Looking for Publicity Opportunities

The number one key to getting some publicity for your rugby club is to look for the angle. I cannot stress this enough. If you can't think of anything newsworthy that is happening on your club, sit down with your club's executive committee and hash over some ideas. Has anyone made select side for your LAU? TU select side?? Eagle??? Is someone the son or daughter of the mayor, city councilman, well-known person? Are any of your players involved in a unique occupation or volunteer charity work? Does the club have a charity that is the beneficiary of your players' time or the club's money from an event? Look once more at my press release from the previous article. How many angles do I have in it? Let's see...there's the Azalea Festival, which is a BIG name to drop in our community; the RAF (our area has a huge military presence); a couple of Combined Services Select Side players; VRU select side players; Rory Underwood and the World Cup; even the referee angle was played. There's an old saying that goes, "No one will speak up for you if you don't speak up for yourself." Make sure you look for the angle and exploit it to the max. As Pete Rose used to say, "It ain't bragging if you can do it." Just make sure that you don't write up anything that you know isn't true or has been enhanced beyond ethical boundaries...very important!

An angle can come from both good and bad news. We've received a full-page story and picture from opening the season a decade ago with three losses as well as a front-page picture and story in the sports section about club victory #300 last fall. In fact, another club officer and I milked the win #300 for all we could: he got a congratulatory letter from President Clinton and I got written kudos from Governor Allen (a former rugger...great angle to play!) and the mayor of Norfolk. These three letters produced another angle, and a press release quoting parts of each letter went out to my press release list recipients. It got me a television appearance on a public affairs show.

Look for PR opportunities around you. This starts with reading the sports section of your daily newspaper. We've introduced rugby to the Virginia State Games, which reaped an abundance of publicity for us, because I read about the State Games, always held in Richmond, being moved to Norfolk/Virginia Beach for 1994...and this was in the paper in September 1992. Also, we read in the sports section that this section was starting a new weekly series, "Ventures," which would highlight unusual sports activities in the area. Once again, we received a good story.

Another area to look for publicity in is the Internet. The rec.sport.rugby.union newsgroup provides a wealth of opportunities for you. You can "advertise" for overseas players on here, attract overseas clubs to come touring to your area (and thus give a good publicity opportunity to you), let ruggers worldwide know about special celebrations or accomplishments of your club, etc. In return, watch for opportunities that you can take advantage of yourself here. A few months ago, I answered a posted request for ruggers to send in their stories to Heartland, a national quarterly magazine, which was planning a Fall 1995 rugby article. I e-mailed the contact two humorous stories from my playing past and he wrote back that they were just what he was looking for. The article was published in August, with both anecdotes in it.

Don't forget that you can set up your club's home page on the Internet's World Wide Web. Here is a permanent advertisement for your club and it's activities! Many home pages get hundreds of hits (visits) per day from folks surfing the 'net. The more hypertext links you can make with other home pages, the more surfers you will attract. Also, make sure that your e-mail signature has your club name, and, if you want, club address on it. Most on-line ruggers have a quote or saying attached to their signature. This can easily act as a mnemonic device, where readers will remember you more often.

Creating your own event is something your club can do if nothing great publicity-wise is happening. On the pitch, set up a 7's, 10's, or 15's tournament. Then let your press release list recipients know. Is there an overseas club touring in your area? Get the press releases out, and don't forget to send them to anyone on your list who is from that touring club's country. Off the pitch, there are numerous events that you can stage: a blood drive, food collection for a food bank, used clothing drive for a homeless shelter, club yard sale with profits going to a charitable cause, etc. Charitable causes always get publicity; you will also be helping out a good cause in doing something.

If you decide to set up your own tournament, radios will give you free advertising time. Free? Yes, free - they're called PSA's, or public service announcements. Radio stations love to air PSA's, because they look good at FCC license renewal time. All you have to do is be brief...PSA's are usually limited to :10 seconds in length. On a postcard, type out the PSA. Then skip a line and put down the week that you want the announcement to run. For instance, here's what I send:

The Norfolk City Blues host the Ed Lee Cup state rugby playoffs 9 to 5 this Saturday and Sunday at Lake Taylor High School, Norfolk. Admission is free.

Please air this PSA during the week of October 27. Thank you.

I then add my name, address, and telephone number...very important if I messed something up and the radio station wants to clarify something with me. You'll notice that you can read my PSA in a hurry in 8 seconds. That's great, because I will want a normal reading speed on the air, which will stretch my PSA out to 10 seconds and help the listeners take more information. (Which is why I didn't include the dates of the Ed Lee Cup in the PSA itself - too much material for a listener to remember. KISS, right?)

