More than the usual amount of last-second heavy lifting was required to put the July 2016 Future Cars issue to bed (stay tuned for that story). To recap: Tesla revealed its all-new $35,000 Model 3 at its design studio in Hawthorne on March 31. In less than 24 hours, our online feature on Model 3 rocketed to the No. 1 spot for the year in terms of page views—no April foolin’.
The tremendous response prompted photographer Brian Vance to wonder aloud at the next edit meeting, “What about Model 3 for the cover? Better yet, what about the car at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada with CEO Elon Musk?” We had been working on an exclusive on Aston Martin’s Red Bull hypercar concept, but negotiations stalled. Dare we try for an electrifying Tesla trifecta? It couldn’t hurt to ask, and after weeks of sweet-talking and harassing, Tesla PR gave the go-ahead for two outta three: Model 3 at the Gigafactory.
Go behind the scenes and see how our day went at the Gigafactory photo shoot HERE.
The only catch was our exclusive close-up with the Model 3 would have to take place just four days before we sent this issue to the printer. Challenge accepted, but we doubled down with an additional ask—a Model X SUV and refreshed Model S at the shoot, as well.
A team of six ventured eight hours north to Reno, Nevada, the biggest little city near Tesla’s ginormous Gigafactory. The mission: Capture as much content on Tesla’s three-vehicle lineup as possible in 10 hours and broadcast only the Model 3 shoot to our fans and followers online.
While shooters Vance, Robin Trajano, and Travis LaBella shot photos and video of the Model S and X, Motor Trend‘s new social media editor, Chris Bacarella, livestreamed, Instagrammed, and Snapchatted our time with the Model 3. I wrote quickie updates for the online story while Kim Reynolds took detailed notes for a deeper dive.
It was an exhausting day, complicated by high winds that kicked up blinding dust around the Gigafactory construction site, but I could not be happier with the results—immediate and long-term. We wrapped the shoot on a Thursday after sunset, toasted with Picons and sweetbreads at Louis’ Basque Corner in Reno, and woke the next day to find that our little blog was our new No. 1 story for the year. Over the weekend, retweets by Musk and sharing worldwide pushed our Model 3 exclusive past the 2 million view mark.
For all its success online, that breathless, up-to-the-second blog was illustrated with iPhone pictures, Snapchat screen grabs, and reposts of our Facebook livestream. We saved the very best shots from the real cameras for the feature HERE and the “Motor Trend Presents” video on our YouTube channel.
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My hope is that this deeper, long-form coverage is even more popular than what we blasted online and across social media, but whatever happens, I could not be prouder of the team on the giga-ground that made this all happen. And they could not have done it without the professionals supporting us at MT HQ. Hope you enjoy all of our teamwork.
More from Ed Loh:
- But Will You Love It?
- New Acura NSX or Used Ferrari 458?
- Can You Envision Chinese-Made Cars?
- Behold the All-New Motortrend.com
- Motor Trend Of The Year Awards: Behind the Scenes
The post All This S3X Stuff is Hard Work – The Lohdown appeared first on Motor Trend.
Source: Motor Trend
