The price of free PUBLICITY Bank sponsors PRO-CYCLING TEAM publicity The announcement of Rabobank's decision to sponsor a profes sional cycling team headed up by former world champion Jan Raas has definitely started publicity wheels turning. Yet, even though the national sports media flocked to the press con ference to hear the good news. there is more to the sponsorship deal than getting the Rabobank logo on yellow jerseys. 'Of course,' Rabobank chair- man Herman Wijffels (left) said when announcing the sponsor ship contract with Raas, 'having your own cycling team is like having a flagship. But we also want to contribute to the devel- opment of a new generation of top cyclists who can compete at international level. So we see a specific role in promoting the amateur sport at both regional and local levels.' Raas had been searching for a new sponsor for some time when he decided to approach Rabobank. 'Once 1'd spoken to Wijffels and other members of the board, things actually happened very quickly,' he says. 'This is unique in Hol- of television hours devoted to professional cycling is consider- able,' says Gert Sluis, head of marketing Communications. 'Front January to September this year, there were over 300 hours. The Tour of Flanders was watched by no less than 1.2 mil- lion Dutch people. And if you look at sattelite channels broad- casting worldwide, then our potential exposure is very high.' Raas is in the process of forming his top team - he will act as di- rector. The first big name to join is Erik Breukink. 'We will try to build a team which is as Dutch as possible,' says Wijffels, 'be- cause in the end there's nothing so Dutch as cycling.' land in the sense that banks don't normally do this kind of thing.' Rabobank has contract- ed to sponsor the pro-team for three years with an option on a further two. 'This gives us time to develop,' says Raas. The bank is giving us the chance to build up our team and our per formance.' Bank sponsorship is not totally new in cycling. Credit Lyonnais has been asso- ciated with the Tour de France for many years. But it is new in Holland and the bank, along with De Lage Landen, which re- cently announced it would join in the sponsorship deal, excepts publicity spin-offs. 'In the Netherlands alone, the number Getting your name in any of the media without having to pay enormous advertising costs can seem an attractive proposition. Editorial coverage has the ad- vantage of being free and, more importantly, is seen as more credible. But is there such a thing as a free lunch when it comes to the media? We ask head of external Communi cations, Hans Ludo van Mierlo. 'I would say there are various relationships you can have with the press and I'd break those down into passive and active,' he explains. 'Some companies opt for a passive approach. They do not seek publicity. It's a strategy that can work. The only problem is that when the press finds you, the coverage tends to be negative because trivial or odd things are usually considered newsworthy.' According to Van Mierlo, an active but well thought out ap proach to the media is the pre- ferable option. 'As in all re lationships, it's a question of give and take. You have to start by defining your purpose in seeking publicity. Then you have to work out which media are most useful in achieving that purpose. Once you have done that, you can start build ing relationships. I would ad- vise selecting a small group of reputable journalists and con- centrating on them.' He believes this is where the give and take comes in. 'If we look at our own situation, as Rabobank, then you see we have considerable areas of ex pertise. Fm thinking here of, for example, food and agribusiness. This can prove useful for a journalist in that he or she can contact us for background in- formation or our view on a par- ticular event, be it on or off the record. In return, we are able to send our own messages to these journalists who will probably be more inclined to use them because we are useful to them. And our own messages are al- ways positive. But you must keep in mind that a journalist, even if you've paid for a fancy press trip to some exotic place, will always try to demonstrate his or her independence. So you can never be sure what the end result will be.' For this reason, Van Mierlo advises caution when dealing with the press. 'Always keep in mind the following factors. First, don't expect too much from "free" publicity. Put together your own strategie plan which matches your purpose in seek ing publicity and define the re sources you have available to achieve that. If you're looking for editorial coverage, remem- ber that the so-called "silly season", when most people are on holiday, is very often a good NIETS VOOR NIETS? Gratis publiciteit kan heel interessant zijn, omdat redactio nele aandacht vaak als meer ge loofwaardig wordt beschouwd dan advertenties. Maar bestaat er zoiets als gratis publiciteit of hangt er toch een prijskaartje a aan? Hoofd Externe Communi- catie, Hans Ludo van Mierlo, geeft richtlijnen voor contacten met de media. time to try for it. There are two reasons for this. One is that the media is looking for stories and the second is that newspapers are now sent to holiday desti- nations and people have time to read them. The next is to be very cautious in dealing with journalists you don't know or have only occasional contact with. They don't need an on- going relationship with you and will easily go for sensation, even misquoting you to get what the)^ think is a better story. My advice would be to develop friendly relationships with a few quality journalists. You don't need lots of friends in life, what you do need is good ones.'

Rabobank Bronnenarchief

blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1995 | | pagina 10