Creating A Media Plan For Promoting An International Women's Sports Event

Media Plan for Women's Sports Event

The following sections provide a structure for your Media Portfolio:

Media Plan. The media plan section will:

a). Provide one media plan that is appropriate for your chosen event and includes:

• At least 2 x objectives for media management at your chosen event. These objectives must be S.M.A.R.T. (i.e. Specific; Measurable; Achievable; Realistic & Time bound).
• A matching list of 4 x media opportunities. Each of your 4 x media opportunities will be:

1. Matched to appropriate media outlets
2. Matched to an appropriate timeline.

b). Provide a brief written justification that explains:

(i) why a media plan is needed to obtain media coverage, and;

(ii) what elements of your media plan make it a good one.

Your statement of justification might look something like this:

“Media plans are needed to obtain media coverage because... This is supported by… (author, year of publication, page number) who has argued that… My media plan is appropriate because…”

Fact Sheet. The fact sheet section will:

Provide one fact sheet that:

• Follows the 5 criteria for fact sheets discussed on pp. 191-192 of the Nicholson et al. (2015).
• Is appropriate for your chosen event.

Provide a brief written justification that explains:

(i) why fact sheets are needed to obtain media coverage, and;

(ii) what elements of your fact sheet make it a good one.

Your statement of justification might look something like this: “Fact sheets are needed to obtain media coverage because... This is supported by… (author, year of publication, page number) who has argued that… My fact sheet is appropriate because…”

Media Guide. The media guide section will:

1. Provide one Media Guide that is appropriate for appropriate for your chosen event.
2. Provide a brief written justification that explains

(i) why a media guide is needed to obtain media coverage, and;

(ii) what elements of your media guide make it a good one.

Your statement of justification might look something like this: “Media guides are needed to obtain media coverage because... This is supported by… (author, year of publication, page number) who has argued that… My media guide is appropriate because…”

Media Release. The media release section will:

Provide one media release that:

• Follows the 10 criteria for media releases discussed on pp. 184-187 of the Nicholson et al. (2015) textbook.
• Is appropriate for your chosen event.

Provide a brief written justification that explains

(i) why a media release is needed to obtain media coverage, and;

(ii) what elements of your media release make it a good one.

Your statement of justification might look something like this: “Media releases are needed to obtain media coverage because... This is supported by… (author, year of publication, page number) who has argued that… My media release is appropriate because…”

Media Advisory. The media advisory section will:

Provide one media advisory  that:

• Follows the 5 criteria for media advisories (i.e. who/what/where/when/why) discussed on p. 193 of the Nicholson et al. (2015) textbook.
• Is appropriate for a media opportunity for your chosen event.

Provide a brief written justification that explains

(i) why a media advisory is needed to obtain media coverage, and;

(ii) what elements of your media advisory make it a good one.

Your statement of justification might look something like this: “Media advisories are needed to obtain media coverage because... This is supported by… (author, year of publication, page number) who has argued that… My media advisory is appropriate because…”

The media plan has to be prepared in support of Australian women sportspersons who are going to represent their country in front of international sports fans. Over the last two decades, a significant transformation has been noticed in the procedure of organising international sports events. The mentioned FIBA world championship for women will be held in Spain and national sports authority needs a specific plan to promote the event. According to the market trend, the reading of Grohs and Reisinger, (2014) suggests too, the role of sponsors has been increased in terms of providing better infrastructure for sportspersons, better stadium facilities. Besides, the responsibility media managers has changed after realising the impact of social media over wider range of Audience.

Therefore, following the guidelines of Abeza, O’Reilly and Reid (2013), preparing a media plan means marketing communication strategies that are needed to develop for upcoming mega event. Two objectives of creating a plan are: a) to maintain a healthy culture and highlight the women sports community of Australia and their talents.

Specific	Measurable	Achievable	Realistic	Time bound
It focuses on the women sports community and their development.	The increasing number of women participants and aspiring candidates or number of enrolments in sports academies will reflect the positive result of media marketing regarding sports event.	It is achievable as the trend of fitness and joining sports in Australia is regarded as one of the promising career options.	Women have already empowered the field of sports. Therefore, highlighting the women sports will enhance the country’s position internationally.	Although, it is a continuous process of progression the four years of gap can be considered as peak time to generate the awareness using the successful examples of world championship.

b) To sell 50% of the total tickets developing a fanbase, combatting the competitors within a time frame of 1 year before the championship.

Specific	Measurable	Achievable	Realistic	Time bound
The objective is to creating a fanbase and selling a specific percentage of tickets which can be done using social media.	Online tools of selling tickets and collecting feedbacks are helpful to measure customer behaviour and sale 50% of total tickets.	By using advanced technology, it is convenient to achieve 50% sale of the total number of tickets.	World championships happen maintaining a gap of four years. fans remain	Six months prior to even the fanbase must be developed and proposed amount of tickets must be sold.

This event occurs in every four years. The media plan is not about selling the tickets only, it is about engage and entertain the audiences in between sports events. A media plan searches opportunity to provide the audiences the best experience starting from developing a user-friendly platform for buying tickets to security of them for the entire time being of the event (Stewart, Nicholson, Smith & Hoye, 2018). The goal is to retain the existing fanbase and simultaneously acquiring new customers. Media plan strategies will be as follows.

• At first, according to Bjelica, Gardaševi?, Vasiljevi? and Popovi? (2016), communication strategies should be designed for marketing ethically, using social networking sites, print media and television advertisements. Use of technological aids will improve and strengthen promotional activities. For instance, online ticket distribution procedure can be used as a tool to measure customers’ interest towards upcoming event (Hing, Cherney, Blaszczynski, Gainsbury & Lubman, 2014). Therefore, as described in Ahn, Ik Suh, Lee and Pedersen (2014), strategies can be framed using the data regarding consumer behaviour. Event can be managed according to customers’ preferences leveraging the technology.
• Creating virtual fan pages on Facebook, instagram and twitter will be helpful if efficient social media managers are appointed. Regular development of online content regarding the event will create a buzz and interest among the sports enthusiasts. Contents will be accepted from the fans as well if those are eligible for satisfying promotional needs of World championship.
• Fanbase must be engaged with the objectives if online fun activities are arranged and if participants receive rewards for winning. Sharing photos, videos and using hashtags will help to distribute the enthusiasm among wider range of audiences.
• Besides, creating television advertisement, announcement on news channels and papers, establishing sponsorships and media partners will help to promote the event and at the same time crate new fanbase.

Media opportunities	Media outlets				Timeline
	Television advertisements and news	Print advertisement and printed news	Social media pages and online tools	Establishing sponsorship or media partners
To increase the fanbase	ü	ü	ü		12 months
To retain the existing fanbase	ü	ü	ü		10-12 months
To generate awareness and sell tickets	ü	ü	ü	ü	Selling 50% of total tickets within 06 months prior to the championship
Betterment of the women’s sports infrastructure	ü	ü		ü	It is a continuous process. Results must be shown within 30 months after proposing the plan.

Media plan is required to attain a specific media coverage because it is structured to define the best policy for generating awareness among the target audience. As described in Giza et al. (2013), in order to achieve the objectives media plan guides the marketing managers for determining actions. Announcement in the media channels about the events, different categories and levels, name of the participants will help to create interest, enthusiasm, and fan support. It will assist to create new and retain existing fanbase.  Therefore, media plan must include following steps to attain desired coverage over media. Media coverage is essential in terms of creating proper recognition and attracting the attention of new fans centrally. Moreover, sponsors will be interested to invest and establish partnerships. As per Eagleman (2013), an extensive media coverage following a proper media plan help to recruit efficient HR team to provide bespoke experience to the sports fans while enjoying the event. Proposed media plan is appropriate because a large part of contemporary sports fan prefers to watch sports and keep them updated virtually. They hardly follow television and printed news. On the contrary, as argued by Ashley and Tuten (2015), older fanbase depends on TV and newspapers more than social media. Social media is the most contemporary tool to create the fan base, attract interest of the investors and traditional methods will approach the older generation well.

