Extreme E appoints Telescope as audience engagement technology partner in support of its GridPlay initiative

Extreme E appoints Telescope as its official audience engagement technology partner

Extreme E has appointed Telescope as its official audience engagement technology partner in a deal that will see Telescope delivering unique voting solutions for the electric off-road racing series’ fan engagement initiative GridPlay.

GridPlay will be brought to life in 2021 by Telescope across the Extreme E website, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with similar plans to expand into streaming platform Twitch.

The initiative invites fans to vote for their favourite team, and the team with the most votes will be able to choose their spot on the grid. And for those that don’t make the final race, they can ‘gift’ their votes to their preferred opponent. The remainder of the grid is decided by points from the previous races that weekend.

Ali Russell, chief marketing officer at Extreme E, commented: “Telescope has a wealth of experience in the fan voting space having worked on a variety of high-profile projects including American Idol, NBA and E! People’s Choice Awards. The company has over 18 years experience and I’m delighted they are bringing its expertise to our championship.

“Extreme E is a youth-focussed sport and we are looking to engage a young audience in our product, so initiatives like fan voting are really important to get people on-board. We are also a digital first proposition as we won’t have spectators on event making it even more important to engage fans through both our website and digital channels .”

Audience engagement specialist, Telescope, works with media businesses and brands to make their content more fan friendly. The company has worked with Formula E for over 6 years to deliver its FanBoost product, the only event in the world that lets fans play an active role in influencing the outcome of the race.

Kevin Brown, managing director at Telescope, added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to embrace this incredible new sport. There is nothing like it out there and we’re looking forward to bringing our unique audience engagement technology and insights to what is set to be an exhilarating new race format.”

Extreme E is set to go racing in March 2021 in five locations already affected by the climate crisis, with the aim of using its sport to raise awareness of environmental issues.