Professional racing leagues around the world have screeched to a stop due to COVID-19 and are only just now beginning to experiment with how to return. With competitors and their rabid fans left in the dust, real world racers from F1 to NASCAR turned their heads away from the road, fixating instead on at-home screens and entered the virtual world of simulation racing videogames.
Our publisher friends at 505 Games highlighted these racers and more with a livestream showcase of the upcoming PlayStation 4 and Xbox One version of hyper-realistic racer Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC). We essentially served as the pit crew for the event, tasked with revving up interest and convincing media and fans to tune in.
With E3 cancelled and dozens of companies scrambling to build or join virtual replacement events, June became a minefield for timing this ACC livestream. We identified and tracked every event announcement to help 505 Games pick a date, with Sony’s looming PS5 reveal at the top of our minds. After some careful consideration and a few delays due to the current political climate, we settled on Tuesday, June 16 and got to drafting our media list and pitch.
Much of our pre-event research centered on vetting and expanding our reach with editors within motorsport, sim racing and esports press. ACC is part of a niche genre with a super rabid fanbase, so finding press that appealed to this community was absolutely crucial but something we have a ton of experience doing.
We drafted a pitch focused on what made the stream unique: a panel of world-class professional drivers David Perel, Bryan Heitkotter and pro racing coach Guy Cosmo discussing how ACC is a serious tool for training and even beginning a racing career. The pitch also offered a press-only Q&A session to make the stream more appealing to our targets. Needless to say, once we started our outreach, we immediately secured a ton of interest.
As such, we entered the stream confidently expecting solid press attendance. Once the event started, our targets signed into the private chat 505 Games set up and fired off dozens of questions throughout the live Q&A – smooth driving. We definitely burned a little rubber transcribing an entire 45-minute Q&A by hand immediately after the event too!
All said and done, we secured 14 North American media targets including motorsport/racing sim outlets GT Planet, Motor1, Motorsport, RaceSimCentral, Sim Racing Paddock and Vertical Scope! We also locked in event coverage from AutoGuide, GT Planet, RaceSimCentral and Prima Games, while taking down a ton of review interest in the process. A podium finish!
If you’re interested in checking out the stream yourself, you can watch it on the 505 Games’ YouTube channel here.