I’m a big fan of Twitter search. I have a cool plugin for Firefox that brings back the latests tweets for a search term and displays them above the same results for Google. It’s one of the reasons that Google is rumoured to be building similar functionality, to bring back real-time, real-people sentiments. But does [...]
Pilote Media, publishers of Yachtsponsorship.com and the DARK BLUE BOOK will be in attendance at the 2009 World Yacht Racing Forum in Monaco, to be held at the Grimaldi Forum on December 9-10.
The Who’s Who of yacht racing will be in town to discuss many of the issues that are affecting the sport as a business, to network and to forge partnerships. Pilote Media CEO, David Fuller says:
There are not many opportunities to get everyone together in the same room and talk about issues that affect the business of yacht racing. From where we sit, looking at the sport as a whole, there are plenty of opportunities for sailing to do things better. There are a few innovators, but that doesn’t mean that the sport can’t learn from best practise elsewhere. Networking and getting a view on what others are doing should help the sport to grow.
Via Yachtsponsorship.com, Pilote Media will be using several social media platforms to report on the Monaco event, but they probably wont be the only ones. David says:
As a whole, the sport of yacht racing is still scrambling to understand some of the new media opportunities. Certainly many of the brands in the sport just don’t get it, but there are innovators. Mark Turner’s Twitter updates over the last few days for example, describing the unfolding events with their Open60 BT have been compelling because they have a timeliness and a human element. I imagine that the twitter feeds from the World Yacht Racing Forum will be quite entertaining, so keep watching #WYRF.
The World Yacht Racing Forum is also a great opportunity for Pilote Media to promote the DARK BLUE BOOK. The directory is modelled on similar references for other sports and is a useful resource for anyone in the business of yacht racing. The 2009 edition was welcomed by many as a great way to define those in the industry, allowing the sport to be promoted to sponsors and major event partners around the world. David commented:
At last year’s forum, the DARK BLUE BOOK was just an idea, but the timing seemed right. Many of those who attended the first World Yacht Racing Forum also appeared in the first DARK BLUE BOOK. Since we published the first edition in April, we have received hundreds of entries for the 2010 version but the forum gives us a great opportunity to partner with brands who want to be seen as leaders in the industry.
WYRF Chairman and World Champion Sailor Peter Gilmour will open the Forum on 9 December before the opening keynote address by Tom Whidden, President and CEO of North Sails on the state of the industry.
Other presentations will feature the commercial case for sailing sponsorship, the impact of yacht racing on host cities and ports, the measure and evaluation of sailing events’ commercial return, sailing sponsorship and new media.
The World Yacht Racing Forum and Design & Technology Symposium will create the platform for delegates to debate the key issues that are critical to the future of yacht racing. The event will focus on the socio-economic aspects of the sport as well as developments in media coverage and the technical and commercial aspects of large-scale sailing events, especially in terms of their organisation and promotion.
For a full schedule and to register for the World Yacht Racing Forum, visit www.worldyachtracingforum.com
Here are a few highlights… using a cool online video creator
I picked up a bunch of followers on Twitter yesterday thanks to a mention by Ryan Stephens on Lewis Howes’ Sports Networker Blog.
It’s hard to know what to expect when you follow someone. On the one hand, a reccommendation from someone whose opinion you trust is enough to sign up to the wisdom or otherwise of someone you otherwise might not have come across or followed.
For better or worse, Twitter, or at least the vast majority of the people I interact with on Twitter are in the USA. While I have spent a lot of time working with American sporting brands (some well known and some niche), I spend most of my time these days based in London, UK. It’s a shame that the core sports marketing and business conversation that thrives in the US is not visable here. It’s easy to forget that Twitter is NOT a mass market tool, though it may one day get there.
The point I am making is that if you have followed me and expect content around an ‘N’ sport (NBA, NHL, NFL…) then I’m not going to be able to provide a lot of insight. Hopefully though, the ‘mash-up’ element of Twitter that allows innovative and creative ideas to cross-pollenate across sports irrespective of size or geography will mean that the opinions from where I sit – an Australian living in London have value.
Yesterday, 150 people began to follow my musings. Normally I would get a few a day. A few a day allows you to look at who is along for the ride, look at their recent tweets, visit their blog or company page if available and make a decision about a reciprocal follow. With 150 in the space of several hours, that task is made harder.
Here then are a couple of tips based on how I decide to follow someone. It’s certainly not based on the number of followers someone has. This is not new, there are thousands of twitter tips sites out there – its just my opinion. It’s not a prescription either, just some stuff that came out of yesterday’s experience.
