Discussion: Ad Campaign

During the recent "HPP" discussion, some people suggested that we could be doing more to promote Orienteering in schools, and improving the image of the sport in the media. So I thought a little ad campaign aimed at both school kids and their parents that showed both the exciting and wholesome sides of the sport would be a nice way to tackle both these issues.

I created a little set of ads that clubs could use to advertise in school newsletters and local newspapers. They are very simplistic, and so work more to promote an image for the sport, rather than convey information. As such, they would need to be supplemented with a schedule or other information about the club.

Anyway, I wanted to get some feedback so that I can finetune them before announcing them to the clubnet. So please let me know what you think, and don't hesitate to be critical.

http://www.purusstudios.com/orienteering/words.php

John - you rock!

Apparently you are an athlete and an entrepreneur doused in style. Nice!

John, these are really good.
I think the "achievement" one could use a more triumphant-looking picture - presumably, the people we'd be showing these to wouldn't know that Sime is Sime.

John: These are fantastic.

Although advertising is very expensive in regular newspapers, there are other places like the free sports magazines that are distributed widely in metropolitan areas (see
http://publishing.gen-a.com/circ.html ).
These magazines reach a lot of young potential orienteers but we need to have other things in place to keep them coming back once they try it. Unfortunately doing a White or Yellow course at a regular meet probably isn't the way to get these people hooked on the sport. So maybe we should be doing free clinics for running and triathlon clubs with easy sprint races.

Liz:
I have thought about this a lot. My father came up with an interesting idea to have a long yellow at local meets to appeal to the running crowd. We get a lot of runners / adventure racers at local HVO meets who want to run Red since it is the distance that they are used to running. But Red isn't set up for beginners, so we usually recommend that they do a Yellow. But a 2k course isn't usually very appealing to this crowd. If there was a long Yellow, maybe 5-7k, I think the runners that come out to try the sport would really appreciate it.

Boris: Achievement isn't actually exactly what I was trying to convey in that particular ad, but I haven't been able to think of a better word. The fact that it is Sime is irrevelent (because as you noted, our target viewers won't know who she is), what is important is the fact that she is reaching her goal in an important race in front of a large crowd. The photo is meant to appeal to both the kids and the parents, but the word itself is suppused to plant a seed of wholesomness in the parents' minds when they think about Orienteering. The idea is to hint that Orienteering teaches you to reach for your goals and accomplish what you set out to do. "Achievement" was the closest I could come to capture this idea in a single word, but I am actually not happy with it at all.

Here is the list of words that I have that gives a fuller picture of what I am looking for. Maybe somebody else can think of a single word that captures all of these:

completion, accomplishment, achievement, attainment, mastery, conclusion, execution, realization, fulfillment, consummation, triumph.

John, nice! Let us know when we can use these images/links. I think we will use them locally. Thanks!

By the way, the "achievement" ad assumes that the viewers understand that the runner has reached her goal (the control). The idea is that with the entire group of ads subtly placing the control into the mindset of the viewers, they will begin to realize what it is all about. I am not sure how well I have done this in the set, but I think that between the "achievement", "out there", and "speed" ads, people should start to get an idea of what is going on. And even if it isn't a perfect understanding, which of course it won't be, it should peak their interest enough to want to find out more. That is the purpose of the simplicity, and that is the reason why it needs to be supplemented with something else, even if only a link to more information.

John - speaking of your long-yellow idea. Sandy F. set a course like that at our DVOA local meet last weekend. It was basically a 10K yellow. While we didn't get that many adventure racers, we got some, and all of them seemed very enthusiastic about the experience.

This discussion brings up another point that I find we are always facing when we talk about promoting Orienteering. It seems that whichever area we focus on, we can only achieve so much because the other areas are not set up yet to help retain any Orienteers that we bring in through a focus in one area. I completely understand this dilemma, but the only way to tackle it is to bring up the level of each area of focus on it's own.

I understand that not every club has the infrastructure to take advantage of any new Orienteers that an ad campaign like this might bring in. But by simply making ads like these available for all clubs to use, we cover one area of focus allowing the clubs to focus on setting up the events to keep these new participants interested. Not every club is ready to start an advertising campaign, but I think that there are some that might be able to take advantage of these ads, so by making them available to everyone I hope that they will be able to make a difference in at least some areas.

