Creating an engaging race-day experience through social media.
Challenge
How we fostered a two-way engagement strategy to highlight the on-site experience and interact with fans ...on- and offline to amplify the once-in-a-lifetime experience of being at the World Center of Racing. We began with a foundation of data from each social channel to learn fan behavior and also how they interacted with existing content. We learned that there were already hundreds of mentions per day relating to the Speedway. While content was regularly generated and delivered, the audience wasn’t as engaged with the Daytona International Speedway channels as they were with racing in general. Our strategy called for a higher post frequency, a stronger use of visuals and content that delivered a behind-the-scenes experience not only to fans at home, but also to those at the Speedway.
Solution
While continuing to publish content on ticket sales and on-site check-ins, the social handles also began engaging with fans at every available opportunity, from answering questions to providing updates from pit road. We quickly saw the audience interacting more via general conversation, sharing photos and videos - knowing we would repackage and re-share with our larger audience. This resulted in a cycle of engagement loyalty that would be strong weeks after the events. During the 2014 Budweiser Speedweeks, SJ&P was tasked to increase fan engagement across all social channels, incite the fan base on-site at events and online to generate new fan content, and engage fans throughout their entire event experience.
Results
Multiple event hashtags were elevated to organic Twitter Trending Topics, including #Rolex24, which competed against #Grammys #Rolex24 reach increased by 416% and engaged users were up 900% year-over-year #DAYTONA500 garnered 1.1 Billion impressions during event weekend, a 122% increase year-over-year; reach was up by 33% year-over-year The @DISupdates handle increased followership by 34,243 in Q1, a 37% increase that surpassed 100,000 followers for the brand Instagrizzle Instagram followers more than doubled, increasing from less than 5,000 to 10,434 Facebook reach surpassed 25 Million during Budweiser Speedweeks, generating a 380% increase in Likes on posts and a 427% increase in fan engagement
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