Statesman Sports Section

[Guest Justaracefan]

It is great to see that the American Statesman placed a article in the sports section today on a local auto racer. I guess the sports editor realized that Austin does have interested auto racing fans as well as bicycle racing fans.

[tqj3]

Sorry. The sports editor didn't suddenly "realize" anything. Casey and his parents have been doing publicity for Casey since he started racing, and I helped for several years until this year. (He now has a company out of the Carolinas working for him.)

This isn't the first story on Casey, or even on a local racer. We've had stories (often longer ones) not only on Casey but on Charlie Turner, C. T. Hellmund, H. E. Naumann, Matt Tolbert, Bubba Naumann and others.

We've also gotten TV stories on all five local TV stations.

I hoped when I saw this post this morning that someone new had stepped up and started promoting their race team and driver, but no such luck.

Good job, Kathy, Glen and Casey. I particularly liked Glen's comparing Casey's talent and skill at this age to LeBron James, and the story is one of the best (and most accurate) I've seen from the local media.

[gundogC3]

THERE'S A COUPLE OF OTHER YOUNG GREAT TALLENTS IN THE AREA THAT SHOULD GET SOME PR.

[tqj3]

There are quite a few young talents in the area who deserve some press attention. But until someone starts informing the press, they aren't going to get it. Sportswriters and sportscasters aren't mind readers, someone has to give them a starting point.

Every driver, every track, every series should be sending information to the media on at least a weekly basis.

You don't have any idea just how much work it takes to get the media interested enough to do a story such as today's piece on Casey, and I understand they actually did this story about two weeks ago, but haven't found space to run it until now.

You will just have to forgive the media if, in the face of our continued silence, they quite logically assume we don't exist.

[Guest Justaracefan]

Or maybe it could be that Casey has earned three NATIONAL championship titles in auto racing (he has proven his ability to travel across the nation and win titles) Aside from his accomplishments he seems to continue to prove his demenor on and off the track. I watched the ASA race when Cywinski wreaked him as he was passing for the lead. Casey's interview when he climbed out of his car was very professional and matter of fact. I can not understand why he has not already signed a major corporate sponsor. He has the talent, looks, demenor, age and there is sure no question of his ability! The article says he ran NASCAR All Pro I didn't know that!

[Jason]

There are also a lot of drivers with talent that cannot afford a PR person. Casey is now with 51 Sports. The have an awesome site with Bob Dilner from SPEED channel. 51 Sports Racing. I think it is good that Casey got a nice article in the paper. Not often do you see this. I also saw a commercial the other day flipping through the channel for Casey and that ducktexas.com. Glad to see he is getting publicity.

 

And hopefully other newspaper sports editors will realize how big local racing really is.

[Jason]

Didn't he run Allpro at Nashville? I think he got the pole and then had mechanical problems. Not sure though.

[tqj3]

The fact that a driver can't afford a PR person is irrelevant. Can he afford tires, entry fees, travel money, racing engines and so on? Of course. Well, if you intend to go anywhere past the local track, you have just as much need of PR as you do of a car, tires and travel money.

Other drivers have won, some have won national titles, without getting much, if any, press. Driving and winning are just part of the process; the rest of it is getting known.

Other drivers have been winning for years, but until they started sending info to the media, they got no press at all.

You don't need to hire anyone if you can do it yourself. Kathy Smith did most of Casey's press work for five or six years. I've even posted on this site what you need to do.

If you don't do it, quit complaining that someone who has never heard of you and has no way of knowing about you, your team, your track, your series, or your driver, isn't doing stories on you.

[Jason]

It's irrevalent? Your performance on track is what you want to have your PR on. Cars can't go around the track on 3 tires. If some guy is running last each week and hires a PR person with the money he was going to spend on a racing engine do you think he is going to be able to improve enough for it to make a difference? I think not.

[tqj3]

Jason-

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

My point is simply that it won't matter that you win if no one knows about it aside from the few hundred or thousand people at the track.

And you don't have to hire anyone. Whether or not you do, you must have someone telling the world about you. It can be your boyfriend or girl friend, your uncle, your mom, whoever. But if the people in the media don't get SOMETHING to tell them you exist, and what you've done, you will not get any press.

There may be no story if you don't win, but Casey didn't get the story because he won, but because someone told the right people in the media what he's done.

What continues to astound me is that people in racing can't figure this out. How do you expect people to know about races at your track if you don't tell them? How do you expect sponsors to flock to you if you don't do anything to draw attention to yourself? And how do you expect all of these people to find you if you don't take any action to let them know about you?

Do you think the Dallas Cowboys, the San Antonio Spurs, even the University of Texas, are sitting back waiting for people to write about them? I promise you they are not, and they have a better chance of getting press that way than anybody in racing, including NASCAR.

What this amounts to is everybody wanting to shoot the messenger, me, for telling you what you have to do in the real world. I didn't set up the system, I'm just trying to tell you how it works.

[supertx]

TQ thanks for telling the way that it really works.