Welcome to those who have followed me over the last 12 hours or so. Hopefully underrated doesn’t become overrated to quickly.
I read a blog this morning that just made me mad. I’ve written a bit over the last few months about sections of the sailing industry that believe their sport is somehow inferior. Perhaps its a UK thing to just find the bad news in order to sell more papers or magazines. Perhaps it is easier to play to the whingers than to look a little further for good news and optimism.
Elaine Bunting, writing in a blog for Yachting World headlined her piece ‘Yacht Racing – Dead or Alive?’ What annoys me more than the article’s premise is that YBW.com don’t allow comments on the site. Instead, in typical old fashioned magazine style, you can email the author and they can choose which comments to show or not.
Well, since this is 2009, if they don’t want to let me comment on their site, I will comment on mine. Here are some of the gems from the article.
…sailing is not a pure sport and can never sell to a mass audience as such. There’s no point in comparing ocean racing to rugby or football. Ocean racing is too technical and distant to be followed in the same way.
Goodness knows what the author defines as a ‘pure sport’. The IOC seem to think that sailing is a sport – it has Olympic representation after all – which is more than can be said for rugby. I agree there is no point comparing sailing to what the English call football (s0ccer), as it is just a ball and two goal posts. Amercian football on the other hand is highly technical.
While on the one hand YBW’s Bunting decrys sailing as elitist, she seems to think that the general public is too stupid to understand the technical complexities of sailing. This can be seen as either insulting or ignorant of facts like hundreds of thousands of people playing the Volvo and Vendee online game. Sports fans are not homogenous. Some people follow the ‘technical’ sport of Formula One to see who is fastest over the line, some are glued to live timing and scoring screens and want to know the effect of the latest aerodynamic part on the 2nd sector, some want to see what the driver’s girlfriends are wearing. Why can’t sailing be pitched at the same level?
Ocean racing … has more in common with a polar expedition than a football match.
While this statement is true, wouldn’t a polar expedition be more exciting if there were two teams in the polar expedition, both aiming to be the first to the pole, or the first to discover a new route. Offshore sailing has been compared to climbing Mount Everest, but they don’t race up the North Face.
The author goes on to prove her case with internal statistics.
Reader surveys have been amazingly consistent over the last 20 years, and the answer has always been roughly the same: the percentage of readers who are ‘very interested’ in sports report-style racing coverage is 4%.
What this statistic hides is that readers of YBW magazines are not racers. If you are into racing, you don’t buy Yachting World, or Yachting Monthly you buy Seahorse or Yachts and Yachting. Moreover, in 2009 if you want sports-report style racing coverage you go to the websites of the events. A monthly magazine will struggle to keep people interested when they already know the outcome. By the time Yachting World tells me who won the Sydney Hobart Race, I have already had the winner’s photograph as my computer wallpaper for 3 weeks.
We do agree with YBW’s blogger when she says:
The thing that so many sailing events organisers do not, and will not understand is people are always, invariably, much more richly fascinating than boats. And those sailors who have the skills and abilities to communicate the experience in the most interesting or visceral way will always have a bigger audience.
This is true, but not exclusively a problem for sailing. Compare the American Le Mans Series to NASCAR. In ALMS, the star is the car. They are the latest prototypes made from technically advanced composites running the lastest bio-fuels. As a result the series is pretty boring unless you are an engineer. NASCAR on the other hand uses stock cars. They are not pretty, they are not too technical and yet hundres of thousands of people turn out every week to watch them race – why? Because the drivers are characters. The good ‘ol southern boy against the blue eyed pretty guy from California versus the cranky greece monkey from Detroit. Sailing does need to make the sailors known.
Sports Fans also love a wreck. Just as NASCAR fans secretly want a bunch of cars to go into the wall at turn 4, so too do sailing fans like a bit of drama like a dismasting or a rescue at sea. It’s human nature.
Is Yacht Racing dead? No way. Take a look at the article today about the next generation. To borrow another phrase from the world of NASCAR. “Nobody knows when the first sailboat race was – we think it was when they built the second sailboat.”
Stop putting down the sport that pays you. Find the good news. Accept that things have to change and move on. If it can be done a better way, do it. Enable a proper debate. Embrace the technology. Marvel at the thousands of people who follow yacht racing via new technology.
Yacht Racing is Dead. Long Live Yacht Racing.
