Turning a Broadcast Sport into a Digital-First Sport
In Q3 2018, DRL’s contract with ESPN was a few months away from expiration, and the company was struggling to generate the quality social following numbers it needed. We needed to develop a new model of content for a digital-first fan, and pivot our investment to where our audience actually was spending their time. I was tasked with figuring out how to make our Season 3 content compelling for digital, with a run-time that would help rack up the major audience numbers the company needed to pitch and sell further digital distribution. The result was a 3 hour supercut of each Final of the 2018 season, heavily reduced and simplified for a short attention-span, mobile first audience. The footage was edited down to remove extraneous commentator information. Custom written titles accompanied the racing, helping to educate audiences on an otherwise confusing sport. Finally, animated countdown clocks were also developed to keep a short-attention span audience focused on the next upcoming race. The content netted 6MM views on Facebook, with 3X view length & engagement rates vs. an average DRL post.
FULL SEASON 3 FACEBOOK LIVE EDIT
The success of the Season 3 edit led to a multi-year deal to develop a live show on Twitter. The 2019 season was simultaneously broadcast live on NBC with a broadcast-audience focused edit, while an “extended cut” was streamed on Twitter, further leveraging the titles, countdowns, and behind-the-scenes pilot personas. We additionally developed a custom IP “Twitter Pre-Show” featuring DRL Pros taking audiences on a detailed course tour walk through and backstage at each venue. The Twitter season was 32 hours in total, netting over 50MM views, resulting in Twitter renewing their contract with DRL for the 2020 season.
2019 SEASON 4 EPISODE 5 WITH PRE-SHOW