[Guest Justaracefan]

I found this article written by Ernie Saxton regarding marketing and stories he has received from racers:

 

 

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Sponsorship Marketing

 

A RACER telephoned to tell me that he wants to attract serious sponsorship. What can he do?

 

After we were done talking with him for several minutes, we found that:

* He could not afford a suit and tie.

* He could not afford to spend money on marketing materials.

* He could not afford to create stationary and business cards.

* He could not afford to be traveling around for meetings with sponsors.

* He could not afford to entertain potential sponsors. Sponsors have a lot of money they should be entertaining.

 

The list went on and on. Actually it was not a case of not being able to afford but a case of what his priorities were. He found a way to buy anything he needed to go racing. He had a hauler. He had the race car. He had what he needed to go racing. He could afford to travel to the races. But when it came to seeking sponsorship, something that he claimed he really needed and really wanted there was no time or money to spend.

 

He was financing all his racing with money out of his own pocket and with help from friends. If that is the way it is with you, if you are not willing to put time, effort and money into serious marketing and sponsorship efforts, you should just get used to paying for it all yourself.

 

Of course you could hire someone to do all this for you. Don't expect to find good marketing people who are willing to do this kind of work on a commission basis. As we often tell people who ask us to work on commission, we suggest they ask their engine builder to work on a commission based on the winnings using his engine. If you can find an engine builder to do that, call me and we will talk.

[Jason]

I am just curious as to how much a PR person would go for? Like say I wanted to get into racing next year. How much would it cost me?

[tqj3]

Jason-

Ernie Saxton's article, quoted by "justaracefan," hit it right. It's a matter of priorities, and racers who can't afford to do PR are no different than track owners who say they need more spectators in the stands, but have no money to try and get them there.

As to your question, you may not want or need to hire a PR guy for awhile. If you go racing, how are you going to do it? I'm assuming, from things you've said in the past, that you aren't in a position to go buy a fast car and hire people to work on it for you.

So you'll buy a used race car (always cheaper than building one) and do a lot of the work yourself? You may have to buy a motor, but you'll probably go around picking people's brains and reading books to learn about setup and other things you'll need to know.

In other words, you'll do what you can, and learn all you can, and ask other people for ideas.

That's how you do PR at first. It won't work for everyone, but your posts and running this board show you have a command of the language and can probably do a lot of your own PR work at first.

The downside is that it's almost impossible to promote yourself, because you can't say things about yourself that a guy you HIRED can say about you. "This Jason kid is fast. You'll want to keep an eye on him, maybe do a story." Your PR guy that you hired, and that everyone knows you hired, can say that, but how would it sound coming from you? Weird, huh?

Your stuff does have to be professional. By that, I mean well-written and as error-free as possible. (We've been getting some comments from the media up here that some of the stuff they get from racers is ungrammatical and full of misspelled words.) But I think you can handle it.

How do you get around the problem of not being able to say nice things about yourself? Use someone else as the "press contact," even to the point of using a false name, if necessary. Some racers use their girlfriends as their PR contact (and some as their actual PR person), some use wives, generally under their maiden names. You have to be careful, because sometimes you'll need the "press contact" to be present in a meeting or press event.

What do you need to do? I've listed some of it on various posts on this site, but at the minimum you need to send a release saying where you are going to race, another saying how you finished (and always tell them who won), then one saying where you are in the points. (Even if you have the results and points at the same time, don't send them at the same time. Use two separate releases, so your name is in front of a media person twice.)

Of course, this is after you put together a biography on you and a statement of where you are racing, why, and where you hope to be in a few years; basic background material.

If you've got a few hundred dollars, that's enough to get "hero cards" made, though you can hold off on that and use it as another hook to attract a sponsor.

Can you get a sponsor the first year? Sure, if you don't expect much and start working at least nine months in advance of the start of the season.

How much does a PR guy cost? That depends on several variables, starting with how much you want done. Are you racing every week, or only once or twice a month? And it's not always cheaper to do less; the PR guy (or girl) has to charge a certain minimum per month.

You can go to a PR firm, and they'll charge you anywhere from $75.00 per press release up to $250.00 or more per release, depending on how many you need. But most PR firms don't know anything about racing, so they may not be as useful as you need.

On the low end in Texas, probably a $250 per month minimum will cover what you need: good, well-written press releases sent to the appropriate people (putting a list together and keeping it updated is part of the job), with some follow-up personal contact with key media people to get them interested in doing a story.

Whether or not you hire someone, don't expect much at first. It might take six months to get any significant press attention. Not only that, but you'll probably only see results from one press release in four. You send the rest because A) you don't know which one they may cotton to, and because every one is a chance to keep your name and what you do in front of them.

Pick my brain, if you like. I don't mind answering questions. Ask Chuck Licata for his ideas, too. The more racers, tracks, teams and series that send out material, the more attention the media will pay to all of us.

Good luck, on the track and off.

[Caveman]

You go TQ!