Perhaps no sport offers a more immersive experience for fans than motor sports. It overwhelms the five senses; from the sound and rumble of the engines to the smell of burnt rubber and
high-octane racing fuel, the fan experience is wholly consuming.
As the green flag is about to fall on the 2013 season, motor sports continues to break ground on the digital
experience opportunities it offers fans, sponsors and those who make their careers pushing maximum velocity on race courses around the world.
The marketing behind motor sports
provides some of the best digital experiences in sports, with several factors driving web innovation ahead of the curve, no more pressing than the many sponsors who fund tracks, teams, media and
sanctioning bodies that host races. Well-designed digital experiences directly connect fans and sponsors through a number of methods, such as interactive graphics, social conversations, real-time
data, fantasy leagues, and sponsor-driven content and contests. These data-oriented web programs help fans follow their favorite drivers to create their own experience.
Telemetry and track data
Top motor sports sites are expected to carry real-time telemetry during the race. Beyond tracking laps and leaders, telemetry
tracks GPS positioning, lap and sector times, speed, RPMs, throttle and braking for every car on the track. In addition to telemetry, F1.com Live Timing delivers live
weather reporting, including track and air temperatures, air pressure and humidity levels, and wind speed and direction.
Multimedia
Websites can
aggregate and make audio and video feeds that are available across the facility, including live in-car cams, pit crew cams, two-way radio transmissions. While TV and radio broadcasts have little
opportunity to follow anything other than the race for the lead and top story lines, fans use second-screen media experiences to follow any or all of the racers.
In the stock
car racing world, NASCAR has cascaded many of the top in-demand digital experiences to its nationwide network of seven regional touring series. The NASCAR Home
Tracks sites collects video archives, integration of real-time social media and blog feeds, and full stats and standings within a consistent, branded site, helping elevate the prominence of the
many local racing venues at which NASCAR sanctions weekly short track racing.
Marketing
If you’re looking for ways to improve sponsorship
opportunities related to your franchise or venue, look to motor sports and the myriad of ways they engage scores of sponsors. Some brands are synonymous with their motor sports sponsorship.
A website redesign initiated a digital marketing transformation for the American Powerboat
Association, which is rapidly gaining insight about its growing membership through its cross-platform marketing efforts.
Sponsors gain greater visibility and connection with
powerboat fanatics across the web properties and social channels of the APBA, which even
moved its monthly magazine, Propeller, online as part of its new content strategy
after 76 years in print.
Digital brand campaigns targeting motor sports enthusiasts are pervasive across motor sports. Brands activate fans through social and web channels on
everything from direct-to-fan deals to fund-raising efforts for select charities. You might automatically think of brands like Mobil 1, where selling high performance products makes the obvious
sponsorship medium for brand promotion. Others campaigns, like NASCAR’s Green campaign, help the sports move the needle on public awareness on key social
and environmental issues.
Social
Integrating social collaboration is an imperative part of the second-screen experience in motor
sports. That became impossible to ignore during the 2012 Daytona 500, when racer Brad Keselowski tweeted from his parked race car mid-race during a red-flag delay and within a couple of hours picked
up more than 100,000 followers.
The creative team at Omnigon built a web platform to support Fox broadcasts of NASCAR
races. The platform captured team communications and social media threads from fans, dynamically featuring hot topics and most-discussed drivers while allowing fans to browse and select conversations
about whatever drivers they wanted to follow. Sites across auto racing deliver real-time fantasy standings and statistics, social conversations, and sponsor-driven activity.
The
immersive web experiences being created by the top motor sports leagues around the world are breaking ground for all sports and entertainment sites, providing a great footprint for engaging fans,
promoting sponsors and building passion for sports.