IT technology was supposed to make things easier. ‘Work smarter not harder’ is the slogan for the information age. But just as you think you have understood it – how to make the most of email, how to measure click-throughs and page impressions, the geeks invent a new thing. Or they rename an old thing and make everyone else seem foolish. How many of these terms do you understand: Web 2.0, RSS, twitter, UGC, personal media…
The latest buzzword is ‘Social Media’. Ask 10 people what social media is and you will probably get 10 different answers. The term ’social media’ is misunderstood by many. From nowhere, social media consultants have appeared selling their opinions on reputation management and sentiment engineering. Whatever you call it, the technologies that allow huge numbers of people to create, publish, share and comment upon content (images, text, video, audio, gps co-ordinates), are important for sports marketing and PR.
One of the services receiving a lot of interest at the moment is Twitter. While on the surface the functionality seems simple, almost banal, the power of millions of people saying what they are doing, feeling, thinking at any one point in time should not be underestimated.
Let’s compare two examples. Imagine a sports entity; a pro-sailor, a team, an event organiser with a large company as a sponsor. This entity also has a traditional PR company working to maximise the ‘coverage’ of news and activities and in turn help the sponsor achieve their goals of exposure or association or some other objective.
Example One – the Traditionalists.
In example one, the traditional PR company is measured on more old-fashioned metrics like column inches, television screen time, radio brand mentions. Even in 2009, there are PR companies that believe that national newspaper coverage alone is enough to determine the success or failure of a campaign. There might be historic reasons for this. News used to be determined by powerful editors and specialist journalists. Developing relationships with these people determined whether your story was featured or not.
More recently this PR company has been forced to learn new methods of distributing the news – via email – usually in the form of a PDF, so that it can not be easily changed or manipulated. For these promoters, the only website mentions that are worth talking about are BBC.CO.UK or TheTimesOnline. Bloggers aren’t real media.
To this company, Social media is the devil. If taken to its end, social media makes a PR company redundant. If the talent can communicate directly with their fan base, what role is there for PR, or journalists, or editors for that matter.
While this is a hypothetical example of a PR company, it is a thinly disguised collection of behaviours that we see daily in the sports marketing industry. Not all are anti new technology; some just find it overwhelming and alien.
Example Two – The New World of PR.
In our second example, we imagine a PR company that understands how media is changing. While the traditional press and television is important, they understand that niche sports like sailing are more frequently being covered on other platforms. More importantly they understand the value of the network effect. Instead of all news going through a handful of gatekeepers, the content is free to appear wherever it lands. Some of the concepts in the new world are the same as the old world – things like reach, reputation and influence. But in the new world, these relationships are not as straightforward.
Much has been written about Stephen Fry’s 120,000 twitter followers. Obviously if Mr Fry twitters about something he raises its awareness and delivers thousands of ‘eyeballs’ to the story. You might then be tempted as a PR company in the new world to target Stephen Fry, but that would be to ignore the fact that Stephen Fry also follows other people. So imagine a person who has only 5 or 6 followers, but those 5 or 6 are followed by thousands.
PR company number two has spent time developing relationships, not just with traditional media, but with influential bloggers in their space. They understand that a small blog read by 100 people can be very powerful if those 100 people are an exact match to your target audience or they influence thousands of others.
PR company number two also understands that the new world is not a one-way broadcast. This is not a Sunday broadsheet that states – this is the news and there is no more. This is more like talkback radio. If the people disagree, they can say so. In public. With an audience.
PR company number two is asking questions like:
Obviously PR companies don’t work in a vacuum. They are representing brands and personalities that may not yet themselves understand the value of these new media. If a client tells you that their objective is to have a photo on the front page of the paper, do you sell them the benefits of bloggers? If you don’t someone else might.
All of this assumes that you want to communicate externally. Social media principals are just as important, perhaps more so, when communicating internally, but that’s a subject for another blog.
Pilote Media are offering Social Media Clinic for companies who want to learn more. The free 30 minute sessions can be held, in London, via phone or skype conference. The aim is to provide honest, down to earth advice without the jargon. For more information see http://www.pilotemedia.com/social-media/
So you want to get sponsorship. Of course you do. What would be better than getting someone else to pay for your dreams? It’s amazing how many emails I get from sports people who imagine sponsors are just generous benefactors who will willingly part with hard-earned cash on the strength of a good idea.
