As the contestants landed in Haida Gwaii this week for Episode 5, #FirstNationsSensations Joel and Ashley looked poised to continue their run of being the most popular team on Twitter.
And they didn’t disappoint…that much.
While they still earned the most mentions on Twitter the day of the episode, their share of voice dropped for the second straight week, from 35 per cent two weeks ago, to 28 last week, to 25 for the most recent show.
The pundits (read: us) predicted that they would receive a significant boost due to the Aboriginal connection ━ with the episode focusing on Haida Gwaii, with its massive indigenous population, it was thought that the Enoch Cree Joel and Ashley would earn some increased attention ━ but that simply didn’t happen, at least as far as share of voice goes.
It just goes to show that it pays to monitor, because social media can always surprise you.
One major reason behind the drop is that there was very little Twitter chatter from local accounts. As we’ve shown in the past, oftentimes it’s the city or region showcased in the episode that drives the conversation ━ this time, not a single tweet originated from the islands. To put that in perspective, some people tweeted about the show from Virginia. And India.
Haida Gwaii Tourism may have missed a big opportunity to engage with viewers during the show, with no tweets about the Amazing Race Canada coming to its shores. As well, mentions of its handle were eclipsed by those of @TourismHamilton. Even Vancouver, B.C’s biggest city and provincial cousin of Haida Gwaii, could only muster a handful of ARC-related tweets, being outdone by Ottawa, Hamilton (the site of next week’s episode), and Toronto (which, thanks to its massive population, typically talks the most).
But this type of thing has happened before. In Season 3, the show spent Episode 5 on the Magdalen Islands, a place not unlike Haida Gwaii in that both are breathtakingly beautiful but both boast minuscule populations.
At the end of that episode, it was announced that the teams would be racing to Sudbury next. And do you know what happened? Tweets from that northern Ontario city started rolling in. The civic pride of Sudburians, combined of course with their strength in numbers, resulted in much greater Twitter engagement than that from the Magdalen Islanders, despite the show having not even arrived in town!
This year, Hamiltonians, like their Sudbury counterparts, are excited to show off their city, and it’s no surprise that they’re already talking about it ━ after all, history sure does love to repeat itself.
- Joel & Ashley (4th) – 25.0% DOWN 2.7%
Joel Ground (@JoelGround / @Joel_and_Ashley), Ashley Callingbull (@ashcallingbull / @Joel_and_Ashley) - Steph & Kristen (1st) – 22.0% UP 8.5%
Steph LeClair (@sleclair09) / Kristen McKenzie (@krlstenmckenzie) - Jillian & Emmett (2nd) – 16.9% DOWN 6.9%
Jillian MacLaughlin (@JillianMacLaugh) / Emmett Blois (@EmmettBlois) - Julie & Lowell (6th) – 16.1% UP 5.5%
Julie Taylor (@JulieLowellCAN) / Lowell Taylor (@JulieLowellCAN) - Frankie & Amy (3rd) – 10.9% UP 4.9%
Frankie Gassler (@FrankieFenix74) / Amy Gassler (@amygassler) - Kelly & Kate (7th Eliminated) – 5.4% DOWN 7.1%
Kelly Xu (@kelly_kateTO) / Kate Pan (@kelly_kateTO) - Rita & Yvette (5th) – 3.7% UP 1.6%
Rita Yakibonge (@ritayakis) / Yvette Yakibonge (@yyakis)
