Baja 1000 TV coverage, doing more harm then good

[Stone Crawler]

The other problem with the NBC show of the Adventure show is just That the marketing and advertising for the Adventure show each week. Not the Score Tecate Baja 1000 or the Bitd Series show or The Trophy TRICK truck series etc NBC markets there adventure show not the Baja 1000.

I used to think this way as well, but I have since re-considered. There are a bunch of different layers of the onion when you start working production into your event costs. I can only use King of the Hammers as an example because that is what I have experience with. Selling sponsorship for the event has to be considered as an indirect return on the investment of a TV show, more perceived coverage, better chance to sell sponsorship. We switched from Spike to Speed in an effort to increase our reach. (We had to pay for the Time either way) Our mistake was that the Speed episode actually had smaller rating numbers. Same production quality as we produced it in house.

My point? IMHO it can be better to partner with an established show that has a fan base and than supplement it further through your own marketing, than to try and rely solely on your own marketing. It is a lot cheaper to tag onto someone who has a block of air time than to try and outright buy your show. The end result is that you have better return on investment with ratings to sell to future advertisers. Even if you can't sell your advertisers on commercials, you can sell more sponsorship to the event based on the perception it will be on TV, and if you have decent ratings you can compare to other events as a better investment. Its a tough addition to an already tough job to try and work in TV production to the chaos of a race event. Cool topic of discussion.

JrSyco you raise very valid points. I agree.

[SPONSOR]

Membership in the largest desert racing community has its advantages - Participate in Forum Discussions - Send and Receive Private Messages - Maintain Public Photo Albums - Access to Groups - User Profile in our Social Network - Increased Access to more Sub Forums - Reduced Online Advertisements Join our community today

[klaus]

Travis, Good arguments. I respect your point of view but think that TV is over rated and about to die like the music and print industry did.

In my defense I am an outlier. I listened to mp3s before there were iPods, tracked my packages online in 1998, was on chatrooms during the pre-internet days on x10 networks, used voip before there was vonage and Skype and also started rdc before the internet was as mainstream as it is now. My prediction is that there will be no more newspapers and magazines in favor of internet equivalents. Tv will die or change since it is ridiculous to endure countless commercials on cable/satellite Tv that you pay for access on top of it. Plus the idea that the content comes sequentially programed by a station seems outdated when one can simply click on the same content and watch it instantly irregardless of a timed schedule (Thats what I started doing a long time ago, I click on the shows I care for and watch them on a TV screen instead of TV service). My point is that I see things differently then most people do. Sometimes I am right and often I am wrong with my predictions on what will be the next fad. Outlier.

There are 3 values I see in a Off-Road TV show.
1. News-worthiness. Outcome of the sporting event (Who wins, how many points etc.)
2. Amazing visuals (Race cars looking sexy going fast)
3. Compelling story telling (Suspense, Adventure, The feeling you want to be there)

All 3 are provided on RDC at various places live and post race and we are not a TV network/show. 1&2 I get watching Races like F1 and Nascar on TV. 2&3 I get watching the Mint400 show or WRC the next day of the event on EuroTV (online). Not sure which 3 the NBC show provided (Haven't watched it yet, therefor no valid opinion) but it sounds like neither or maybe a bit of 2.

My prediction is that soon or later NOBODY will say "Did you watch the Baja 1000 on TV?" but instead "Did you watch the Baja 1000 on DOT COM".
Or is that already happening?

[Rabbit Trax]

What would it take to band together all the people who shoot the races and other industry leaders and form a clear goal, not an agenda, per se, but a goal with obtainable steps? Perhaps, a collective effort between all those with experience and know how in this arena could meet, discuss and come up with a feasibility plan to assess the size, scope, financial and logistical aspects of this endeavour, as a preliminary step. Maybe it starts out as a grassroots effort that depends on people donating time, voluteering and the like. If there is solid leadership heading the effort with a clear goal, perhaps it can grow legs and into something more. There are some very influencial and knowledgable people who have posted to this thread. If we could only harness the experience and talents of those and others, nothing is impossible.