Great ideas, and great pictures to go with them. John. One little correction: the spellling of "exhilaration." (two 'a's, not three 'i's)

I believe there's an official designation for a long beginner course: pink. Maybe not the best color for the AR crowd.

I think sprints and pink courses are the best way to get in new participants who are already fit and want to use that fitness to get results. GHO's success with the adventure run concept would seem to support this.

Excellent work on these. They would work well on the web or in posters. I think a similar series in Black & White would be better for print since color ads cost a fortune.

This year our club (NEOH) is planning on including Pink courses much more often, for just the reasons brought up here. Has anyone found that they do a good job of attracting and keeping athletic newcomers?

NEOC has occasionally offered Pink courses but since Pink isn't a regular color for O meets and has its own set of negatives (do guys really want to run Pink courses?) I think we might have attracted more people if we had just called them Long Yellows.

Well if the course is designed for runners who are looking for a more extreme version of the beginner course, I think that you might want to consider calling it something a little more, well extreme.

But back to the ads. Thanks for the correction Janet, I'll get that updated right away.

Eric, thanks for the suggestion about the printing. I share your concern about the color photos. I'll have to see how these look in black & white, or if I have to come up with some better ones for newspaper printing. I think that most of the effect of these images may be lost in the poor quality of newspapers. We'll have to do some testing to figure out where these ads might work best. Hopefully I can get some good feedback from clubs that use the ads which will allow me to finetune these and create specific ones for all the different media.

Why not just call them black or ultraviolet? Pink probably the worst color you could pick.

BAOC has been setting such courses occasionally. But at an Orange level, since that is what our adventure racer population desires. Those people already have experience navigating on USGS maps and so White or Yellow courses would be too easy for them. Orange is just right.

We simply call them "Adventure Racer Orange" or more often, just "Adventure Racer", with no color coding attached. They aren't hard at all to set--just add a few more "way out there" controls to our ordinary Orange course.

Steve - How much participation do you typically get on such a course? And do you do any extra publicity or are these people already members?

Adventure racers, as I see it and at least in our area, have a continuous demand for better navigational skills. I think they probably got a word about BAOC through acquaintances, through the word of mouth, and through some club advertising at/particpation in the organization of local adventure races. At this point, the word is out there and the crowds seem to be ever-swelling. I think it is a current BAOC policy to offer the AR course at most B-level local events, in addition to the standard complement of 7 courses. The last time there was such an 8-course event, the attendance was: Blue 12, Red 20, Green 27, Brown 20, Long Orange 17, Orange 16, Yellow 32, White 15 (counting groups as a single entry).

Nice numbers.

I went ahead and created a version of the "exhilaration" ad with a schedule, using DVOA's schedule as an example. What do you think (link)?

I wasn't sure what the best name would be for the long yellow courses. It needs to appeal to both adventure racers and cross-country runners, or just anyone who is in good running shape but hasn't done much orienteering. But it also needs to make sense to people who don't know anything about orienteering, so we can't really use our secret color coding system since it won't mean anything to non-orienteers. I settled on Long Beginner since that implies that you don't need any experience to try it, but that it is also a fun course for runners. Is there a better name?

Awesome, except you misspelled "Delaware" at the bottome. :)

Doh! Thanks Boris. It's fixed now.

Shouldn't you be asleep at 4am? :)

OK John, since you've put together such a kick-a** poster for DVOA, I better find a way to use it!

No, Boris, he's in college, and you know what late hours they have to keep! As for a long yellow, I do like the Adventure title (or something similar,) where they have the possibility of sticking to the trail or taking shortcuts that involve some significant physical and navigational challenge. Each shortcut could be orange in the difficulty level but with a clear alternative (trail or handrail) and a very clear catching feature.

John: Really nice format with the schedule, course offerings, club name, and web address.

I like BAOC's use of long intermediate/orange courses for adventure racers. There seems to be a real market for those courses in the Northeast, California, and probably many other locations around the country.

