time.
Thanks for having us.
Event news dxb was presented bymyself, ian carlos, the studio
engineer and editor was roydemonte, the executive producer
was myself and joe morrison, andthis podcast is a co-production
(31:46):
between warehouse 4 and w4podcast studio dubai, and if you
haven't done so already, pleasedo click that follow or
subscribe button.
See you next time.
Welcome to Event News DXB.
Before we begin, I've got aquick favour to ask.
There's one simple way that youcan support our show, and
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(00:20):
Thanks a bunch.
You're listening to the EventNews DXB podcast.
Your behind-the-scenes lookinto the world of events in
Dubai, the UAE and the MENAregion.
(00:41):
I'm Ian Carlos and each weekI'll bring you the latest news,
industry trends and insiderstories from the people shaping
(01:10):
one of the world's most dynamicevent markets.
Jake, rob, welcome to thepodcast.
Hi, great to be here.
Likewise, I think we'll justdive straight in.
(01:31):
Normally, I get the guests totell us a little bit about how
they got into events, but youknow what?
I'm just going to jump straightinto the company that you work
for.
Rob, do you want to just tellus a little bit about the Events
House and what it is that youdo?
Jake Smith (01:43):
Yeah, absolutely so.
The Events House was founded 16years ago now by our two
founders, dave House and AdiTingle.
It was launched primarily as aclassic events company,
delivering what at the time wasthings like Giant Jenga into
local events, and kind of grewout from there, then started to
get more of a tech focus to itand we sort of started then
(02:03):
leaning into more around thesimulator world and digital
world and then a few years in,got the chance of a contract
with working with Formula One,and that's really led us to
where we are now being a globalsupplier of the Formula One fan
zone as one of our key sort ofstrings to our bow, and then,
outside of that, working with alot of partners and F1 sponsors
within the motorsport world,delivering experiential and tech
(02:26):
to partners globally.
We have a uk base now inswaddling coat in the midlands
and then also sort of in theprocess of expanding into the us
and the middle east as well,and we'll come on to the middle
east, obviously in the course ofthis podcast.
Ian Carless (02:42):
Just let's just backtrack just a little bit.
Can you give us a like a reallybrief sort of overview of how
you ended up in events?
I ask most guests this because,um, there's been a few
exceptions, but many people itseems that they fall into it
later in life.
Yeah, not many people sort ofwake up in the morning, you know
, you know at the age of 10 andgo.
I want to be an event producerno, absolutely.
Jake Smith (03:02):
I certainly when I was younger didn't have the
aspirations to be in working inevents been a motorsport fan
since I can remember, so that'salways been a kind of a constant
going through it and, you know,always loved when I was a kid
watching the overhead shots ofseeing kind of what was going on
around the track.
But yeah, I um, I very muchstumbled into it.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing in my sort of mid-20s,
(03:23):
ended up up running a marqueecompany of my own locally doing
the classic kind of weddings andthose kind of things.
And then went from there andagain stumbled into becoming a
partner in a structure supplycompany called Airclad.
And then stumbled into duringCOVID working with an
Australian-based companylaunching them in the UK called
Space Cube.
And then I've known dave and adat events house for quite a
(03:47):
number of years, having workedwith them sort of probably 10
years ago on some of their earlyf1 stuff, and they just
naturally became a point wherefor me coming on board as
creative director for thebusiness kind of made sense.
So that that happened last yearand that's kind of where I've
got to now in the events world.
I very much kind of stumbledinto it not through any kind of
plan when I was younger, but Imean great industry to be in.
Ian Carless (04:10):
Well, I'll come on to your role, Rob, as creative
director.
But yeah, Jake, how aboutyourself?
How did you end up in events?
Rob Stathem (04:16):
Yeah, so I actually got into it through the
simulator side.
So I was a bit of a sim racerand looking for a summer job
Came across Events House.
Started my career with EventsHouse, going down to Williams F1
, running their sort of in-househospitality over the race
weekends.
Continued that as I wasstudying.
I was studying engineering witha view of being an engineer in
(04:37):
Formula One and then eventuallythis events thing just grew and
grew.
I came out of university withthe opportunity to go into it on
more of a full-time basis and,yeah, the opportunity of
traveling the world around theF1 races was a bit too good to
turn down, so went for that.
Ian Carless (04:51):
And here we are.
Well, look it's.
It's your work on the F1 eventsthat's obviously piqued my
attention, hence this podcast.
