EV Manufacturer · Anchor Vehicle Partner
“A Drive Around Ireland, powered by [brand].”
The vehicle for the series. On screen throughout, real-world range storytelling, full social content library, co-branded launch. The hero partnership.
A DRIVE AROUND
It's not through. It's not between. It's AROUND.
Brand · Format · Business · Pilot · Global Vision
ADriveAround.com · Confidential draft · Prepared by Varun · 2026
The Ask
Advice, first.
Before any conversation about capital, what I want most from the people reading this is honest counsel.
Contents
A note before you begin.
01 Founder Story - The dream that sparked it02 The Big Insight - Why AROUND is different03 The Format Bible - The rules that protect the brand04 Ireland - The Pilot - The Wild Atlantic Way05 The Commercial Model - How it earns06 Licensing Strategy - How it scales globally07 The Financial Model - Indicative numbers08 Exit Strategy - Where the value goes09 The Five-Year Vision - A Drive Around Global10 The Ask - Advice, first
This prospectus is shared to invite advice, not to ask for capital. It sets out an honest view of a strong idea and what would make it real. Candid challenge is worth more to me right now than agreement.
SECTION 1
The Dream That Sparked It
This started, honestly, as a dream. Not a metaphor, an actual one: driving around Australia, the coast unspooling for weeks, and waking with a single clear thought. What if the drive itself were the show? Not a destination film, not a two-city A-to-B, but a whole country circled at ground level, one charge and one stranger at a time.
The domain was bought that morning, before the idea could cool. That instinct matters, because the strongest formats are simple enough to grasp in a sentence and rich enough to run for years. This one is both.
You do not build a franchise from a business plan. You build it from an idea people understand instantly and wish they had thought of first.
What follows is that instinct, thought through properly: the insight beneath it, the rules that protect it, a real pilot, an honest commercial model, and the path from one drive around Ireland to a licensed global franchise.
SECTION 2
The Big Insight
Most travel programming does one of two things. It goes through a place, dipping in and out with no shape. Or it runs between two points, a start and an end the audience forgets. Both are everywhere. Both blur together.
A Drive Around does neither. It circles a clearly defined geography and returns to where it began. The route is the story. The map is the plot.
That single rule changes everything. It gives every edition a built-in beginning, middle, and end. It gives the audience a shape to hold and a finish line to reach. It makes the format instantly repeatable, because any place with an edge and a road can be driven around. And it gives the brand a promise as clear as the tagline: not through, not between, around.
Why the premise sells itself
Every audience understands it in a heartbeat. A Drive Around Wales. A Drive Around Ireland. A Drive Around California. Nobody needs the concept explained. That instant comprehension is rare, and it is exactly what makes a format travel across borders and languages.
And the format stretches across every register. It can be wild and rugged, a lonely road at the edge of the world, or glamorous and iconic, the great motoring corners of Monaco and the Riviera. Rugged or glamorous, the loop and the promise stay the same. That range is what keeps the brand fresh across dozens of editions.
SECTION 3
The Format Bible
The rules below keep the brand consistent and trustworthy in every market, whoever is driving. They are non-negotiable, and they are the thing a licensee actually buys.
Two rules above all others. The people must be interesting, and the places and stories must be genuinely interesting. Casting and content come first. A sponsor never dictates who drives, where they go, or what gets said. Break these two and the format is just an advert. Keep them and it is a show people actually want to watch.
The rules
- Cast for character, not convenience. An interesting driver, or a couple with real chemistry, carries a series in a way scenery never can. The person in the car is the show.
- Interesting places and topics, never sponsor-led. Routes and features are chosen because they are genuinely compelling. Partners buy participation in a good show, not the right to shape it.
- Complete the loop. Every edition drives a defined route and returns to its start. Around, always.
- The drive stays central. The road is the narrative spine, never a backdrop between talking-head segments.
- Show the map. Route graphics and progress tracking in every episode, so the audience always knows where they are on the loop.
- Discover close to the road. Features come from what is genuinely on the route, not a detour flown in for a sponsor.
- The charging stop is a gift, not quiet time. Every enforced pause becomes a story: a cafe, a maker, a character.
- Editorial honesty is absolute. Sponsors buy participation, never a positive review. The audience must trust it or the whole thing is worthless.
- Premium but real. Cinematic where the landscape earns it, intimate and honest everywhere else.
Brand values: Honest. Curious. Authentic. Sustainable. Human. Everything the format does is measured against these five words.
The reference points, in one line: Top Gear production quality, Anthony Bourdain storytelling, modern creator authenticity. Cinematic but intimate. Premium but real.
SECTION 4
Ireland - The Pilot
The flagship pilot is A Drive Around Ireland: one presenter, one electric car, and a complete loop of the island, taking in the legendary Wild Atlantic Way and closing the circle back where it began. Told one charge, one village, and one stranger at a time.
