MARSHALL PRUETT: Let’s talk about digital growth and strategies, because things appear to be paying off for IMSA. After overseeing your first full season in the role, what comes to mind as you look back on 2024 in terms of creating overall growth with the series’ digital footprint and winning over new fans?
DOUG O’DONNELL: Interacting directly with our fans on social media and in our live feeds has been educational. We started the year with a new vision focused on growing the fan base, and determining the most effective and efficient ways to accomplish that.
Obviously, our digital channels are critical. As we headed into the Rolex 24 last January, we were just starting to see our engagement grow. The content produced in the months leading up to the season kick-off primed our channels with high-quality new content that we didn’t typically have in prior years. What we saw was an uptick in traffic and engagement that proved what we knew was out there, pent-up demand.
When we produce something that’s relatable, educational, or has some real meat to it — like some of the technical explainers — the core fans engage and dive deep into those topics. And you can tell in the comments of those videos they’re thirsty for more. They’re vocal about it, like, “This is fantastic,” or “I’ve never heard this explained this deeply or this way before.”
On top of that, we’re letting IMSA show some personality, a less corporate aura, if you will. The obvious example that comes to mind is the ‘Chewbacca’ video with the Acura GTP car. Making content like that is fun because explaining why a particular car sounds like Chewbacca is actually very technical. But it’s done in a way that’s rewarding for hardcore fans, yet accessible and relatable for the newcomers we happily welcome.
What we saw is that people were discovering us. Even within the paddock, our teams and partners notice that, hey, IMSA’s doing some new things. Now, they’re asking us how they can get involved, too, with collaboration requests from teams and drivers. It’s exciting because they see the same pent-up demand we’ve observed.
On the opposite end, content like our Sights and Sounds videos deliver something that’s cinematic and beautiful and not pushing anything or selling anything. It’s a pure celebration of the sport that lets viewers tap into the emotion we all feel throughout a race weekend.
The comments on those videos are incredible, and they validate what we sensed was out there, which is the cars and the competition bringing people together. People from all different backgrounds love to experience auto racing and sports cars however they can, whether they can attend the event or only view it online. Many fans can’t come to a race in person, but they love to follow along and get a peek behind the scenes whenever and however they can, and we know it’s essential that we give them those opportunities.
MP: What metrics have really stood out to the you and been points of pride that you want to build on?
DO: The first metrics I always look at are engagement and watch-time because, put simply, they don’t lie. As we develop our content and digital strategies, we look for what people are willing to invest in. Engagements are effort, and if our audience takes time to stop and like something and comment or share it, that’s a touch point that they felt was meaningful to them during that moment with our brand.
For us to go from about 7.2 million engagements in 2023 to well over 18 million in 2024 (+150 percent) is a massive jump across our social media channels. And when you also look at the comments we see in our live streams, the chat is exceptionally positive, so much so that if anybody comes in and says some-thing negative, the community addresses it. We’ve created a safe, comfortable, and welcoming environment to talk about cars.
We see people coming in and asking what some enthusiasts might deem to be silly questions, but the vets and core longtime fans are happy to jump in and answer them. That’s how we get meaningful conversations going in our digital channels.
The same goes for our YouTube videos, whether it’s a produced series like Michelin’s Win the Weekend or our team’s behind-the-scenes content. Even our organic social media generates effusively positive comments. That’s rare in sports, where, unfortunately, you see lots of negativity like, “Fire the coach!” after every game.
We see fans mention the parts they loved and what they’d like to see more of. That gives us a lot to work with as we consider what to create and helps us maintain that authenticity that resonates with the audience.
MP: What have you been able to parse out that spurred the digital growth? Are there any specific factors of what IMSA puts on the track that you believe have been big drivers?
DO: It’s interesting. When we reviewed the data, we saw that in 2022 our earned media coverage was very high, leading into the GTP year. It was also very high in 2023 but didn’t quite reach as many mentions. And then we had a drop off in earned media coverage this year.
Conversely, growth in 2024 across all our other channels is very strong. I think that, to some extent, that’s due to our team’s creativity in leveraging organic short-form content. A great example of what I mean is an Instagram piece we did focusing on each GTP car and its signature sound.
It’s just a creative riff on many things we’re already doing, just in new ways that get a lot more engagement. Our ability to collaborate directly with teams, drivers, and tracks on platforms like Facebook and Instagram has allowed us to connect with and interact with fans in new ways. Honestly, just being open to these approaches has made a big difference. When (IMSA President) John Doonan and (IMSA CEO) Ed Bennett brought me onto the team here, they said, ‘we have a big opportunity for fan growth’.
Changing our communications strategy to be fan-facing, rather than focusing only on information like “This is what happened in the last race,” and “these are the point standings.” Switching to informational and educational content that is genuinely entertaining while introducing people to STEM topics in the context of racing has driven a lot of that engagement on our owned and shared platforms.
We saw that the demand for this content was there, and once we started delivering it, it seemed like everything we tried was just working. Fans were thirsty for it.