AutoTrader and African Based Agency Liquorice Launch Twitter’s First-Ever Virtual Drag Race

AutoTrader has launched #COTYDragRace, Twitter’s first ever virtual drag race. The initiative was created in partnership with African digital agency Liquorice.

As sponsors of the WesBank Car of the Year (COTY) Awards, AutoTrader challenged Liquorice to amplify their involvement in the awards with an innovative campaign that not only got car enthusiasts supporting and voting for their favourite cars, but imagining what it would be like to drive them.

Says founder and CEO of Liquorice, Miles Murphy: “Our work with AutoTrader over the past four years had shown that their fans love to support their favourite new cars. So instead of getting them to just click ‘Like’ or ‘Retweet’, we wanted them to put a bit of virtual fuel behind the cars they love to get them to the finish line.”

AutoTrader CEO George Mienie said: "As the leading motoring marketplace in South Africa we are thrilled to have another digital first under our belt. The #COTYDragRace has allowed us to push the boundaries and create a truly interactive social media campaign that involves all of the finalists of COTY2017 and is totally controlled by our fans. Judging from the race results yesterday the campaign has been a great success."

At specific times during the course of Wednesday, 15 March, users can go online to cotydragrace.liqnet.co.za where two cars from the Car of the Year final will be pitted against each other in a virtual drag race. To get their car ahead, fans can tweet their support with the relevant hashtag. The more you tweet, the more chance your car will end up winning and going into the next round. Preliminary rounds took place yesterday, with #COTYDragRace trending on Twitter.

Fans can follow @AutoTraderSA on Twitter to get notifications of when races are starting and news on all the drag race winners, including which finalists will really win at the Car of the Year Awards.