If a jet dryer happens to explode on a race track again, NASCAR will now be better equipped to handle the social media fallout.
Monday, NASCAR will unveil its Fan and Media Engagement Center, a technology initiative that collects and aggregates what’s being said about it in both social and traditional media and disseminates that information to the proper channels.
The center, housed on the eighth floor of NASCAR’s executive office building in Charlotte, is believed to be the first of its kind in professional sports. While several sports have a hub for social media engagement, NASCAR touts the glass-encased, 500-square foot tech center as more than that.
“As data comes in, whether it’s social media, digital, traditional media, it might be a TV piece or something on the radio or something that’s print-related, it’ll help us understand what’s happening out there from a fan perspective or media perspective,” NASCAR chief marketing officer Steve Phelps said. “We’ll have an understanding of what’s being said about NASCAR, whether it’s negative or positive. It’ll be able to allow us to react in almost real time to what’s happening.”
From a social media standpoint, workers at the center could respond to a tweet from a single user or alert radio and TV broadcasters to a certain rule if there appears to be widespread confusion.
If a driver appears on a late-night talk show, the center will also compile media clippings and social media rumblings and send them to the driver’s public relations team.
The idea came to NASCAR CEO Brian France more than a year ago after he wanted a better look at the dialogue around the sport. After searching for a technology partner to turn this idea into reality, NASCAR picked Hewlett-Packard as its partner last spring.
The center, which is not open to the public, will be staffed by NASCAR’s integrative marketing communications staff
“The rest of the sports world will look at this,” said Charles Salameh, HP’s vice president of enterprise services for the Americas. “This implementation here shows the reality of big data is upon us and the technology is here to make it happen.”
More racing news, blogs, photos and more at www.ThatsRacin.com.
The Charlotte Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since charlotteobserver.com does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The Charlotte Observer.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