[BlueCrace]

Klaus,

Just out of curiosity, how many people watched the RDC live coverage this year (average quarter hour)? I would be interested in finding out.

[DEZERTSUB]

Klaus - I'll take a stab at your questions:

(1) Its very true that the internet is robbing tv ratings and viewership however TV, especially for sporting events, still dominates and is what will drive significant sponsorship dollars. Most brands are just NOW trying to figure out how to get into the digital space. I was just at the Sports Business Journal Motorsports Forum two weeks ago and a majority of it was spent educating brands on how to find their "digital voice". With the costs involved in off-road racing you're not going to raise the significant dollars needed based on the current digital landscape in off-road racing.

(2) I don't know what world you live in but where is any off-road race "well publicised"?! Once you step out of the online off-road world you're hard pressed to find any coverage of off-road racing. At the SCORE awards the other night I lauged when Sal said they had 319 registered media people from 9 countries at this year's Baja 1000. Who and where in the hell were those people? I was in Africa during the race and the ONLY coverage I could find of it was here on RDC. The vast majority of the population still has no idea what happened at the Baja 1000 weeks and months after it happened. 2-3 weeks would not take anything away from the race. Example, GRC and WRC this year all were aired well after the race and they did decent numbers, good enough that they are receiving better timing this year.

(3) Not sure what you are saying here? As long as the content is good and the race is being shown people will watch. As Andy suggested, if you were able to band together all the people who shoot the race, you'd have no problem getting quality content.

(4) You guys do an out standing job however you are the only place where you can follow it live so of course you're going to get good numbers! But the product you are offering is not what I want to see on TV. They are two different things. I want to follow the race live here so I know what's going on but I want to see the footage of Andy passing guys going up the summit, Robby rolling his truck, Vanderway hitting the spectator vehicle as he races to the finish etc. That's what should be shown on tv, all the stuff you are missing because you can't be everywhere during the race.

Absolutely loved this Travis, until the line of "Vanderway hitting the spectator vehicle as he races to the finish".
I'm no expert on the topic, but I would venture to say that the general public seeing something like that is not going to garnish any positive attention. If you really want to get the public on our side, show them what the dez racing community does for Mexico...mention how much money is introduced into the Mexican economy, mention the charitable work done for the people of Mexico done by us.
When trying to introduce the general public into a concept that is likely totally foreign to them, they do wanna hear about the drivers, classes, history, land where the race is taking place, and most importantly, we have to sell ourselves to them. If we're portrayed as a bunch of rich rednecks with our expensive, fancy 4x4 trucks who invade Mexico and screw things up for the locals, we're not gonna be well received.
These are just my opinions, and I hope some will be considered.

Oh and Klaus, you just admitted to being a total computer geek. That's awesome....HA HA HA HA!!!

[JrSyko]

Absolutely loved this Travis, until the line of "Vanderway hitting the spectator vehicle as he races to the finish".
I'm no expert on the topic, but I would venture to say that the general public seeing something like that is not going to garnish any positive attention. If you really want to get the public on our side, show them what the dez racing community does for Mexico...mention how much money is introduced into the Mexican economy, mention the charitable work done for the people of Mexico done by us.
When trying to introduce the general public into a concept that is likely totally foreign to them, they do wanna hear about the drivers, classes, history, land where the race is taking place, and most importantly, we have to sell ourselves to them. If we're portrayed as a bunch of rich rednecks with our expensive, fancy 4x4 trucks who invade Mexico and screw things up for the locals, we're not gonna be well received.
These are just my opinions, and I hope some will be considered.

Oh and Klaus, you just admitted to being a total computer geek. That's awesome....HA HA HA HA!!!

Totally agree and it was a bad example. I was just trying to think of events that happened this year that everyone knew.

