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Comments (0) 02.08.2010. 11:53
Building a Spectator Base for Women's Olympic Match Racing
With the 2012 Olympics just around the corner and Women's Match Racing making its Olympic debut in London, supporters of the discipline have much to do. Make no mistake, just waiting to see if the event airs primetime on US networks and then watching the event will accomplish nothing, and may, in fact, damage the chance of the event recurring at another Olympics. Simply, we need to be proactive in order to keep Women's Olympic Match Racing from being a one-off event. What is absolutely essential is the building of a spectator base for the discipline. There needs to be a HUGE fan base, and those who matter at the networks and ISAF and the IOC need to SEE that huge fan base so that the popularity of the sport is unmistakable!
Where sailing organizations and yacht clubs have erred in their marketing efforts is that they seem to think that other sailors are the only important target audience. I wonder how successful Happy Meals would be if McDonald's would've only targeted parents in their ad campaigns (since the parents are the ones paying for Happy Meals). We have to appeal to a broader demographic, teach the world about match racing, about the simplicity of its course and laps, the complexity of its maneuvering, about its oftentimes close-to-shore proximity and subsequent spectator-friendliness. Once we've taught them, we can begin to get them excited. Get them hooked. To get them asking for Happy Meals.
There's an indirect effect of building this spectator base that is also essential to the sport, and that is the appeal of a large spectator base to potential sponsors. Big money sponsors want to get in front of as large a slice of the population as they can with their brand's identity. And so a large fan base is far more appealing. And ultimately attracts more participants AND viewers to the sport!
Who's responsible for building this spectator base? All of us. Any one of us who is passionate about the discipline needs to talk about it, write about it, blog about it. Yacht clubs, sailing centers and organizations need to market events by advertising them as broadly as possible, inviting the public at regional and local levels. After all, the idea is not just to market women's match racing or sail racing, but to build interest in the sport of sailing. The payoff will be worth it. It's from the new spectator base that we'll discover, train and watch new Olympians going for the gold in sailboats.
Bryon D. Zimmerman, CEO and Sailing Enthusiast
Comments (0) 15.04.2010. 09:45
The Return of Marketing
You may work for one of the seemingly hundreds of thousands of companies that cut back on their marketing and advertising investments in this less-than-convincing economy. And you may be able to cite a half-dozen good reasons why your company cut back. But the truth of the matter is, there really are no good reasons to let a tough economic situation dictate an interruption in your marketing plan for the year. What is more likely the case, is that you didn’t have a marketing plan for the year, and so it’s no big deal to cut back expenses there when budgets need to be tightened up.
What you might soon learn, though, is that your competition has a plan and they have kept faithful to the plan while you were cutting back and even putting yours on hiatus for a few months.
We’ve seen dozens of companies jumping back on the proverbial bandwagon in an effort to try to get their marketing initiatives fired back up, and they’re realizing that there’s lost ground to recapture. A lot of lost ground. And there’s lost momentum to regain. You may have been top-of-mind to your target audience before the economic downturn, but because you cut back so much, you opened the door for your competitors to get a shoe-in. Plus, because of your cut back in marketing, your target audience may have lost sight of you and now sees you as just a little bit weaker than before.
All in all, there’s much to do to get back on top of your marketing game. There may even be an image to re-craft and get back out in front of your target audience. With the tough year most business has experienced, it’s more important than ever for you and your company to instill confidence in your distribution channels. In your sales force. In your clients. And the most effective way to do so, is to promote the message that you’ve emerged from this lean economic time stronger than ever.
Bryon D. Zimmerman, CEO
Comments (0) 12.04.2010. 14:55