Reaching the Media

/ BRAD KESELOWSKI

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Helped Brad Keselowski find a new way to speak to the media on his own terms
  • Used content to position Brad as one of the most thoughtful, compelling voices in NASCAR
  • Grew Brad’s social media following and enhanced his visibility inside/outside motorsports.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Helped Brad Keselowski find a new way to speak to the media on his own terms
  • Used content to position Brad as one of the most thoughtful, compelling voices in NASCAR
  • Grew Brad’s social media following and enhanced his visibility inside/outside motorsports.

We were already a year into working with championship NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski when he reached a point of sheer frustration with the media. He posted the following on Twitter to drive home how he was feeling:

“The funny thing about talking w/media-
Speak open/candidly & you are labeled young and immature.
Speak guarded, w/poise & you are labeld a coward or a fraud.
Wish I knew how to fix this…”
— @keselowski, August 28, 2013

For Brad, his media issues presented a real dilemma. Despite his best intentions, media coverage always seemed to seize on his most sensational remarks, and it had a serious impact on the way he was perceived by fans and endorsement partners.

He needed a way of taking control of his message, and changing the conversation about himself in a substantive, consistent way.

The key was transformative social content.

At the start of our second season working with him, we launched a blog, giving him the voice he needed. The impact was immediate, and tremendous.

We were already a year into working with championship NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski when he reached a point of sheer frustration with the media. He posted the following on Twitter to drive home how he was feeling:

“The funny thing about talking w/media-
Speak open/candidly & you are labeled young and immature.
Speak guarded, w/poise & you are labeld a coward or a fraud.
Wish I knew how to fix this…”
— @keselowski, August 28, 2013

For Brad, his media issues presented a real dilemma. Despite his best intentions, media coverage always seemed to seize on his most sensational remarks, and it had a serious impact on the way he was perceived by fans and endorsement partners.

He needed a way of taking control of his message, and changing the conversation about himself in a substantive, consistent way.

The key was transformative social content.

At the start of our second season working with him, we launched a blog, giving him the voice he needed. The impact was immediate, and tremendous.

The new blog content accomplished several goals. It breathed new life into his social media following. The growth of his Twitter account had slowed to a trickle by 2013. But with the addition of the blog, Brad once again began picking up new followers, many of whom were excited at the insights they were gaining into his life on and off the track, and eagerly awaiting his next blog post.

Most significantly, the blog allowed Brad to build a new relationship with the media, giving him opportunity after opportunity to discuss areas of his life with reporters that might never have been explored in the context of racing.

In the seasons since we launched his blog, the media’s coverage of Brad has shifted in a noticeable, substantive way. As he explained to USA Today:

It’s unique and serves multiple purposes. It gave me an opportunity to be authentic to our fans and show them the same things. It gave me an opportunity, with some of the struggles going on in the media world, to fully tell my story. And not rely on different levels of journalism that might not have the interest in telling the full story that I want to tell.

And it works for the NASCAR media because they have the opportunity to take pieces from it and put it in their own stories. In that manner, I don’t feel like I’m undercutting the media because they’re getting more content at the end of the day. I think it’s one of those few situations in life, which I look for a lot, where everybody wins. And in that sense, I’m thrilled with how that’s turned out and somewhat shocked I was the first person to do an authentic blog in NASCAR as a driver, at least. Because it can be a very, very powerful tool.

Ready to Get Started?

The new blog content accomplished several goals. It breathed new life into his social media following. The growth of his Twitter account had slowed to a trickle by 2013. But with the addition of the blog, Brad once again began picking up new followers, many of whom were excited at the insights they were gaining into his life on and off the track, and eagerly awaiting his next blog post.

Most significantly, the blog allowed Brad to build a new relationship with the media, giving him opportunity after opportunity to discuss areas of his life with reporters that might never have been explored in the context of racing.

In the seasons since we launched his blog, the media’s coverage of Brad has shifted in a noticeable, substantive way. As he explained to USA Today:

It’s unique and serves multiple purposes. It gave me an opportunity to be authentic to our fans and show them the same things. It gave me an opportunity, with some of the struggles going on in the media world, to fully tell my story. And not rely on different levels of journalism that might not have the interest in telling the full story that I want to tell.

And it works for the NASCAR media because they have the opportunity to take pieces from it and put it in their own stories. In that manner, I don’t feel like I’m undercutting the media because they’re getting more content at the end of the day. I think it’s one of those few situations in life, which I look for a lot, where everybody wins. And in that sense, I’m thrilled with how that’s turned out and somewhat shocked I was the first person to do an authentic blog in NASCAR as a driver, at least. Because it can be a very, very powerful tool.

Ready to Get Started?