The Grand Tour Launches The True Top Gear Killer
Of all the talk about the television competition between The Grand Tour and Top Gear, the real war has just begun.
When The Grand Tour was announced, we all looked forward to seeing our favorite Top Gear presenters on TV again. There was open debate about which show will be better and even if Top Gear would survive. The truth is, the Top Gear empire is much more than a television show.
The multimedia universe that Tog Gear has built is quite impressive. There is the magazine, the website, the facebook and twitter accounts with millions of followers worldwide. Even if the show went away, much of that empire will remain. Now The Grand Tour has that in their sights. From first looks, this battle is very one sided for The Grand Tour.
When Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May announced the DriveTribe online presence, many were wondering what they had up their sleeves. The closer we got to the launch, the more mystery and even some confusion arose. Now that the curtain is off of the DriveTribes, a new world has opened up.
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I am far from an expert on what is going to be available from the site, but after a few days, I am beginning to see the genius behind it. It allows the stars of the show to interact with fans in a new and direct way we have not really seen before. The more interaction we as fans get from Jezza, the Hampster, and Captain Slow, the more entertainment we get.
It also allows fans of the show, and just car enthusiast in general, interact with each other around common themes. Instead of just throwing up a group of articles that you may or may not be interested in, you select your interests and interact with like-minded fans. The abundance of categories really narrows down interests to what the reader likes.
It was grown in a world where print media is dying and quick contact with readers is important. The occasional video message from The Grand Tour presenters almost feels like it is personalized. In formatting the DriveTribes the way they did, the user feels a part of the experience and empowered.
The Top Gear website is a just a reminder of the past. Most of the content stays to the same tried and true format. It is just an extension of the magazine, and people want more than that in 2017 and beyond. The Grand Tour in everything they have done, the DriveTribes might be the most influential of all.
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The dirty little secret of Top Gear’s popularity was the audience was actually quite old. For The Grand Tour to succeed, they needed to attract a younger audience. With the DriveTribes, they have tapped into a younger fanbase. Top Gear may not have been too afraid of the television product, their internet presence scares them to death.