Media recognition for our top off-roaders

[camchain]

Ping a brief email to TV-land to try get our guys on the media radar.
I had a bit of a poke around TV websites and below are some contact pages/email addresses.

Couldn't find anything at all on sports sections about Paul Whibley becoming US GNCC champ last month, or the Roof of Africa.

A while ago I saw Chris on one of the Breakfast shows after his first Romaniacs, so its not impossible. It was an excellent segment and you could tell the hosts were genuinely interested as well.

TV1
Email for story ideas: news@tvnz.co.nz

TV3
Sports story suggestion form:
http://www.nzsport.co.nz/Contact/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Prime TV
Edit: proper email link for Prime news: primenews@skytv.co.nz

[Ktmboy]

Yeah good start camchain.

Its not too hard to get a 2 minute section on something special, hell I even got 2 minutes for The Sandpit. All you have to do is to ensure you have all the info so they don't really have to do too much work. Easy Peasy for them.
But if you are after programming then this is a different story. Hey I have an idea why doesn't MNZ lobby TV for airtime. Aren't they our governing body? Isn't that part of the reason we pay MNZ fees?

Also required is the associated industry to buy advertising space during the segment. This is a biggy.

You could always start a petition (do they work?) to them. 840 riders at Mr Motorcycles trailride last weekend plus all the bike parks, motoX events etc.

Worth a crack.

[telliman]

to think that mnz actually pay a pr man for exactly that, wat a joke, you cant blame the media if the national body dos'nt pass on the info!

[Ktmboy]

to think that mnz actually pay a pr man for exactly that, wat a joke, you cant blame the media if the national body dos'nt pass on the info!

I think you will find that as of last week their PR man (read ex CEO) is no longer.

Hopefully the new regime will be better at marketing the sport. Either that or employ someone from the NZRFU marketing dept for a short period.

[krad_nz]

Air time for Air time? Sounds good to me.

[B0000M]

I think you will find that as of last week their PR man (read ex CEO) is no longer.

Hopefully the new regime will be better at marketing the sport. Either that or employ someone from the NZRFU marketing dept for a short period.

on failing getting a NZRFU marketing guy, someone from V8 Supercars would suffice!

and again, the media- like everyone else, dont like to make things hard for themselves, if they have a choice of airing a story thats sitting in front of them, or going out and leaving their families for the day on sunday and standing around in a paddock with dirtbikes all day to get 2 minutes footage, theyre guna play the story right in front of them.

however MNZ needs to take some of that $125 a year they charge me and everyone else with an mnz license and actually do something good for the sport for a change instead of just making everything difficult for mnz affilliated clubs. -eg hound the media companies about upcoming events and securing even 5 minutes of air time, even if its just a breif run-down of the major events around the country- theres a semi major event on most weeks somewhere in nz!

[scott411]

Also required is the associated industry to buy advertising space during the segment. This is a biggy.



here is the biggy in this hole conversation,

i have BT on talk sport this morning (1476am in auckland, or www.bsport.co.nz) cause i spent some money with a radio station group, tried to get him on one of the big morning shows but did not have enough spent on advertising to make it happen,

we have to admit we are a small franctionalised sport, and to try to get all facets on sport all the time is pretty hard job,

MNZ has not had a full time media person ever, they contract out certain series to individuals or companies, i know i used to email the rock when BT was going good in the states in the morning so they would have the results to read out, and they always did,

instead of posting on here, did you forward the results to any of the radio stations?

[SpikedPunch]

and again, the media- like everyone else, dont like to make things hard for themselves, if they have a choice of airing a story thats sitting in front of them, or going out and leaving their families for the day on sunday and standing around in a paddock with dirtbikes all day to get 2 minutes footage, theyre guna play the story right in front of them.
Yup, too true. If you can get some good stock footage of an event, that makes it even easier. The big thing is to sell it as something the show would be interested in airing. Gimmicky stuff like having the reporter try and ride a bike etc always goes down well. Women in sports don't get on the tv much for their actual sport, but it sells well as a fluff piece - wouldn't it be fun to see the fanny pack taking hyundai sports tonight for a ride around woodhill?;) So you set up a fun, silly article, and then at the end plug your event. Gets the sport in the public eye and mind and makes it more approachable/less 'fringe'.
It's also good to check out sometimes overlooked media outlets like Maori TV or music channels like c4/alt tv. There are heaps of shows that'll run an article if it's got interest, it's just they don't tend to come to you first. Every little bit helps.

[camchain]

KTMboy, I still have the Sandpit opening on tape. Excellent stuff - watched it again the other night. Thought cameraman did great work with that neat shot of you with trials bike balancing behind. How long were they there for that day? (Combine some of that, some helmet cam, and Cave Weta's footage and we're halfway to an NZ 'On Any Sunday' film/doco)

Seems logical MNZ would be the ideal feeder source of media releases. It's not as if outstanding achievements happen every day, and preparing a media package for example Paul Whibley's GNCC result might take say - a days work? Most if the info is readily available, just needs to be plugged into and connected to appropriate media agencies. Need only be a very part-time thing for someone with a bit of media savvy. Never even thought about radio and I had no idea of ad spending relationship to promos!

We're a minority sport, but surely not asking for too much to have a little media mention of extraordinary achievement when it happens. It's the no-mention-at-all thing that really bugs me.

Been trying to get an idea of how many dirt bikes in NZ. Hard to get solid info as it doesn't show up any stats I looked at. Knowing this would be useful. Must have been over 1500 Auckland area riders last weekend? The other thing is our sport is fairly hard core, both in nature of activity and level of commitment. Should count for something.