So, rob, maybe you can tell usabout, and particularly, I guess
, in relation to the Middle East, because I know you were
obviously in the region justrecently with the F1 Circus.
So tell us a bit about what youdo there, what you actually do.
Jake Smith (05:09):
Yeah, absolutely so, a big part of the business now
and has, over the last few years, really expanded ours into not
just a supplier but more of apure agency.
And that's really where Jakeand I sit within the business
and myself as creative directorand Jake as creative director
and jake as a creative leadwe're working much more on
experiential activations, andthe one that you're referring to
(05:30):
was out out in the middle east.
It kind of kicked off there forthis season.
We worked with the clientaround co for the last two years
, but this is the first yearwhere we really put some, some
really heavy experiential focusonto it in delivering at bahrain
and then Saudi.
Um, it's a, it's a 4D immersivecinema experience, and we've
developed that, that wholeconcept, with some local
(05:51):
suppliers and with the agencythat we're working with.
They've created a whole pieceof nice immersive cinema.
We've created all the techaround it and then worked with a
Canadian-based company on theactual motion seats and plugged
in a lot of other tech aroundthat, which which Jake can
certainly dig into more.
But yeah, as I say, we're reallypushing now into this
experiential world more and moreand I think, as we're seeing so
(06:14):
many partners coming on board,especially with F1 and their big
push to to more and morepartners.
You know, over the last coupleof years we've seen some huge
brands come into it in the likesof, you know, lego, which we've
seen recently in someunbelievable experiential that
you know, the full-size legocars in in miami, which jake and
I were lucky enough to be thereto see, and then, and then
think you know, other partnerslike kit kat have come on board,
(06:35):
and hot wheels coming on board,and, and and several others
that we kind of hear therumblings about these big brands
coming on and they've such anappetite to to lead in the sort
of the experiential world aroundthe races, um, and they're all
finding really good tractionthere yeah sure, I wanted to ask
you both actually, becausewhere do you think this, the,
the, the renewed I'm not goingto say renewed interest, but I
(06:57):
think the increased interest inbrands wanting to get into the
experiential space.
Ian Carless (07:02):
I ran a production company for for years and we did
a lot of.
I mean, I stopped that 10 yearsago, but the 10 years prior to
that were the sort of heydays ofbranded content and we were
doing all kinds of video content.
But what I did notice was thatwith the rise of social media,
in particular short-form content, there was a direct correlation
between the appetite forbranded content, which declined,
(07:25):
and then the increase in brandswanting to get into
experiential.
I don't know whether, over thecourse of your careers, you've
sort of noticed the same, but Iam curious to know where the
increased interest is comingfrom.
Jake, do you want to have a goat that one?
Rob Stathem (07:40):
from my perspective of it, as someone who's
obviously grown up around aroundsocial media, I've sort of seen
that like explode and explodefrom a branded perspective.
You know, social media content,social media activations and
then this sort of like biginfluencer phase that's come in
over the last like five years orso.
I feel like brands are receivinga lot of pressure now to try
and cut through the noise ofthat and do something that
(08:00):
really does stand out andsomething different from the
others, others and experientialseems like a perfect vessel to
do that rather than just anothersort of social media campaign.
And what we're seeing more andmore with our clients is is
these experiential activationsnot just being for the fan who's
there in person, but also beinga, a trampoline for the, for
(08:21):
the social media content aroundit.
I mean, we've just delivered a,a big job in in the states for
ebay and that activation wassort of half content studio,
half experiential space over thecourse of the weekend.
So the opportunity for them toalmost like double on their
return of investment and gethands-on feel with the brand but
then also be able to still useit as a vessel for social
(08:43):
content, I think think is, in myopinion, driving it.
Jake Smith (08:47):
Rob, yeah, I think Jake's made some really great
points there and absolutelyvalid.
Adding to that, your questionaround where we're seeing this,
whether that's in the West orout in the Middle East, I think
we're seeing it globally,certainly the Middle East.
There's a huge appetite in themiddle east for not necessarily
even middle east based brands,but global brands wanting to
(09:08):
activate there.
It's such a key market.
We're seeing that more and moreand advising our clients that
the middle east is a great placeto be activating, especially at
races.
I mean we saw both saw out in,you know, bahrain and saudi,
sort of why what a familyfriendly event they are and it's
a really big day out.
(09:29):
I actually don't think thatnecessarily that there's a huge
f1 fan base out there, but Ithink that people see it as an
unbelievably fun day out, likein the uk where you see the gold
cup or you know the grandnational.
