Promoting events to a wide, diverse audience

Rodeo has in the past been known as strictly a southern and western United States sport. In the past 20 years though, due to many different factors, rodeo has slowly begun to not be such a regionalized sport. Now although the strongest roots for the sport still lie in the old west strong fan bases have been built both nationally and internationally.

The best example of this would have to be the Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series tour. This tour lands in about 30 U.S. cities throughout a calendar year. They make the obvious stops, 2 times each in Texas and Oklahoma. But what some would be surprised to know is that one of the major events each year is at Madison Square Garden, and yes the one in the heart of New York City. They also travel all over New England, with stops in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan and Ohio. Now those states do not seem to be the heart of rodeo country but these events are constant bestsellers of the tour. By airing all events on an international television network the PBR develops a fan base of all walks of life. Also by airing all events in a season, they allow for the sport to unfold like a television drama, allowing fans everywhere to want to tune in and see the show live as much as possible.

This causes a need for public relations to be dependent on a local focus.

The truth of the matter is there are people everywhere who want to hear your message and see the sport of rodeo. I am a perfect example of this. I was born and raised until age 13 in the suburbs of Connecticut. Not exactly where you would expect to see a dedicated and knowledgeable rodeo fan to come from. This misconception comes from making stereotypical judgements based upon where someone lives. What most people don't know about Connecticut is that has a very large rural population, but all that comes to peoples mind is the rich, country club suburbia population. I spent a lot of my free time as a child going to county fairs on the weekends, not a far stretch from what I do today in Texas. Now rodeo was not a part of those fairs as they are in Texas, but there was a common element: both are deep rooted in a passion for animals and the outdoors. I believe that this is what would play a key factor in marketing an event in the New England area. Living in New England, where the weather is always nice, being outdoors was something enjoyed most of the year. Why not market an event in the Spring, Summer or Fall season to New Englanders as a way to enjoy the outdoors and have a fun new form of entertainment to enjoy.

Just knowing all aspects of where the event is being promoted can help so much. Another good example is to think big, in some states, just because the events physical address is in one state, does not mean that you can only market to that state. Look again at New England and Connecticut. On a good day one can travel the whole width of Connecticut in 1-2 hours time. This means that if your event is in a smaller state like that, or within reasonable travel time from another state, think big and market outside the state. I believe it or not have seen this be done here in Texas as well. For the Iron Cowboy in Arlington, Texas, the PBR had a sponsorship deal with a casino in Oklahoma. The casino was an hour and a half away from the arena, and was the host hotel accommodations for the event. The night before the casino hosted an event with the contestants and fans gaining fans from both Texas and Oklahoma. I personally made the drive from San Antonio, in south Texas, to the casino just past the state line in Oklahoma. I believe it or not, actually met people who had made the trip from similar distances to come to the event. With this event you had a chance to run into casino guests, who may not be fans of rodeo or bull riding, and sell the event to them.

So when you are doing public relations for a diverse audience, just remember that the sky is the limit and look at what aspect the people you are promoting to would care about.

Promoting Large Events

This past weekend the Professional Bull Riders Inc. hosted an Olympic-style competion that was met with mixed reviews. Upon reading comments from fans on stories posted about the event I saw a surprising amount of negative feedback. The main concern being the time at which the event aired. Due to contractual obligations that the network airing the event had with another sport organizaiton the airing of the event was postponed to eastern standard time.

The main mistake here was not thinking about the audience of the event. Fans of the PBR are mainly men and women in their late 20s or above. Most of these people have been working all day and just do not wish to stay up to such a late hour to see an event. This weekend the PBR is battling the contractual obligations again but this time is dealing with it in a better way by airing the event in the late afternoon.
Another issue that I noticed was a lack of interest in the event. For the past years of this event the schedule has been relatively stable occuring in mid to late August. Due to scheduling issues the event had to be pushed up months. This upset the majority of the fans who live in the United States because the short notice made it impossible for many of them to work the event into their work schedules. This caused many of them to just be not excited about the event in general and also returned many negative reviews.
One last review that I had seen, and from a public relations standpoint would have to disagree with, is the comments saying things to the effect of "why should I care about this event?" As public relations specialist we look for that new exciting angle and take off running when it comes our way. The general public in this day and age are concerned with the issue of "what makes this so special that I should spend my time or money on it?" The answer in this siutation is: This kind of event only happens once a year and it is the only chance in the sport of bull riding for the riders to compete for something larger than themselves: a team and their country. This year the PBR lost sight of that and went off the angle of drama. Drama sells, but you can only push the limit so much before the audience pushes back and rejects you. This year there was a lot of speculation on who was going to make the team for the two most competitive teams of the events past three years. Both team captains were constantly making public declarations that they would not hesitate to cut some fan favorite from the team if they were not performing. This lead to most of the discussion of the event to be over who made the team, as opposed to what it should have been about, the competition. Hype can take you so far, but you need to be able to draw back and not lose sight of what the event is really about.

