Success with the Media

Our approach to media coverage is twofold: we have a Persistent approach and a Targeted approach. Both are helpful in getting PickleBall (or any other interest you may have) on air or in print.

Persistent approach: we have an active group of players in Portage/Kalamazoo and we continually orchestrate play time, training and events and promote our activities resulting in the persistent promotion of PickleBall. (A few of the bulleted points below are also part of a Targeted Approach).

• Contact with media people is extremely important. Be friendly and available! The media is always looking for a great story and PickleBall certainly is a great one! Build on each successful media promotion.
• We maintain a web presence at www.where2pickle.org and keep it current with clinic information upcoming tournaments, etc. We invite people to join our email mailing list. As events are held we promptly post results, pictures, video, etc. The most recent example is the Soft Game Clinic – as the clinic progressed we shot flip video of the drills and the people who attended. Late that night we posted the videos to You Tube and embedded them on our website at http://where2pickle.org/softgame042010.php
• We hold 6 or more clinics & workshops each year and are always available for demonstrations and introductory workshops to introduce PickleBall to new venues. In the past year we have assisted three new venues start PickleBall programs (West Hills Athletic Club, Gull Lake Country Club and the Courthouse).
• We host 2 sanctioned tournaments  each year
• We enhance the tournament experience by enlisting local sponsors to provide water, sports drinks, food, medals, t-shirts etc.
• We engage with Discover Kalamazoo (visitor bureau) for support of our activities
• Discover Kalamazoo writes and distributes press releases
• Discover Kalamazoo is currently working with us to create a “PickleBall meet the Media Day’ in advance of our upcoming tournament
• We are very active with email campaigns using Constant Contact as our email manager… we have built email lists that routinely reach a variety of media outlets: newspapers, TV, radio, PickleBall players, etc. We support our clinics and tournaments with bi-weekly emails in advance of each event with escalating urgency as enrollment deadlines approach.

All of this persistent activity keeps PickleBall in front of the media.

Targeted approach: in addition to our persistent activities we also have a Targeted Approach to promoting PickleBall. In essence it is a focused promotion of a specific event.

• Shotgun ideas to the media. Prepare a “one-pager” that has story ideas.
• The history of PickleBall
• Interesting local players, venues, etc.
• Health benefits
• Who benefits from the event

With some good fortune your “one-pager” will result in coverage. It may be live or pre-prerecorded TV. or print coverage in your local newspaper.

• Schedule an event in advance of the event: We often have an advance event. That may sound a bit strange but quite often if you promote a single event the timing of media coverage is too close to the date of the event to make an impact on attendance. We are promoting a May 20-21, 2010 tournament but we scheduled a Soft Game Work Shop by Jim & Yvonne Hackenberg (our franchise players!) on April 17, 2010. FOX 17 in Grand Rapids wanted to promote the workshop and that resulted in coverage on the 14th of April – by that time the workshop was full but it made great coverage for the May Tournament.
• Ask your tourist bureau to join you in promoting a specific event.
• Post your event on your website.
• Create a flyer/registration form for or event and make it widely available.
• Develop an email campaign to support your specific event. We usually send out a save the date email and then schedule your follow-up campaign. We usually send emails every two weeks and increase their urgency as the date approaches. For the recent Soft Game Clinic we continually posted the number of spots available – it sold out two weeks before the event.

Assembling resources
Everyone’s approach and implementation of reaching out to the media will be a bit different and unique. We find big committees to be cumbersome. Much of the PR effort in The Portage-Kalamazoo area is designed by Bob Northrop & Melissa Muha. Bob’s background includes web development & graphic design plus he is a mobile DJ. Melissa’s background includes many years of experience in public interaction through executive search non-for-profit fund raising and public presentation. Between the two of them they organize workshops, tournaments and other events. They’ve never been in front of a camera of microphone they didn’t like! Their organizational skills are then brought to life by the wonderful group of “pickle-people” that play the game in the Portage-Kalamazoo area.

Bob Northrop - Ambassador Kalamazoo Michigan rpn@vwworks.com
Melissa Muha - Ambassador Portage gardenwebb@gmail.com
www.where2pickle.org
04-20-2010