They're big days out for people,but it's not necessarily people
that are hugely into horseracing.
It's just a day on the calendarwhere everybody gets together
(09:50):
and goes out and you know, insaudi, for example, they the
sunday was a national holidaythere or not a national holiday,
a regional holiday because ofthe race, and I think we're
seeing you see more and more ofthat.
But then on the flip side of it, out in you know, the us,
especially what 40 of allsponsors now that are involved
in f1 are us-based companies andwe're seeing a lot more
(10:13):
activation going over on and onin america and sort of which has
always been interesting because, as you say, kind of content
and tv advertising was a thingthat was really driving there.
I think that where that'sreally galvanizing now is that
the move for brands into f1 andphysical activation is now
trickling down and we'restarting to see it into indycar
(10:35):
and nascar as well, wheretraditionally spectators were
lower and the spend aroundactivation was lower, but we're
certainly seeing that more andmore the middle east is an
interesting market, especiallyin relation to sort of
motorsport.
Ian Carless (10:48):
I think we used to do a lot of work for the Dubai
Autodrome back in the day when Iran my production company, and
I think what people realisedcertainly myself who wasn't into
the motorsport scene beforeworking with Dubai Autodrome I
think what I quickly realised isthat whilst there's a massive
appetite in the Middle East forcar culture, that doesn't
(11:09):
translate to motorsport andsadly, you know no matter.
I think despite the bestefforts of Dubai Autodrome,
certainly on a club level, weweren't able to just get the
audience interested in the sameway as perhaps you know there is
in other parts of the world.
Moving on, though, I mean bothof you are involved in,
obviously, the the creativeaspect of of events.
(11:31):
So for someone who's a layman,tell me what does a create an
event creative director do?
Rob, do you want to have acrack at that first?
Jake Smith (11:39):
yeah, I can do.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of myjob is really telling jake to
what to do, but that's probablypretty mean.
But yeah, I like a lot of myjob is really telling Jake what
to do, and that's probablypretty mean.
But yeah, I mean a lot of whatwe do as a creative director is
really Jake and I work verycollaboratively on a lot of
projects and it helps having twoperspectives on it.
But my role within the EventsHouse as creative director is
really kind of there's a lot ofhand-holding with clients when
(12:02):
they come to us.
A lot of the clients that wesee already work with agencies
creative agencies already.
But where Events House getsinvolved is because of our
knowledge of F1 and motorsportsand how to engage those fans.
So I think a lot of my role ishow we take a client's desire to
(12:22):
activate and translate thatinto sort of a motorsport or
Formula One language and alanguage that the fans would
understand rather than just yourgeneral public.
Because it is quite differentand the way that experiential
works at F1 is similar to thewider events world.
But there are some sort ofnuances and some differences of
how it works and some of that iseven just taken into
(12:45):
consideration the environmentthat you're in or the you know
the weather, or the fact that atcertain times of the day it's
going to be really quiet becauseeverybody's going to be in the
stands watching the races.
A lot of these things arethings that people aren't
considering, so it's it's how wetake, yeah, sort of the
creative ideas that clients arecoming to is, or creative wishes
, and then translate that intoexperiential that really works
(13:09):
within f1, and how we can like,how we can gather the data and
give them the output that theyreally need and manage their
expectations as to what thatmight look like so, jake, how
many of the clients that youdeal with, how many of them have
done experiential before?
Ian Carless (13:23):
I mean, how much of it is handholding and how much
of it is there?
Obviously an experience levelalready there.
Rob Stathem (13:31):
Ooh, I couldn't put a percentage on how many we've
got that have done experientialbefore.
I can think of a few examples.
I think it's probably easierwhen people have done it before,
purely because there's athere's an opinion of what works
and what doesn't already.
And if they've if they've cometo us for an f1 activation it
(13:51):
might be because they've donesomething before and it hasn't
sort of hit the mark.
Um, what we're trying to do nowis is everything that we we put
out needs to be creativelyaligned and also relevant to the
sport like it's.
I've seen so many brands sort ofpop up in fan zones, pop up
around formula one and not quitehit the mark and get it right.
So what we're trying to dointernally is is make sure that,
(14:13):
yeah, we are, we are on themoney every single time.
