Problem Statement: I Run for the Party is a Nashville area for-profit race company which hosts large scale running races around the city throughout the year. The concept that I Run for the Party owner, Emmit Martin, came up with is to provide an outlet for encouraging running by throwing a large party after each race. He currently hosts a 5K race at Cinco de Mayo, a 10K race on July 4, and a costume-based 5K race at Halloween. His company has been up and running for the past three years, but race registration has stagnated. Although he yields more runners than the average 5K/10K races (1200-1400), he wants to grow the number of people at each of his events. Our mission is to come up with innovative ways to increase race registration and participation going forward, with a particular focus on the upcoming Cinco de Mayo 5K.
Solution 1: Hold a registration booth at Vanderbilt's Rites of Spring Festival. This annual event brings in a large number of people who make-up Emmit's target audience: young people who both exercise and party. By hosting a registration booth during the Festival, Emmit can reach directly to the target market segment and hold on-the-spot registration for these participants. He can also have volunteers walk around with race information brochures to further spread the word to his main target market.
Solution 2: Have race pamphlet information included in race packets for Country Music Marathon and 1/2 Marathon participants. The Country Music Marathon is held in Nashville the week before the Cinco de Mayo 5K. By reaching out to the race organizers, Emmit can get his race pamphlets included in the race packets received by all Marathon participants. This market of runners is a strong target because a majority of race participants are Nashville residents who clearly enjoy running events. They will also likely be interested in the more casual 5K experience the following weekend, which will be a much shorter distance with a great party celebration afterwards.
Solution 3: Hand stamps with race website and information. Emmit can purchase hand stamps with the race information printed on them and can use the stamps to promote the event at local bars or other Nashville area events. He can also work with bars to have the hand stamps be used when checking IDs when people enter bars. Again this hits his target market which is definitely a younger crowd which is historically drawn to the event because of the running, but also because of the party element of the races.
Thanks for working on this project. How about targeting a new market segment - say, runner young parents who might appreciate a kids-appropriate party and chance to socialize with other parents after a race or a pet-owners run that ends at Centennial's Dog Park? If pursued, Mr. Emmit could incorporate sponsorship from innovative sources and could also use the new sponsors and their listservs to register for and promote the runs. Including race pamphlets in the CMM bags is a good idea, but may not be worth the resources since many runners come from out-of-town for CMM.
ReplyDeleteThese are all good ideas, and these races are fun. Your first and third ideas are strong because these are certainly the target demographic, but I'm a little concerned about spending time and money promoting events in situations that may or may not (often not) be remembered. Additionally, while these demographics are ideal, the promotion at "going out" event are enough incongruous with running and fitness that I'm not sure it would resonant.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of promoting at the Country Music Marathon and 1/2, since you're at least reaching runners. To address Laura's concern, you could try to purchase a mailing list from the marathon promoters and only target Nashville residents. Or, additionally, you could promote the event to out-of-towners as another reason to visit Nashville again, this time in a more relaxing and less intense capacity.
I also suggest promoting the event to the very large group of spectators for the marathon and half-marathon. While a marathon or even half is very daunting to a non-runner or beginner runner, a 5k is not. All of the spectators are there to either support a runner, and therefore having running friends or family, or to have a good time watching (or in my case, a great excuse to hang out and drink bloody marys with friends). Emmit's races might appeal to these people as a good goal to start competing, since they are focused on being a fun event in addition to a race.
1) I like this idea a lot. I would recommend holding the sign ups early enough to get sign ups before people have had too much to drink. The brochures may be a concern because it is likely that they would end up as litter on the Vanderbilt campus.
ReplyDelete2) Does this race compete at all for sign ups with these marathons? If so, the marathons may not be interested in teaming up. Could he market his races as practice for the marathons?
3) This is my least favorite idea. Hand stamps make a mess and and hard to wash off. So, people could end up having negative associations with the event due to the hand stamps.
1. May get to the right audience, but they will most likely be distracted by the fun they are about to have, and though I've never been to this event, if its like others I've been to, there is a clutter of people handing you stuff that you quickly throw out so that you don't have to worry about keeping track of any pamphlets.
