DriveTribe

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DriveTribe
DriveTribe is an
automotive
online
community
platform
founded by Type of site Automotive social media

(and featuring Headquarters London, UK

content from)
The Grand Tour Ernesto Schmitt
presenters Jeremy Clarkson
Founder(s)
Jeremy Richard Hammond
Clarkson, James May
James May and
Richard Parent W. Chump & Sons
Hammond. URL drivetribe.com
Commercial Yes
The platform is
28 November 2016; 4 years
a social media Launched
ago
website that is
categorised by Current status Active
automotive-
themed 'tribes', which allow
users to join open groups of
car enthusiasts with similar
interests. This method is a
new twist to older style
automotive forums as
members can post articles,
From left to right, Richard Hammond,
quizzes, and polls in their James May and Jeremy Clarkson
tribe rather than just a thread
topic.

Contents
1 Tribes
2 Leadership and investors
3 Commercialisation
4 Data
5 References

Tribes
Tribes are categorisations and themes, allowing users to find
content most relevant to their area of interest. These range
from Tribes dedicated to particular makes and models, to
Tribes about road trips, engineering and even remote
controlled cars. The website launched in November 2016,
under Ernesto Schmitt, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond
and James May to much fanfare, with several selected tribe
leaders to get things started. These early adopters started
their tribes a week ahead of the full release to allow new fan
made tribes to reach maturity before the masses are allowed
entry. Each tribe has a specific theme and members join
whichever tribe fits their personal tastes. Some Tribes are
run by automotive celebrities such as Mark Webber, Damon
Hill, and many others.[1]

Leadership and investors

Serial tech entrepreneur Ernesto Schmitt is a Co-Founder
and the former CEO of the platform. Financing for DriveTribe
came from, among others, 21st Century Fox and Breyer
Capital, who have invested respectively $6.5 and $5.5 million
in the platform.[2][3]

Commercialisation
In April 2018, DriveTribe announced its first commercial
partnership, with German car manufacturer Audi.[4]

In June 2018, DriveTribe launched a joint partnership with

JOE Media and Renault, a six figure deal focusing on the
launch of the Megane RS. Renault UK marketing director,
Adam Wood, said the partnership would look to "engage a
broader lifestyle market through original content production,
influencer led activation and editorial support."[5]

In November 2018, the DriveTribe CEO, Jonathan Morris,

described the four elements of the company's commercial
model, which include content creation, distribution, and data
insights.[6] The latter of which is made possible because
DriveTribe's tech stack is built on Apache Flink.[7]

Data
In an article on LinkedIn, DriveTribe CSO, Richard Beech said
that data captured by DriveTribe user engagement had
allowed the company to connect car brands to "millennials
who are affluent and open-minded when it comes to electric
vehicles, or mums and dads that own SUVs, but that have
limited knowledge about tyres".[8]

References
1. Davis, Ben. "We take a spin through Clarkson, May &
Hammond's DriveTribe network". Econsultancy.
Econsultancy media. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
2. Lee, Kristen. "DriveTribe Just Got $6.5 Million From Fox
And We Don't Know For What". jalopnik. Gawker Media.
Retrieved 12 September 2016.
3. "Drivetribe raises $12m Series A from Breyer Capital
and Fox". Tech City News. 6 September 2016. Archived
from the original on 28 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March
 2017.
4. "DriveTribe seals first major partner in Audi tasked with
telling electric vehicle stories". The Drum. Retrieved 7
November 2018.
5. "DriveTribe broadens ad offering after inking deal with
Renault". The Drum. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
6. Niekerk, Piet van. "How DriveTribe has found gold dust
in engagement". fipp.com. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
7. "Drivetribe's Modern Take On CQRS With Apache
Flink® - data Artisans". data Artisans. 9 March 2017.
Retrieved 7 November 2018.
8. Beech, Richard (6 November 2018). "LinkedIn".
LinkedIn Pulse. Retrieved 7 November 2018.