I think, yeah, as I said,probably a little bit easier
when there's a little bit ofbackground experience, but it's
also an exciting challenge tostart from scratch and and
really sort of like forge out anew path with it and have
creative freedom to, to be ableto sort of apply new tech to it,
apply new experiential to itand and really start to think
(14:33):
about things in a different wayand and almost push the
boundaries of what you could dowith these brands, which is one
of my favorite bits about.
Ian Carless (14:40):
So when you meet a client, if I think back to when
I was doing branded content, alot of my role at that point in
time was fairly educational inthe sense that obviously clients
, they want to sell, so there'san expectation from them to
certainly have a ton of brandingand preferably their product in
just about every single shot.
(15:01):
And that was one of the toughthings we found with trying to
pitch branded content back inthe early days was that a lot of
clients were fairly alarmed atthe idea that their product
wouldn't be in shot at all, orthe idea that some of the best
branded content didn't featurethe client at all.
Yes, there might have been somebranding here and there, but
obviously it was the adage thatyou know if the audience feels
(15:23):
as though they're being sold to,then they tune out.
So I wonder whether that wassomething that you have to build
into your sort of approach withclients, particularly obviously
the ones that haven't doneexperiential before, or whether
your experience has beendifferent.
Rob, do you want to have acrack at that?
Jake Smith (15:37):
yeah, it's interesting, um, several of the
clients that we work with thatthey're not selling a physical
product, especially a ramco.
Nobody that's going to an f1race is buying oil specifically.
You know, none of us are goingout buying a barrel of oil, but
it was very important for themto have their you know their
brand there and and puttingtheir brand message out and
(15:58):
obviously all very protective oftheir brand.
And you know at the races outthere that their logos are
plastered across everything.
So, yeah, I think we are stillfinding it very important but
trying to sort of guide clientsin ways to be subtle with
branding or clever with branding.
I mean, it was the same with theebay out in in miami.
(16:18):
Ebay themselves are not aproduct that you can buy, it's
just a platform where you canbuy other people's products.
So they were quite clever inthe way that they did that.
But yeah, I think that I thinkthat, going back to the point
before around the social mediaelement of it and how those two
things combine, there's still abig want and need for brands to
have a presence there, becauseit then translates into sort of
(16:41):
their online presence throughsocial media and that, that,
that sort of instagram momentthat everybody's looking for.
So, yeah, it is still veryimportant, absolutely feeding
the beast.
Ian Carless (16:51):
I wanted to ask you then, what's the first thing
that you look for then when youget in a creative brief, when a
client new client comes in androb, I'll ask you this first,
but I'll obviously also ask jake, because I know you guys work
together very closely, as yousaid.
Jake Smith (17:02):
As you said, the first thing I look for is a
budget, but now, after we've hada skim through to see if
they've given us a budget yeah,it's really looking to see that.
I think the first thing reallyis is whether they've got any
steer on it as to how it can bemotorsport related or how we
translate it to a to amotorsport or an f1 fan.
You know, we'll see briefswhere we look at them and think
(17:25):
it's it's going to be quitedifficult to translate that into
a language which works or worksin the environment which we're
working in.
So I guess that's that's thefirst thing and that will really
guide us down the directionthat we're going to go
creatively.
You know, for both jake and I,jake, do you want to add to that
?
Rob Stathem (17:41):
yeah, I think, not dissimilar, maybe not quite so
so fixated on the motorsport.
But what's the story like?
What's the why?
Why are we doing this?
What are we?
What are we trying to convey topeople and what are we trying
to make them understand and,ultimately, what's the desired
end result in terms of a fan?
What?
What do they need to leave thisexperience with?
Obviously, a smile on theirface, but what needs to be in
(18:03):
their memory?
And, yeah, what do they need totake away from it?
Ian Carless (18:05):
that brings me on to a good point.
I mean, we talk a lot aboutstorytelling in events, don't we
?
I mean, how important is it?
I know this is going to soundlike a dumb question, but hey,
how in just how important is it?
Can do you find that you justcan't stress this enough to
clients rob yeah, absolutely.
Jake Smith (18:21):
I mean it's absolutely key, I think, in
understanding their wider um,the wider context of what
they're trying to link this into, like wider campaigns, so it
doesn't feel like the theactivations are just a
standalone piece.
Being able to tie that intotheir wider storytelling and
some clients is easier thanothers.
Certainly some clients don'tget that or they really silo
(18:43):
different elements of their youknow their campaigns and you
find that it is totallystandalone.