Start in Dublin. Head north to the Donegal coast, then down the wild Atlantic edge through Galway and Kerry, across the southern coast at Cork, and back up the eastern shore until the road returns you to where you began. A true coastal loop. Everything on it is the show.
The coastal loop: six legs, six episodes, a complete circuit that hugs the shore and returns to the start. Partner stops - clifftop hotels, links courses, coastal distilleries - sit naturally along the route.
The spine of the series
| Leg | Coast | Episode flavour |
|---|---|---|
| 1->2 | Dublin to Donegal | Leaving the capital for the far north. Raw headlands, empty beaches, the road at its wildest. |
| 3 | Galway & Connemara | Music, food, language. The liveliest, warmest human episode, deep on the Atlantic edge. |
| 4 | Kerry & Dingle | The classic postcard, driven properly. Ring of Kerry, the peninsulas, the dramatic passes. |
| 5 | Cork & the south coast | Softer, foodier, a gentle turn east. Harbour towns and the wild south. |
| 6 | Wicklow & the east coast | The run home along the eastern shore, mountains meeting sea, closing the loop. |
| ->1 | Back to Dublin | The circle completes where it began. Around, as the rule demands. |
A sample charging-stop feature
DONEGAL, LEG ONE. The car pulls in to charge outside a harbour village. Forty minutes to find. Across the road, a third-generation smokehouse still curing wild salmon over oak. We watch him work, taste it at his kitchen table, hear why the young leave and why he stayed. By the time the car is charged we have four genuinely moving minutes of television. Nobody paid for it to be there. That is exactly why it works.
Illustrative, to show the format. Live editions use real places found on the route.
Partner stops, threaded along the coast
The coastal loop is lined with exactly the partners the model depends on, and each becomes a natural feature rather than an advert dropped in. Kept as close to the shore as possible, the route passes:
- Clifftop and coastal hotels - the overnight stops become Gold-tier features, the property woven into the journey.
- Championship links golf - Ireland's Atlantic coast holds some of the finest links courses on earth, a natural draw for both audience and sponsor.
- Coastal distilleries - a charging stop, a tour, a story, and a genuine local character behind it.
- Attractions and visitor experiences - the cliffs, the islands, the harbours, each a set-piece and a potential partner.
The rule holds throughout: they earn their place because they are genuinely interesting and genuinely on the coast, never because a sponsor bought the scene.
Wales - the pragmatic alternative
If the goal is to prove the format faster and cheaper, Wales is the sharper first move: compact, high variety per mile, a motivated tourism partner, and far less time on the road. Ireland is the more cinematic pilot. Wales is the lower-risk one. Either works, and naming both shows the format is not tied to a single place.
SECTION 5
The Commercial Model
This is not a travel-show business hoping for ad revenue. It is a destination-content and intellectual-property business, funded by partners who pay before a wheel turns. Seven revenue streams, layered so no single partner is relied upon and none competes with another.
The three foundations
| Stream | Who pays | What they buy |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle sponsor | EV manufacturer (anchor) | On-screen presence for effectively the whole show, real-world testing, social content, content rights |
| Destination partners | Tourism boards | Awareness, destination storytelling, trusted digital assets - not raw views |
| Hospitality & attractions | Hotels, venues | Tiered features, Bronze to Gold, from a short segment to full episode integration |
The scaling layers
| Stream | Role |
|---|---|
| Format licensing | The value engine - local editions under licence, generating fees and commissions |
| Production services | Bespoke destination campaigns for partners who want the house style |
| AVOD / FAST / TV | The same library monetised again at near-zero added cost; TV is upside, not foundation |
| Affiliate & ad revenue | Booking links, EV charging apps, platform ad share - the meaningful tail |
What a partnership page looks like
Partners are sold defined, packaged participation, never vague sponsorship. Illustrative examples of how each tier is presented:
Tourism Board · Destination Partner
“Bringing the Wild Atlantic Way to a global audience.”
Destination storytelling across a full series, trusted rather than advertised, plus a library of digital and social assets the board keeps and reuses.
Hotel or Attraction · Gold Partner
“Featured on the journey.”
Full episode integration, a dedicated feature, the complete social package, and content usage rights. Bronze and Silver tiers scale down from here.
The trust rule, restated: every partner buys participation and reach. None buys an honest review. That single discipline is what makes the audience - and therefore the partnership - worth anything.
SECTION 6
Licensing Strategy
This is the part that builds real enterprise value. The footage has value. The format has value. But the licensing framework is what turns a show into a company.
Once the format is proven in Ireland, local producers and creators run their own editions under licence, using the Format Bible, the brand, and the operating handbook. They know their market, their roads, and their partners far better than any central team could.
