The Africa Rally
The Africa Rally is an adventure travel company hosting charity motorsports events in Africa.
We started working with The Africa Rally in February 2023, just five months before the rally began in South Africa. With this in mind, we had a short time to deliver a comprehensive marketing strategy. Our efforts spanned multiple channels, starting with organic social media, where we crafted engaging content to build awareness and cultivate a vibrant online community around the event. To enhance visibility and reach, we also implemented paid advertising campaigns and press release distribution targeting key audiences across various platforms.
To ensure the effectiveness of these efforts, we prepared monthly reports for organic social media performance and weekly reports for paid advertising, offering valuable insights into campaign success and areas for improvement.
About The Africa Rally
The Africa Rally is an epic, off-the-beaten-path adventure that takes participants on an unforgettable journey across Africa. Starting from South Africa and finishing in Kenya, this thrilling rally covers diverse terrains, offering an unmatched experience of exploration and cultural immersion. With no set route or strict schedules, the Africa Rally encourages adventurers to embrace the freedom of the open road while discovering the beauty, challenges, and wonders of Africa. Perfect for thrill-seekers, this rally is not a race but a daring and adventurous way to see Africa.
Our goals for the project were as follows:
- Support Africa Rally in achieving 20+ new team sign-ups for the upcoming 2023 challenge.
- Using paid social media to target the desired audience with relevant content to increase initial interest and act as the primary lead generation source.
- Roll pit consistent and optimised organic social media content to help increase brand awareness and brand following will act as a secondary touchpoint.
- Secure relevant PR opportunities to help further increase brand awareness and recognition of the event and act as a tertiary touch point.
We started working with The Africa Rally in February 2023, just five months before the rally began in South Africa. With this in mind, we had a short time to deliver a comprehensive marketing strategy. Our efforts spanned multiple channels, starting with organic social media, where we crafted engaging content to build awareness and cultivate a vibrant online community around the event. To enhance visibility and reach, we also implemented paid advertising campaigns and press release distribution targeting key audiences across various platforms.
To ensure the effectiveness of these efforts, we prepared monthly reports for organic social media performance and weekly reports for paid advertising, offering valuable insights into campaign success and areas for improvement.
About The Africa Rally
The Africa Rally is an epic, off-the-beaten-path adventure that takes participants on an unforgettable journey across Africa. Starting from South Africa and finishing in Kenya, this thrilling rally covers diverse terrains, offering an unmatched experience of exploration and cultural immersion. With no set route or strict schedules, the Africa Rally encourages adventurers to embrace the freedom of the open road while discovering the beauty, challenges, and wonders of Africa. Perfect for thrill-seekers, this rally is not a race but a daring and adventurous way to see Africa.
Our goals for the project were as follows:
- Support Africa Rally in achieving 20+ new team sign-ups for the upcoming 2023 challenge.
- Using paid social media to target the desired audience with relevant content to increase initial interest and act as the primary lead generation source.
- Roll pit consistent and optimised organic social media content to help increase brand awareness and brand following will act as a secondary touchpoint.
- Secure relevant PR opportunities to help further increase brand awareness and recognition of the event and act as a tertiary touch point.
Organic Social Media:
We implemented a consistent posting schedule across Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, which delivered strong results. With access to an extensive image bank and the rally’s striking branding, we were able to effectively highlight the incredible adventures the Africa Rally offers. Our content strategy featured a mix of engaging calls to action, behind-the-scenes insights, FAQs, and a competition designed to boost audience engagement and interaction.
Competition:
Social Media Competitions are often a great way to increase brand awareness and engagement. For the Africa Rally, we were looking to encourage team sign-ups through a prize incentive. The competition ran throughout February and March 2023 on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. We curated a prize incentive relevant to the brand, plus a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that the Africa Rally followers would want to take advantage of - a helicopter ride over the iconic Victoria Falls. Please refer to the paid section to read more about the results.
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Influencers:
The primary goal of the Africa Rally was to build brand awareness, particularly following the launch of its adventure package in 2022. To establish itself as a trusted provider for both seasoned adventurers and novices, the rally needed to connect with its target audience meaningfully.
A key strategy in building this trust was leveraging the platforms of established adventure influencers who already had a dedicated following of thrill-seekers with similar interests. This approach allowed the rally to reach and resonate with a highly engaged audience.
We coordinated the research and outreach to a comprehensive list of influencers and generated great responses to the collaboration offer with Africa Rally. The highlight of the collaboration responses was from Abi at The Travel Lab, who produced a range of content from social media to newsletters. This resulted in both increased reach and impressions for their following of 13k on Instagram.
Video Content:
Through video content generated by the Africa Rally team, we could edit sixteen videos for the brand. They consisted of branded outros, promotional videos, and FAQ videos, all formatted for use across multiple platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Video content can often generate up to five times more engagement than still imagery on social media. This was a powerful tool to create brand awareness, capture the audience's attention and broaden Africa Rally’s reach.
Paid Social Media Activity:
We utilised a combination of paid advertising and boosted social media posts. Combining the two paid tools allowed us to maximise our reach and generate many impressions. Our strategy allowed us to identify peak periods for the Africa Rally social media platforms, meaning we could boost posts at the opportune moment, maximising our results.
Facebook:
On Facebook, our boosted posts performed exceptionally well, reaching up to 90,000 impressions with click-through rates as high as 8%, well above the typical average of 2-5%. The standout performer was a video post, which exceeded industry benchmarks, generating over 4,000 clicks!
Our paid ad campaigns succeeded similarly, generating over 100,000 impressions in just two weeks. The top-performing ad featured a static image of the Africa Rally route, along with a brief adventure description. To refine our approach, we created three campaign groups: general, competition, and university. The university campaign stood out, delivering the most substantial results. By targeting students interested in gap-year adventures, we resonated with this audience, achieving over 300,000 impressions and nearly 6,000 clicks. This tailored strategy paid off, making the university campaign the most successful of the three.
PR Activity:
Our PR activity for the Africa Rally involved extensive outreach to over 1,700 contacts, aiming to secure coverage and build strategic partnerships. As a result, the rally was featured in prominent publications like Highways Today and Free Car Mag, boosting visibility within relevant industries. We facilitated introductions to key figures such as Russell Higham, Malcolm Tattersall, and Hannah Gregory, opening doors for potential collaborations. Additionally, in preparation for the WTM event, we distributed a PR campaign to a leading marketing agency, ensuring the rally was highlighted in a public press release ahead of the event.
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Results (Four Month Period):
Instagram:
New Followers: 653
Total Impressions: 328,061
LinkedIn:
New Followers: 74
Total Impressions: 7,124
Facebook:
New Followers: 328
Total Impressions: 1,151,749
Conclusion:
In conclusion, our work with the Africa Rally successfully elevated the event’s visibility, engagement, and brand recognition across multiple platforms. Through organic social media, paid advertising, influencer partnerships, and strategic PR outreach, we effectively targeted key audiences and exceeded industry benchmarks in several areas. Our efforts not only increased impressions and clicks but also helped generate greater interest in team sign-ups for the 2023 challenge. By aligning our content, campaigns, and strategies with the rally's adventurous spirit, we ensured that Africa Rally positioned itself as a premier experience for thrill-seekers and explorers. The results of our holistic approach were precise, driving awareness and excitement around this epic journey across Africa.
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