I had a dig around the SPARC website. They did an 'Active New Zealand' survey on sport/recreation participation in 2007/8. The methodology seems very skewed as you only had to do an activity twice a year to be counted.
Note mountain biking is very popular but poorly represented in sports media. As a proportion of Motorcycling are we are down to a fraction of one percent? Anyone know road bike/dirt bike ratio?

I plucked a few samples from SPARC survey:

Rank. Activity. %of pop. Numbers participating


1 Walking 64% 2.1mil

5 Cycling 22% 745k

8 Golf 12.8% 416k

14 Cricket 6.8% 221k

15 Touch Rugby 6.7% 219k

18 MTN biking 6.1% 202k

20 Table Tennis 5.9% 194k

21 Rugby 5.7% 189k

24 Surfing 4.5% 145k

28 Netball 3.7% 120k

37 MtrSports 2.9% 94k

37 Snow Board 2.7% 87k

41 Yachting 2.4% 78k

45 Rugby league 2.1% 68k

46 Skateboard 2% 46k

48 Motorcycles 1.6% 53k

50 Triathlon etc 1.5% 48k

56 Indoor cricket 1% 34k

56 Mtr Sport-cars 1% 34k

Unranked < 1%

Rowing
Windsurfing
Martial arts
Surf life saving
BMX

[Ktmboy]

Well we have over 8,500 riders on our data base if thats any help. So probably 10,000 over the greater Auckland supercity area. I think road bikers out number us 3:1.

Scott should have the bike sales figures per year. I think 30,000 rings a bell over NZ last year, pre the great depression.

[camchain]

Good stuff KTMboy. Hell, that's quite few riders. Must be useful for addressing the 'why should we pay any attention' issue. I think I'll have a crack at sending something to radio sports news. I'll post here for input and ideas first.

I sent Andy McGechan an email last night, he might have some ideas as well.

[peadub]

I forwarded the Roof of Africa press release to the Herald Sunday 10am - 2 days later nothing
I've just forwarded the official KTM press release with photo so maybe this time?
Lets hope the shake up at MNZ get us some coordinated promotion of the sport were all passionate about
Those Sparc figures are interesting I wonder how many of the 189000 participants in our 'national sport' are over the age of 16 - 1 or 2% maybe?

[Pornstar]

Hey camchain, did you type out all those sparc figures? impressed if you did.

[little.whittle]

The NZ press may ignore it but its the top story in the American Cycle News

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/off-road/2009/11/30/birch-tops-roof-of-africa

[green machine]

The NZ press may ignore it but its the top story in the American Cycle News

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/off-road/2009/11/30/birch-tops-roof-of-africa

I work with a South African(from Lesotho area where the race is) who is into riding and and becoming a Kiwi....... he rang home and rubbed it in that two riders from his new Home Country smoked all the South Africans,hahaha

[scott411]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motorsport/news/article.cfm?c_id=66&objectid=10612617

[cave weta]

Last night I stayed up way past my bedtime and posted these two stories:

http://www.infonews.co.nz/default.cfm


they have had a couple of hundred views already and some retweets- get in and share them around your friends

[camchain]

Some good things being done with spreading the word, you guys.
Costs a bundle to compete overseas, so even a little bit of media attention could help.

Man, there sure are a lot of radio stations so I'm just trying to ping some main ones in Ak, Wgtn, ChCh. (Pornstar, i'm about as good on a keyboard as I am on a bike so no praise for me please lol. Peadub, those Sparc figures are all people over 16yrs old)

Good to see Andy McGechan's Herald article pop up. This guy does good work promoting the sport, so maybe we can back him up a bit every now and then.

I got an email back from Andy this morning. He and Vicky Townley (Bens Mum?) fought pretty hard to get GPs on TV a while ago and it clearly paid off, but he says it's hard work getting through to rugby-heads in TV etc. Seems he goes the extra mile and produces a lot of PR stories, and media bods do get them. Apparently MNZ media budget is for NZ Championship events only, no international stuff!

->

If you haven't already, quickly send an email to TV land. The more the merrier. Message only needs to be real simple, eg Copy/paste this:

Subject: Sports news story suggestions

Kiwis Chris Birch & Rory Mead finish 1st & 2nd in tough 3-day "Roof Of Africa" off-road motorcycle race.

NZ's Paul Whibley (aka "The Axeman") becomes USA "Grand National Cross-Country" motorcycle champion.

[K6K]

the herald story says that Rory and Chris are next due to race on the 30th of Jan in the first of the national enduro events. That is right in the middle of the WXEC "Tough One" in the UK and "Hells Gate" in Italy. Anyone know if Chris or Rory are planning to do either of these events?

[scott411]

i know Chris was trying to get fudning to do the extreme enduro world series next year, and i think those are part of it, not to sure what happened there,

[telliman]

i know Chris was trying to get fudning to do the extreme enduro world series next year, and i think those are part of it, not to sure what happened there,

if they are that serious and obviously that competitve why are they basing themselves in nz?or is the enduro stuff more a privateer sort of gig?

[flyingcr250]

i know Chris was trying to get fudning to do the extreme enduro world series next year, and i think those are part of it, not to sure what happened there,

if i ever win lotto ill sponsor them ha ha ha :Punk:

[telliman]

if i ever win lotto ill sponsor them ha ha ha :Punk:

fark, if i won lotto auckland would have a world class mx sx facility! lol