Dubai.

[Ferret]

I watched the ladies final on thier live TVs feed.

Thankfully, I have a bit of knowledge of clay shooting which was just as well.

There was no list of which competitor was shooting, what they were trying to shoot at and not a hint of what the scores were.

I worked out from the side referee's with thier arms up or down (if they were in the camera view) who was hitting a few but to me it looked like a complete shambles to keep up with the action.

Even worse, they kept going back into the studio to discuss I know not what whilst the final was being shot.

Not the best advert for the sport when you think how much money was thrown at it.

Great for those taking part I am sure as all I have heard is positive views, and with a bit of tweaking it could be spot on.

However, trying to follow from our good shores was a nightmare.

I just may have to save up my pennies and sample it myself first hand next year.........

 

[Dunc]

Loads on their facebook, Instagram and Twatter pages.

Pictures, videos etc.

The webpage is what I'd look at. - and which is open to everyone.

 

[Dunc]

:laugh: a £12k internship.....that is all.

Brilliant.

But maybe a kid will be more social media save.....just saying.

: laugh:

To do this job, you need to pay something in the region of £50-75k + to get the right person - with the proven ability to get results, IMHO.  And this is not an easy job - getting good placements takes some doing and can easily backfire on an amateur.  Sending out unsolicited press releases is only scratching the surface of a Media/PR strategy which is what I'd imagine an intern to be doing.

BASC built the media centre at their HQ which cost a shed load of cash but came into its own during the Cumbria and Durham shootings, IIRC, and continues to do so on all things shooting.

Nic, as you've alluded to somewhere else in the last day or so, the yanks have got a much better 'can do' attitude to all things shooting than we have.  And the Brits wonder why there're so often on the back foot. :banghead:

 

[westley]

Maybe the CPSA do not do ................Sheikh,  Rattled and Rolled then !!!

 

[shootinguru]

:fie:  Why should the CPSA  roll out the brass band? this was not a recognised World Championship! It is not a recognised discipline

or targets set to a determined pattern!  Its not going to be shot all over the world. and its not the future of clay shooting! :fie:

 

[Rosso]

Tink. With respect to number 3 of your answers.

Care about members abroad. They could not careless about their members here.

They are to busy sending out snotty letters for binning cards.

Then when the reply is sent in with the reasons why ie:- dangerous shooting ground, to much waiting, etc.

The cannot even be bothered to reply.

So where do they find the time to report on the shooters successes!!

 

[Nimbusgb]

CPSA Communications Intern - 12k for a position that could quite literally strangle clay shooting if the wrong thing was said at the wrong time.

 

[schmokinn]

:laugh: a £12k internship.....that is all.

Brilliant.

But maybe a kid will be more social media save.....just saying.

: laugh:

my 10 year old nephew co edits his school newsletter which generally has more pertinent information and less bias than Pull...do you think he should apply.

wouyld just about cover his expenses and sweety money!

 

[schmokinn]

so based on a swift calculation 26000 members allowing for juniors/vets approx 14 million income each year to the cpsa....WTF are they spending it on?

 

[Nimbusgb]

so based on a swift calculation 26000 members allowing for juniors/vets approx 14 million income each year to the cpsa....WTF are they spending it on?

Dunno, perhaps we should ask their communications ............. oh wait!  

 

[schmokinn]

so based on a swift calculation 26000 members allowing for juniors/vets approx 14 million income each year to the cpsa....WTF are they spending it on?

oops missed the decimal point 1.4 million doesnt seem so bad but that was 5 years ago...nearly half a million in wages though and 12 k for a communications officer.

as with most NGO's,government of any kind and even charities if i ran my business like them i would have gone bankrupt years ago!!

 

[schmokinn]

Instead of guessing ...just look in the March Pull mag....the accounts are published there....because the AGM is coming up.

wasn't guessing..was approximating on quickly bingled figures fom 2009  xD

as for pull seen as it takes approximatelyan hour and a half to read from cover to cover  i think that bit has been recycled/ used as toilet paper :sarcastic:

 

[Dunc]

CPSA Communications Intern - 12k for a position that could quite literally strangle clay shooting if the wrong thing was said at the wrong time.

That is indeed a possibility if this person would be sufficiently proactive and was attempting to change perceptions eg wandering around Westminster looking for 'opinion formers'.