In the business world, there is a similar behaviour. Entrepreneurs with great ideas seek out financiers, early stage investors, business angels, venture capitalists, sponsors. Some of these companies offer the investors a promise of revenue generation – a cash return on investment. Raising money for a venture that might lead to revenue is a hard sell, so imagine how hard it is to sell sponsorship benefits like exposure, brand association or recall.
Still want to give it a try? Your life is about to change. You are swapping the sails for sales. As Bud Fox’s Dad said in ‘Wall Street’:
You get on the phone and ask strangers for their money, right?
You’re a salesman.
So what can sailors learn from entrepreneurs? A lot. Here are some tips on raising money that apply equally to competitive sailors as to early stage businesses.
Have a Business Plan
This is not your sponsorship pitch or presentation, this is a document that shows how you are going to spend the money. Remember that the idea is only as good as the team who is going to deliver it, so the business plan needs to include the personnel and why they are the best people to invest in to deliver the goals.
Get Some Skin in the Game
If you want to start a business, be prepared to invest your own money. Sailors who expect sponsors to risk money in their venture, better throw something into the pot. Those who are not willing to assume such risk are not considered serious by sponsors, and will most likely not receive funding.
Network
While some sponsors do read proposals that come over the transom, plans referred to them by a trusted source, such as a business associate, lawyer or accountant get far more attention. Attend events, not just boat shows and regattas, but trade shows for other industries. Use online tools like Linked-In.
Start Close to Home
People that know you are more likely to invest in you than a complete stranger. Talk to friends and family, talk to a business that you buy from often. If you have a day job, talk to the company that employs you. Of course use common sense – if you are planning a year long, round the world campaign, they might get a sense that you are not exactly commited to your job.
Do you Homework
Sailors should be choosy about who they take money from. Make certain that you really know your sponsor. Where are their markets? What are their products? Understand their motivation and expectations. Know what added value they can bring to the table. Sponsors with good connections can jump start a campaign and keep it thriving. Well-connected sponsors can even make it easier to get additional sponsors.
Show the Sponsor what they get in return.
It’s amazing how many people looking for sponsorship have never thought that a sponsorship deal is two way. The best sponsors only invest when they have a high certainty of the outcome. Successful sponsorship is about knowing what return you expect to make. Anything else is speculation and gambling. If you can show a decent return, in a reasonable period, to the sponsor then they’ll be more inclined to back you. If you can’t then they’ll take their money elsewhere.
Be Googleable.
When I get an email from someone I don’t know these days, I type their name into google or visit the web address associated with their email. You can get your own website for a couple of bucks. If you don’t want to create one from scratch, create a blog on blogger or a profile on Linked-In or a MySpace page.
If you’re not sure on any of these areas, then make sure you get some professional help. It’s a lot better to invest some time, effort and money up front to get the right approach than to waste many months and even more money learning the hard way. Think about what it costs you personally for each month that your business growth is inhibited. When you look at it this way, getting the right support at an early stage can save you a lot more time, money and effort in the long run. I’ll be writing a piece on how to find the right help in coming days.
You’ll notice that I have used the phrase ‘your business’ a lot in this article. If you don’t see your sailing as a business, then how can you expect a sponsor to give you money?
I’ve got a problem with coaches. Not all coaches mind you, just the ones that set themselves up as motivators, but have no technical knowledge about the subject at hand. This is especially true of the trendy new job of ‘life coach.’
Now a newly published study by Amanda Goodall, Lawrence Kahn, and Andrew Oswald (Opens in PDF) finds that having expert knowledge of the thing you are coaching definitely matters. The Abstract of the report says “We show that a strong predictor of a leader’s success… is that person s own level of attainment, in the underlying activity… Our data come from 15,000 professional basketball games and reveal that former star players make the best coaches. This expert knowledge effect is large.”
How Large? The report finds substantial evidence that the difference between having a coach who never played NBA basketball and one who played many years of NBA all star basketball is, on average, approximately 6 extra places up the NBA league table. In a league where there are 29 teams, this is significant.
The report also tries to draw some conclusions as to why this is the case. One possibility is that the same quality that drove the individual to the top of the game still exists, an ‘x-factor’ that determines success. Other explanations include an ability to impart expert knowledge that can only be acquired by playing the game. A third hypothesis offered is that players who are recognised as ‘greats’ command more respect from those who are at the top of their game in the present, whereas lesser players, or those who have never played the game would find it harder to convince current players of their credentials.
There may be exceptions, but at last there are some hard facts that show that a coach with expert knowledge will provide better results than a coach who is ‘motivating’ only.
