Americain Wins the Melbourne Cup and Takes the Lead in the Social Media Race
Yesterday marked the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s major thoroughbred horse race. Deemed The Race that Stops a Nation, the tradition captures national and worldwide attention as one of the premier horse races of the year.
This year’s race saw a major upset on the track as American-bred, French-trained and Australian-owned Americain won the Melbourne Cup, upsetting the favorite So You Think, which took third in the finish. Maluckyday captured the #2 spot to round out the podium.
Using Comscore’s Social Analytix™ service (powered by Radian6), we followed global activity across social media destinations (including social networks, blogs, discussion boards and video/image sharing sites) before and after the race to see how a real-time event such as the Melbourne Cup plays out in the social media landscape.
An analysis of social media mentions for the top three finishers throughout race day revealed that favorite So You Think carried the momentum into the event, comfortably leading the other two horses. Shortly following the 3:00 p.m. race time, mentions of the victorious Americain skyrocketed with smaller gains realized for both #2 finisher Maluckyday and #3 So You Think as social media activity closely reflected the race results.
The Race that Stops a Nation did not stop people from heading to their favorite social media channels to post on this year’s race and contenders.
With more and more people both in Australia and across the globe turning to social media outlets as a way to engage during real-time events, one can surmise that social media itself is becoming a national as well as global pastime in the digital age – odds are in its favor.