Noelle Magann: “Data is what turns motorsport content into strategy”

Noelle Magann is a social and digital strategist specializing in sports, motorsport, live events, and brand storytelling. As Social Media Manager at Race Service, she develops content and digital strategies for brands across motorsport and car culture.

A Coastal Carolina University alumna, Noelle earned her bachelor’s degree in Marketing with a minor in Sports Studies before completing her master’s degree in Sport and Entertainment Management at the University of South Carolina.

Her experience spans social media, athlete and brand marketing, NIL, marketing strategy, research, and fan experience. She is passionate about helping brands, athletes, and organizations tell meaningful stories and build genuine connections with their audiences.

“I wasn’t always into racing,” Noelle tells Females in Motorsport. “My granddad loved NASCAR and taught students the engineering and mechanics behind stock cars. He’d drive me around in the cars they built, and I thought it was fun, but I didn’t really care. I even named one of the cars after the Transformers.

“I worked in football recruiting and operations at Coastal, helping with everything from evaluating film to planning meals. I loved it, and that experience really laid the foundation for how I work with athletes.”

Noelle calls herself a nerd when it comes to data. She loves working with numbers and believes that good strategy starts with understanding the data behind it.

“You can’t do strategy without data,” she says. “Strategy is not based on vibes. Social media does have a qualitative side to it, but data helps you understand why things are changing. If you don’t know why something is working, you can’t fix it or capitalize on it.

“I still collect data manually because I find it more accurate. The more I did it, the better and faster I got. Now, as I put everything into my spreadsheets, I start noticing patterns and figuring out what actually works.

“For example, ending a short caption with a question can get you better-quality comments because people don’t have to dig through the caption to find what you’re asking. It sounds simple, but you need the data to understand why it works.”

Social media has become such a big part of how motorsport reaches and connects with fans, and data is going to play an even bigger role in how the sport markets itself. Understanding what fans engage with and why is key to growing the audience and keeping them invested beyond race weekends.

“Working in college football recruiting and operations taught me how to evaluate information and communicate it effectively,” she says. “You have to take your thoughts and translate them into what the other person, whether it's your boss or their boss, actually needs to know.

“They don't need every little detail; they need to understand what's important. Strategy also requires a balance between structure and flexibility. I've had to scrap entire strategy plans because a client's needs changed just a few weeks later.

“You can't get so attached to one idea that you stop seeing other possibilities. You have to be willing to look at things from different perspectives and adapt when circumstances change.”

People can often get attached to their ideas and creative work, so being able to take a step back, accept feedback, and make changes based on what the client needs while still keeping the overall strategy in mind is what makes a good marketer.

“AI is a huge challenge when it comes to copywriting,” she says. “I do use it for certain things, like making my emails more concise, because I'm a yapper. I'll write an email that's twice as long as it needs to be and repeat the same thing three times, so I'll ask AI to help me cut it down.

“But when it comes to writing copy for clients, we don't use it. I'm an academic at heart. I love school, I grew up reading classic literature, and I learned to write academic papers. Because of that, the way I naturally write can be quite different from how you would write for social media or a brand.

“Learning to make my writing more conversational and accessible has been a process. The challenge with AI is that my natural writing style aligns with the structures and patterns AI has learned from publicly available academic papers and literature. I don’t use AI to write, but I do have to be extra mindful of reviewing everything I create, from social copy to presentations and reports, to make sure my writing reflects my own voice and doesn’t come across as AI-generated.”

Noelle’s experience highlights how much motorsport marketing has evolved beyond simply creating content and promoting the sport. Behind every successful campaign is a combination of data, creativity, adaptability, and an understanding of what fans care about. 

As social media continues to shape how audiences discover and connect with motorsport, the ability to turn insights into meaningful content will become increasingly important. Balancing data-driven decisions with authentic storytelling is what will help the sport continue to grow and build lasting connections with its fans.