In today's Telegraph there's a 16 page supplement of Sports Fixtures throughout 2015 - not just the mainstream sports but everything from aquatics, archery and athletics through to volleyball, weightlifting, wintersports and wrestling. Mention of Orienteering' - not a peep! This year we have the World Championships coming to these shores, we should be publicizing this at every opportunity.
What exactly do BOF's PR department do for their money?
Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
Check out the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/30503789
No mention of the World Orienteering Championships - despite all sorts of other minor events being listed....... Come on someone must have personal contacts with the BBC to get this sort of farcical oversight sorted.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/30503789
No mention of the World Orienteering Championships - despite all sorts of other minor events being listed....... Come on someone must have personal contacts with the BBC to get this sort of farcical oversight sorted.
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
To be fair all those sports in the paper and on the BBC have a bigger public following than orienteering. If we continue to market our sport in the UK with the focus on running around concrete council estates its not suprising nobody from the media is interested.
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
DIDSCO wrote:To be fair all those sports in the paper and on the BBC have a bigger public following than orienteering. If we continue to market our sport in the UK with the focus on running around concrete council estates its not suprising nobody from the media is interested.
'To be fair' I'd be surprised if the following sports have more participants or following - archery, modern pentathlon, polo, rackets, real tennis - they still managed to get their forthcoming events listed. Your remark about urban events is just a red herring
Last edited by denbydale on Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:12 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
Er PR Department? When did we get one of those?
Orienteering - its no walk in the park
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
Marketing then?? BOF do have marketing staff and 2015 has a few orienteering things to market. Marketing=raising the sports profile with the result that more people take part and maybe more people join BOF. If it was that simple though then I would work in marketing!
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
denbydale wrote:What exactly do BOF's PR department do for their money?
Position orienteering as old and un-cool.....
http://mensrunninguk.co.uk/events/red-bull-robin-hood-preview/
Mens Running UK wrote:Often regarded as running’s un-cool older brother, orienteering is about to get a makeover.
It does beg the question does anyone involved in marketing orienteering have any idea of the history of orienteering, where it came from, how it has changed, etc..
To oblivion and beyond....
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buzz - addict
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
Ask them...?
Marketing Manager
Jennie Taylor
Email
01629 583037
Marketing Manager
Jennie Taylor
01629 583037
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
Better still, you could ask the (volunteer) WOC 2015 marketing manager nicely if he'd like a hand or to share your contacts with national newspapers, leaving the "BOF PR department" (whatever that is) for another day?
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
DIDSCO wrote:If we continue to market our sport in the UK with the focus on running around concrete council estates its not suprising nobody from the media is interested.
That just reflects your personal bias Dids, and has little to do with the marketability of urban orienteering. One of the most successful events at getting younger adults out orienteering is SLOW's City of London race. One of the most successful series of events for my club in getting younger adult orienteers out has been our series local, largely urban, races.
Incidentally, the vast majority of urban races I've competed in over the past year have been city/town centre based - a great venue for promotion, and vastly more 'in your face', than being 'buried' out in the countryside. IMO, one of the great strengths of orienteering we should be playing up is the variety, as both urban and terrain are brilliant forms of competition.
But denbydale is right - this is all a bit of a red herring on this thread.
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awk - god
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
The sport should be marketed as the toughest sport you'll ever do, as the proper forest version is probably one sport that could make the claim t People want tough and hardcore nowadays, they want to brag to their work mates about their super achievement at the weekend, people don't brag about running round a council estate for 15 minutes, they brag about running a technical hilly 100 minute race in the lake district in a hail storm in a tshirt and shorts, proud of the scratches on their faces and legs from racing through the forest and the smashed up knee from scrambling up that cliff, that most people wouldn't even climb with a rope. The watered down versions of the real thing (e.g running around asphalt streets and buildings) probably give a more negative than positive image to orienteering. You say loads of people take part in the London city race, (doesn't surprise me when you've got 20 million people living within spitting distance) but do these people end up running in the forest on a regular basis? is BOF membership going through the roof?....maybe you think 16 men at the British Middle Championships is a success?
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
DIDSCO wrote:people don't brag about running round a council estate for 15 minutes
Ah, so you mean sprint orienteering, not urban.
but do these people end up running in the forest on a regular basis?
Some do, some don't: that bit's only important if you regard the forest as the be all and end all of the sport - I don't.
is BOF membership going through the roof?....maybe you think 16 men at the British Middle Championships is a success?
No, I don't, but the clubs I quoted have seen increases in membership. Having said that, I don't think that either of these issues has anything to do with urban/terrain differences either - although there were rather more at the sprint champs the day before.
But I do agree that the toughness of the sport is a marketing aspect that has been completely missed - I despair of the image all too often seen in BO promotional material.
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
DIDSCO wrote: People want tough and hardcore nowadays, they want to brag to their work mates about their super achievement at the weekend,
I agree about orienteering in forests being the ultimate 'hardcore' however I think you overlook the fact that the majority of the people entering these 'Tough Guy', 'Rough & Tumble' and similar events want to be part of a crowd, surrounded by others. The idea of them running alone through a forest would (pardon the pun) 'would make them run a mile'. The average punter looking to impress his mates isn't going to spend the time needed to acquire the necessary navigational skills to do your hardcore forest orienteering event
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
Where I live in Sweden I talk to friends, work colleagues etc about my orienteering hobby and almost everyone has heard of it. "Oh yeah, I did that at school" is a very common response. In comparison I remember a response from a friend back in England when I was showing off some photos - "You mean to say there are mountains in the Lake District?"
Of course there are ignorant people everywhere but (let's restrict this to) England probably has more than its fair share of them. Wherever you get larger populations in smaller spaces of course you will over generations become less of a "great outdoors" country. Saying that I wouldn't expect marketing orienteering to be that successful here either - "great outdoors" people or not, orienteering simply comes across as too much effort, too uncomfortable, too difficult and too weird for the big majority of people who haven't been conditioned from a very early age.
I'm not sure there's much point in marketing "proper" orienteering is there? Loads of effort with more or less no return. I think it would be much more sensible to commit resources to marketing "urban" orienteering. But...
One thing I have always found strange reading threads like this is why? There are always threads like this on Nopesport - why is there this constant need to market orienteering and get more people doing it? Can people please list their reasons...
Of course there are ignorant people everywhere but (let's restrict this to) England probably has more than its fair share of them. Wherever you get larger populations in smaller spaces of course you will over generations become less of a "great outdoors" country. Saying that I wouldn't expect marketing orienteering to be that successful here either - "great outdoors" people or not, orienteering simply comes across as too much effort, too uncomfortable, too difficult and too weird for the big majority of people who haven't been conditioned from a very early age.
I'm not sure there's much point in marketing "proper" orienteering is there? Loads of effort with more or less no return. I think it would be much more sensible to commit resources to marketing "urban" orienteering. But...
One thing I have always found strange reading threads like this is why? There are always threads like this on Nopesport - why is there this constant need to market orienteering and get more people doing it? Can people please list their reasons...
I'm gonna keep it alive, and continue to be, flying like an eagle to my destiny.
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Re: Where, oh where is BOF's PR Department?
awk wrote:maybe you think 16 men at the British Middle Championships is a success?
No, I don't,
... perhaps because there were, in fact, 47
http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/results ... h/m21.html
but let's not let the facts get in the way of a good whinge
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Test races at SprintScotland (Alloa/Falkirk) and Euromeeting (near Stirling).
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