How a professional sailing league built massive reach on YouTube and social media

My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/

SailGP is only a little over five years old, and yet the competitive sailing league has already built out a substantial fan base all across the world. Not only are its competitions broadcast on linear TV channels, it also produces an impressive amount of content that includes YouTube videos, social media clips, and podcasts. In 2022, it hired Melissa Lawton, a longtime sports broadcast producer, to run its content operations, and she’s invested heavily in everything from live streaming to highly-produced docuseries.

In a recent interview, Melissa explained how SailGP’s media operations fit within its larger business and walked through her team’s approach to producing both shortform and longform content.