Objectives of Media Plan

The FIBA world women championship is going to be organised in Spain in the year 2018. The mission of organising women championship is to highlight emerging talents of sports industry across the world and additionally create history in the field of athletics (Fink, 2015). World championship intends to bridge the cultural gap between countries, deliver the message of global integrity and presents instances of woman empowerment.

The sports ministry of Spain has taken the responsibility to carry out entire operation with efficiency.

Almost 50 events can be counted under 10 registered sports category. Although, the measured number of the athletes are around 6,025 officially, there are chances of additional athletes to compete and who have not yet registered themselves. Greece, America, Germany, United Kingdom and major European countries will be participating along with Asian countries like Japan, China, India and Korea.

Aquatics

• Diving
• Swimming
• Marathon swimming
• Water polo
• Synchronised swimming (both in teams and duets)

Archery

• Team competition
• Mixed team participation
• Individual participant

Like these two, there will be badminton, tennis, boxing, wrestling, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, handball and shooting. Australian participant will be competing in six categories, those are gymnastics, badminton, tennis, boxing, wrestling and shooting.

Our sponsors are leading coke brand Coca Cola, several news channels. Social media pages like Facebook and Instagram are social media partners.

Venues are sports stadiums of Spain with highly developed infrastructure to make the audiences experience memorable. Games village will provide hospitality services and leisure activities to participants. The responsibility of serving hospitality services to athletes is given to five star hotel chains of Spain.

Fact sheet is required for media coverage because within a single page it gathers every necessary information regarding the event. It is made of key points only, which are easy to read and understand. It saves time and at the same time and help to deliver crucial information to stakeholders. As described by Coakley and Souza (2013), the above provided fact sheet is appropriate because I have included five basic criteria of fact sheets, which are convenient to have overview of the upcoming mega event.

This comes in a form of document, which can be used as a reference by media partners for presenting contemporary and previous information about the performance of Australian women sports teams and sportspersons (Woratschek, Horbel & Popp, 2014). Media plan must include following contents, among which venue information will be provided here in detail.

• Key contacts
• Welcome letters from the Chief Executive or major sponsor
• Background to the event
• Player/team biographies
• A Schedule of Events
• Venue information
• Competition rules or format, etc.

The sport industry in Spain has always been dominated by football. Although, there are other popular sport activities like tennis, cycling, handball, various water sports and many more. Any country will feel fortunate if they receive the opportunity of hosting an international sports event. There is no exception in case of Spain as well. Anoeta Stadium, Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys and Helmantico Stadium have been selected for the having the infrastructure of track and field. Camp Nou in Barcelona has been selected for its excellent facilities and huge seat capacity.

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART) Goals

The media guide is necessary for media coverage, as it is mandatory to present on behalf of every country to organising authority. Media partners will receive benefits from the information, which are going to be revealed through the guidelines. It must be planned to demonstrate through Television, radio, newspaper and social media. Along with them, sponsors, collaborators, participants of the event. My media guide has been made appropriately, as it holds detail information of sports championship.

Sydney, Australia, posted in November 2, 2016: As announced, Spain has been trusted with the responsibilities of organising FIBA world women championship; the country is considering this opportunity as prestigious and of heavy weightage.

The sports championship will allow only women sportspersons across the globe (Taks, Green, Misener & Chalip, 2014). Events categories are divided into ten consist of 100 events in total. Five star hotels of first row are engaged as hospitality partners. Sports ministry has been taking care infrastructural issues with the proposed event venues. World-class Spanish resorts are selected as Games Village for participants.

The inauguration event will be organised in city of Barcelona on 10^th December 2018. The main sports events will start from the next day.

This is to inform all the sports lovers of world, so that they can witness such historical phenomenon. It is specifically for Australian sports enthusiasts so that they can mark the dates for supporting women power of the country and make the event a remarkable one. Tickets are open for online booking. People can book in advance, as limited seating will be available.

The event will be a memorable and historic for Australia and for entire world too, if support of investors, media partners and Australian audiences will be received (Turco, 2015).  

For further details of participants and event list, check website of Australian Sports ministry and Facebook or instagram page of FIBA Women’s World Championship, 2018.

