 |
|
 A practical guide!
To support our May 20-21, 2010 PickleBall Tournament we are holding a Media Day event on the 19th of May.
This is a three week project. We were assisted by Discover Kalamazoo (Visitor's Bureau). These are uncharted waters for us so we took steps to insure a full house for the event by inviting a cross-section of people from the community: the Mayor, key individuals from the six local venues that offer PickleBall, the Media (print - radio - TV), USAPA Ambassadors, USAPA Board members, tournament sponsors and our player community. |
| Our first focus was to select a date and venue. That was pretty easy: we wanted to promote the the sport of PickleBall, the upcoming Tournament and our local YMCA that provides the facilities. |
We then discussed how we could set apart our Media Day from others. This led to a series of ideas:
- Have the Mayor of Portage declare the City of Portage the "Center of the World for Pickleball"
- Add a pickle tasting & award a medal for the "Best PickleBall Deli-Dill Pickle". This was a different twist - Michigan is a leading producer of pickles! The idea of having a tasting that includes cleansing the pallet by having a few oyster crackers should be fun!
- Continue our practice of spreading the sport by getting people on court with a paddle in their hand.
- Prepare "backgrounders" on the sport, players and the venues that promote the sport. Although some of this will be local information, we expect a significant amount of the information will be useful to others - we will post it once it is complete.
- Mingle!
|
|
| We then generated a timeline: |
| MEDIA DAY |
Date & Time:Wednesday May 19th beginning at 9:30 am
Location:Portage YMCA - using 4 PickleBall courts & the Sky Box
Attendees: |
| |
The Media |
| |
The Mayor |
| |
Representatives of venues providing PB play |
| |
|
Maple Street YMCA |
| |
|
Centre Street YMCA |
| |
|
Lexington Green Park |
| |
|
West Hills Athletic Club |
| |
|
Gull Lake Country Club |
| |
|
The Courthouse |
| |
USAPA Ambassadors - Board Members |
| |
Tournament Sponsors |
| |
Local players |
| |
Discover Kalamazoo |
|
 |
| We refined the reasons why our Media Day would be interesting! |
| |
Reading of the Mayoral proclamation that from May 19th through 21st Portage Michigan is the Center of the World for PickleBall! |
| |
The great Sport of PickleBall & its benefits |
| |
Local player profiles |
| |
The May Tournament & the regional and national players that are attending |
| |
Enlist MI pickle makers to participate in a pickle tasting event - medal award for the "Best PickleBall Deli-Dill Pickle" (we have medals) |
| |
Invite National USAPA board members to attend |
| Detailed timeline: |
| |
Program: Open to public at 9 - mingle until 9:30 |
| |
Sign-in in the Sky Box and enjoy coffee, sports drinks and pickle tasting (oyster crackers to clear the pallet!) |
| |
9:30 Mayor of Portage to read proclamation - Melissa to Emcee |
| |
Pitch the game - put paddles in everyone's hands |
| |
10:30 pickle tasting results |
|
11:00 wrap up |
|
| From the timeline we developed a list of tasks. |
| |
Get approval for use of the venue |
| |
Seek issuance of the Proclamation |
| |
Develop an invitation - we opted for email invites: One a plain text version and the other a graphic html version. |
| |
Generate and refine mailing lists by category: Players,Media, Ambassadors, Venues. we had a substantial list for each category an plan to supplement the Media list by having Discover Kalamazoo send plain text invites to them. |
| |
Prepare "backgrounders" - not looking forward to this one. |
| |
Contact pickle packers and enlist their support. |
| |
Create medal for the winning pickle! |
| |
Organize volunteers to be on court with the Media, set up the courts, etc. |
| |
Create and execute the email campaign, we expect to do this in two volleys. The first 10 days in advance of the event and the second 3 days in advance of the event. |
|
| Our expectations: |
| |
We do not know what to expect! by inviting players, Ambassadors and people from the local Pickleball establishments we know that we will have a full-house we'll update our results after the event. |
|
Execution and follow up: |
| |
We'll be prepared to hand out media kits to those in attendance at the conference and follow-up via phone or email with those that weren't in attendance. It's that persistence marketing that can make a huge difference in the future. |
|
| If you have questions or comments send an email. |
|
| posted 04-27-2010 |
| GO TO TOP OF PAGE |
|
