TNT has created an animated character dubbed RaceBuddy to hype online content, including alternate camera angles, during its six NASCAR races this season.
RaceBuddy made his on-air debut during TNT’s coverage of the Pocono 500 last weekend. Sporting a TNT cap and sunglasses, the character appears on screen and quickly wheels out of sight driving an imaginary stock car. Four screens of the Mosaic View alternative camera angles of the race appear in his wake, while the announcers talk about the character and alert viewers to the online content.
“The people from the creative side thought there was room for something that would engage the audience,” said Jenny Storms, TNT senior vice president of marketing. “It’s a marketer’s dream.”
So far, it’s paying off: TNT served up 700,000 streams of the alternative camera angles at http://www.nascar.com/tnt during the Pocono race, according to Storms. Its online audience peaked at 65,000 streams for a pit road camera view during the six races it carried last year.
In addition to the pit road cam, the network is offering fans a “battle cam” view of the most heated competition between drivers during the race, a ‘race robo’ view of alternative angles around the track and an ‘in-car cam.’ NASCAR Web surfers vote for the in-car view of the driver they want to see, with the driver changing every 50 laps. Fans can select one view, or watch all four on their laptop screens simultaneously.
At Pocono, they chose from the 12 drivers in the Coca-Cola team. Coke Zero and Subway are sponsoring the online video.
Online options also include an “Ask the Booth” feature, with people submitting questions to the TNT commentators, a live chat room and polling during the races.
The overall objective is to engage NASCAR viewers more deeply. Storms said NASCAR fans tend to be tech-savvy types across all demographics.
In addition to the character’s on-air cameos, TNT is building awareness by distributing RaceBuddy fans to NASCAR fans at the tracks. TNT camera crews at Pocono wore T-shirts with RaceBuddy on the front and the TNT race schedule on the back. They’ll be wearing them again at the Lifelock 400 in Michigan next weekend.
TNT is also drawing people into NASCAR community pages built around the RaceBuddy character.
“People are attaching themselves to the character,” Storms said.
TNT’s NASCAR carriage deal runs through 2014. Turner Sports holds NASCAR interactive rights, so its NASCAR video streams will doubtless keep pace during its six races each season.
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