VH1 Boosts Social Efforts For New 'RuPaul's Drag Race’ Season

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70 bits of RuPaul content drive record views and engagement

RuPaul's Drag Race on VH1
Season 13 of 'RuPaul's Drag Race starts Jan. 1 on VH1 (Image credit: VH1)

For the season 13 launch of RuPaul’s Drag Race, VH1 has upped its social media.

Using Instagram reels, carousels and stories, TikTok duets, YouTube stories, shorts community posts and livestreams, Facebook video and stories, Twitter moments, fleets, threads, lists and video and stories and spotlights on Snapchat, VH1 garnered 29 million views with 13.8 million engagements.

The activity--70 different bits of content in all--was designed to drum up support for the new season and introduce the show’s crop of contestants. 

Season 13 starts Jan. 1.

Views are up 250% versus last year’s “RuVeal, and engagements are up 420%. A Meet the Queens YouTube livestream trended as No. 1 on the social video service. 

"RuPaul's Drag Race has among the most passionate and loyal fan bases of any franchise, and our team is focused on engaging that fandom on social all year long," said Rory Brown, head of digital for the MTV Entertainment Group. "2020 has been the year of short-form video, with the growth of Instagram Reels, TikTok, Twitter Fleets and more. For the season 13 RuVeal, we leaned into that trend with an emphasis on platform intentionality, creating 70 pieces of custom content designed for specific short-form placements. The response to that approach was overwhelmingly positive.”

Season 12 was RuPaul’s Drag Race’s highest-rated season, up 26% from season 11. It also won six Emmy Awards.

In season 13, “fabulous queens” will vie for the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar and a cash prize of $100,000, VH1 said.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.