It's hard to know whether there would also be enough demand for long yellows but it's worth trying. If they are included, it might be better to call them "long novice" or "runners' novice course" rather than "long beginner." I liked Jeff's color ideas too, but for purposes of the ads, it's probably better to stay away from our color code system.

A couple of other thoughts: I love the photo you've used for "exhileration" but it's not going to bring in young adults (unless they're also parents). Do you have any others that might be good for getting that same feeling across to teens and people in their 20s?

Finally, I agree with other commenters about the "achievement" photo. A medal stand image would be a better fit for the word, or perhaps you could have a composite of two images: Sime punching in and then receiving her award.

We tried the "long yellow/orange" at a recent DVOA event and called it "AR-Trek". There was also a bike course called "AR-Bike". It was barely publicized since it was a last minute addition but we still had several people show up and do one or both courses. They were each about 10k and as stated previously required very little extra work - an extra control or two on features near blue course controls.

"tough but simple"? "long and fast"?

These ads are awesome!!

"Long Beginner" course isn't the best name to attract adventure racers. Most adventure racers who care enough about the sport to spend time working on their nav skills, are competent athletes in a different arena. Some non-committal name, like "Long Adventure Course" or some such thing, would be more appealing.

I think the concept is excellent, and we've talked about it here too. It is difficult to convince endurance athletes to drive an hour to do a short event. Another thing we've tried is allowing adventure racers to run the courses together with their teammates.

Call me old-fashioned, but allowing groups on anything but beginner courses, for me, goes against one of the basic ideas of orienteering as an individual sport. I am not sure if getting extra numbers at local meets is worth such a change, but that's just me.

The groups don't compete in the individual category, so it doesn't affect the other orienteers, so why would it matter? Adventure racing is a team sport, and the best teams often share the navigation duties, e.g. passing the map around, or setting it up so one person is pace counting while another is checking his watch while another is watching a compass bearing. These skills require practice, and it's hard to find places to practice them.

Not every member of an AR team might feel confident navigating on his or her own - at least initially. If we get them out to our events, give them each a map (which doesn't happen in AR), and send them out for a good time, we hope that eventually they will all feel confident to try orienteering on their own.

I think that the AR course is distinct enough from the BGRB courses that having groups on them is not a problem. Attendance will be much better if teams can go out together.

Ok, fair enough.

Back to the ads, which I think are an excellent start- shouldn't they say "orienteering" on them somewhere (other than in small print at the bottom)? I like that the message is simple but it has to mean something too. If you assume an audience with no exposure to the sport then how are they supposed to know what is being achieved, what is exhilerating or intense? Looks, from an uniformed perspective, like kids running in almost any event with only one image clearly showing a control but failing to explain what it is. I probably write down or remember one in one hundred URL's I see in advertising that I bother to read and actually visit only some of those websites.

The "achievement" image doesn't really relate. A skinny, young woman, awkwardly bent over a funny white/orange flag in the middle of a pavement, with a few people in the background? Don't have any idea what the message is or what she is doing/achieving. The series otherwise is good with interesting images. Good start.

The "achievement" ad is gone.

Wes, these ads are intended to make the viewer interested in reading further. Rather than just shouting ORIENTEERING at them, the idea is to show them something really cool, and pique their interest enough to read further. You will find that once they are interested, they are much more likely to view what they read in a positive light. If they are simply bombarded with something that they are not familiar with, they are likely to pass it off and ignore it. First you draw them in, then you show them the important stuff in the positive light that you have created by drawing them in.

I agree with you about the URL though. I think that the versions with the schedules will work much better.

Back to the question of course-naming though. I am partial to naming the Long-Beginner course "Runners Course". It is better than calling it something related to Adventure Racing because it won't appeal to runners who are non-Adventure Racers. "Runners Course" should appeal to anyone who likes to run. What do you guys think?

We've not had much success marketing to runners. I'm pretty sure we'd do better tying in with the Adventure Racing concept. There might be regional differences on this point. How about calling it a "Terrain Run" implying that it inolves off-trail as well as on.

Alrighty, I'll admit to being an adventure racer first and an orienteer second - so I'd better jump in with my 1/5 cents of thoughts on the "adventure run". I actually really like the idea and am a bit embarrassed to have not thought of putting one on in similar fashion.