However, I would expect that this position holder will have such little autonomy and responsibility, that this is unlikely to happen.  If there were, say, phone enquiries from the press over an 'incident', they would still be answered by 'management', although the PR/Comms intern may have had the opportunity of wordsmithing a conversation into a 'press release' before getting it internally approved.  

 

[ExSCA]

my 10 year old nephew co edits his school newsletter which generally has more pertinent information and less bias than Pull...do you think he should apply.

wouyld just about cover his expenses and sweety money!

Over qualified

 

[Rosso]

wasn't guessing..was approximating on quickly bingled figures fom 2009  xD

as for pull seen as it takes approximatelyan hour and a half to read from cover to cover  i think that bit has been recycled/ used as toilet paper :sarcastic:

Hour and half.

Ha ha:- Grey Bas**** shreds it in 15 mins.

 

[schmokinn]

Well they are not at 26,000 that is for sure.

There seems to be some doubt at the moment ....ask Mr Simpson (director).

Today, membership stands at 26,000 qoted from cpsa site although i do not know when today was.

approximation of wages was fairly correct but no breakdown of that.

There seems to be some doubt at the moment ....ask Mr Simpson (director) why him and not the national director?

email sent anyway.

back on thread they should be celebrating and advertising openly anything that could show shooting in a positive light...don't think it should just apply to members shooting as i think all members are interested in the shooting rather than the orginisation behind it.

 

[GrrClark]

I would go further than you have in your posts TB and suggest that it is an absolute duty of the various representative bodies of competitive shooting in the UK to highlight the good news stories of British success around the world regardless of whether it is a registered or affiliated event.

Our sport is a minority one and will rarely achieve widespread media coverage so all the more reason to capitalise on stores such as the success of British shooters in Dubai and especially Cheryl's win.

The purse won by Cheryl is bigger than that in the majority of professional lades golf events globally, it is a very big news story indeed on that basis alone.  It is a genuinely world class event and it was won by a British lady with a significant amount of success for British shooters in general.

A simple article written by any of the shooting bodies and syndicated to the various press agencies would guarantee back pages coverage, the news papers are scrabbling around for decent stories most of the time and would welcome such an article, let alone the associations placing a story on their own websites or social channels.  In Cheryl's own TV region her win could also feature on regional TV news coverage (it may well have done, I don't know).

Mainstream media interest increases the profile outside of the sport so increases the opportunity and likelihood of sponsorship from outside of the shooting industry which can only be positive.

Not only is it an insult to Cheryl to have the CPSA fail to celebrate her win, it is a dereliction of their duties in their capacity to support and grow the sport.

It doesn't need some super talented PR or media darling to run an effective communication campaign, it simply takes a little bit of effort and ownership by the organisations and for them to be a little bit less self serving in their own agendas.

 

[Dunc]

I would go further than you have in your posts TB and suggest that it is an absolute duty of the various representative bodies of competitive shooting in the UK to highlight the good news stories of British success around the world regardless of whether it is a registered or affiliated event.

Our sport is a minority one and will rarely achieve widespread media coverage so all the more reason to capitalise on stores such as the success of British shooters in Dubai and especially Cheryl's win.

The purse won by Cheryl is bigger than that in the majority of professional lades golf events globally, it is a very big news story indeed on that basis alone.  It is a genuinely world class event and it was won by a British lady with a significant amount of success for British shooters in general.

A simple article written by any of the shooting bodies and syndicated to the various press agencies would guarantee back pages coverage, the news papers are scrabbling around for decent stories most of the time and would welcome such an article, let alone the associations placing a story on their own websites or social channels.  In Cheryl's own TV region her win could also feature on regional TV news coverage (it may well have done, I don't know).

Mainstream media interest increases the profile outside of the sport so increases the opportunity and likelihood of sponsorship from outside of the shooting industry which can only be positive.

Not only is it an insult to Cheryl to have the CPSA fail to celebrate her win, it is a dereliction of their duties in their capacity to support and grow the sport.

It doesn't need some super talented PR or media darling to run an effective communication campaign, it simply takes a little bit of effort and ownership by the organisations and for them to be a little bit less self serving in their own agendas.

