I spend my Sunday following South Africa's premier endurance event, the Spec-Savers Ironman. It made its 8th appearance in Nelson Mandela Bay. Now, for the none triathletes, the Ironman forms part of a world circuit. The athletes have 17 hours to complete a 4km sea swim, 180 km bike ride and a 42.2 km run.
What I found fascinating was that the Ironman, did not use traditional media to cover such a premier event - Comrades and Two Oceans both used traditional media (Television Broadcast:SABC 2) to cover the respective events. Today, Comrades is a house hold name and one can argue that traditional media helped to establish the 'The Ultimate Human Race' amongst South Africans.
The Spec-Savers Ironman used social media (Twitter and Facebook) to keep followers updated, but more interestingly, they used Universal Sport Network for live streaming of the event. This for me is a clear indication that technology is forcing mass media to reconsider their target audiences. Technology makes it possible for and event, such as the Ironman South Africa, to broadcast to very specific audiences that have nothing else in common except that they share an interest in triathlons! That for me is focussed publicity.
I really think traditional media is slowly making way for social networks which today are the in thing and as it is said on Public Relations that organisations must adapt into new broad trends and that for me is what the Spec-Savers Ironman South Africa did.
ReplyDeleteI think it is about exclusivity! If you think about new media it almost by default excludes the mass, which traditional media targets. Comrades marathon aims at making it an accessible event to all and their media platforms they use are reflecting that.
DeleteI would also like to add that traditional media is accessable to all because it is inexpensive, Spec-Savers Ironman is not accessable to all but it focuses on it's target market which is a good way to publicise their organisation.
ReplyDeleteThe power of "substitution" is practised by Spec-Savers Ironman in adapting with current times. Just as it has been practised in the past with regard to print/written period did with oral, but it does'nt neccessarily mean they had to neglect the traditional media completely! Consideration for other audiences who might have been interested in the event and did'nt know or could'nt excess the event,was not part of the plan. Maybe they wanted it to be exclusive like that...MokD
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, it is probably a sign that they know their audience well. We need just to be aware of the fact that new media can be exclusive!
ReplyDeleteIs traditional media still relevant? yes. If it was not for traditional media there would be no 'Ultimate Human Race'.Social media and live streaming expresses how mass media always needs to updated with regards to who their target audiences are.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm getting at is that by using new media, they by default excluded a group of people. But then, we can also argue, that maybe the group of people that they have excluded are not their target audience. We forget that traditional media did a lot to establish the Ultimate Human Race!
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