This week’s episode of the Amazing Race Canada (Season 4, Episode 6) saw contestants fly Air Canada from Haida Gwaii to Vancouver International Airport (YVR) and straight to John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport (YHM).
As predicted in last week’s Episode 5 blog posting, there would be uptick in social media activity in the show. This week saw a 13.8% increase in Twitter activity, which is not surprising, since it was also predicted that hometown pride would prompt many residents from Hamilton to flock to Twitter to promote their own city.
So cool watching @AmazingRaceCDA & seeing my hometown. Thx for making Hamilton look as beautiful to others as we locals believe it is
— Rhonda Moore (@karatemummy) August 3, 2016
In fact, like Season 3, Episode 6, where the residents of Sudbury were the overwhlemingly most vocal on Twitter, Hamilton was number one this week and was the reason for the increase in Twitter activity.
The No. 1 task that was mentioned on social media was that which took place at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. Viewers loved the task of contestants flying the Second World War-era Chipmunk.Another interesting statistic: in the past 4 years of tracking the Amazing Race Canada, this is the first time the Twitter activity increased after the August Civic Holiday, which is observed in most Canadian provinces.
#AmazingRaceCanada #racecda has the coolest challenges!!! First the gondola now the airplane! #healous
— Rick Alyea (@Babiez24) August 3, 2016
What also helped the popularity of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum was the fact that the museum engaged with contestants on Twitter. Other than the Amazing Race Canada Twitter account (@AmazingRaceCDA), the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum account (@cwhm) had the second-most retweets.
Thanks @AmazingRaceCDA for visiting @CWHM in tonight’s episode. It was great seeing everyone! #AmazingRaceCanada pic.twitter.com/A8IKV6SDCD
— CWH Museum (@CWHM) August 3, 2016
Keeping with this line of thought, other than the Amazing Race Canada Twitter account, the Mountain Equipment Co-op account (@MEC) received the most retweets during Episode 6, from tweets such as their ongoing contest and product placements.
Got the travel bug from @AmazingRaceCDA? Enter to win $5000 in gear! https://t.co/BSUJWHh8Rg #AmazingRaceCanada pic.twitter.com/XBV6Sc96aq
— MEC (@mec) August 3, 2016
Here’s the @mec gear that made it on the show >> https://t.co/J3V6TLQVOH @AmazingRaceCDA #AmazingRaceCanada pic.twitter.com/hgHvDPe4w1
— MEC (@mec) August 3, 2016
Honorable mention goes to creating beer labels at the Collective Arts Brewing, which, like both Mountain Equipment Co-op and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, also engaged on Twitter; doing so helped make their event the third-most tweeted challenge.
Happening at 8PM: come watch #AmazingRaceCanada with us as contestants race through #HamOnt– we’ve got lots of beer pic.twitter.com/brscRtgfoN
— Collective Arts Beer (@CollectiveBrew) August 2, 2016
As for the contestants, leg winners Steph LeClair and Kristen McKenzie replaced last week’s most tweeted team, Joel Ground and Ashley Callingbull, as the most popular team for Episode 6.
- Steph & Kristen (1st) – 29.8% UP 7.8%
Steph LeClair (@sleclair09) / Kristen McKenzie (@krlstenmckenzie) - Joel & Ashley (6th) – 27.1% UP 2.1%
Joel Ground (@JoelGround / @Joel_and_Ashley), Ashley Callingbull (@ashcallingbull / @Joel_and_Ashley) - Julie & Lowell (3rd) – 17.2% UP 2.1%
Julie Taylor (@JulieLowellCAN) / Lowell Taylor (@JulieLowellCAN) - Jillian & Emmett (2nd) – 9.8% DOWN 7.1%
Jillian MacLaughlin (@JillianMacLaugh) / Emmett Blois (@EmmettBlois) - Frankie & Amy (5th) – 9.7% DOWN 1.2%
Frankie Gassler (@FrankieFenix74) / Amy Gassler (@amygassler) - Rita & Yvette (4th) – 3.7% UP 1.6%
Rita Yakibonge (@ritayakis) / Yvette Yakibonge (@yyakis)
This has also been a trend on the Amazing Race Canada – winning always helps with popularity.
This week’s episode was a non-elimination leg as racers now head to Kingston, Ontario by both GO and VIA Rail trains.
