Web and social media
Effective use of online channels is increasingly critical for sports organisations. Many in New Zealand have risen to the opportunity with great creativity and understanding.
In turn, sports themselves have contributed much to dizzying popularity of social media among the public, and to the evolution of innovative online commercial and communications practices.
Triathlon NZ's bold social media work helped it win this year's Communication Excellence prize at the New Zealand Sport and Recreation Awards.
"Interestingly, there’s an inverse relationship between the amount of investment required and what I see as the marketing return. With social media the investment required tends to be not that high, but the return is significant.
"Through social media, Surfing NZ saw an opportunity to 'fish where the fish are'. A large number of surfing participants were already using social media platforms and connecting with the bigger surfing brands."
"Everything is moving towards being able to have a conversation where you’re not only putting out information but you’re also getting feedback and then adjusting what you’re doing to suit your audience."
"An active global community of over 1.45 million Facebook fans, 112,000 Twitter followers, 250,000 Flickr photo views and 4.9 million video views on YouTube."
"I think the number one key learning is you either do it or you don’t do it ... This is a conversation and you have to 100% back your conversation. If you can’t, then don’t do it."
"We’ve got an overall communications strategy which we look at each year that aligns with our strategic plan…It [social media] doesn’t sit by itself; it is totally integrated into every single facet."
Waka Ama is another national sports organisation whose approach to social media has been to keep an open mind, try it out, and see what works.
New Zealand Cricket have developed their website into a sophisticated multimedia platform catering for general visitors and dedicated fans. There is a tight connection between the site and NZC's high-profile social media accounts.