Red Bull Cancelled for 2011, maybe 2012 as well

[Leo]

Re: Red Bull Cancelled for 2011, maybe 2012 as well

Looking at it that way, I advertise every day..

[Randy Haskin]

Re: Red Bull Cancelled for 2011, maybe 2012 as well

I can assure you that RARA is working on Marketing. Is there room for improvement? Yeppers. Do they know this? You bet your socks they do. There are also working to tie in with other local events in the area. I heard some great ideas being kicked around the campfire at PRS.

"Working on it"?

Seriously?

It's not like they've been doing this for 30 years or anything. Exactly how many years do they think they'll need to figure out how to market a major motorsports event?

[Guest]

Re: Red Bull Cancelled for 2011, maybe 2012 as well

Ditto that, Randy.

Believe me, every time I conduct a tour at the Museum of Flight here in Seattle, I mention RARA. Everytime. And almost every time I do, I get the deer-in-the-headlights look followed by, "What, they actually race airplanes? You're kidding, right?"

And to be honest, that's how I got started in judging. A Docent colleague was a judge and one day we were chatting about thing aviation when he mentioned Reno. After a couple minutes I blurted out, "Where do I sign up for THAT?!" Up until then, never seen or heard a thing about it.

At the risk of living-out the "be careful what you wish for" phrase, I do wish they'd partner up, spread the word, spend a nickle, and advertise in selected markets thru selected media. There are some potentially terrific business partners out there it would seem, a few have been mentioned here.

I have no idea exactly what it is that RARA Marketing does do and I don't pretend to know. It's not my gig and perhaps I'm just not looking in the right places. That said, I know this much...whatever it is they're doing, it should certainly be subject to scrutiny and run thru the "Best Practice" model for motorsport marketing. It'll never be NASCAR (nor do I want it to become that), but there is room for improvement so it doesn't evolve into, "Hey, remember when they used to race airplanes out at Stead Field? Whatever happened to that? It was a blast. Musta run outta money or something"

In the mean time, I remain a staunch supporter who spreads the word everywhere I can. As Bulldawg66 said, WE are, each of us, the VP of Advertising for RARA in our own way. Sure could use some help, though...

[Sky Critter]

Re: Red Bull Cancelled for 2011, maybe 2012 as well

Last year was the first I've missed in the last ten so I don't know what the attendance was like. The previous recent years seem, to me, to have been well attended Friday through Sunday. Does RARA publish or does anyone have actual attendance numbers? If they are running fairly close to expected capacities, they (RARA) may not feel that spending a lot on advertising would be cost effective. If they did go on a marketing spree and pulled in say another 25,000 people each day, do they have the facilities to handle that or can they expand sufficiently? I'd rather they market to attract major sponsorship in order to increase the purse money to the point that it would be profitable to the top finishers in each class.

Just my 2 cents... back to lurking...

Mike