Fox Sports is trotting out a new social media initiative around the Daytona 500 that incorporates several social media sites devoted to motorsports with the network’s on-air programming.
Using the hashtag #MyFirst500, Fox Sports and the multichannel network GarageMonkey want fans to share their fondest memories of Daytona.
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Fox Sports and multichannel network GarageMonkey are asking fans to share their fondest memories of Daytona.
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Fox Sports took a minority equity interest in GarageMonkey in the middle of last year and even licensed its motorsports brand, Speed, to the company. GarageMonkey powered by Speed combines YouTube channels with social media and e-commerce platforms.
The Daytona 500 campaign marks the first big effort between the two and will involve Fox Spots 1 and its digital properties as well as GarageMonkey.com and the YouTube channels.
“The overriding vision on this to us is twofold. One is that it brings together all of the various pieces of GarageMonkey.com and Fox Sports,” said Joe Franzetta, one of GarageMonkey’s two founders. “The second point that I think is interesting is that traditional media companies have always focused on the one-to-many broadcast message, but we’re now able, through this structure and campaign, to have people telling us why the Daytona 500 is important to them. The engagement that we’re getting from people even with minimal promotion has been interesting.”
This is not Fox’s only social media campaign around the race. The network is working with NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway on a similar campaign called #Daytona500Moments, which is a voting campaign to come up with the top Daytona moment of all time. The most popular moment will be revealed on Fox Sports 1 on Thursday, ahead of this year’s Daytona 500 on Sunday.
For the #MyFirst500 campaign, Fox Sports and GarageMonkey plan to make money through traditional advertising
and sponsorships, both via digital and on Fox’s TV outlets. Eventually, Franzetta expects the company to set up a dual revenue stream as he grows its distribution.
“This is the first of many things that we’re going to do with Fox and others within the motorsports area,” Franzetta said. “It’s an example of how the media landscape is evolving and how traditional media companies can work with new media platforms and pull all these threads together so that new media and traditional media can play together and serve the audience in a much more comprehensive experience.”
Franzetta believes that TV networks are looking for the type of social media interaction that his company provides, especially in this environment of trying to develop second-screen applications.
“These big media companies are trying to bridge into this world where YouTube creators are aggregating big audiences,” he said. “YouTube creators are also trying to bridge the world into traditional media and how they can participate and be part of the larger media effort. We are bridging that gap, specifically in the automotive, motorcycle and racing space.”
