NASCAR has begun rolling out an expansive social media plan heading into this weekend’s Daytona 500 as the sanctioning body looks to drum up viewership for and engagement around the sport’s biggest race. NASCAR Managing Dir of Social Media Scott Warfield said his group had two overarching goals heading into the offseason -- build awareness and excitement for Daytona earlier in the offseason than it previously had, and help onboard new Cup Series title sponsor Monster Energy from a social media perspective. The social media group will have four staffers on site at Daytona this weekend as well as a few back at NASCAR’s Charlotte office who will help run point. Facebook will bring a 20-foot-by-20-foot display to tomorrow’s Daytona 500 Media Day at the track, a similar set-up to what it brought to this year’s CFP Media Day. Media personality Riki Rachtman will host the Facebook Live streams from a desk where he will rotate around 30 drivers onto the set for interviews. Warfield expects to end up with around four two-hour Facebook Live streams.
SNAP, CRACKLE, POP: NASCAR will have several Snapchat Live Stories this season, starting at this weekend’s race. It also is leveraging Snapchat’s new Spectacles device, which give viewers a unique first-person vantage point of someone shooting video with no hands via cameras inserted in specially made sunglasses. NASCAR has around four of the devices, and will look to get drivers to use them in certain ways such as showing them sliding into their cars. It also will have a social media team member in the flagstand for the start of the race, and could look to utilize Spectacles there. NASCAR has enlisted Xfinity Series driver Bubba Wallace to serve as a “correspondent” of sorts on Snapchat on Sunday. NASCAR on Snapchat also is utilizing multiple forms of art including stop motion content, which is like a digital version of a flip book where the user continuously taps the screen to see a scene play out.
THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: Other features across social media will be the return of NASCAR's Daytona 500-themed emoji on Twitter, as well as the continuation of the Daytona 500 Hour Countdown initiative. NASCAR deployed the countdown across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook starting 500 hours before the race (two weeks ago). Warfield cited data showing that from 40 posts across the three platforms utilized for the 500-hour countdown, NASCAR has earned 11 million combined impressions and 1.5 million video views. That includes an average of 850,000 Facebook impressions per post, up 18% compared to the average post this year. Digitally, NASCAR.com will also have a separate live stream of tomorrow’s media day.