We're working with a client atthe moment and they have been
very forthcoming with what theirwider campaign across the whole
of their f1 partnership isgoing to be from tv to print to
experiential and makes it somuch easier for us to be able to
like guide that story and guidethe experience to something
(19:04):
which is actually going to hitthe brief, jake.
Ian Carless (19:06):
How do you manage the?
There's a fine line, isn'tthere?
I know Rob alluded to it justthen.
Obviously, if you've got abudget to work with, then you
can manage your ideasrespectively, can't you?
But often clients are reluctantto give you a budget.
They want to hear all the ideasfirst.
But how do you?
How do you then manage thatbalance between the creativity,
(19:28):
the practicality, uh, and theclients?
You know ever decreasingbudgets yeah, tell us about it.
Rob Stathem (19:35):
Yeah, it's a tricky one.
I I've I've had a projectrecently which is is the same.
It's it's balancing what is theimpact this is going to have
versus what's the lowest we canpossibly get.
This budget.
I'm of the feeling, I'm of theopinion, and I've been to lots
of Formula One events.
Brands are showing up in a bigway.
It's very easy for a partner topartner not even a partner, a
(19:56):
brand in general to come in nowand sort of be lost in the noise
, purely because there is somuch going on.
That's, that's exciting and andpushing things forward,
implementing new technology,like really, yeah, pushing the
boundaries of what experientialcan be.
So, yeah, it's, it's sellingthat message and and allowing
clients to understand thatsometimes, you know, it's not a
(20:18):
case of doubling the budget fordouble the result.
Always it's sometimesexponential.
Sometimes the differencebetween, you know, a
medium-sized budget and a largebudget will just allow us to do
something that's so much betterand so much tighter to the
storytelling that we mentionedand allow us the creative
liberty around different partsof the activation and really
going in and focusing on thedetails as well.
(20:39):
I think that's what rob and Ican say that we've both learned
from this.
Aramco project is just theattention to detail on
everything was another level,but we had the timelines and the
finances to allow that tohappen, which was great, because
it allows us to put together anexperience that is almost
exactly how we wanted it.
Ian Carless (20:57):
You mentioned the Aramco project.
You've obviously been in Saudirecently as part of the F1 tour
in Bahrain.
I'm always curious when I getguests on that have worked
across different markets.
What was your experienceworking in the Middle East and
how different was that from, say, europe or the US?
Jake Smith (21:16):
I'll just give you a little insight.
Jake was on the ground actuallyfor both the Bahrain and saudi
build, so he's probably a betterplace.
But yeah, jake sent me amessage and said it was.
We had a bit of accreditationfor f1 races.
There's always a bit of a bitof a headache because you're
accredited through the localpromoter and then you're
accredited through f1 and it'salways, you know, you're never
getting the information from theuh, from the suppliers, quite
(21:37):
in time.
And we're working with a, withthe local supplier, on the
structure and normally it's thesort of sort of thing where
you'd expect maybe a crew ofmaybe 15, 20 guys maximum to do
the structure and the av andjake messaged me saying there's
60 people accredited.
We've got to accredit 60 people.
How on earth are they sending60 people in?
Labor's cheap.
(21:58):
You know labor is cheap, yeah,and I thought what are all these
people doing?
But Jake can probably give youa much better idea of what all
these people are doing becausehe stood and watched them all.
But yeah, certainly, I mean thequality out there was great,
like what we delivered from thesuppliers was fantastic.
You know we were using Maestra,you know the arena company, so
the attention to detail wasgreat there.
(22:19):
We've got really a goodexperience from them.
So I think over the last youknow, since I've been in the
events world, you know reallyfocusing on this kind of stuff
for the last 10 years, you seethe quality has really increased
out in the Middle East.
So but yeah, jay can give you amuch better insight as to what
it was like working boots on theground over there.
Rob Stathem (22:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think, going into theSaudi-Bahrain project, I was
expecting it to be a bit more ofa battle than it actually was
in terms of the eye that we comewith.
The UK and Europe is good forlots of things, and our event
delivery is one of those.
The standard of events overhere is is something else like,
(22:56):
I think, of festival of speed atgoodwood as an example.
I was lucky to go to watch somewonders at the start of this
year and that absolutely blew mymind in terms of the, the level
of production and the level ofbudget that's going towards
these booths.
So sort of going straight fromthere to to the middle east,
like I've I've been out inbahrain, I've been out in saudi,
I've been out in dubai workingat events and the, the standard
(23:16):
of what what is expected outthere is, is definitely a few
years behind what we're used to.