[rich1]

Just a thought, what if we take the responsibility on ourselves? By this I mean, don't wait for someone else to come along with a bucket full of money, and no promise of profit, to produce a show that "they" think will bring in sponsor dollars. We can each pay an extra 20 dollars per entry for gopro cameras to be placed on random cars (lots of them), even switch cars at CP's, and gather the footage at the finish. Then put together a movie for youtube, not a 10 minute video, a 2 hr movie with commentary and storyline we choose. If the movie is receiving 25,000,000 views, the sponsors will come to us. This would be a great way to promote a series, not so much the B1K, but the precedent would be set that desert racing draws viewers. If we put together one movie per race, and showed each race in the series, people could follow a car or driver they like, and become emotionally invested in that teams outcome. NAPCAR does a great job of emotionally tying the racer to fans, every fan has their favorite driver, and the driver they love to hate. The youtube series could gain popularity and subscribers which could be used to convince TV folks that the sport is of interest to the public. Or, nobody watches it, and then we know we are the only crazy suicidal maniacs that like this type of racing.

[Gadzooks2]

The model is right in front of us and its called LOORS and TORC. Both have figured out how to run a racing series and sell them to the networks that bring in the advertising bucks. They are very successful shows and yeah... covering a desert series is different but not that different. The short course shows are not live and they still provide an exciting product with multiple classes and the competition is not lost. They travel around the country and have a whole lot more raced to cover than a desert series and still do it well. What is missing in the desert is a promoter that is good enough to sell the shows to the networks. It really is that simple. SCORE and BITD in particluar have become exceptional at putting on the races, but actually "Promoting" them to anyone other than its own particpants has not been their strong suit.

[1599 codawg]

I think BITD's coverage of parker this year was pretty sweet. something like that would be a million times better than what is going on now with the 1000. the only problem with the BITD t.v. schedule is that the races are on tv MONTHS after the race.

[BoothPacific Films]

...IMHO it can be better to partner with an established show that has a fan base and than supplement it further through your own marketing, than to try and rely solely on your own marketing. It is a lot cheaper to tag onto someone who has a block of air time than to try and outright buy your show. The end result is that you have better return on investment with ratings to sell to future advertisers. Even if you can't sell your advertisers on commercials, you can sell more sponsorship to the event based on the perception it will be on TV, and if you have decent ratings you can compare to other events as a better investment. Its a tough addition to an already tough job to try and work in TV production to the chaos of a race event...

and thus SCORE has gone this route and licensed off to Aura360 which already has time purchased on the network. This is the easiest path to a network broadcast. I think Mr. Kroll's opinion is very valid here. They promote AND create the video production for their KOH. I do not think SCORE has the capability to do both. and Aura360 needs help with the production. So basically SCORE has passed off to Aura360 and they can't really pull it off. So where does it go? I think Klaus and his crews' efforts are the future.

...the idea that the content comes sequentially programed by a station seems outdated when one can simply click on the same content and watch it instantly irregardless of a timed schedule...

My prediction is that soon or later NOBODY will say "Did you watch the Baja 1000 on TV?" but instead "Did you watch the Baja 1000 on DOT COM".
Or is that already happening?

The story that developed at this years Baja Mil and the way it unfolded on RDC was next level stuff. Way more dramatic than any TV broadcast could ever be. Hearing the WXMan pleading with SCORE ops to keep checkpoints open after getting a phone call from fishd00d goes far beyond a passive TV broadcast. Being able to track the dots on the IRC map, listening to radio feeds from RDC and BFG, leader board scoring from RDC, and a forum to interact with other viewers and those at the race. All you need to do is add a few SAT video units out in the field. I bet this is on the RDC christmas list.

If anyone saw the Pipe masters webcast last week you know that webcasting is a viable if not preferable solution to watching a sporting event. Covering a 1000 mile (err 700 mile) race course is a more challenging task than covering a surf spot, although Occy was doing live commentary in the final from the back of a jet ski out at 8 foot pipe. I can see the day when we get live video from Borego and post driver change interviews in Loreto. I think it is a fairly safe bet it happens on the web before it happens on TV.