[Don Kennedy]

And I'm not sure we do. But, I just had a telephone repair man in my office and he asked me about rally when he saw the pictures. He knows all about it from what he sees on Speed but has no idea if or what is happening in this country. This scenario is happening more frequently to me. Here I am in the greater Philadelphia area, relatively close to Wellsboro, and no one knows there was just an event close by. If we want them to know, how does the word get spread? Should SCCA buy some commerical time on Speed to be aired during the WRC coverage (maybe only in related areas) stating that there is an event coming up? I still have mixed feelings over whether or not we want them. But lets say we do. How do we help the sport grow by informing the general public of what exists in this country? Flame away }>

 

[MattLovell]

Rim (formerly ProRally) gave out nice posters to the workers this year (obviously paid for by Subaru). My first thought was "I wonder how many of these where placed around the greater Los Angeles area in order to attract spectators?". My second thought was "I haven't seen any".

someone paid a significant ammount of $ to print those posters, why where they not used more extensively as a marketing tool BEFORE the rally, assuming they where used at all? They where certainly much cheaper than airtime.

 

[AlanPerry]

Well, if they distributed thousands of posters in the LA area and they were all publicly displayed, odds are you still wouldn't come across one.

All of the Canadian events that we have run in this year, including the regional-only rally, have had nice posters. The last two had spectator information and instructions ("don't stand in front of the moving rally car"). For the teams that got their info in early enough, the team bios were on the back side of the poster at Rocky Mountain in Calgary.

The Bighorn Rally was in a little town about 100 miles from Edmonton, but everyone that I dealt with in Edmonton knew about the rally. Apparently hundreds of people from all over Alberta come out for the stages through the town of Robb (tarmac stages through the center of Robb). Kids were asking for our autographs at service. On the negative side, we lost a stage because of spectators that didn't know to get out of the road.

On the other hand, around here almost no one, even folks who know what rally or watch the WRC coverage is, don't seem to have a clue that there are rallies here.
alan

 

[Bruce]

The problem we've always had is figuring out where local people get their information. We've published in the local newspaper - zip. Our program goes free to some 27,000 households with the local shopper paper - again zilch. We did radio advertising - slightly better than zilch, but not much. Last year's cable commercials on other ProRally shows seemed to reach the most people ever...but still not very many. One time we made the effort to put up posters all over the area (a MONUMENTALLY time-consuming effort, BTW) and still ran into people who never heard of the rally.

Next, we'll be trying bathroom walls...

Bruce

 

[Keith K]

Don, and everyone else..
their are people that live in Wellsboro that still don't know about the rally. and that's been there for 26 years....

 

[Bill Barfoot]

hmmm... reminds me of the IBM Linux ad campaign not too long ago... anyone got any water soluable spray paint...

 

[Roger Hull]

That's a big if in my mind. I would really like to hear a good explanation of the pros (more people to sell your product to?) and the cons (cancelled stages and outrageous insurance costs). Sounds to me like the manufacturers want it and the competitors pay.
Roger

 

[jmullan]

Cough WORKERS cough

No spectators, no workers.

 

[KristenT]

>Cough WORKERS cough
>
>No spectators, no workers.


No workers, no event!