It's.
It's coming up there's no, nodoubt about that and it's coming
up at a fast rate.
But, yeah, we were lucky thatthat we were working with the
partners, that we were workingwith and and and partners from
from a european background aswell who who have that same sort
of eye.
It's.
It's easy when you go out tothese different markets, and
(23:37):
especially dubai, I, I think,well, dubai and, and saudi and
bahrain, the same.
I remember being at an event inin last year and looking at the
, the level of finish onsomething, flagging it to
someone, and it was like theycouldn't see it.
It was like we were talking twocompletely different languages.
It's like, whereas in our worldyou would never send something
out the door looking like thatit's.
Ian Carless (23:58):
It's just a yeah, there's a little bit of of
quality uplift to be done, Ithink, but yeah, as I said, it
certainly now, I know this isprobably in neither of your
roles business development butyou know, at the time of
recording we've just had, uh, mrtrump visiting the middle east.
So clearly the region isenjoying a a large spotlight at
the moment.
So how important is it for youas a business to perhaps get a
(24:20):
foothold there, rob?
Jake Smith (24:22):
yeah, I mean it's.
I mean it's huge, and theamount of money that's being
spent in the middle east onsports is phenomenal, you know,
and the appetite aroundmotorsport, especially an f1, is
kind of at the top of that.
It's really important for us.
We, we have some kind ofoperational base out there, we
have some kit out there.
I think as the business grows,it's going to be a, you know, as
(24:42):
with all sort of european basedevents, businesses, it's where
everyone's kind of putting theireyes.
At the moment I don't think it'sgoing to be something that's
going to change.
I don't see that the tap isgoing to be turned off at any
point in in the middle east.
So it does absolutely makesense.
I think it's going to be prettykey for our business over the
next few years how that sort ofplays out.
I'm not sure the us expansionagain is something we're sort of
(25:05):
focusing on quite heavily.
So, yeah, certainly two bigelephants to eat there and you
know you just need to take itsort of step by step.
But yeah, I mean it's going tobe absolutely critical and jake.
Ian Carless (25:15):
Just going back to aramco again, I wanted to ask
how open are clients in themiddle east to sort of taking
risk and innovation?
I mean, I think of aramco and Ithink of a very large
conservative company, so howeasy is it to pitch in some, you
know, really innovative ideas?
Rob Stathem (25:31):
I think we can speak to that pretty well over
our experience working on theproject over the last sort of
two and a half years.
The project came to us on aMost of our projects do come to
us on a pretty crazy timeline.
It seems to be a pattern withinthe world of events, and
especially in Formula One events, and a creative concept was
turned around very quickly butwe were quite limited by what
(25:53):
was producible in the time andat that point going towards a
model where we were building inthe UK and then shipping around
the world.
So ultimately what we were ableto achieve creatively was
limited.
I think the results from thatafter-a-two-year campaign were
pretty evident.
We had lots of other fan zoneactivations that are more
(26:13):
involved, that are more techforward and immersive, and
unfortunately the previousconcept just didn't stack up to
that.
So it put us in quite a niceposition whereby we were able to
sort of push some new ideas andand take some risks and as a
company they've been super opento it and willing to to to push
the boundaries and once we'vegot a few things through now the
(26:38):
ideas tap is very much turnedon and we're thinking about how
we can continue to push thatexperience more and more, put
more tech into it, more touchpoints and really stretch the
messaging.
It's a nice one.
As Rob said, they're notselling product to anyone in the
fan zone, so we do have alittle bit of creative liberty.
When it comes to the brand,we're very much focused on their
(27:00):
synthetic fuel, which is cominginto Formula One in 2026.
So anything that we can dothat's forward leaning, that's
tech heavy, that's innovative itdoesn't really matter what it
is, because it all sort of stillticks the same boxes in terms
of representing aramco in a waythat is pioneering and doing
something exciting and industryleading and just following on
(27:22):
from that, I mean, I knowobviously you guys work across
the across the world, but areyou seeing any, any trends in
the experiential sort of fieldcoming into play, specifically,
you know, in the europe, us andeven in the middle east?
Jake Smith (27:35):
good question.
Um, I think the quality ofexperiential is going through
the roof.
I think that everybody istrying to outdo everybody and I
think, yeah, the absolute, thequality of the finish and the
delivery, is just upping all thetime and jake touched on there
on goodwood festival of speed.
