Driving social numbers for a great cause!

In partnership with the Chase Elliott Foundation, NAPA AUTO PARTS, the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) and The Braves, an annual initiative called "DESI9N TO DRIVE" took place to make a difference on and off the track.

In 2021, various patients from CHOA were able to design all parts of NASCAR Cup Driver Chase Elliott's No. 9 Chevy and race day gear including his firesuit, shoes, helmet, gloves and hat. Along with this, shoes for all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers were designed by patients that they would wear on race day at Darlington Raceway and later be auctioned off to raise money for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Raising over $35,000 for CHOA, the special gear made a statement on the track and helped an incredible cause.

To help make a splash on socials and make sure the entire industry and fans got in on this initiative, various pieces of content were pushed out between all parties involved. The car was unveiled, the auction was supported, and the waterworks flowed when the cancer patients got to join Chase Elliott for race day at Darlington and later for a special "Chase Elliott Night" with MLB Braves.

For this initiative specifically, I planned and posted all content on Hendrick Motorsports' social channels from the car unveil all the way through the race and auction. Working closely with all partners involved, I not only made sure that NAPA got great exposure in our content for being a large part of this effort, but that the special patients were showcased and the auction was heavily promoted to help the cause. I captured and created many pieces of content throughout the initiative including photos of all the gear, photos of the showcar, an Instagram reel showcasing the shoes up for auction and content of the car loading up for the race that both our channels and NAPA's channels utilized. I also took part in a team production day in which we interviewed Chase Elliott on the program to gather his personal thoughts via video, later used for social content.

While I did not attend the race or The Braves baseball game (click here for Twitter thread), content was distributed to me that I then posted in a timely manner to create in-the-moment coverage that fans could be a part of online. This content was used heavily on our Instagram stories and Twitter feed as it was happening and also was used later on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To be sure that I was able to tell the story well, I created shot lists of photos of video requests. Along with this, all content utilized the #DESI9NTODRIVE hashtag and tagged all parties involved so it could be discovered by others in the social space who may not have already been following us.

The top three tweets on Twitter in terms of impressions included the following:

The top three posts on Facebook in terms of impressions included the following:

The top three posts on Instagram in terms of impressions included the following: