Area duo help Rueckert Advertising win PR award
ALBANY (Nov. 29) — For the past 5 years, participation in the Freihofer’s Run for Women had been flat. The race was successful but stable.
So as they were thinking about what to do for the 2009 race, the people at Rueckert Advertising & Public Relations — which has been handling the event’s marketing since 1996 — decided to try something new. They started using a variety of social media to interact with potential runners. The race’s Facebook presence was increased, use of Twitter and YouTube was added, and a blog was incorporated into the race’s website.
Rueckert Advertising's Edward Parham (right) and blue.0 Marketing's Chris Bowcutt won an Empire Award for a social-media campaign on behalf of the Freihofer's Run for Women.
“It’s opened my eyes,” said Edward Parham, a Clifton Park resident who is the Albany ad agency’s director of public relations. “It’s been a wonderful case study for me.”
Rueckert worked with blue.0 Marketing to develop the social-media campaign.
“I didn’t expect there to be such a dramatic increase,” said blue.0′s Chris Bowcutt, a Ballston Spa resident. “Can we say social media is the exact cause for 800 more runners? No, but such a dramatic increase is telling.”
Bowcutt, a triathlete, said a lot of effort was focused on making the content relevant to runners.
“I am a runner like they are,” he said. “So I know things like training, health issues and race reports are important.”
For the blog, elite runner Tera Moody was enlisted to be a regular writer — and her posts continue though the race was months ago.
“She talks about what life is like for the professional runner,” Parham said. “And guess what — she’s just like you and me.”
But the blog also ran regular profiles of the weekend racers who make up the overwhelming majority of the event’s competitors.
“Take out those 100 elite runners,” Parham said, “and the race is really about the average runners.”
The increased number of those average runners who turned out for the 2009 race taught Parham one thing:
“If you’re not doing it already,” he said, “you need to include social media in your marketing.”
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