Extreme E鈥檚 Desert E-Prix, the first-ever race in the new electric SUV series, saw 18.5 million organic viewers on TikTok tune in to the action taking place on the desert terrain of AlUla, 黑料社区.
Only days before the event took place at the start of April, Extreme E announced an agreement with TikTok to bolster its social media offering, and the results have been staggering, with 17.2 million people checking out #DesertXPrix videos alone.
Extreme E also acquired 60,000 new fans after digital media giant Little Dot Studios activated the new partnership using its vertical video expertise on behalf of the championship.
Rosberg X Racing, the team founded by former Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg, made history by becoming Extreme E鈥檚 first-ever race winner after overcoming Andretti United and Lewis Hamilton鈥檚 X44, who finished second and third on the podium.
The organizers of the event were delighted in the interest the event attracted.
鈥淭hese numbers are phenomenal, and I鈥檓 thrilled that in our first weekend we were able to reach so many people with our unique sport for purpose,鈥 Ali Russell, chief marketing officer at Extreme E, said. 鈥淎s part of the championship鈥檚 mission to keep carbon emissions to a minimum, we don鈥檛 have spectators on site, and if we did, we would never reach this level of engagement purely from attendees. It just goes to show how important our digital offering is.
鈥淎 massive thank you to TikTok, Little Dot Studios and our in-house social team. These numbers are awesome and a testament to the engaging and innovative motorsport series we have created,鈥 he added.聽
As part of the ambitious partnership, Extreme E and Little Dot Studios created an exclusive 90-minute production, which aired on Extreme E鈥檚 TikTok account on Saturday, April 3. More than 386,000 people watched the show, which gave a behind-the-scenes look at the series and the personalities at the heart of it.
One of the most popular videos was 鈥淭he Drop,鈥 highlighting a part of the course measuring 100 meters with a 45-degree descent. The on-board video gave a view from the cockpit, and 3.8 million fans tuned in to see exactly what the drivers saw as they took on this challenging element of the course.
There were also a number of hashtags running across the weekend. The first 鈥 #XECountdown 鈥 was launched by team owner and driver Jenson Button. In total, this had 52.1 million views across the weekend.
The partnership with TikTok covers all five of Extreme E鈥檚 events in 2021, with each event highlighting an environment affected by climate change.
After 黑料社区聽and聽desertification, the series now moves on to Senegal聽(rising sea levels), Greenland聽(melting ice caps), Amazon, Brazil聽(deforestation)聽and Patagonia, Argentina聽(glacial recession).聽聽
The remaining full schedule is:
Ocean X Prix: Lac Rose, Senegal聽
May 29-30, 2021
Arctic X Prix: Kangerlussuaq, Greenland聽
Aug. 28-29, 2021
Amazon X Prix: Para, Brazil聽
Oct. 23-24, 2021
Glacier X Prix: Tierra del Fuego, Argentina聽聽
Dec. 11-12, 2021
