2016 Pacific Cup – Marketing / Communications Plan for 2015 –Update 16 July 2015

The objective of this plan is to provide a framework for communicating with a number of different audiences with a consistent message that will encourage racers to race, sponsors to give, and volunteers to give their time.

By coordinating efforts at a basic level among the many functional groups we can be more effective with the few resources we have.

This is intended to be a flexible, working document and will be updated as necessary to reflect new opportunities and to record progress.

Target Audiences

Some of the goals and key messages are date sensitive – the focus will change as the race goes from sign-up (SU) and early prep (EP) to late prep (LP), race (R), and post-race (KYC). This draft focuses on 2015 activities.

Target / Goal / Key Messages / How
Boat owners, Racers, West coast yacht clubs /
  • Get people to sign up
  • Provide basic information needed to participate in the race, prepare a boat
  • Raise awareness, enthusiasm and participation for pre-race events and services.
  • Generate awareness of the new things we’re doing this year to make the race more fun than ever
  • Increase Facebook, Twitter followers
  • Foster acquaintance / friendships between competitors
/
  • Key events, dates, deadlines
  • Boat owners and competitors are at the core of this event
  • You will have a safe, fun race to Hawaii
  • Here’s what you need to do to be ready for the race, who else is going, what to expect, what others have done in the past
/
  • Pac Cup newsletters, Web site, Facebook and Twitter posts
  • Events – seminars, boat shows
  • Stories in the media highlighting the “Fun Race to Hawaii”
  • Encourage racer blogs related to prep (and then link these blogs to Facebook and the Website
  • Presentations to yacht clubs and other associations

Family and friends /
  • Provide information that helps family and friends be comfortable and supportive since the decision to race usually involves them
  • Raise awareness, enthusiasm and participation for pre-race events and services.
  • Generate awareness of the new things we’re doing this year to make the race more fun than ever
  • Keep spectators informed throughout the event
  • Increase Facebook, Twitter followers
/
  • Key events, dates, deadlines
  • Even if you’re not racing, you can be involved
  • This is the safe, fun race to Hawaii
/
  • Pac Cup newsletters, Web site, Facebook and Twitter posts
  • Racer blogs
  • Events – seminars, boat shows, yacht club presentations etc.
  • Stories in the media highlighting the “Fun Race to Hawaii”
  • High quality photography throughout the event

Sponsors and Supporters /
  • Show 2014 sponsors the value of their past sponsorship so they are happy with the value received
  • Show potential 2016 sponsors a good value proposition
  • Establish practices and activities that will enable us to document the value of their sponsorship at the end of the 2016 race
/
  • Pac Cup 2016 provides a great audience for the sponsor’s products
  • Our professional approach paints their participation in a positive light
/
  • Highlight sponsors in all media to the extent possible.
  • Use the website and newsletters to highlight sponsors
  • Provide support for PacCup focused articles (e.g. Alaska Airlines magazine, and company newsletters)
  • Video??

The Press /
  • Achieve significant coverage in major sailing and local publications. Top targets: Latitude38, Scuttlebutt, Sailing World, Sail, The Log (So Cal), SF Chronicle. (Not an exhaustive list, but these are the most respected pubs with largest distribution).
/
  • Pacific Cup is taking a leadership role in ocean racing, from safety requirements and preparation assistance to racers as well as the services and festivities at the Pacific Cup Village.
  • We're leading the way with new technology with the launch of the Pac Cup App, which will provide significant value to the participants.
  • Human-interest stories that will resonate with their readers/viewers.
  • It’s the FUN (but serious) race to Hawaii
/
  • Execute on a well-defined editorial calendar that provides information, insights, and story hooks for them to follow up on
  • Identify some good racer stories to feed them.
  • Timely and consistent communication is essential.
  • Use personal emails to involve and alert contacts at key publications.

