Wednesday, May 07, 2008
The Pig goes High Tech on its 10th Birthday
The Pig goes High Tech on its 10th Birthday
Powered by Game Day Communications and its partners
The largest field of participants for the Flying Pig Marathon (22,149) crossed finish lines in various events this weekend celebrating the 10th running of the Marathon. As the “Pig” looks to its teen-age years, various technology solutions, managed by Game Day Communications and their partners, were added to communicate to runners and their families.
E-mail Communications
For 26 days leading up to the Marathon, daily email alerts were sent to the e-database of 30,000+ providing race tips, updates, sponsor recognition and spectator information. We also used the email database to encourage use of the technology options created for the weekend.
Real-Time Results & Text Messages
Working with Cincinnati.com, runners and their families members could view real-time results on Cincinnati.com on Sunday for the full marathon, half marathon and 4-person relay. Also, some 3,000 cell phone were buzzing yesterday with text updates with runner’s split times courtesy of Cincinnati.com and Zebra Mobile.
Twitter.com
From Friday through Sunday, the staff at Game Day Communications provided behind-the-scenes updates from race events starting with the Health & Fitness Expo through the end of Sunday’s race. Twitter is a social media networking tool that allows people to register to receive posted updates from Twitter.com. Some 70 people signed up to “follow” our alerts and we made 130 postings over the three days. (Next year, we will use Twitpic to add photos with postings.) While this is a small number of the total field, Twitter is a good tool to engage participants and to share timely or emergency information. For instance, I used Twitter to announce the 15-minute delay for the race due to the fire on the course at the same time it was being broadcast on WLWT-NBC and at the Starting Line. Check it out at: http://twitter.com/gamedayjreau
Facebook.com
Each day during the race weekend, we took about 20-30 photos from various events and posted them on facebook.com for participants to enjoy. Visit: http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=1162386072
Youtube.com
Working with Silver Sun Studio, a two-minute overview video was produced for distribution on youtube.com featuring the start and finish as well as course shots of runners and spectators. View the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2qEAU10kzQ&feature=email
Powered by Game Day Communications and its partners
The largest field of participants for the Flying Pig Marathon (22,149) crossed finish lines in various events this weekend celebrating the 10th running of the Marathon. As the “Pig” looks to its teen-age years, various technology solutions, managed by Game Day Communications and their partners, were added to communicate to runners and their families.
E-mail Communications
For 26 days leading up to the Marathon, daily email alerts were sent to the e-database of 30,000+ providing race tips, updates, sponsor recognition and spectator information. We also used the email database to encourage use of the technology options created for the weekend.
Real-Time Results & Text Messages
Working with Cincinnati.com, runners and their families members could view real-time results on Cincinnati.com on Sunday for the full marathon, half marathon and 4-person relay. Also, some 3,000 cell phone were buzzing yesterday with text updates with runner’s split times courtesy of Cincinnati.com and Zebra Mobile.
Twitter.com
From Friday through Sunday, the staff at Game Day Communications provided behind-the-scenes updates from race events starting with the Health & Fitness Expo through the end of Sunday’s race. Twitter is a social media networking tool that allows people to register to receive posted updates from Twitter.com. Some 70 people signed up to “follow” our alerts and we made 130 postings over the three days. (Next year, we will use Twitpic to add photos with postings.) While this is a small number of the total field, Twitter is a good tool to engage participants and to share timely or emergency information. For instance, I used Twitter to announce the 15-minute delay for the race due to the fire on the course at the same time it was being broadcast on WLWT-NBC and at the Starting Line. Check it out at: http://twitter.com/gamedayjreau
Facebook.com
Each day during the race weekend, we took about 20-30 photos from various events and posted them on facebook.com for participants to enjoy. Visit: http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=1162386072
Youtube.com
Working with Silver Sun Studio, a two-minute overview video was produced for distribution on youtube.com featuring the start and finish as well as course shots of runners and spectators. View the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2qEAU10kzQ&feature=email
# posted by Cincinnati Public Relations @ 7:19 AM 