If I had been in the public relations department when all this was occuring I would have been trying to keep these comments from taking over the commentary about the event. The best way to do this is to make sure that the people making these comments somehow always get back around to the team, national pride aspect of the event. Most of these comments were made in on-air telecasts. The best way to handle this is to talk to the broadcast team and tell them that if someone is going off on the hype too much reel them back in. The media, here the broadcasters and the writers, are on your team. They want to tell a story people want to hear about. At a certain point the audience is going to stop reading all these team speculations because they know something new will be said tomorrow that contradicts what is being read today. You need to work with the news. If you want to play the hype card have the media do a weekly team update. Have someone talk to the team captain and find out where there team is right now and what they are looking to do before the event.
The level of prestige the riders place on this event is amazing. The riders love getting to ride for something bigger than themselves, they want to ride for their friends and their country. This event is about something fans and riders alike can relate to and that is national pride. In the past years of the event the discussions and promotions had always been about that but this year got lost in all the hype.

So the message to take out of this discussion is that when promoting large events, don't get lost in the hype factor, always remember to pull it back to what makes the event special and the public relations will be set for success.

Networking

I was going to do in-depth posts into each area of rodeo public relations but this weekend showed me how you never know when networking opportunities can present themselves.

So this weekend I was at a bull riding event that occurs on a regular basis. The event is sponsored by a local country radio station that has very often paired up with local rodeo and bull riding organizations to promote events. I was there and one of the on-air personalities that is always there doing promotions approached me and introduced himself to me. He said that he had always seen us at the event and just wanted to say hi and introduce himself. Now just through that interaction I have made a very strong media contact for radio.

Networking is something that is very important in public relations. Without relationships with media outlets public relations is almost impossible. In today’s world e-mail has made it so easy to get contact information for media personnel. The results of this can be seen with the use of sites such as Media Atlas (www.mediatlas.prnewswire.com), which list contact information for media contacts nationwide.

With the development of these sites media are getting bombarded with e-mails and phone calls from people they don’ t know trying to get media coverage. The best way to get your clients coverage over the sea of other PR professionals trying to get coverage for their client is to have a name the media person recognizes.

Think about it in your eyes, when you read your own e-mail which are you more likely to take time to look at: an e-mail from an acquaintance, or one from some name you don’t recognize that is most likely just trying to sell you something. Most people are more likely to read e-mail from people that they have met. Just by having them know your name you increase your chances of getting media coverage.

So now the issue is to get the media to know your name. The best way to get in touch with the media is to be where they are. In rodeo the best way to do this is to attend major events and find the members of the media who are covering it. Or also in my situation go to events that are hosted by media outlets and introduce yourself. Another option is to use social media outlets such as Twitter. Twitter members often host local meet and greets called “Tweet ups” where you go somewhere and meet people you follow and network. Start following members of the media that may have interest in covering you clients and host a “tweet up” for all of them.

Basically in today’s world the possibilities for networking are infinite. The most important thing that I have learned though my time helping event coordinate for my university Career Services office is that just being there is important. It really is simple if you are not going out there and meeting people then you are not going to be making connections so get out there and start networking.

Determining your specialty

So for me personally my big debate has been what area of rodeo public relations I want to work in . There are many areas in which you can work and as a soon-to-be college graduate I need to figure out what area I want to work in.

The basic areas of rodeo PR are:

*Organization: You can work as a public relations specialist for a rodeo or bull riding organization as a whole.

*Athlete: You can work to represent only athletes.

*Sponsorship: You can work with getting sponsors and maintaining sponsor relations with the organization.

*Fan Club: Some of the major bull riding and rodeo organizations have fan clubs. This is another area of public relations dealing with the public of fans.

*Promotions: You can be responsible for working with the other areas listed above here and work to promote all the events your organization puts on. This is also where media relations would play a huge role.

For me I was first presented this question about 2 months ago. I was suggested to start my own company representing the contestants. The idea really appealed to me because starting my own organization meant that I could do things my way and where I wanted. I later came to the realization that as much as I love the athletes, I don't want them to be my only focus. For me personally, I had developed such a strong respect for one specific organization I realized I wanted to not only promote their athletes, but rather their organization as a whole.

So when it comes to making that big decision, what I learned from my decision is: figure out what is important to you? With me it was helping maintain a level of admiration and respect for all that the company has accomplished. Working with the athletes or sponsors is not going to do that for me.

Deciding what is important to you comes down to answering the question what is it you love about the sport? Obviously if you love the athletes then that is the area you should work in and become an agent for the athletes.

If you go to events because you love all the previous events you have been hosted by an organization then you should work for the organization as a whole.

Sponsorship for me is a hard one to pinpoint but to me it is the people who love to make sure what they love is able to happen. The sponsorship relations people are the backbone of a rodeo organization. Without them working on getting sponsor funds, the organization looses funds and have a hard time.

If you love being around people who share your passion and love helping people get that once in a lifetime experience then the fan club is for you. The fan club deals with getting the fans to feel appreciated as well as allowing them to meet others who share their passion for the sport. Personally outside events I don't meet fans that often so I am the first one at an event that allows me to meet and greet with people who share my passion.

So to summarize the best way to pick your specialty is to pick your passion.