Local cable access TV is the bread and butter of every organization that wants free publicity. There are many opportunities here. Every cable television provider has it's own TV channel for public affairs programming. Look in your TV listings and see what local sports shows there are. Chances are there will be at least one entrepreneurial sportsman who has paid for the on-air and production time. In my area, we have two such shows: Tidewater Amateur Sports, which we have been on three times in the last four years, and Time Out With Jack and Chick, which we made our first appearance on earlier this year. Then just pick up the phone and tell the host of the show why he should have a rugby guest on his show. Also, your local city government will probably have its own cable channel. Skim the TV listings and see if rugby would fit the content of any of the programs. Then pick up the phone and start convincing. Make sure that you have something informative about your club already printed up to fax these people when they ask for something in writing or for more information. I have a three-page information packet made up and all set to fax out to anyone on a moment's notice. Finally, if you have the funds, you can have your own local cable access TV show. However, it will take a great deal of time, equipment, and money to get good rugby footage for your weekly rugby show. The last thing your want is talking heads for 30 minutes each week.

If you're having a large rugby tournament, call up the local cable television provider and build your tourney up big. Then ask the provider to come out and tape the final of your tournament. These cable providers always go out to local events that are big or important and shoot them for airing at a later time. Why not a rugby final?

Radio sports shows provide ample opportunity for free publicity. Call the host or producer of any of the local radio talk shows and ask to be a guest on the show. Come armed with your bio and questions for the host to ask you (in 16 point type or larger) and you will be the ideal guest. Is there a radio call-in sports show? Go ahead and call in and talk about rugby. All sports are fair game. Pre-plan what you want to say and you will find that in two minutes on-the-air, you will have been able to inform, recruit, and announce.

Another radio possibility to take advantage of is a remote. Many radio stations have a mobile studio which they use to go on-site of certain events. It could be a parade, a store opening, or a rugby tournament. Sometimes there is a charge, sometimes not. We have had the top rock station in our area broadcast all day from the Ed Lee Cup for free. One of our members simply picked up the phone and asked. Simple.

If there is a local or area magazine, call up the editor and ask if you can write an article about rugby in the community for the magazine...gratis, of course. A free article that involves something "new" in the community - new to the editor, that is - could open the door to a "yes" from the editor. Stress to this person any well-known person in the community who plays for your club, the number of people who play in the area (the larger the better), national rugby news that might sway him/her over. I always let editors know that our Governor George Allen, President Bill Clinton, entertainer Kris Kristofferson, Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins, and Pope John Paul II all played rugby. Suddenly the sport isn't so foreign to the editor anymore. All you have to do is pick up the phone and ask.

Along with the magazines are the weekly supplements to the area newspaper. Do not overlook these folks. They specialize more on the local news/sports angle than the main newspaper. Here's a good opportunity for free publicity, albeit to a smaller audience.

Look for speaking opportunities. There are plenty if you look hard enough. In our area we have the Virginia Beach Sports Club, the Norfolk Sports Club, and the Portsmouth Sports Club. These are business men and women who meet for lunch weekly, have a short business meeting, and listen to a sports speaker. Why not you? Find out who the person is who schedules speakers and pick up the phone. How about professional organizations - Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions, etc. Does rugby really qualify as a lunch topic? Once again, just pick up the phone and ask. A great help here would be to have a friend who is in any of these organizations. Ask around. As we all know, it's not what you know, but who you know that opens the doors!

Is there an area committee that you can get on? Locally, we have the Hampton Roads Sports Promotion Task Force. This consists of the president of the local cable TV company, a manager from the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, and several other businessmen and women who are real gatekeepers in the world of sports in this area. The meetings are open to anyone interested. I'm interested. I'm now a regular fixture at these monthly meetings. Sometimes I go to speak about a rugby event, sometimes to just listen and make friends. Anyone who attends becomes a member. This has lead to a television appearance for our club so far.

In summation, if you want to get publicity for your rugby club, make sure that you get someone willing to put in the time and effort. During the season, you can figure on an average of two hours per week to be the minimum effort for publicity. The whole key, though, is the willingness to do this. If your publicity chairperson is not willing or doesn't have the time, get someone else. As you have read, it doesn't take a lot of skill to get publicity. A good demeanor, the willingness to pick up the phone and call, the ability to write well, and consistency are the four main ingredients that need to be present. Also, don't expect the media to instantly open their arms to you. It usually takes time to develop a good relationship with them. This relationship will develop quicker if you are consistent in your publicity efforts, especially with the press releases. The sports editors and sports directors need to know that you are here for the long run. When you develop this good, professional relationship with the press, it will bring great satisfaction to you when you see some of these folks starting to bend over backwards to give your club publicity!