It’s Bristol Baby: Lessons from YouTube Community Takeover of Trackside Sampling

It’s Bristol Baby: Lessons from YouTube Community Takeover of Trackside Sampling

Do It Big Like the Colossus TV

It’s Bristol, baby. If you’re a longtime reader of NASCAR Pole Position and ROAR!, you know what to expect from us at the race, especially at blow out destinations like the Bristol Night Race. This is our opportunity to meet the readers face to face and send them home with a special swag bag.

But if you’ve never been to one of our events, allow me to set the scene.

Pictured above is what a typical Trackside Sampling event looks like from the crowd. These are the same featured partners who directly support the content in NASCAR Pole Position and ROAR!, so you know who to watch for on the banners. In just a moment it’d be your turn to get your own cool swag bag from these folks.

Make History Like Earnhardt and Labonte

But the 2019 Bristol Night Race was different. If you weren’t at the track this year, here’s what it looked like on Reddit:

 

Here’s what it looked like on Twitter:

This year was the first ever NASCAR YouTube Community Meetup, and they were gracious enough to host it at our Trackside Sampling event. It was historic not only because these co-hosts and frequent content collaborators have never met each other, but fans were treated to a lifetime opportunity to meet their favorite YouTubers, live and in person.

Eric Estepp (Out of the Groove), Danny B Talks, Black Flags Matter, Iceberg, Rusty Walrus, MDK, N2SC4R, S1apSh0es, and Sloppy Joe, among others, all showed up for a one-on-one meet-and-greet with the fans. Even fellow podcaster and social media star Corey LaJoie came out to meet fans, take photos, and sign autographs (oh, he’s also a NASCAR driver by the way 😄).

Put on a Clinic like Kyle Busch

We hear the same conventional wisdom you do. YouTube is the “future,” social media is how you reach the “next” generation. Unfortunately, that’s wrong. YouTube is happening now, social media content is reaching across generations right now.

NASCAR Pole Position partnered with Eric Estepp for Texas, and delivered incredible response for our own magazine. Since then, our partners (Permatex, Joe’s Kleen Products, Thera-Gesic, and more) have integrated YouTube and digital content creators into their campaign, seamlessly alongside their print features, car sponsorships, and track activations.

At Bristol, it was everything put together. Content creators from ROAR!, hosts of the podcasts, pro esports drivers, prominent social media creators, NASCAR Pole Position, and our partners came together to put on a show – this is how you tie it all together with NASCAR fans – print, digital, sampling, activations, and more coming together to drive the conversation.