As per the study of Grohs (2016), press or media release is important to create and improve the campaigns’ quality as a brand. Especially, when it is a matter of national pride it must be circulated to wider range of Audiences to keep them engaged and generate interest. The objective is to create new fanbase and retaining the existing fans of world championship. The process of communication must be contemporary, as I have emphasized social media activities more to interact with and understand the market (Hutchins, 2014). Media release is feasible as it increases awareness among wider range of population and investors too, without investing huge monetary resources.

Strategies for Media Plan

Barcelona, Spain has been selected as location of FIBA Women World Championship.

(Sydney, Australia, 15 November 2016) – On behalf of the honorable Prime Minister, delegates of Sports ministry will be present to attend the special inaugural ceremony of this international sports event at Barcelona, Spain. Delegates will be there to represent Australian women sports teams and individual participants as well.

 Date: December 10, 2018.

Time: 8pm onwards.

Location:  Barcelona, Spain.

Notes for Media

Audiences will be present for sharing experience and sports minister of Australia will be available to satisfy queries of media channels.

Contact Information

Website details:

Designation: Media manager

Contact number:

The purpose of media advisory is to present a particular news in front of the journalists to influence them to talk or write about it in various media channels. Using media advisory, the news of international sports event will receive a credibility in terms of investment; organisers will reach to the targeted group of audiences and supporters of Australian sports specifically.  It is a great way to dodge the traffic of numerous news available on social media and approach the audiences directly.

References

Abeza, G., O’Reilly, N., & Reid, I. (2013). Relationship marketing and social media in sport. International Journal of Sport Communication, 6(2), 120-142.

Ahn, T., Ik Suh, Y., Lee, J. K., & Pedersen, P. M. (2014). Understanding purchasing intentions in secondary sports ticket websites. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 16(1), 35-49.

Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), 15-27.

Bjelica, D., Gardaševi?, J., Vasiljevi?, I., & Popovi?, S. (2016). Ethical dilemmas of sport advertising. Sport Mont, 14(3), 41-43.

Coakley, J., & Souza, D. L. (2013). Sport mega-events: can legacies and development be equitable and sustainable?. Motriz: Revista de educação física, 19(3), 580-589.

Eagleman, A. N. (2013). Acceptance, motivations, and usage of social media as a marketing communications tool amongst employees of sport national governing bodies. Sport Management Review, 16(4), 488-497.

Fink, J. S. (2015). Female athletes, women's sport, and the sport media commercial complex: Have we really “come a long way, baby”?. Sport Management Review, 18(3), 331-342.

Giza, C. C., Kutcher, J. S., Ashwal, S., Barth, J., Getchius, T. S., Gioia, G. A., ... & McKeag, D. B. (2013). Summary of evidence-based guideline update: Evaluation and management of concussion in sports Report of the Guideline Development Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology. Neurology, 80(24), 2250-2257.

Grohs, R. (2016). Drivers of brand image improvement in sports-event sponsorship. International Journal of Advertising, 35(3), 391-420.

Grohs, R., & Reisinger, H. (2014). Sponsorship effects on brand image: The role of exposure and activity involvement. Journal of Business Research, 67(5), 1018-1025.

Hing, N., Cherney, L., Blaszczynski, A., Gainsbury, S. M., & Lubman, D. I. (2014). Do advertising and promotions for online gambling increase gambling consumption? An exploratory study. International Gambling Studies, 14(3), 394-409.

Hutchins, B. (2014). Sport on the move: The unfolding impact of mobile communications on the media sport content economy. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 38(6), 509-527.

Stewart, B., Nicholson, M., Smith, A. C., & Hoye, R. (2018). Sport management: principles and applications. Routledge.

Taks, M., Green, B. C., Misener, L., & Chalip, L. (2014). Evaluating sport development outcomes: the case of a medium-sized international sport event. European sport management quarterly, 14(3), 213-237.

Turco, D. M. (2015). The influence of sponsorship on product recall and image among sport spectators. In Proceedings of the 1995 World Marketing Congress (pp. 8-12). Springer, Cham.

Woratschek, H., Horbel, C., & Popp, B. (2014). The sport value framework–a new fundamental logic for analyses in sport management. European Sport Management Quarterly, 14(1), 6-24.