Generating media exposure for your club
Attracting media coverage is a beneficial exercise for every bowls club across the nation, and something that can pay huge dividends by providing local and national exposure for your members, events, initiatives and club as a whole. Most members relish the opportunity to see their name and photograph in the newspaper, their face on television or hear about their game on the radio – not only does it make them proud of their efforts but it shows what individuals, teams and the club have achieved. Media traction provides an avenue for people not constantly connected with the club to follow the club’s development and keep up-to-date on the club’s achievements and successes. It can be a communication method to reach those in the community that aren’t already affiliated with the club and can also promote the club to those that were unfamiliar of its existence. Local publicity helps raise the profile your club and assists with attracting like-minded players, families and competitors to your club over another. Getting your story to the media involves establishing relationships with local media personnel, inviting them to your events and keeping them informed of news-worthy content. Milestone events, such as a centenary celebration, the staging of an upcoming event with significant prize money or prestige, the signing of a marquee player for the next pennant season, and the announcement of funding to establish or improve club infrastructure, are all items of interest that should generate local media exposure for your club. It’s also worthwhile inviting councillors to events of this nature, as they welcome the chance to be involved and speak to their constituents. Clubs should create a media contact list and keep it up-to-date – this makes it easier to distribute media releases and stories directly to the most influential people. It’s important to understand where your story fits within the spectrum of news outlets, because unless it has a genuine national appeal, for example by being awarded hosting rights to a Bowls Australia national event involving elite players, its unlikely to generate interest with a national publication. Clubs should focus on keeping the news local and relevant to local outlets in order to generate impactful media exposure. Write stories about your local player or athlete who has done well, and any club news that has benefited the community, then distribute it to the media contact list with details on who the journalist can contact for further information. Bowls Australia and the state and territory associations are able to assist clubs generate media traction and promote news-worthy initiatives through numerous means, such as on the sport’s weekly radio program Without Bias , through exposure in the state and territory magazines – such as Bowls Victoria’s The Shot , Bowls Queensland’s Queensland Bowler , Women’s Bowls NSW’s Bowls Matters , Bowls NSW’s Bowls New South Wales , Bowls WA’s Jack Hi , and Bowls SA’s SA Bowler – or via media releases and web articles, through Bowls Australia’s BATV YouTube platform , or on our social network platforms, Facebook , Twitter and Instagram . Caption: Australian Jackaroos ace Carla Odgers taking part in a heated staged Herald Sun photo shoot.
