Driving Record Ratings By Colliding Gamers and NASCAR Drivers

We needed to attract new and younger viewers to the Daytona 500 on Fox Sports when year over year ratings had been steadily declining. So we set out to find a common connection between the young stars of NASCAR and the untapped younger audience we needed to tune-in.

Social media showed young NASCAR drivers loved video games when they weren’t on the track, and our proprietary Scout research revealed that younger potential NASCAR viewers loved gaming because of its adrenaline-inducing high intensity action.

So we paired two young charismatic NASCAR drivers Chase Elliot and Austin Dillon with the equally charismatic superstars of Fortnight—Nick Eh 30 and SypherPK. Chase Elliot and Austin Dillion came to the gamers’ turf first where they live streamed a game of Fortnight with Nick EH 30 and Sypher PK. Then we brought the gamers to the drivers’ world in Daytona, where Chase and Austin let Nick and Sypher accompany them on 200mph ridealongs on the track, where they live streamed on social to all of their fans.

When the green flag dropped on the 2020 Daytona 500 it was obvious our strategy of pairing these two parallel universes together was a success. Not only did we generate nearly 9MM impressions in earned media, our primary goal—M 18-34 viewership—doubled YOY (Nielsen nPower).