Absolutely spot in that it is one of the organisations key roles to improve the reputation of clay shooting in the country.  However, sorry, but you're incorrect on some key points if I may say so, and IMHO of course. And I respond, only to try and illustrate the challenge there is in getting positive media coverage.  It is a good deal more difficult that many people imagine.  (I work in this 'area' hence my interest.)

Getting press releases and PR articles placed in national journals is not easy, especially for shooting of any discipline, which most editors won't have a clue about and are not naturally interested in, and may even or probably dislike.

The fact that Cheryl won more than golfers, could simply be a reinforcement of the 'rich shooting toff' stereotype.  Own goal could be scored here, unless some careful work is done by what you call a 'super talented PR or media darling'.  And it doesn't take too much digging by a journalist to find data to support the high cost of shooting.  How much does a Perazzi cost these days - sponsored or not?

I do agree with your comment about her TV region though and this might give her 10 second slot at the end of the sports section on an average day.  Maybe more, but probably not much more.

The PR/comms is not as easy as you seem to suggest.  To assume it is will risk getting ignored and at worst, negative coverage.  I have seen some enthusiastic amateurs make what they thought was a proactive and innovative approach only for it to blow up in their faces and seriously damage the very cause they were trying to support.

I have spent many years as a PR Officer for a shooting team, albeit some time ago.  It is one of those jobs that everybody else thinks they can do better than you, until they try.  And please, this is not a pop at you personally.  But you have written comments that are representative of a lot of 'lay people' and I thought it may be useful to give another perspective.

 

[evoracer]

So this thread has gone from being a Dubai thread to a full on CPSA assault excellent. 

 

[GrrClark]

Dunc, I appreciate your comments from the perspective of someone who has worked in the field and yes to an extent I was generalising and over simplifying.  I do appreciate that your reply was not a pop at me, but none the less I felt the need to reply

Given the nature of this event that had genuine global pull I don't think it needs particularly advanced or sophisticated media marketing skills to get this in the national media.  The associations should have access to knowledgeable resources who understand the mechanisms of media and the best channels to follow to get press interest so not suggesting it is or should be a completely amateur approach, but it doesn't need a high powered PR talent that comes at a high powered cost either.

There will always be sports editors and journalists that will be sympathetic to shooting sports and happy to promote coverage, sure this might not be in every single red top, but Nicola's original point was that this wasn't even covered on the websites owned and run by the shooting organisations.  A good PR officer would know who the sympathetic journo's are and use them at every opportunity.

Of course there is the risk that shooting is seen as elitist, but that is why we need articles about personalities to break that down.  It might be a tough ask to try and increase exposure, but it cant just be filed in the 'too hard to try' pile and forgotten about.

Those who are offended by the cost of entry to any sport will be offended regardless of the activity, winning over that negative audience is not the prize, it is engaging those who would be genuinely happy to celebrate British success on a world stage regardless of the activity.

There are loads of sports that are seen as having a high cost of entry, not least golf and sailing, yet both have brilliant media coverage even at an amateur level.

Going off at a slight tangent look at the attendance demographics from the various game fairs around the country, there is a very sizeable portion of those that attend who don't shoot and certainly don't do any game shooting they just go along for a day out.  That should give an indication of the general level of acceptance of shooting in this country, there will always be a vocal minority shouting for and against, but the majority of the British public actually don't really feel strongly about it in any broad sense.  It is the apathetic majority that positive media coverage can influence and build greater support, tolerance and ultimately engagement in the sport.

The general type of media coverage around shotgun shooting in particular in the UK revolves around game shooting, the overwhelming image being one of tweed clad toffs strutting around on the grouse moor.

An event like Dubai comes along where very the very media worthy royal family of the very media rich city sponsor a global spectacle in shooting and our competitive associations appear to idly stand by watching a fantastic opportunity to advance the sport that they represent across the UK fly on by.  If nothing else engaging a PR company just to promote the output of this event should have been considered and done.  So many other people inside the shooting industry capitalised on it from grounds running pre Dubai events to the shooting press coverage pre and post event so why on earth could our associations not do that.

Good news about British success is exactly that, Dubai represented a wonderful good news story for Cheryl in particular and I really cannot imagine any national paper turning down a story on that.

To go back to Nicola's original point, the associations didn't even have a story on their own websites, that is nothing short of disgraceful and that certainly needs nothing more than someone who can write reasonably well.