Vice-President Marketing – Report

Semi-Annual General Meeting – May 2012

Saskatchewan Fencing Association

The 2011/2012 Season has had a really good season with media/awareness campaigns, through Press Releases, Twitter and Facebook updates.

Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest

  • The Facebook group is very active, with many people posting articles, information and other details they think would be of interest to the group. Currently at 73 members – I am hoping to continue to keep it current and active. Currently Twitter account is linked, so that all “tweets” go straight to it.
  • The Twitter account is also quite active. Currently following 540 (100 increase since Jan)with 210 (70 increase since Jan) followers that include local Saskatchewanians, some media accounts, and other fencers in Canada and around the world. Total tweets to date on April 30th – 539. (Of note: A fencing club out of contacted us through Twitter to find out details on Western Canadians).
  • I am currently toying with the idea of creating a Fencing Pinterest account. Currently I have a Board under my personal account on Pinterest which feature some of Jay Scott’s photography of Saskatchewan Fencers. Am hoping to get a copy of Regina’s shoot from Bamboo Shoots to upload here.

Youth Sport Extravaganza – Moose Jaw

Thanks to Jennifer Shrubsole, coverage of the Moose Jaw club was included in the Moose Jaw Times coverage of the Youth Sport Extravaganza in July of 2011.

New Season – All Clubs

Both Facebook and Twitter accounts were updated with information for every club in the province on when they would start up and who people could contact to learn more.

Asquith

Laurie Rousell was attempting to get photos for the local (Biggar Independent) newspaper from the Asquith tournament, while she was not able to get photos, she did write and submit an article which was published.

Sask Fencing Awards

Upon announcement of the Annual Fencing Award Winners I sent press releases out to all of the affected areas where winners were located, including Swift Current, Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert, which resulted in a video interview being done on Brianna Jansen by Southwest TV News ( ), and a print article written in both the SW Booster and the Prairie Post “Jansen ranked number one in fencing”. I was also contacted by a reporter from the Prince Albert Herald who was looking to do a story on Meriah Bender, and gave him contact information for both Meriah and Marcia Salahub (as Lynn Seguin was out of town) – and an interview was conducted with Marcia. Not yet sure if an article was ever written. Marcia said she would follow-up with the reporter.

Coverage also occurred for Regina on the “Adrenaline” website, which covers Regina Sports.

CSC’s – November 2011

This was a large undertaken, where many lessons were learned. Repeated contact with the CFF did not net the kind of public relations assistance I would have liked to have seen, considering this was their event. I personally went through each registration in all weapons to discover which of Canada’s top ranked athletes would be in attendance, and posted this information both in press releases and on Twitter. I also searched each individual to discover whether they had: Twitter accounts, Blogs, Facebook Accounts or Websites, and once discovered also spread this information across Twitter/Facebook and through Press Releases.

I personally contacted Scherraine Schalm to learn of her schedule, so that I could make arrangements for her to be interviewed.

We were also “aided” in this event by Saskatoon Tourism. Due to a holiday taken by our initial contact, the coverage and assistance by them was also not what I had hoped for. Unforthunately while we had zero attendees at the Press Conference that was scheduled, we did have media personnel in attendance at the event.

Going forward for the next two events being held in Saskatoon, I will contact the appropriate media personally rather than route the press releases through Saskatoon Tourism. Hopefully we can work together to ensure better coverage going forward. The coverage we did receive included:

CTV – live Morning Show Feed from the Salle prior to the event.

Star Phoenix – Photo and article on Scherraine Schalm

Through this event we were also able to finally organize Provincial Team Photos, that can be used for future media purposesand we ensured that photographer Jay Scott was on hand to take photos of the CSC’s, which can also be used for promotional purposes. (Shared on Twitter/Facebook, etc.). Hoping to engage Jay Scott again for photographing Nationals in May as we have built up a really good relationship with Mr. Scott, and have been very pleased with the services he has given.

Note: There are many photos of Saskatchewan fencers within the final photos given to me by Jay Scott. I am hoping to distribute them to each club as they are identified, so that when individual tournament photos may not be available, these “stock photos” can be used to showcase the fencers.

Chinook Open – Swift Current

This was a very successful event media coverage wise, with 2 articles, 1 video, and 1 radio announcement made regarding the event, (a level of coverage I hope to see at upcoming future events in Moose Jaw, Regina, PA and Saskatoon) including:

Prairie Post Article on Brianna Jansen, “Swift Current fencer’s success is opening doors” printed Dec 23, 2011, utilizing photo by Jay Scott taken at CSC’s.

SW Booster Article on Swift Current Club, “Local fencers hit podium at home” included short article, results and photos, printed Dec 8th, 2011.

SWTV News story on Tournament, with interview with Cole Anderson

Moose Jaw Tournament

A press release was issued for this event, which garnered coverage by a photographer from the Moose Jaw Times and a story printed Feb 6th, as well as a story/photo on the Discover Moose Jaw Website:

Regina Tournament

A press release was issued for this event March 5th, which garnered not only CTV New Television coverage (interviewing Phillip Pitura, and Heidi Atter), but also coverage from the Leader Post, and a short segment created by Bamboo Shoots for Sasktel Max, which featured interviews with Kirsten VanMarion (Asquith), Justin Neumeyer (Saskatoon), Phillip Pitura (Regina), Cole Anderson (Swift Current), and John Brunning (Saskatoon). (Note: We were told we would receive a copy, will follow up with Bamboo Shoots if we have not received yet).

It also received coverage in Moose Jaw – thanks to Jennifer Shrubsole for sending in results.

Prince Albert Tournaments

Unfortunately due to personal circumstances I was unable to provide promotion or coverage for this event. My sincere apologies to the club for not providing them with the necessary coverage.

Western Canadians & Nationals

Press release was sent out to all Saskatoon Media 3 days prior to Westerns, and will also be sent out prior to Nationals. Continued Twitter and Facebook postings will also be made.

Bamboo Shoots has once again been contracted by Sasktel Max to do a feature on Sask Fencing. This shoot will feature multi-camera’s, colour commentary by Shannon Comerford, and will be a much longer piece than that which was created in Regina (single camera shoot).

Bamboo Shoots will be attending Westerns to meet the individuals that will be involved in the shoot, and get a lay of the land to be able to shoot Nationals.

We have some of the budgeted amount for Jay Scott’s photography left over from the CSC’s, which might be used at this event,to give us additional photo coverage (or might be given to another photographer so that we get a new perspective). Photos from the past CSC will be circulated to media for their usage.

Newsletter

Unfortunately I have not yet been able to issue a Newsletter for this Season. My targets going forward are to release a newsletter prior to the end of the season before Nationals. Ideally going forward I would like to see 4 Newsletters created per year. One at the beginning, one just after Christmas, one early spring, and one at the end of the season. 3 may be a more realistic target.

Thanks to Mike Weaver, Pres of the Saskatoon Fencing Club, I already have the first article created and ready for posting. I hope to encourage more submissions like this from coaches/parents and fencers.

Summary: The mandate of this portfolio is to increase the awareness of fencing in the province, and to that end I think we are doing this. The smaller, local communities seem to be more interested in the material we offer/submit, so my goals going into 2012 will be to ensure that we engage more of the “big city” media.

Respectfully Submitted by:

Gail Jansen-Kesslar

VP Marketing and