Volunteers /
  • Expand our volunteer pool to spread the workload and identify new talent to help in key roles.
/
  • Communicate our volunteer needs and opportunities for the timeframes before during and after the race.
/
  • Use standard communication channels – emails, website, social media

PCYC Members /
  • Increase membership in PCYCand keep current members engaged
/
  • Communicate the value in becoming a member
/
  • Use standard communication channels – emails, website, social media

Richmond YC /
  • Communicate the success of RYC / PCYC’s efforts so that members see the value in the temporary disruption and inconveniences
  • Boost attendance at Pacific Cup Village (2016)
  • Obtain volunteer workers for the Village (2016)
/
  • Value of this event to RYC
/
  • RYC web site, newsletter, posters within club, blast emails.

Communication Vehicles / Roles and Responsibilities

Primary and secondary responsibilities are likely to change as we move forward.Ideally primary and secondary should be interchangeable for risk mitigation.

Vehicle / Target / Primary / Secondary / Notes
Press Releases / Media / Leslie Richter / Karin Knowles
PR Professional – still TBD /
  • Keep an eye on the Mailchimp mailing list and add/remove as necessary
  • Press releases are archived on the PCYC web site’s Media tab.
  • Identify the key publication’s cut-off time for receiving PRs: Scuttlebutt, ‘Lectronic Latitude, etc.—it’s important

Newsletter / Competitors, interested parties / MDM until start / TBD /
  • Monthly + breaking news?
  • Two separate mailing lists – one for competitors and another that’s much larger?
  • Newsletters have not been archived on the web site – we should discuss
  • Will we be switching the lists to Mailchimp for consistency?

/ Competitors, interested parties / MDM until start / Leslie, Karin for press releases
Who is the backup for MDM for the rest of the site? /
  • This is the nerve center for communications
  • All press releases will be stored in the Media tab of the he website. Anything not duplicated in a newsletter will be posted to the “news” section of the website as well.
  • Official position and standings informationwill be updated automatically after review at KYC.
  • The website has the functionality to display links to racer blogs, with the list of blogs automatically updated (most recent blog always at the top)– but bloggers needed to give MDM the information for this, and many did not.

/ Primarily RYC but available to anyone / Karin Knowles / TBD /
  • Focus is on Village events and volunteer needs.
  • The RYC website’s off-the-water calendar is the RYCPacCup app’s data source for any last-minute changes to event information.

Social Media
(Facebook, twitter, etc.) / All interested Parties / Leslie Richter / Leslie Richter
MDM
Karin Knowles /
  • Posts to Facebook and Twitter will reinforce PR content as well as to inform competitors, friends, and family and, highlight sponsors.
  • During the race, information will be posted to Facebook to be consistent with info on website, including links to the PRs and select blog. There was occasionally posting something not of interest to the general public, such as request to sign up for events at KYC ASAP.
  • Twitter did not prove a useful vehicle. However, we learned that some people focused on the website while others were active only on Facebook.

Presentations / Competitors / Leslie /
  • Develop a boilerplate presentation on the Pacific Cup that can be customized for a specific audience. e.g. race history, prep, timeline, etc.

Advertisements, Printed Collateral,
Posters, flyers etc. / Competitors, volunteers, etc / Leslie / Support from graphic designer Alison /
  • Posters are being distributed
  • Handouts are being developed for events and possibly targeted mailings
  • Ads will be developed based on the target message and editorial calendar

Video / Competitors, sponsors, all interested parties / TBD / TBD /
  • Produce a short video from 2014 Pac Cup showing process from start to finish. Post to website, social media, YouTube, etc. Requires Budget.

Photography (official pre-race, starts, finishes, awards) / All interested Parties / Leslie Richter / TBD /
  • We need to develop a better system for displaying photographs, including issues of ease of use and copy protection
  • Who pays for commercial use?

Photography (Mai Tai finish photos) / All interested Parties / Leslie Richter / TBD /
  • The process used in 2014 didn’t work well. Photos were of poor quality and the photographers had major difficulties uploading to the web site.
  • We will develop a plan for improvement for 2016

Other photographs / Leslie Richter / TBD /
  • We want to ensure that photos used in communications including the web site are of good quality – we have a nice archive now.
  • We need a process for people to submit their photos for inclusion in various media

Calendar

Note: Activities in italics have been completed.

