As part of Porsche’s return to LeMans, the team launched a social media competition to engage fans, reward their loyalty and commitment during the epic 24 hour race and to promote the brand.
Dubbed #24SocialRace, the competition comprised four different parts: Quality (tweeting high quality photos from Porsche’s gallery and getting them retweeted), Impact (Number of followers), Knowledge and Speed (answering quiz questions on Porsche in record time). A combination of all these means you and/or your team build up speed and finish ahead of everyone else. Fans could enter via their Twitter or Weibo (Chinese equivalent of Twitter) accounts.
It is encouraging to see more racing series beginning to adopt social media wholeheartedly in contrast to Formula1 which is still in denial about the part social media plays in augmenting the motorsport spectacle and the experience.
For instance, during the 24hours of LeMans and in the lead up to the race, @FIAWEC (twitter account for the World Endurance Championship) asked fans to tweet photos of the #BestSeatInTheHouse and @NISMO_Global Nissan’s Twitter used the hashtag #eatsleepRACErepeat to engage with fans on Twitter. Formula E has already disclosed plans to implement “Fan Boost” (at least in its inaugural year) which will see the driver with the most number of followers gain a few extra horsepower to assist in the race.
The winners of the first Porsche #24SocialRace @endexjoey and @ourReturn2014 spoke about the experience and what it meant to win their virtual version of the legendary 24 hour race.
BA: Do you follow any other motorsport series apart from World Endurance Championship and were you Porsche fans before the competition was launched?
@endexjoey: I am a big motorsport fan - I follow FIA WEC, Formula 1, WTCC, Tudor United Sportscar Championship, Blancpain Endurance Series, ADAC GT Masters, DTM and BTCC. And I am a big Porsche Fan too. In fact, this year Patrick (@OurReturn2014) and I went to the FIA WEC race in Spa (close to the south of the Netherlands where we live) to see the new Porsche 919 Hybrid race and it was awesome. So I instantly liked this competition when I saw it on Twitter and retweeted it to my friends too.