MotoGP Grand Prix of Qatar 2023

After SMG’s successful work supporting the Lusail International Circuit for the 2021 and 2023 Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prixs, our company was again trusted by the Doha-based client to help manage its social channels and digital activations ahead of and during the 2023 MotoGP Grand Prix of Qatar.

As part of the brief, our team was tasked by Lusail International Circuit to provide content production, branding, and social media management support to help promote its hosting of the renowned motorcycle racing series in November 2023. While there was a large focus on pushing ticket sales, the client was also eager for all content shared across its social and digital channels to help further educate the regional audience and grow the popularity of two-wheeled motorsport in the Kingdom. They also wanted to showcase the many benefits of visiting Qatar to international audiences and potential visitors as part of the event promotion. 

As part of delivering on the brief set by the client, both SMG’s UK and MEA offices collaborated to ensure every piece of digital content was produced in both Arabic and English to ensure we could engage with each target audience in the most direct manner possible.

At the heart of the campaign strategy was SMG’s collaboration not only with Lusail International Circuit but also with key MotoGP stakeholders, like Dorna and Yamaha Monster Racing, to create and share content and leverage their audiences to increase awareness and build hype for the MotoGP race in Qatar.

Our quick-thinking digital staff identified a gap in the social media market – as it remains uncommon for MotoGP promoters to film content with the riders – and utilised their strong relationships with different teams, like MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi’s VR46 Racing team, to collaborate with them and film content from inside their garages to showcase the riders’ personalities.

The relationship cultivated between stakeholders and SMG’s social and content team also allowed for the smooth execution of highly engaging digital promotion, such as the ‘Desert Activation’ where Qatari rally legend Nasser Al Attiyah raced across the Sealine desert dunes in buggies alongside three stars of MotoGP Jorge Martin, Aleix Aspargo and Pedro Acosta. The content was shared across the Lusail International Circuit and the MotoGP social media channels, with the posts collectively receiving thousands of impressions online.

Our team also conceptualised, organised, and executed original and new content strands that helped set the Qatari promoter apart from other MotoGP hosts, including the ‘The Blind Track Challenge’ – a competition between Marc and Alex Marquez to draw the Lusail circuit with their eyes closed – and ‘The Arabic Challenge’ – where drivers quickly memorised how their name written in Arabic and tried to replicate it. Both of these ideas and videos were subsequently highlighted by Dorna as content it would like to see from its other promoters.

SMG’s digital team also collaborated with the well-known event host, presenter and commentator Michael Hill throughout the race week, creating and sharing social video content of him working across the three days of the event and producing a ‘Day in the Life of a Presenter at the Qatar MotoGP’ segment which was very well received by audiences.

It was also important to the client to encourage the Qatari youth to develop their growing interest in motorsports. With this in mind, SMG ideated and oversaw the ‘Junior Reporter Initiative’, where three children were invited to the circuit to act as reporters and help Michael Hill recount the events of each day across the race weekend. They were also invited into the garage to meet MotoGP rider, Fabio Quartararo, for a fun chat and photo session on his bike.

This particular Instagram post with Fabio Quartararo was one of the most successful posts in the history of the Lusail International Circuit’s channel, generating over 18,600 likes.

Overall, SMG’s digital team produced more than 220 pieces of content which were shared across all of Lusail International Circuit’s social platforms, and led to over 162,000 engagements as well as a 2396% growth in fans on TikTok and a 45% growth in followership on Instagram between July and the end of November 2023.

Furthermore, the client’s social media coverage in November saw the single highest monthly audience growth in the history of the circuit’s Instagram channel, with all MotoGP related videos viewed over 2 million times and gaining over 5.6 million impressions.