Finding Your Superfans on Reddit: 10 Lessons from Rhidian Taylor (Skoda UK)

The Octavia had a reputation problem, though not the usual kind. Independent reviewers praised it, and it shares its platform with the Volkswagen Golf and Audi A3 while offering more space and more spec. But it was also widely seen as the safe, sensible, slightly boring choice. The facelifted model was coming out in 2024, and it was the last brief on the list that year.

What unlocked it was a personal anecdote. Rhidian was driving an Octavia vRS at the time and kept getting stopped by strangers at petrol stations and outside his house, telling him how much they loved it. In years of driving new cars for work, no other model had generated that kind of affection. When he shared that with the agency, the brief changed: could Škoda find that cult following, and get them talking about the car to everyone else?

The lesson is that the best Reddit ideas rarely start with “we should do something on Reddit”. They start with something true about how real people feel about your product.

Škoda’s agency found those fans on r/CarTalkUK, which describes itself as the definitive subreddit for British petrolheads. Woven through thousands of threads were genuine Octavia evangelists, who had even given the car its own nickname: “our Lord and Saviour”. If someone asked which car to buy, that was often the whole reply. When anyone was rude about the Octavia, the subreddit’s moderator would respond with poetry in its honour.

Finding them wasn’t especially hard. Searching for whether the Octavia was worth buying kept surfacing Reddit threads. Rhidian believes most brands have similarly devoted fans somewhere, even in categories that seem unlikely. If people are passionate enough to argue about sponges or washing up liquid, there will be a corner of Reddit where they do it.

Earlier that year, Škoda had tried Reddit for its SUV campaign, built around a made-up word: “familying”. The team posted in family-focused subreddits asking what familying meant to them. The response was hostile, with plenty of swearing and comments asking which marketing intern had thought it was a good idea.

It would have been easy to decide Reddit wasn’t for Škoda. Instead, the team took a clear lesson from it. Turning up uninvited to ask a community to engage with your campaign is taking, not giving. Everything about the Octavia campaign was designed the other way round.

So Škoda gave r/CarTalkUK something nobody else had. The first facelifted Octavias to arrive in the UK would normally go straight to motoring journalists. Instead, Škoda took the first one off the transporter and offered it to the subreddit, using Reddit ads run by its media agency PHD that spoke directly to the community.

Over one weekend, the team drove the car to as many Redditors as possible, from Scotland down to the south of England, and handed over the keys. It sent a clear signal that Škoda trusted its biggest fans more than the biggest titles. That early access is what earned the goodwill for everything that came next.

Handing the car over meant accepting that Škoda had no say in what Redditors would post. Internally, that raised the obvious worry: what if they hate it?

Rhidian’s view is that you have to take that chance. This was an audience that had loved the car for years, and if they didn’t love the new one, they would probably have a good reason, which would come out sooner or later anyway. He also found that being first creates real goodwill. People were honest in their reviews, but they were also grateful for the experience, and that showed in what they wrote.

When Škoda first offered test drives, some members were sceptical. Would the brand really come to them? Not everyone who asked could get a drive, but the team made a real effort to cover the whole country, and that paid off in an unexpected way.

When someone posted that Škoda would never come to their area, other Redditors replied that it had come to them, down the road. When someone questioned the use of their quotes, the quoted Redditor would confirm they’d been asked and were off to Carfest as a thank you. Because Škoda had kept its promises, the community largely defended the campaign for it.

Then one Redditor suggested the new Octavia should come with its own community trim. Škoda ran with it. The team identified every customisable part of the car, from colour and trim to wheels and extras, and posted each option as a comment in a Reddit mega thread. The community upvoted their favourites, and the winning combination became the Redditor Edit: the first car ever configured by a Reddit community, which customers could genuinely order from the Škoda website.

Škoda kept its hands off the thread while the votes came in. Rhidian compares it to democracy: once you’ve asked people to vote, you have to let them, and then stand by the result. Škoda then built one and got it into Redditors’ hands too.

The community already loved the Octavia, so reaching only them would have been preaching to the converted. The real opportunity was amplifying their voices to a mass audience.

Many Redditors’ comments read like advertising headlines. One noted how time and space bend around the vehicle as a mark of respect. With each Redditor’s permission, and with Carfest tickets as a thank you, Škoda used these quotes as headlines on digital out of home and paid social, credited to r/CarTalkUK.

This is also where most of the budget went. The Reddit side, including the ads targeting r/CarTalkUK, was relatively inexpensive, because the community did the talking. The spend went on amplifying what they said. And there was an unplanned bonus: because AI tools draw heavily on Reddit, the community’s enthusiasm for the Octavia continues to support Škoda’s visibility in AI search today.

Redditors wear their edginess as a badge of pride, and they will jump on brands that get small things wrong. When Škoda’s first ads referred to r/CarTalkUK, they used a capital R, which isn’t how it’s written on the platform, and Redditors noticed straight away.

Rhidian’s advice is to immerse yourself in Reddit or work with people who know it well. Reddit’s own team supported Škoda throughout, through PHD, helping it avoid rookie mistakes. You’ll also need a thick skin. Some comments will be rude, some will be very funny, and some will be both. If you’re genuinely adding value, Rhidian believes you’ll get there in the end.

Many brands think about Reddit in terms of an always-on presence. Škoda took a deliberately different approach. Once it felt it had nothing more of value to offer r/CarTalkUK, it stopped, rather than risk the community feeling used and wrung out.

The clearest example came about a year later. Škoda’s product team had to choose a handful of new Octavia colours from the factory’s options, and the obvious idea was to ask Reddit again. The team decided against it, because it would have been asking for help without offering anything back. Instead, it ran the vote through social and CRM with existing customers. Rhidian draws a useful line here: a vote that helps you make a decision isn’t adding value just because people get to take part.