Friday, September 11, 2015

PROMOTE YOUR SPORT THROUGH RACE RESULTS



AU member, Doug Harms, shared the following promotion idea with us.  It has worked well to improve awareness of the hobby and contacts, and it is something that people can see in their newspaper on a weekly basis without the fee of advertising.

If your club is not doing this, perhaps you will consider it as a future promotion tool.

Would you like to help get more members in your local Pigeon Club?????

Go to your local newspaper and ask if they will publish the race results for your local pigeon races, at no cost to your club.

Give them this "example" of what they might expect you to send in each week.

" Sterling- The results are in for the Rock River Valley Racing Pigeon Club's 200 mile race on 8/23/15.  

  The winner of the A Race is Doug Harms, of Rock Falls, at 1087.9 yards per minute or 37.1 miles per hour.  Second loft is Devoe Manning, of Dixon, at 1012.6 ypm or 34.5 mph.  Third loft is Pat and Don Kelsey, of Sterling, at 950.9 ypm or 32.4 mph.

  The winner of the B Race is Steve Calsyn, of Rock Falls,  at 933.0 ypm or 31.8 mph.  Second loft is Jake Scroggins, of Sterling, at 802.0 ypm or 27.3 mph.  Third loft is Cathy and Al Esgar, of Dixon, at 697.6 ypm or 23.8 mph.  To view complete race results go to rrvpigeonclub.org   To join in this fun sport, call Devoe Manning at 779-861-1830 or Doug Harms at 815-535-5205."

Your local newspaper will want this to be done right the first time, so be sure to proof read twice, before you hit the send tab on your computer.

Note the race results in the "example" are given in yards per minute and miles per hour.  This is done because the public can better identify with miles per hour.  An easy way to convert the yards per minute to miles per hour is to multiply the yards per minute by 60, then divide your answer by 1760.  Example:  1320 ypm times 60 = 79,200 divided by 1760 = 45 mph. 

Note in "example" the words "yards per minute" and "miles per hour" are spelled out only the first time; after that, you can use the abbreviation, "ypm" and "mph" to save on space for your local newspaper.

Note in "example" that you will want to list the winner and what town he is from, and then list 2nd loft and 3rd loft.  This will put more local names into the results that people will recognize.

Note in "example" at the finish of the report you will direct the public to your club website.  You will tell them that the sport is fun and you will tell them who to contact to join in this fun sport.

Most papers will publish your race results for free in the sports pages or maybe in the business section of the paper.  In either place, you are getting the job done at no cost.

I send the race results to our local paper each week.  It takes me less than a half hour per week to accomplish this. 

The hope is that when other people see the race results, some people will want to inquire and hopefully join in the sport of racing pigeons.

Doug Harms, "Harms Loft" of GrayfoxHarms.com

Thank you Doug for an excellent idea!