What happens when you combine the speed of Indy with the power of Cision? Real-time social media coverage of the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. We covered the full scope of the Memorial Day weekend event using our Cision Visible Intelligence and Cision PR Edition software.
First we started off our monitoring with a classic battle of the brands: Honda vs. Chevy. These two big-name car brands are the only ones you’ll see on the Indy 500 race track. The two brands had nearly equal representation on the track (only two more Hondas than Chevys), so we wanted to see if their share of voice would be the same off the track and online.
In traditional media, Chevrolet had a razor thin lead in share of voice leading up to the Indy 500, but Honda left Chevy in the dust when it came time to the actual race day. Honda had 61.1 percent of the total share of voice, leaving Chevy with 38.9 percent.
How did the two brands fair on social media? Honda smoked Chevy: 84.4 percent share of voice, compared to Chevy’s 15.6 percent.
Honda didn’t just leave Chevrolet in the dust; it also beat out Verizon, the namesake of the “Verizon Indycar Series.” Here’s a look at the top five Verizon Indycar Series brand partners with the largest share of voice on social media during the race (Chevrolet didn’t even make the top five!):
And what about all those brands with their logos all over the cars and drivers? How did they do in the media? According to Bloomberg, these brands spend a small fortune to have their names on that prime real estate.
The average cost of placing a logo on a car? That depends on where you want your name! On average, businesses can expect to spend $5 million to $9 million on a side pod placement, $1 million to $2 million on the front wing, $300,000 to $900,000 for the cockpit and tail sections, and $100,000 to $300,000 for a spot on the driver’s helmet.
Verizon wasn’t just beat out in share of voice by Honda, as mentioned above, but also by Penske when it came to share of voice among the brands with their logo on a driver/car. The top 10 brands were: Penske, Verizon, Coca-Cola, Firestone, Target, AERO, Arrow, Pirtek, Menards and Gas Monkey Energy.
We also saw another major event sponsor take the back seat when it came to musical performances. Miller Lite sponsored the “Miller Lite Carb Day,” which featured a performance by Journey. Despite this popular beverage brand sponsoring a major buzzworthy event, Miller Lite still couldn’t remain the number one beverage brand talked about at Indy. Red Bull beat out the two major beer brands among the social conversations at Indy 500.
Out of the major musical performances during the Indy 500, Darius Rucker outshined everyone with his performance of the national anthem, topped off with a patriotic flyover from the F-18E Superhornets piloted by the U.S. Navy.
Of course, the show stealer of the 100th running of the Indy 500 was 24-year-old Alexander Rossi, the California native and Indy 500 “rookie” who won this year’s race. Out of the more than 30 drivers on the track, we found that the top five mentioned were Alexander Rossi, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, Juan Pablo Montoya and Josef Newgarden.
Among the top five most mentioned drivers in the Indy 500 race, we can see the moment when conversation surrounding Alexander Rossi spiked. This can be attributed to Rossi crossing the finish line first.
So how can your brand take the lead? Don’t get left in the dust; Cision’s award-winning software can help you monitor where you and your competition stand in real time.
Image via Pixabay: 1
