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Learn How to Maximize Your Club Team Exposure

For the vast majority of clubs, the second half of your season gets underway in early May with Association and Region level qualifiers for Age Groups.  It’s also the start of the 100-day pre-Olympic window, as national magazines begin running athlete previews, Olympic Trials events start making their way onto TV, and hometown papers start trying to figure out how to capitlize on their local, offbeat amateur sports – such as synchro, pentathlon, fencing and Greco-Roman wrestling – that seem to crop up “only in Olympic years.”

 How can you stand above the fray and garner some much-needed attention?  Here’s a few story ideas you can localize over the next few months:

 1) “The Olympic Dream starts here!”  Every day, kids such as yours are swimming in hopes of becoming the next Christina, Brooke, Kim or Andrea.  Invite your local community newspaper amateur sports writer out the week before your next big meet or water show to profile a group of local kids with Olympic dreams.  (Why it works?  The H.S. sports season is almost over, and community papers are clammoring for amateur sports news to fill summer pages.)

 2) “Summertime.”  As summer approaches, every community paper or community magazine is seeking colorful, youthful, fun summertime activities to profile in photos.  Often times, summer’s arrival is signaled by the opening of outdoor pools, or the first full day of summer vacation for school kids.  If you’re an indoor team, arrange for an outdoor practice session at your local aquatic center for the day before the pools open for the summer or before summer break begins.  Invite local newspapers to come photograph your team – in full competition colors – for a “summer is here!” photo spread.  Reach out directly to photo assignment editors and photo desks, and call in at least a day in advance to TV station assignment desks and ask for your event to be placed in the “daybook” for your particular date.

 3) “Summer fitness.”  Parents are always seeking ways to keep their kids off the couch and away from the PS3 during the summer.  Draft up a little flyer on 5-6 basic synchro moves that flex different parts of the body, and pitch synchro as a fun alternative to summer swim lessons for parents who have bored kids.  It’s a great way to introduce kids to synchro, and the TV station or community newspaper can take your flyer (with drawings and descriptions) and run it as a nice sidebar to a story on your team’s recreation program or upcoming meet.

 4) “Beijing Bound.”  Every city has an adventurous morning show reporter.  And most will be trying their hand at various Olympic sports once a week or so leading up to August.  Get out there early and pitch a visit with your club for a synchro challenge.  (And then WIN the morning by closing out the interview by offering a few boxes of Chinese takeout and saying, “Unfortunately, I think THIS is as close as you’re going to get to Beijing.”)

 5) “Watch Party.”  Organize a synchro watch party during the Olympic Games, and invite your local NBC affiliate out for a fun profile of your team members.  Work with the National Office to secure an autographed item from the team as a giveaway.

 Most important is to remember who your audience is.  You’re trying to reach young parents with young kids.  So talk to them, find out where they get their news and ideas, and work through those established avenues.  You’ll find that it’s more often than not: other parents, community publications, play groups and parents groups, and community organizations.

 For more on pitching synchro, see the Club Publicity Manual on the USSS site.

 A coordinated PR effort to community publications will have a broad impact, localizing that national Olympic angle and providing a “face” for the story in your community.