ReplyDelete2. This seems like a great idea.
3. Personally, I've never bothered to look at what a bar stamps on my hand, and they usually end up as smears pretty quickly. If they can get it implemented cheaply and easily, it might have some marginal effect, but I think there are other ideas that would be more effective (like idea 2)
1. I agree with you that it is a great target for this one event. Have you polled students to see how many are going to stay around town into May?
ReplyDelete2. This is an excellent way to promo the events. I will be running the marathon and know the cinco de mayo event could be fun. you are supposed to do some smaller wind down runs afterwards....this would be idea. I worry that the marathon organizers would not allow it though.
3. My personal feeling is that the happy hour crew may more promising, but i like the bar idea. i would say the downtown work crowd would be a good bet.
This is a very interesting topic for me. I was a marathoner few years ago. Idea 1 is my favorite, it could directly reach the target market-young people. I think that the company could also hold a registration booth in different events at different colleges in Nashville area. My concern is if people exercise would party. :)
ReplyDeleteFor the idea 2, in my experience, I would say that it might be hard to ask people who finished the competing race to join another race only one week later. In addition, people who are professional runners or enjoy running competitions might not be interested in joinning the event race.
For the Idea 3, does runners who joined the race have to visit these bars in the same day? If yes, I guess that it would kill their health. Stamps would make runners very uncomfortable when they sweat a lot.
#1: Might attract people just looking for a party. But having people get involved as volunteers is a great way to spread the info.
ReplyDelete#2: Great way to leverage the running community and generate extened popularity.
#3: Sweat might kill this idea...cost of creating the stamps seems tough to overcome and how much info can actually be fit into a hand stamp? I usually want that stamp off as soon as I get hit with it, so I question this idea.
#1: Might attract people just looking for a party. But having people get involved as volunteers is a great way to spread the info.
ReplyDelete#2: Great way to leverage the running community and generate extened popularity.
#3: Sweat might kill this idea...cost of creating the stamps seems tough to overcome and how much info can actually be fit into a hand stamp? I usually want that stamp off as soon as I get hit with it, so I question this idea.
I think Solution 1 is a great idea. A registration booth at the Rites of Spring would be a great way to reach out to an audience that likely includes many people interested in his events. Also, I'd imagine that the people they are able to reach at the Rites of Spring might also encourage friends to participate in races with them.
ReplyDeletePursuing Solution 2 is worthwhile as well. Obviously there'd be an abundance of runners to attract at this event - is there much difficulty associated with including Emmitt's pamphlets with the race packets participants receive before the marathon (whose support would you have to gain to do this, and would they be willing to include Emmitt's race information)?
I'm not sure about Solution 3 - the ink used for hand stamps usually runs easily and after a short period may not be legible. Also, how much information would you be trying to convey on a stamp?
#3 is such a creative solution! It reaches your target audience in a different way. It also doesn't require reps from I Run for the Party to be there to get the info out and should be very inexpensive and easy to implement.
ReplyDeleteA few of the comments mention concerns about the handstamps. How about other ways of reaching barflys? Wristbands, cups, stickers? These could serve the same purpose as the stamp, but won't rub off. These would also give you more space to include a tagline/teaser to get people to go to the website.
#1 I like this idea. Registration booth may not gather much registration but will definitely boost awareness to the right target market. People at the Festival might not have cash on them to pay for events but the idea of spreading and increasing visibility is key. Perhaps, he can pay people in water or beer at this event who would be willing to have a fake tattoo of Irunfortheparty.com imprinted on them.
ReplyDelete#2 I think after running a Marathon some runners might be burned out and still recovering from the marathon. But this doesn't mean that they don't have friends and they themselves aren't interested in partying. I think the key here is to differentiate from the MCM and separate how CDMayo is different than just a running event. Its a party and its fun. Marathons are brutal and masochistic in nature. ;)
#3 I like. Make them big enough to read and defintely use them. On darker pigmented skins they might be harder to read but still a great idea. Perhaps wristbands with irunfortheparty might also be useful though a stamp lasts longer and is not easily removed with just a tug.
