As some of you know, I’m not only a motorsport photographer, but an Internet marketer that loves analytics. In a recent press release from World Endurance Championship (WEC) I read that the latest edition of Le Mans 24 hour race attracted 263 500 spectators, the biggest in the past 20 years. Here are some interesting statistics (and my pictures from 2014) that I got from WEC:
Spectators at the circuit
– 263 500 spectators at the circuit, 200 more than in 2014.
– 30 100 spectators at the first day’s practice (Wednesday 10th June), 56 000 the second (Thursday 11th June) 2,11% and 3,29% more respectively than last year.
– 23 000 spectators at the test day (Sunday 31st May).
Press
– 1 425 journalists (written press/radio/photographers/new medias) accredited (1 423 in 2014)
– The 1 425 journalists came from 42 different countries.
In France alone for the period 6-17 June there were 2 655 news items (this figure includes the articles published only in the written press and on internet), the equivalent in terms of space purchased of 12095180 €.
Television
– 1 240 TV personnel were present at the Le Mans 24 Hours including 500 mandated by the ACO to work on the production of TV images live for the application 24H Le Mans, official films and the Le Mans 24 Hours Web TV, 24H Inside.
– 94 teams of TV reporters were on the spot.
TV broadcasters
– 31 international television networks bought the rights to air the 2015 race (as many as in 2014).
– They covered 190 countries (as many as in 2014).
– This allowed 802 million potential TV viewers to follow the race.
– Eurosport: this year thanks to the Eurosport and Eurosport 2 channels 23 million TV viewers throughout Europe watched the Le Mans 24 Hours (22.3 million in 2014), which broadcast a total of 50 hours (45 in 2014).
– France Television: almost 4.2 million TV viewers followed the race on France 2 and France 3. On Saturday 13th June on France 2 going on air at 14h45 an average of 1.3 million viewers, watched the start, the best TV audience for the start of the Le Mans 24 Hours since 2011. On Sunday 14th June, going on air at 12h55 for the closing stages and the end of the race, France 3 attracted more than 1.1 million viewers.
Le Mans 24-Hours application
For the 83rd Le Mans 24 Hours the ACO updated its application devoted to the FIA World Endurance Championship to adapt it to the blue riband event of the season. The WEC / 24H Le Mans application was a roaring success and it was downloaded by 504 441 users in 206 different countries. Now that the Le Mans 24-Hours race is over, this application is again adapted so that it can be used to follow the remaining five rounds of the 2015 FIA WEC.
WebTV
– 2 500 000 live connections to follow the Web TV 24H Inside via the different connection channels,
– 800 000 connections were registered to watch the videos on request again,
– a total of 3 300 000 connections to see all the videos put on line on the different ACO channels.
Internet Sites
– The official internet site 24h-lemans.com registered 2 670 599 visitors from the test day till the end of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Social Networks
– 378 700 fans on Facebook on the 24 Heures du Mans ACO Official (322 000 in 2014), including 27 426 new fans during the Test Day period and the Le Mans 24-Hours week.
– 215 391 followers on the English and Twitter accounts (112 697 in 2014) including 21 350 new followers over the period.
– 322 353 tweets about the race.
– 125 Facebook posts.
– the ACO publications reached 8 millions people between 29th May and 15th June on Twitter and Facebook.
– The innovation on the social networks was the use of Periscope. 202 live videos were shot between 29th May and 15th June (500 000 likes).