The level of um delivery thereis, you know, is next level.
(27:55):
But I think we're seeing thattrickle down into to everything
that we do now and clients havereally high expectations, maybe
not always budgets quite tomatch them, but yeah, I think
that's a big thing, that'sthat's happening for sure and
then, very briefly, I justwanted to touch on on on a sort
of logistical side of workingwith F1.
Ian Carless (28:13):
I mean, as you mentioned earlier, accreditation
can be a complete ball achesometimes.
How have you found that?
How have you found thechallenges of fitting into that
F1 circus as an experientialevent company?
What have some of thechallenges been over?
The last sort of what did yousay?
Two years, two and a half yearsthat you've been working with
them?
Jake Smith (28:32):
Yeah, I think it's an interesting question.
I think and this going back toa point before this is very much
where we, where we try and holdclients hands is that we try to
be their sort of localknowledge on a global scale.
Like I had a call the other dayand an agency says I will just
rent a lute and van for gettingthe kit from there to there
during race day.
I will restock the stand duringthe race day and you know our
(28:54):
operations head of operations,track side operations says well,
you can't do that because youcan't get a Luton through that
tunnel.
Oh right, you know, they wouldhave happily just rented a Luton
and got to the tunnel and gotstuck.
And so it's all of those littlenuanced things that's working at
F1 and knowing the promotersand knowing what you can do and
what you can't do, where youpark and all of those little
(29:17):
things and how the accreditationworks, and the fact that you
know, we know f1 and we know thekey people in there so we can
call them and get the answersfor that.
That's really where we'rehelping out clients a lot with,
with the global circus that isf1, shipping everything, it's
everything.
It's just a huge beast.
Ian Carless (29:34):
And then Jake.
Before we wrap up, what's nextfor you guys?
Rob Stathem (29:37):
Ooh, lots in the pipeline.
I think we're in a reallyexciting place, not just as a
business, but in Formula One ingeneral.
Formula One, as you'll haveseen, has exploded on a
phenomenal scale over the lastfew years and it's now
attracting some of the biggestbrands in the world.
But some of the biggest brandsin the world who aren't just
interested in putting a logo onthe side of a car or just having
(30:00):
their logo next to, next toformula ones in, in, in press
releases it's, it's really aboutcoming and activating and
showing up for fans.
They, they gain a pretty uniquemarketing opportunity when they
sign up to a formula onepartnership of being able to,
you know, have a captiveaudience within the track.
So, yeah, I think we're we'rein an exciting place in terms of
(30:21):
lots of new opportunitiescoming on board, a move towards
doing more touring setups and,just yeah, continuing to, to
pump out cool stuff and then,finally, I know you're both f1
fans.
Ian Carless (30:32):
I'm going to go out on a limb here.
Not much of one, but I'm goingto.
I'm going to guess that you'reboth music fans as well, and
we've been asking everybody thison the podcast.
I think it's quite an oftsometimes offers an interesting
insight and sometimes gets a bitof a giggle.
But music then?
What's on your playlist, rob?
What have you got on yourplaylist right now?
Jake Smith (30:51):
jake's the music one in this, uh, for sure.
Yeah, my mine's quite, um,mine's quite a collecting is it
depends on what the day is,absolutely.
But yeah, I've been listeningto quite a lot of sort of
ambient hip-hop type stuff atthe moment just when I'm working
.
Uh, that's been quite likequite big on my playlist at the
moment jake.
Rob Stathem (31:08):
Uh, mine's completely the other end of the
spectrum.
I spent my university yearsding in nightclubs and festivals
, so my playlist is very muchsort of drum and bass, jungle,
heavy, very high energy.
I think some of the people inthe office would be terrified at
the sort of thing that's goingon in the headphones while I'm
still managing to get work done.
Ian Carless (31:25):
Brilliant.
Well, listen, guys.
Can I wish you the best of luck.
Thanks for joining me on thepodcast and, yeah, thank you
very much.
Thank of luck.
Thanks for joining me on thepodcast and, yeah, thank you
very much.
Thank you so much, appreciateyour time.
Thanks for having us.
Event news dxb was presented bymyself, ian carlos, the studio
engineer and editor was roydemonte, the executive producer
was myself and joe morrison, andthis podcast is a co-production
(31:46):
between warehouse 4 and w4podcast studio dubai, and if you
haven't done so already, pleasedo click that follow or
subscribe button.
See you next time.
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