Although I like all three ideas, #3 is just a little cooler than the others.
ReplyDelete#1 and #2 certainly seem like a great match from a promotional standpoint. Each event hits Emmit's target segment exceptionally well.
#3: Because I'd never seen this done before...I looked it up and found this:
http://www.afterdarkadvertising.com/handstamps.htm
Very cool. For Emmitt and also other advertisers. Good find guys.
I'm intrigued by the third idea mainly because I'm curious as to whether or not it would work in practice (which may be in and of itself a good reason for giving it a shot).
ReplyDeleteI'm skeptical about the second idea because I have competed in a whole lot of races, but I never actually read the advertisements that are included in my race packets. The CMM has thousands of participants, so printing all those fliers would not be cheap. I also don't think the CMM would let Emmit include a flier in the race packet unless he became a sponsor of the race on some level, which would add to the cost. However, I would not completely abandon the idea of doing some sort of advertising at the CMM. What if Emmit volunteered to staff one of the aid stations and then turned the entire aid station into an advertisement for his race (i.e. a huge "irunfortheparty.com banner, volunteers in sombreros, loud Mariachi music, etc.)? I ran a half Ironman last October and can still remember the best aid station from the run course, which was staffed by a huge group of hilarious undergraduates from UCF. Or how about targeting the advertising to all the people who come to watch the marathon rather than the runners themselves?
I also think your first idea has potential, but I would encourage you to get as creative as possible with the idea. Emmit's races are really unique and Emmit himself is quite the character. I think your registration booth would be more successful at attracting new participants if you can capture the spirit of what people will experience at the race.
I really like solutions 1 and 2. Both seem fairly easy to implement and will effectively reach the target market. Solution #2, in particular, is strong because it directly targets runners.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure about solution #3. I think it is a decent idea...however, people often discard ads/flyers/etc. referring to websites.
This is a cool company! I definitely agree that suggestion one would be easy and cost effective as far as marketing the company goes. The country music half marathon hosts up to 75,000 people a year--to have flyers for all those people may get expensive for a smaller company that is currently struggling with participants.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the stamp idea is clever, but often stamps are hard to read/smudged. There's also a chance that those people visiting bars are intoxicated and therefore would not pay attention to the words on the stamp.
Although I think number 3 is probably the best race, I think number one is the best idea. I think that if thats where your target audience is as you suggest you will probably get the most traction. The problem I have with two is that when people hand me pamphlets it reminds me of the old mitch hedberg joke about what he thinks about when someone hands him a pamphlet, "Here - You throw this away!" Number three would be neat if it didn't smear or become unrecognizeable after having to wash the filth off the next morning.
ReplyDeleteWell-described problem and proposals. Reading your #1 makes me wonder if Emmit has already saturated the market for the approach he currently takes. That is, how many more than 1200 - 1400 people are present in this market. If there are more "party-er / runners" out there, then taking the problem as you have defined it makes sense. However if he's saturated that particular market, then you may need to consider an alternative product that meets the needs of a different market.
ReplyDeleteHe'll definitely want to own the vanderbilt market - #1 would be great for that. But what about Belmont, MTSU, Austin Peay, Fisk, TSU, or any other schools? How could your idea offer up a general approach that he could use to hig all of these markets? Could you then move into the high-school level as well? #2 seems like a no-brainer - if "awareness" is the problem. Again, I'd want to first know that he hasn't already saturated that market. #3 is a GREAT idea - I could see using it in many different ways. What if you had a little ad firm that specialized in providing hand stamps to clubs and other places where that's meaningful. I agree that this idea does play up the "party" aspect.
Having a registration booth at Vanderbilt's rites of spring is a great idea. It is a perfect place to get local young people involved in the process. Not trying to be funny, but it may be a bit hard to get these people serious about it though because I feel like most of the undergrads there are going to be pretty hammered, which is not conducive to getting people involved in the program.
ReplyDelete