Rally Discussion and Bar Talk Thread

[AL14]

Promotion before sport - is this the way for the WRC ?
http://www.rallysportmag.com.au/home...ay-for-the-wrc

That is a very nice discussion to take.
I work in the marketing industry so I have also interest in these kind of dynamics.

But I would not take it like the author of the article did. I'm very much convinced that there is not such contrast between "promotion" and "sport".
I don't think that for the sake of promotion you have to sacrifice the sport. This is a leitmotiv when it comes to rally and I think it is one of the big mistake of the sport.
From one side (the promoters), there is the need to sacrifice the sport for the promotion because rally is a bad format for nowadays media.
From the other side, people thinks that driving 500km away and risking to lose 2 stages is a good achievement in a promotion point of view, but it's bad for the sport because at the end 2 stages have been sacrified.

In my opinion they are both wrong.

The need N1 for a good promotion is a good product! And a rally 70km shorter is not as good as the original plan! They have not sacrified a rally for the promotion, both the product and the promotion have been damaged from that hitch.
Rally is spectacular as it is and it is IDEAL to promote with new media!
Wake up promoters! People are all the time with a smartphone in their hands, something going on all day fits perfectly with our culture!

Also, the fact that it is different from other sports that have a single event of max 2 hours, apparently better to broadcast and promote, is fucking good. Rule N1 of marketing is to find differentiators of products, what makes them unique and use them to show people their value.

This is why I always feel the rage growing inside me when I see the kind of promotion WRC has. Although they have reached some very good achievement (I'm not that negative, they've done some good job), I think that still, a lot of potential is still unused and the reason is basically what I've written up here. (imho)

Would like to hear your opinions about this, not just how it should be promoted (we have talked a lot of time about it), but about the relationship between promotion and sport. Do they have to be in contrast all the time?