Kolby Garrison is an avid fan who follows the ins and outs of one of the most immersive sports in the world, NASCAR. The only thing that separates her from other avid NASCAR fans is her unique perspective of being blind. We wanted to explain how NASCAR is brought to life from Kolby’s vivid point of view. Having the experience of being in a 3,600-pound stock car and feeling the g-forces in the corners on track is an integral part of understanding NASCAR. Although Kolby was born blind and has never seen a race car, she has the opportunity to be a co-pilot for a day and gets to feel, hear and smell first-hand, what it's like as a driver. This ride-along is part of the four-part series to illustrate how she experiences the sport. Our goal was to capture the spirit of Kolby and demonstrate how NASCAR is a sport for all.
This series showcases the individuality of our NASCAR fanbase. We have a wide variety of NASCAR fans that are dedicated to the sport no matter what their circumstances are in life, and Kolby is just one instance of that. Understanding her perspective of a sport that she lovesappeals to the humanity of the viewers who watch the series. The way Kolby describes each part of the sport is a different level that fans and even drivers would never have thought about. Her vivid details help the audience immerse themselves into her point of view. We additionally created a separate video element with audio description, which narrates visual elements for people who are blind or have low vision. Additionally, we presented and distributed the content in multiple ways — longform versions on YouTube/Facebook and shorter, snappier clips across Twitter/Instagram/TikTok. Our goal: To meet the fans where they are.
The feedback from multiple media platforms and fans was extremely positive. With the promotion from NASCAR’S social platforms and NBC’s promotion during the race broadcast, Vivid reached a wide audience that may not have known about the series. All told, the series was watched for more than 275,000 minutes and received 3 million impressions on our platforms and recognized by millions more during its mention of the racing broadcast. Featuring more human-interest pieces shows that the racing product brings individual stories like Kolby’s to the limelight. There are so many stories just like Kolby’s where we can aim to become our best storytellers and better individuals overall. This inspires us not only creatively in the content space, but it inspires us as a league to ensure NASCAR is for everyone.
