When you're driving a car in the 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans in western France, the only goal is to take the chequered flag. For the social media team that keeps racing fans informed, being first is also what you have to fight for.
"Speed is essential for us. Our main concern is to publish the images before everyone else, because if we don't, someone else will and then we'll lose a large part of our online audience," explains Erwan Gervais, multimedia coordinator for the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
That's why the motorsport organization decided to work with Yuzzit, live publishing software. "When I started working with the WEC in 2014," recalls Juliet Zhu, "publishing content for social networks was quite tedious.
Ms Zhu, WEC's community manager, details the cumbersome process. "Our official photographer positioned himself in the first corner after the start. He waited there for a few laps, because at the start, the peloton is still very compact, which makes for interesting images. Then he had to rush by bike to the newsroom, choose his photos and upload them. Then he e-mailed us and we had to download and edit them before posting them on Facebook or Twitter".
All in all, it took almost three quarters of an hour to get a few images of the start.
The WEC first tested Yuzzit in April 2016 at the 6 Hours of Silverstone. Since then, it has been a standard feature for the 9 endurance races it organizes around the world each season. Another solution provided by a competitor was tried out, but lacked functionality.
"We discovered the Yuzzit solution at a time when we wanted to increase our presence on social networks with gifs and short videos," says Jean-François Alard, CME's NTIC manager.
Motorsport enthusiasts want to see the starts, finishes and main highlights of a race, including spectacular overtakes and accidents. A typical video lasts 15 seconds, with the exception of on-track battles which can last up to 40 or 45 seconds.
"Viewers want to see battles, and when there's an accident, the ratings go up," says Alard. "But we have to be careful to strike the right balance between emotion for the fans and respect for the drivers."
Young motorsport fans don't just watch their favorite races on TV. "This is the multi-screen generation," explains Juliet Zhu. "They also have smartphones and iPads to follow the action. So we have to feed the social networks. We have to look for original content from pit lane or the paddocks."
For example, one of the WEC social network team's latest successes was the short video of a Porsche mechanic at Silverstone. As WEC regulations only allow two mechanics to change tires, he removes a wheel with one hand and puts the new one on with the other. The viral video, quickly produced with Yuzzit, generated hundreds of thousands of views.
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