But there is a bit of a caveat. Not having put one on locally, our adventure racing population has had to immerse themselves completely in to the sport of orienteering to get their training. Something I'd think most folks on this board would be happy to see. Though, any time a Rogaine of any length (3-24 hours) happens, my AR friends start coming from all over and the beer bets start getting laid down.

If you do put on a seperate course for AR'rs, then they will likely stick to that as being orienteering for them. Whether some see this as good or bad. For myself, if I were to set such a leg up, I would put it round a 3-5 hour event, teams allowed, and a mass start. I wouldn't "dumb" down the navigation as well, as that is why AR'rs are there to begin with. To learn that skill. They are use to persevering and/or not finishing an event.

A possible way to get AR'rs out to your event without a separate course is to just make a Score-O out of your existing controls. Let them run around how they see fit for the 3-5 hours.

May be call this "Adventure Run"?

Chris' point is valid - if the "Adventure Run" is no more technical than "Adventure Race", they'll have no reason to do it. That said, I think there is merit in offering a long course of no more than Orange difficulty. That's still a step up from most AR courses.

While they are happy to do it, I don't think Adventure Racers learn much from thrashing around trying to find advanced controls. My observation is that they (that is, the one's who are not also advanced orienteers) tend to attack them like Orange controls (navigate to a big feature, then use compass and pace, then start wandering around looking for a bag), but with much less success. I think you learn a lot more by using techniques that actually work.

Trying to stay in contact with the map on advanced legs slows them down so much that they give up and just start heading in the right direction and hope for the best. By giving them good handrails and catching/collecting features, contact is rewarded without the big drop in speed.

John,

excellent work! I'd like to see a way to use these photos / ads with some room for information to contact the local O' club and USOF. Think that would work?

Mike Minium
V P Program Development
U S Orienteering Federation

Definitely Mike. I am working on setting it up so that clubs can input their upcoming schedule information and it will automatically generate the images with that information for download (you can see an example of that here). I'll try to design another option that can simply display information about the club if you think there will be a demand for that as well.

Does it bother anyone else that in the image of the boy finishing in the "exhilaration" ad you can't see that he's carrying a map?
Otherwise, great idea, great follow-through.

Hi John, what is status with this tool? I'm definetely in need of posters for upcomming sprint events, would be interesting to reuse one of your images. Also, poster size should be 11"x17". Can do Photoshop by myself, not a problem. Andrew.

Hey. Tough break on jwoc, but nicely done coming to the final. Anyways, back on topic.

I havent read all the comments from everyone, so i might say things that has already been said.

It is good to see people trying to do something about promoting orienteering over there in America, so give yourself a medal. Only suggeztion i have is to make sure the pictures are from people who are big and tough. People who small little kidz would look up too. Usually many sportz has done that when they promote sports like basketball, soccer etc. and it works.

If i made little sence, just think "propoganda" and everything will work out just fine ;)

Hope to see you back in Oslo one day.

Sorry about this guys, but this project sort of got lost for a couple months. I am still hoping to finish setting it up so that clubs can easily input their schedule data into the posters prior to printing.

For now though, if anyone wants to use the posters and has the ability to edit them themselves send me an email and I will send you the files. You should be able to edit the text in either Photoshop or Acrobat.

John, what is your current email? Not sure my mail reached you. andrew

jfredson at gmail.com. Where did you send it? I'll check my spam folder as things sometimes end up in there.

Our club has run adds in local outdoor sports magazines. It seems to generate some interest. They've been image-heavy ads as John's are; I agree that you've got to catch their eye first, then sell them.

If your organizers don't have time to set one more course for small events, how about setting one of the long courses so that it can be done either easily by going around by trails and clearings and such, or more quickly but more technically through the woods? OK, the adventure racers need to slow down the last 100 meters in to the control from their circuitous trail route, but it makes most of the navigation within their skill level at the speed they'd like to go. We still get ARs to our events fairly often (mostly because they notice they've been beaten by orienteers at the latest AR :-). We have some larger urban areas that are perfect for them, fortunately. (Big features, generally open.)