Our blog, 2017 Racer Conference Highlights – Staying Relevant is the first in a blog series highlighting tips from our Racer Conference in Scottsdale which we hosted in January of 2017. Besides learning from our guest speakers, we had some open forum discussions to allow everyone to share their success stories and get new ideas. Our blog this week features highlights on how to have your duck race stay relevant year after year.
2017 Racer Conference Highlights – Staying Relevant
- Build and Maintain Relationships with Media. Get local media outlets involved in some friendly competition a few weeks before your race which provides additional exposure for your race. Our racer in Cincinnati, Freestore Foodbank, invites local media channels to their annual Quacky Games. The Games take place during the lunch hour and participants get involved in all kinds of sport activities. Freestore Foodbank also gets great media coverage about their race.
- Rolling Press Conference. Create a fact sheet highlighting your race and then send that fact sheet to different media outlets. Tell them that you will be at a specified location during a certain time period. Make sure to have duck swag in the car (the 12-inch duck, duck sunglasses, duck hats) and food such as doughnuts decorated with duck sprinkles or duck shaped cookies. You can also ask a media reporter to become your Honorary Co-Chair of your duck race. If you have a Quacky mascot, make sure that he is available to make an appearance. The media will cover you if you make it easy for them.
- Call to Action. Be consistent each year with your call to action. The Freestore Foodbank’s call to action each year is the following: Buy a Duck, Win a Car, Feed a Child.
- Team Sales Kits. Give teams the tools they need to be successful in selling duck adoptions. Create a team sales kit complete with adoption papers, posters, ducks, t-shirts, and other fun duck merchandise.
- Encourage Last Minute Adoptions. Send a thank you postcard 10 days out from your race with your duck adoption website address and a call to action.
- Fresh Design Each Year. Create a new duck race design each year to keep your duck race fresh. Make sure that you are consistent with branding and messaging.
- Have Fun and Try New Things. Think of new ways to get the word out about your race. Freestore Foodbank created a Quacky’s Club this past year for children. Parents could download a line art picture of Quacky which kids could then color. Each week, different pictures were featured on their Facebook page. Play Where’s Little Quacky with your fans. Post pictures of a racing duck in different locations and have people guess the location to be entered to win a free duck adoption.
We will have future blogs featuring highlights from our racer conference in January of 2017. Keep checking back to our blog for future highlights.
