Belegarth

Ok, so I was thinking of posting this in General Mayhem, but I figure that anybody interested would see it as well in here and wouldn't have to go through all the posts about pirates, ninjas and chocolate Jesus. I really believe that Belegarth could benefit from an actual PR representative. I'm willing to take this on, but I really want to know if anybody else out there has practical experience in the field. We need something more organized than just local realms talking to the press and getting the word out themselves. press releases are one thing that a lot of groups are starting to get into, but we could really benefit from some cohesion in a national sense. If anybody else out there has practical experience in the field and is interested, please get back to me.

Fantastic idea!!!

Would the PR guy/girl be paid? Would/ should it be a office in National Belegarth?

I would venture to guess that there would be no pay involed. Maybe some expenses might be cover by the organization, but that's about it. Enoch, this is a wonderful idea. Have you emailed Kryian about it yet?

Winfang- I think that if we want a truly devoted PR guy he would need something to help cover his/her time from work for radio interviews tv talk shows and the hundred of phone calls needed to land such stuff for national level.

That's great, but where would that money come from? Belegarth can't drum up the salary of a PR rep. 'Geddon, as far as I know, is the only place that the sport itself makes money, and it doesn't make THAT much.

Jimmy, Winfang was saying that this would not be a paid position.

In order to make this work, we will need more then just one person. We will need folks from each realm to really spread the word. No one, especially a volunteer, should be asked to take time off from work to travel to Atlanta to talk to a radio station about Belegarth. If we approach this from the perspective of a PR team, then we might have more success. I would be willing to give it a shot, but we need to do this together.

What do you guys think?

Bam - Then Icarus disagreed.

I think it should be a team. If anyone feels there should be money involved, then you can start collecting donations.

I think it should be a relatively small team, but that team should have specific contacts in most realms so that they can say, "here... we can set this up for you." and then the people in the realms get to work. So... the team is an organizational structure with many many little hands and mouths at work dispensing information in many places.

I, for one, am all over this. I also think we should talk to Anthrax and get his input. He did coordinate the big Nashville Katz stuff for us.

I was merely stating that if it was one person the size of the task would make it almost a part-time job. And I realize that most of us have either full or part time jobs and families.

Who says it has to be one person? Why couldn't it be a group of people?

Guys,

We are getting off focus here. There is absolutely no way one person can do this as a full time job, unless they were getting paid to do so. So let's drop that and re-direct to the putting together a group of folks, who on a volunteer level, can work together to promote Belegarth across the USA.

Who all would like to be apart of this and who wants to take the lead?

I would take the lead on this if no objects. I know tons of folks. And my wife is a marketing director so I have inside track.

Thoughts?

I'd be very interested in this PR project. Count me in

I think the biggest help would be covering the basics in a sort of "how to" for every realm.

How do we shine attention on our minievents?

How do we get the attention of local media?

Very valid points Jimmy!

This would be part of the PR teams job to find out what works best, and replicate to each realm to begin with. Over time, we develop new strategies for:

1) Retaining old members and keeping them happy. I know this is not a restaurant but I think this adage applies...Take care of you old customers first, and then the new ones.

Which brings me to another point, what and how do we continue to make the old players happy?

2) Enticing new folks to our sport should be our next focus.

How do we do it?
What materials/resources do we need to do to make it happen?
Who are our resources to make it happen?
Where can we make the biggest impact?
When can we realistically make this happen?

3) Market presence - We need to establish a market for this sport in each realm to really bring up the numbers. We need to make sure we are putting out fliers, bumper stickers, banners for practices, calling local radio/tv/newspapers to come out to events. We should also have a branded logo for the sport. Some that people can look at and say, "Hey that's Belegarth."

What can we do to improve our market presence?

These are the top 3 things I can think of.

Anything else?

Definitely good points..

In Winter..how to secure places to fight when it is too snowy outside to do so?


This is a big issue where I am from..I think part of the reason the old Bele realm died was because no one wants to take a 4 month break from fighting. Who do we have to bribe to secure a soccer field or whatever?

Also maybe the PR person can figure out if their is a way to get a college club going on a national scale (so it would be a local chapter of 'The Belegarth College Club') or something and thus waiving the demand for X number of current college players fighting? I don't know, its a stab in the dark.

I think one of the most helpful things to do for recruiting would be standardizing PR stuff so we don't keep reinventing the wheel. I tried to start up a club at High School, and in college, but both times just quit because it's so much work...

If we had a resource for all the paperwork involved in getting this started easily in schools and colleges it would be so much easier, and so much less redundant.

At my work (equipment rental) I try to pitch us to ALOT of people that come in. I tend to do it more in the summer because of party rentals. I'm working right now on a date for a block party fight in June, with a customer of ours. Thank god I keep all my gear in my car, when they ask about what the weapons are really like. But then again, with my job, we deal with alot of people face to face and a few (like the ultra protective parents) tend to frown at the sound of the word "sword fighting." Hell, I've even told people that I play with on WoW. One of them, who lives in Ohio, is gonna try and hook up with me at Ragnarok this year.

A suggestion for indoor fighting, I actually found an indoor soccer arena. The owner loves us and gave us an awesome deal to rent out a field for a few hours.

Sorry if I kinda jumped everywere on this, I'm posting this from work and dealing with customers inbetween.

Has anyone else been talking about this outside of the boards? I am really interested in helping out with this!

This sounds like a really great idea. I believe my local realm already has an indoor fighting area... AT least I hear people mentioning going in 'The Gym' and fighting and there're two videos on youtube.

This school year coming up I will be attempting to start a club at my high school that has affiliations with the martial arts club. We would practice in the school cafeteria after school on tuesdays. Just a small plan.