When a company produces multiple public events that combine two great American pursuits – rock concerts and marathons – the events garner broadcast media mentions by the thousands. Competitor Group Inc., based in San Diego, owns and operates the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series, a year-round cycle of marathons and half-marathons held in major metropolitan areas. It is the world’s largest running series and its partner charities have raised more than $300 million in the last 16 years. In 2014, more than 450,000 amateurs and professionals will participate in its 28 events around the world. To monitor the broadcast media coverage that surrounds such high-visibility events, Competitor Group (CGI) depends on TVEyes.
“Being able to monitor TV coverage in a timely manner in several markets is critical to our success,” says Dan Cruz, director of public relations for Competitor Group. “TVEyes enables us to easily track media mentions and report the breadth of coverage to sponsors, partner charities and colleagues, and at a reasonable rate.”
The Challenge
With as many as four to six major events a month, in large markets like Seattle, San Francisco and Dallas, generating media coverage is never an issue for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series. “When you’re closing down 26 miles of road in New Orleans, you’re going to be mentioned on TV,” Mr. Cruz says. The problem was tracking, obtaining, and reporting the coverage.
The PR team subscribed to several well-known services in the past. But finding and downloading TV clips through them was difficult, tedious, and expensive. The team had to combine searches from different services, choose the clips they wanted, and in some cases, order them and wait for them to arrive. For PR professionals with an almost non-stop travel schedule, this was a highly inefficient process.
Penalized for Being Successful
Further, if they needed to download clips, they were charged for each clip on a per-hit basis, in addition to a monthly fee. The more media coverage Mr. Cruz and his team generated, the more expensive it became to download clips.
“In effect, we were being penalized for doing our jobs well,” Mr. Cruz says.
The Solution
CGI signed up with TVEyes in 2011. Taking advantage of its unmatched market coverage, fixed price and user-friendly interface, the PR team uses the service to monitor television in each event’s city, capture and store broadcast clips and report on them to sponsors and partners.
Each race has sponsors, partner charities and other stakeholders. Local track clubs, fitness experts, celebrities, hotels, chambers of commerce and convention and visitor bureaus all have an interest in the marathons. Each time a sponsor, charity or stakeholder is mentioned on TV in connection with a race, the PR team is alerted and documents the mention along with audience size in a report demonstrating the media reach of the event. If a clip has messages relevant to different sponsors, the team can easily separate the relevant information in reports for each sponsor.
TVEyes enables the team to stay on top of the news leading up to events and react to any developments. On one occasion, it learned through pre-event coverage in Washington, D.C., that a local TV station’s weatherman would be running in an upcoming race. The team contacted the media personality and worked with him to further promote the marathon, earning valuable airtime for the event before, during and after.
Recently, Mr. Cruz learned about TVEyes international coverage, including U.K. and Europe. “We’ll definitely add TVEyes to our plans for events in Liverpool, Lisbon and Madrid, which will make these events easier to manage and help us provide additional value to our sponsors.”
After races, the PR team compiles a report of all relevant TV clips and sends them to colleagues and stakeholders.
Client Benefits
To Mr. Cruz, the ease of downloading clips and reporting coverage is a key benefit of TVEyes. “We’re all focused on events and are busy traveling, so alert emails with links to clips delivered to your inbox every day makes our jobs easier,” he says. And because TVEyes charges a flat fee, his team downloads as many clips as it needs, secure in the knowledge that costs are not adding up.
Reporting and analysis of media mentions of sponsors and charities within TV coverage of the events demonstrates the added value they receive from their participation. In addition, staying abreast of TV coverage helps the PR team respond quickly to breaking news and enhance the Marathon Series’ reputation. For example, if road closures affect local businesses, the team is alerted through TV reports and can communicate with the businesses promptly.
“In the end, it’s all about the searchability factor,” Mr. Cruz says. “TVEyes is better than any service I’ve used in my 10-year public relations career. I can’t see moving forward without it.”
Want to learn more, or check out a free trial? Contact TVEyes Sales at +1 203-254-3600 x100 or email us at sales@tveyes.com.
