PUBLICITY & SPONSORSHIP
Competitor publicity from a promoter’s point of view;
From time to time, a number of individual competitors have approached Targa Tasmania management seeking publicity for themselves, their team or sponsor. On other occasions, a few disgruntled characters have commented that they have not received recognition of their individual role within the event; after having scrutinised the Media Book, during-event publications and the video.
Targa Tasmania’s role as a promoter is to publicise the event. Within that context, the Targa Tasmania Media Department will obviously publicise the feats of various individuals, but cannot undertake to become a publicist for any one competitor, sponsor or team.
For Targa Tasmania to set out to publicise any individual entity would be clearly iniquitous. Other individuals would automatically be disadvantaged, and the event could very quickly be perceived as favouring a small group of “insiders”. Targa Tasmania’s management has always been even-handed in dealing with all competitors regardless of status or profile. It would be contrary to fair play for Targa Tasmania – as a promoter – to guarantee to publicise an individual beyond appropriate recognition for achievement in the event.
The utilisation of publicity resources must be directed to the event as a whole and to all who take part. Corporate sponsors, the Tasmanian Government, community groups, officials and many others who make significant contribution to the event are equally entitled to appropriate recognition. To divert scarce publicity resources to any individual competitor would be inequitable.
Competitors will be aware that media information is sought from them through a section contained in the “Application to Compete” form. The data supplied is used by Targa Tasmania to ensure that the media database is as comprehensive as possible, for the benefit of the event and all competitors. Targa Tasmania cannot specifically target localised media outlets to serve the publicity aspirations of individual competitors. However, it does provide regional media thus identified with information leading up to and during the event which will enhance the publicity efforts made by individual competitors and teams.
The responsibility for an individual’s publicity or recognition therefore squarely rests on that individual. Even after having won four World Rally Championships, 1994 competitor Sandro Munari (Lamborghini Diablo) still retains a professional publicist to develop all manner of public relations opportunities. As popular as Neal Bates and Coral Taylor are, Toyota Australia employs a professional consultancy to ensure the best publicity for their efforts and sponsorship dollars.
SOME TIPS ON PUBLICITY AND SPONSORSHIP FOR COMPETITORS
BASIC: Consider what you or your team has to offer a prospective sponsor, not just what you can get from them. Consider all aspects of developing publicity exposure opportunities, not only in media, but also other devices such as static displays, trade expo’s, community events and related activities such as charity days.
ANGLE: Develop a unique story, perhaps along the line of testing a new product in the field or of a novice putting together a “ground up” team utilising local skills and talents to challenge interstate competitors. You must be able to generate interest in your proposal.
SUBMISSION: A comprehensive outline of your proposal should be professionally presented in clear and concise terms. Specifically, it must be made clear what is in it for the sponsor, the benefit should be quantified in dollar terms and be two to three times that value of the sponsorship sought.
MEDIA: Try to obtain local media interest in your team well before the event and keep providing the chosen outlets with a series of timely and concise bulletins on progress of your team before and during the event. Talk to all available media, including the local radio station and the community “throwaway” weekly papers. Many smaller localised media are keen to work on local angles of stories of broader interest, so keeping them onside is good for your sponsor and for general publicity.
PACKAGING: Ensure that the media outlets you have contacted are included in your submission to a sponsor. Don’t indulge in a wish list of exposure, be realistic; prior media liaison will pay dividends here. Vague expressions of hopeful mention in the video or other event publicity will carry no weight in an increasingly commercial world which looks to dollar returns on publicity investments. If you want to properly package your publicity and service sponsors, it is best to budget for having your own publicist to accompany your team, or arrange to “feed” a publicist in your own area with information as the event progresses.
GENERATE INTEREST: Develop the “angle” (above) into a positive marketing asset; for example, try to obtain the support of an identity to ensure that connection becomes an integral part of the package and is appropriately recognised in publicity. This aspect can snowball to good effect, for example, when Mazda Australia brought to Targa Tasmania 1995 Rosemary Smith, the first woman to win a round of the World Rally Championship, various media outlets featured her in different formats, reflecting additional publicity back onto the sponsor.
TOBACCO ADVERTISING: Sometimes the organisers have been asked by intending competitors about the legality of carrying a tobacco seller’s name or logo on their competition car. The following advice is provided as a guide to the law on the subject, but cannot be taken as final or definitive, due to the variety of circumstances applicable. In any case, competitors contemplating any such sponsorship are advised to seek specific legal advice.
Targa Tasmania is bound by The Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 and the Tasmanian Public Health Act 1997, in respect to overall advertising and sponsorship of the event. The Act prohibits any tobacco advertising in the form of writing, still or moving pictures, signs, symbols or any other visual image or audible message that promotes smoking or tobacco products. Any such advertising by the organisers of the event, or by an individual competitor, would constitute an offence under the Act.
A recent amendment to the Act clarifies the matter of displaying the name of a tobacco retailer in a form that has the potential to be seen through the media coverage of Targa Tasmania. The Act now provides: “.. the use in an advertisement of the whole name of a manufacturer, distributor or retailer of tobacco products does not, of itself, constitute (a) promotion of a tobacco product or a range of tobacco products… and (b) promotion of smoking…”. As such, the display of tobacco retailer’s name on a Targa Tasmania competitor’s car does not necessarily constitute an offence under the Act, provided the retailer’s name is not succeeded by any message that promotes smoking or the sale of tobacco products. Competitors will also be committing an offence if they benefit in any way from any form of tobacco advertising on their vehicle.
The brief points made here are merely designed to stimulate your own ideas in securing sponsorship and publicity. After all, each competitor and/or sponsor has their own ideas on what constitutes good publicity. To expect the event promoter to fulfil the role of individual publicist to each and every entrant is unrealistic in practical terms.
While as a promoter of Targa Tasmania the organisers will always try to help in developing publicity opportunities in conjunction with individuals, the ultimate beneficiary must be the event as a whole, incorporating everyone who makes it the Ultimate Tarmac Rally.