TBD – Optimize Latitude38 advertising schedule

When / Editorial Content / Press Release (PR), Advertising (A), Newsletter (NL), or Other (O) / Other Supporting Communications / Notes
Dec. 2014 / 12/30 / PR, NL – NOR Posted, Signups Open /
  • Newsletter
  • Facebook and twitter posts with links to web site
  • Follow-up on Facebook naming early entries

2015
Jan / 1/7 /
  • Posters at Portland Boat Show (O)
  • Posters at San Francisco Boat Show? (O)
/ 1/7 Portland boat show
1/22-25 San Francisco Boat Show – many more sailboats on display this year
1/24 LBYC Safety at Sea Seminar
Feb /
  • Latitude 38 authored article with race prep timeline for owners (O)
/ 2/7 Women’s Sailing conference, Newport – need flyers to hand out
2/28 Safety at Sea Seminar Bahia Corinthian YC
Mar /
  • Latitude 38 authored article with race prep timeline for crew (O)
  • Mar 11 – Newsletter (large list) (N)
  • Mar 16 – Press release announcing Sonnen BMW sponsorship
/ Coastal safety at sea seminar (MDM) Mar 1
*This might be a good timeframe to schedule some West Coast yacht club presentations
Apr /
  • Full Page ad in L38 to coincide with the boat show preview (A)
  • Presentations at the boat show (O)? Who?
  • Handouts in Ensenada
  • April 9 – Press release announcing North Sails sponsorship (PR)
  • April 9 – Newsletter (large list) (N)
/ 4/9-12 Strictly Sail Boat show – Oakland
4/24-25 Newport to Ensenada Race – good recruiting opp for SoCal boats, Leslie will be there
May /
  • Full page ad in L38 promoting SAS and POA and signups (A)
  • ‘Lectronic Latitude reminder for SAS (O)
  • Short text ad in May 20 Scuttlebutt
  • May 28 - Newsletter (large list) (N)
  • May 22 – Newsletter (large list) seminar booster (N)
  • New poster for distribution to WM, yacht clubs
/ 5/17 is US Sailing Safety at Sea Seminar (Encinal)
Jun /
  • ‘Lectronic Latitude reminder for PAS (O)
  • Full Page ad in L38 promoting SAS and POA and signups (A)
  • June 9 – Press Release announcing Alaska sponsorship (PR)
/ 6/13 is 1st Pacific Offshore Academy (RYC)
Jul /
  • ½ page ad in L38 to encourage signups (A)
  • 100 word text ad in July 22 Scuttlebutt
  • ½ page ad in Transpac race guide
  • July 16 – Newsletter – (large list)
  • New poster ready for distribution
/ 7/13 – 1st Transpac start
Aug /
  • 100 word text ad in Aug 7 Scuttlebutt
  • Submit Ross Tibbit’s article for publication – initial target Scuttlebutt, L38
  • ½ page ad in L38 to encourage signups (A)

Sep /
  • 100 word text ad in Sep 23 Scuttlebutt
/ Rolex Big Boat series
Oct /
  • Ad in L38 promoting POA (A)
  • 100 word text ads in Oct 14, 21, 28 Scuttlebutt
/ 10/17 - 2nd Pacific Offshore Academy (RYC)
Nov
Dec
2016
Jan / Ad in L38 with key event dates and deadlines
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul / Mon, July 11 – 1st starts!
Aug

A Few Media Notes:

  • Specific Requests for interviews should be relayed to Leslie or Gary who will route the request accordingly.
  • Scuttlebutt is published daily except Fri. and Sat. at 4pm and they do print old news, so need to get releases to them by noon or let them know it’s coming before 4pm.
  • Electronic Latitude is published M, W, F at noon – material needs to be in to them well in advance.
  • NorCal Sailing doesn’t have a fixed publication schedule.

Filename: 2015 Pacific Cup Media Plan_V1.docx- 1-last edit: 7/16/2015 4:07 PM