SUCCESS STORIES

MotoGP Shifts Instagram Video Strategy to Succeed with Reels

December 17, 2020

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Dec. 17, 2020
“The performance of the content we publish for Reels clearly surpasses any other number we have ever achieved on Instagram, both in terms of video views and engagements. We can clearly see an increase on overall MotoGP Instagram engagement. No doubt Reels must have an impact on fans because we are appearing more in the Instagram Search & Explore section.”
–Gorka Llort, Digital Content Strategy Manager, Dorna Sports
Challenge
With the launch of Instagram’s new Reels video surface in August 2020, MotoGP quickly pivoted its Instagram video strategy to create short, entertaining clips that matched the format and style of the new offering. As the global rights holder of behind-the-scenes videos and archive footage from MotoGP races, the organization searched for clips that would work well with Reels, cutting them down to 15-30 seconds and adding graphics and music.
Strategy
Facebook spoke with the following members of the digital team at Dorna Sports, MotoGP’s parent company, to hear about their initial impressions of Reels and how they plan to iterate their Reels strategy moving forward.
  • Gorka Llort, digital content strategy manager
  • Sofía Peñil, social media coordinator
What attracted MotoGP to this new video surface?
“What made Reels really attractive to us is that we wanted to meet new audiences,” Peñil said. “With the Search & Explore section of Instagram, creating Reels that could go viral would then allow us to reach new people that might not consume MotoGP content otherwise. If they come across an exciting save or massive crash, they might get into the sport. We’re in the middle of a crazy season, so we’re trying to take all the viral moments that could attract other audiences and post them as Reels rather than as a Feed post.”
“We have a strong relationship with Facebook and Instagram, so any time there is a new feature or product, we’re keen to try it,” added Llort. “Once we learned about Reels, we thought we could create a lot of interesting content for the surface. We looked into our video archive to prepare for the launch date, and had ten Reels ready to go by then. It’s been a great match for us so far.”
What do Reels allow you to do that is new to your Instagram strategy (or your broader social strategy)?
“I’m pleased with the discoverability aspect, the ability to reach new audiences,” said Llort. “Also, Reels allow us to change our tone of voice a bit and make content that’s funnier.”
“It’s less formal for sure,” Peñil added. “We come from a more formal place usually, so it can be difficult to put out memes, but Reels allowed us to change our tone and the character of our posts. Most of our audience is young, so it’s a match there. We just created a MotoGP Facebook Group around memes a month and a half ago, and it already has more than 20,000 members.”
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How would you describe your experience with Reels these first few months? What content themes and posting cadence work best?
“We try to post at least one Reel per day,” Peñil said. “Most of it is timely content vs. archive content right now, since the MotoGP season is going on and we have plenty of material to create Reels. But if we need to, we use archive content as well, and really any other content we think could work. Essentially anything we think might go viral, instead of creating a normal video post for Feed, we now make as a Reel.”
“If we are going into a specific grand prix, and a crazy moment happened in that race four years ago, we’ll post it as a Reel,” added Llort. “They’re a great way to promote an upcoming race or track, and also recap key moments from previous races. The MotoGP season has two breaks, and these are the perfect time to post more generic archive Reels — like a ‘funniest moments’ or ‘craziest crashes’ compilation.”
How have your fans responded to Reels? Do you find your engagement metrics and view numbers differ compare to other types of content?
“Something we’ve focused on recently is trying to get our engagement rates higher across all Facebook and Instagram video surfaces, and with Reels, we find people are interacting more with other viewers,” said Llort. “When it comes to tagging friends, people don’t do it as much on our Feed posts vs. on Reels. Discoverability has something to do with it. Also, it’s the fact that what we post to Reels is more spectacular, more unique, more ‘viral’ — so more likely to be something you want to share. The way we edit our Reels, by adding music and fun graphics, using an engaging thumbnail image — it’s to make them more relatable. For example, creating a Reel with the title ‘ When it’s too early in the morning.’”
“Previously, if there was a crazy save in a race, within two hours or so afterwards, we’d post a Feed video on Instagram. Now, we do that with Reels, and fans are starting to know and expect this. The riders and teams are starting to learn this as well — some are even asking us, when a certain moment happens in a race, if they could use the footage to create a Reel for their own Instagram accounts. It’s pretty cool they’re picking up on our strategy.”
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Moving forward, how do you plan to continue using Reels to build your community? Anything new in the works?
“Reels came out in the middle of our season, which is a super busy time,” said Llort. “We’ve been adapting on the fly, but once the season is over, we’ll be able to really dig into the numbers and see how certain content topics and featured riders performed. So our approach won’t change really, but the content may change based on the data once we analyze deeper.”
“At the end of the day, what we are trying to foster everywhere is engagement. We know now what works well for Reels, so in-season we’ll keep promoting upcoming races and circuits and sharing quick highlights from recent races and practices. We’re also interested in working with our commercial sponsors on some branded content Reels. And finally, we want to keep learning more about who is viewing our Reels and how they’re discovering them — whether in Feed, Explore, etc. That type of data helps us continue creating the right content.”