by Kristin Swartzlander | Feb 8, 2014 | Media and Public Relations, Racing Sponsorship
It might seem like sponsorship is harder to get these days, but when you think about it, there’s never been a better time to prove what your proposal is worth. Here are a few ways to start thinking about valuing a proposal: 1. Show them how big it is. (Your audience, duh.) One of the most common gripes about social media is that you can’t link results with input. But one of the reasons that I love social media is that it’s easy to show people how big your audience is – and even where they live and how old they are – with some straightforward metrics. Audience size. This is pretty straightforward – you can look at your Twitter follower count, your Facebook page likes, Instagram followers, etc. Your audience size isn’t the combined number, and I’ll explain more on that below, but you can prove how many eyeballs you’ll reach on each platform to a potential racing sponsor. Engagement level. It doesn’t matter how big your audience is if they don’t actually care about what you’re doing. That’s where engagement comes into play. And some platforms, like Facebook, are really good at measuring it. You can see what percent of your fans like your Facebook posts, how many YouTube subscribers watch your videos and more by visiting the analytics section of those platforms. That’s a great way to show a sponsor that your audience is actually engaged with your team and not just a bunch of drones. Kevin Kelly maintains that, “A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author –...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Jan 14, 2014 | Media and Public Relations, Racing Social Media
If you’re a sprint car racing fan, there’s no doubt that you’re tuning in to the Chili Bowl Nationals this week. Here is a list of Twitter handles for the 2014 Chili Bowl Nationals drivers based on the pre-entry list. They are arranged by car number. 0 – Glenn Styres – @GlennStyres 0K – Don O’Keefe Jr – @DOK_LOKENT 1 – Sammy Swindell – @1SAM91 1az – Stevie Sussex III –@Sussex45 1ST – J.J. Yeley – @jjyeley1 1TX-TBA – none 1W-Paul White – none 1X-Bryan Debrick- none 2A-Jason Howell- none 2B-Tyler Reddick – @TylerReddick 2D-Troy DeCaire – @TroyDeCaire 2DD-Josh Hawkins – none 2H-Casey Shuman – @caseyshuman 2P-Payton Pierce – @paytonpierce18p 2R-Levi Roberts – @leviroberts2 2S – Danny Stratton – none 2X – Clint Woolbright – none 3 – Darren Hagen – @D_hagen 3B – Jayme Barnes – none 3DD – Dave Darland – @DaveDarland 3F – Tanner Swanson- @tannerswanson17 3G – Matt Harms – none 3T – Tim Barber – none 4 – Jon Stanbrough – none 4B – Chris Shirek – @ChrisShirek1k 4C – TBD Driver – none 4E – Bobby East – @BobbyEast5 4F – Chad Frewaldt – none 4K – Kevin Thomas Jr – @kevinthomasjr 0 (R) Tyler Brehm – None 1B Bobby Brewer – None 1JR Joe Ramaker – @JoeRamaker 1K Trevor Kobylarz – @TK_0549 2 (R) Stratton Briggs – None 3 Chris Windom – @Chris_Windom 3E TBD Driver 3F Ned Fry – None 4 Aaron Pierce – None 4AU (R) Mathew Smith – none 4J Tim Crawley – none 4R (R) Ryan Greth -none 5$ Danny Smith – none 5C Colten Cottle – @Cottle5...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Oct 25, 2013 | Media and Public Relations, Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Social Media
Over the summer, Carl and I decided to make our way to the Craig Campbell concert at the Indiana County Fair for obvious food and entertainment-related reasons. I mean, who doesn’t love gawking at how redneck teenagers act right before they drop a pulled pork sandwich all over their own (white) shirt? Hypothetically speaking. (Also, see my screenshot of what popped up when I searched for Indiana County State Fair on my iPhone at right. Just for fun.) Partway through the concert, while the drunken teenagers were making a mosh pit, it hit me how different this set was than the first time we saw him play at a Hard Rock Café. Here, in front of thousands of people, he played mostly upbeat songs. He didn’t take a break in the middle of the set. There were no long pauses between songs. And when his radio hits came on, he did something that I’ve seen at every large-venue concert – he turned the mic around and had the audience sing the chorus. And then it hit me. He wouldn’t do that unless he felt 100% sure that they knew the words. He knew his audience and what they came there for. He wouldn’t have done that unless he knew they knew they’d sing it back. How awkward would it have been if it was just* crickets*? The crowd would have deflated. Instead, he knew what song would resonate with them and gave them the opportunity to feel like they were on stage with them by belting it out. He validated them. When he played at the Hard Rock, there were...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Aug 22, 2013 | Media and Public Relations
It’s the same story every week – we pick up the racing paper, turn on a podcast, and log into a social media account just to see a driver patting himself on the back for how much he accomplished despite his lack of funds. According to him, he’s running an old chassis with a motor that’s never been freshened, and he hauls it all to and from the track on his own dime. But he doesn’t have a day job, he’s running a new chassis, and his sponsor bought him that too-new-to-need-freshened motor. As a publicist, it makes me want to scream for a number of reasons. I hear it over and over again from clients – the frustration of dealing with drivers that cry poor. They believe that those drivers are gaining fans and patrons – the guy that walks up and buys them a tire because they feel bad for him – by lying about their situations. But ask yourself this: How did the people who actually did help non-successful driver X feel when they weren’t thanked? When all they heard was that driver didn’t have any support? Did it belittle their efforts and contributions? You bet. Having a chip on your shoulder about not having support or real sponsors does nothing but attract pity, at best. If you’re lying about it, it’s worse – it’s demeaning. It depreciates the people that feel they have supported you and makes the fans that cheer for you feel duped when they figure it out. Yes, there are some people that will give the guy who complains that he’s broke...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Aug 31, 2012 | Media and Public Relations, Racing Social Media
Over the last few weeks I’ve been extremely busy with a few projects, including shooting and editing video for one of my clients, PreciseRacing.com. The racing parts supplier was looking for a way to add interactive elements to their brand and video fit the bill. Shooting video is easy, and it can add so many layers to your racing PR program – from branding to marketing to actual, direct sales. To create videos that will make people want to subscribe to, you should have a mix of messages, not a stream of sales pitches. What are some of the things you can do with video? Action Views – nothing beats on-the-track racing action, with the exception of a really good interview, for race fans. You can also show fast-forwarded material of your crew working on the car at the track or in the shop, washing it, loading it, etc. Interviews – ask questions to your driver, crew, owner or even fans. Or, create question slides in your video editor and answer fan-submitted questions! Tours – give fans an inside look at your trailer, race shop and other places that would be interesting to a race fan. How-Tos – show fans how you do certain tasks on the racecar that they might not know about. To shoot the video, you can use an actual video camera like the Sony Bloggie Sport (I use a Flip for track videos, but they have discontinued it) or use a regular camera that has video capability. For the PreciseRacing.com videos, I used a Nikon Coolpix. I’ve also used a Panasonic Lumix with pretty good...
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