The expansion is demand-led. The goal is not to push the format into every market ourselves. It is to build a brand that local teams pitch to run. They come to us, proposing a drive around their own city, coast, or country. That inbound pull is the strongest possible proof the format works, and it keeps the centre lean while the network grows.
What a licensee pays for
- The brand and the format rights for their territory.
- The Format Bible and operating handbook - the system that guarantees consistency.
- Access to the sponsor network and introductions to global partners.
What flows back to the centre
- Licence fees per territory and per series.
- Brand fees and a share of local sponsorship.
- A growing global content library and a compounding, recognised brand.
The aim is a system that can be operated by local teams around the world under licence, while the format itself - the thing with enterprise value - is owned in one place.
SECTION 7
The Financial Model
Important. The figures below are indicative illustrations of the model's shape, not forecasts or commitments. They are placeholders to be replaced with real numbers as pilot costs and partner pricing firm up. They show how the economics work, not a promised return.
Indicative pilot economics - one series
| Line | Indicative | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Production (lean, in-house crew) | £ [ __ ] | Crewing managed in-house - the key cost advantage |
| Presenter & travel | £ [ __ ] | Founder-led pilot lowers this materially |
| Post-production & music | £ [ __ ] | Editing, grade, licensed audio |
| Contingency | £ [ __ ] | Weather, logistics, reshoots |
| Indicative pilot cost | £ [ __ ] | To be confirmed |
Indicative revenue per series
| Stream | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor vehicle sponsor | £ [ __ ] | £ [ __ ] |
| Destination partner(s) | £ [ __ ] | £ [ __ ] |
| Hospitality & attraction tiers | £ [ __ ] | £ [ __ ] |
| AVOD / FAST / affiliate tail | £ [ __ ] | £ [ __ ] |
| Indicative series revenue | £ [ __ ] | £ [ __ ] |
How the model compounds
A single series stands alone modestly. The value appears when the same template runs across territories and the licensing layer switches on. One proven series funds the next; each licensed market adds recurring fees at almost no central cost.
| Phase | Focus | Where value comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | Pilot & proof | One flagship series; the case study that unlocks everything |
| Year 2 | Multiple territories | Repeat the format in-house; first licence conversations |
| Year 3+ | International licensing | Recurring licence and brand fees; growing content library |
The footage has value. The format has enterprise value.
SECTION 8
Exit Strategy
A format-and-licensing business with a recognised brand and recurring partner revenue is an attractive acquisition to several very different buyers. The optionality itself is part of the value.
| Buyer type | Why they would want it |
|---|---|
| Media & streaming | A proven, ownable travel format with a global content library and a built-in audience |
| Travel & tourism | Direct access to trusted destination storytelling and an engaged travel audience |
| Automotive | A ready-made real-world EV storytelling engine across multiple markets |
| Strategic merger | Fold into a larger content or travel group as a branded franchise unit |
| Continue & licence | Stay independent and run as a global franchise-licensing company |
The point is not one exit. It is that a genuine format-IP business has several, and can also simply keep compounding as an independent licensor.
SECTION 9
The Five-Year Vision
A Drive Around Global
Ireland is where we prove it is beautiful. Everywhere after is where it becomes a franchise.
Five years out, A Drive Around is a recognised global road-trip franchise. A flagship UK-and-Ireland operation runs the tentpole series and holds the brand. Licensed local editions run in market after market, each cast for interesting drivers, built around genuinely interesting places, and funded by its own tourism, automotive, and hospitality partners. A shared, growing content library monetises across YouTube, AVOD, FAST, and selective television, in every territory at once.
The format stretches from the wild and rugged to the glamorous and iconic. A Drive Around Sicily through mountain villages and volcano roads. A Drive Around Monaco and the great motoring corners of Europe. A Drive Around California down Highway 1. A Drive Around New Zealand, and A Drive Around Tasmania at the rugged edge of the world. A Drive Around the M25, a nightmare for some, a joy for others!
One format, one promise, one recognisable brand, told again and again by the people who know each road best.
SECTION 10
The Ask
Advice, first.
Before any conversation about capital, what I want most from the people reading this is honest counsel. Where is the thinking strong? Where is it naive? What would you need to see to take it seriously? That candour is worth more to me at this stage than a cheque, and it is the fastest way to make the idea real.
What would genuinely help
- Strategic insight and honest challenge to the model.
- Introductions - to tourism bodies, EV brands, broadcasters, and production partners.
- Help validating the format before any significant raise.
The near-term plan is simple and low-risk: land one destination partner and one challenger EV brand to co-fund a single pilot, use it to generate both proof and the first real audience numbers, and let those numbers unlock full-rate partnerships and the licensing model.
A trusted, lean, electric road-trip format that tourism boards and car brands pay to fund, distributed everywhere, and licensed market by market into a company with genuine resale value.
It's not through. It's not between. It's AROUND.
Thank you for reading - and for any candour you are willing to offer.