Managing Communications at Rebecca’s Private Idaho
I recently spent six weeks helping Rebecca Rusch at her influential and popular Rebecca’s Private Idaho gravel race. This four day event, which benefits the Be Good Foundation, takes place every September in Sun Valley, Idaho. It was one of the world’s original gravel races, first taking place in 2013, before most cyclists even knew what “gravel” was. I was brought on a month before the event as the consultant CMO. At that point in the process, the race is on final approach, and it’s too late to make major changes to the communications plan. However, there were still a lot of things to work on. Here’s what I did, in partnership with the already excellent team Rebecca had in place:
1. Articulate the mission and make sure that drove everything we did
On our first call, I was happy to find out that Rebecca had already laid out a simple and clear mission statement for the event, which boils down to People, Purpose and Place. Not only did she already understand the importance of having a point of view (every business and event needs one), but she’d already done the hard work to create a simple and clear statement. This makes it so much easier to do marketing and communications work: you have a North Star that you can refer to when creating content, building participant experiences or speaking to media.
RPI is the first gravel event to have a category for the non-binary/femme, trans, women community, in addition to a para cyclist division. I’m so glad Rebecca did this — the whole week was made better by the inclusion of people who are usually marginalized at endurance events. This initiative around inclusivity also lived up beautifully to the mission statement (People! Purpose!). I personally learned a lot by talking with non-binary athletes like Bethel Steele and Molly Cameron. It became clear to me how naïve I had been about this community. But I also was reminded how important it is to spend time with people who don’t look like me. That proximity creates empathy and understanding. My takeaway was that in spite of different gender orientations, we all had so much in common and so much to celebrate as cyclists who loved riding in wild places.
2. Understand who the customer is
As soon as I started, we agreed on the three sets of RPI customers:
- Participants
- Brand Partners
- Fans from around the world who follow the event
I define the customers of any business or event as “those who write you a check.” In this case, that’s obvious with participants and brands, but fans pay us with their attention. We had to serve all three of these groups with intentional experiences, either in person or digital. In doing so, we’re solving specific problems for each of our customers: participants want an inspiring in person gravel race, brands want help selling their product or service and fans want to follow the race from wherever they are. With any piece of content or marketing initiative, I first ask, “which problem are we solving for which customer?”
3. Make the event website a dynamic experience that aligns with the customer journey
As I’ve written about before, gravel events in general need to level up their game and do a better job communicating with fans, participants & media before, during & after the race. The front end of races are legitimate professional sports events now, and fans want to follow along. So it’s important for an event to entertain fans with updated content and information.
Weeks before the race, I sketched out some rough wireframes that would have us updating the website almost every day during the week of the event. What participants and fans need the day before the race (parking directions, event previews, course maps, etc.) is much different than what they need the day after the event (results, photos, recap videos, etc.). It’s not complicated to make these daily changes, but it does take some planning. Here are some screenshots from the website:
While I love the idea of live streaming the front of the men’s & women’s fields, that’s currently a huge challenge for most gravel events. As is the case in many wilderness areas, over 90% of the RPI routes are out of cell range. So live video coverage of the race gets very complicated and potentially expensive. That being said, there are other ways we were able to keep fans updated.
First, we clipped a Garmin InReach Mini satellite communication device to the lead motorcycle, and then embedded a Garmin Explore map on the website. One could at least follow the leaders as dots on a map until they got to the finish line and back to cell range.
Secondly, right from my iPhone I shot a 90-minute YouTube Live stream from the finish line, which we embedded on the home page of the website:
Then we then used an API on the website to pull in any Instagram photos using the hashtags #RPIgravel or #rebeccasprivateidaho
While each of these things are fairly simple and DIY, when taken together, they allow fans to follow the event in real time and get a decent picture of how the race is playing out. In the future, we’d love to serve up a much deeper experience, but this was a good start.
4. Clearly and honestly communicate potential issues with the community
There are some huge concerns for any in person event right now. COVID is obviously the biggest one. But outdoor events in the Western U.S. now face climate change and wildfire smoke as an ever present danger during the summer and fall seasons. As I flew up to Sun Valley from Los Angeles before the race, there was a thick blanket of smoke over the ground visible for hundreds of miles in every direction. Smoky air is an existential threat to any outdoor event, but marathons, triathlons and bike races are in particular danger because, above a certain level, poor air quality makes it unsafe to exercise. This month alone, I’m aware of three gravel races in California that were canceled due to wildfires or associated national forest closures.
The goal for us was to be proactive and communicate directly with our community. As is usually the case with problems outside the control of an event, I advocate for this three-step communication strategy:
a. Be honest about the situation (“Wildfire smoke is a real threat to our event.”)
b. Show empathy to the community (“We understand this is a huge hassle and a potential health risk for all of you.”)
c. Have an action plan (“Based on consultation with our medical team, if the AQI is sustained above 175 on any race day, we may need to cancel…”)
We sent emails to all participants detailing both COVID protocols and wildfire smoke contingency plans, and we posted this language in the FAQ section of the website. Being honest and upfront with our community is the best way to handle these kinds of challenges. I’ve seen many events run and hide from issues like the pandemic or racial justice, but that is not what customers want from those in charge. I try to think of customers like friends and ask how they would want me to communicate with them. In addition, Rebecca has a thoughtful code of ethics for the event already in place that helped guide our response.
Fortunately, we were able to get the event off safely and without having to cancel or postpone any of the four days of racing. But I did wake up sweating at 4:00 am each morning to check the air quality. It was a constant concern.
5. Uncover compelling storylines for media
Once I got settled on the project, I had to quickly evaluate the key narratives surrounding the event. The fact that Rebecca had created two new inclusive divisions for event was a big deal, and we mentioned this in press releases, video content, during the rider meetings and basically everywhere we could.
Most media outlets present also focused on the inclusion angle, with excellent stories in Bicycling, VeloNews, local outlets like Eye on Sun Valley, industry platforms like Outside Business Journal and of course Phil Gaimon’s video of the event.
6. Collaborate with a strong team
Rebecca already had a terrific group of people in place in operations, race timing, photo, social media, video, web design and announcing. The only thing left for me to do was coordinate with the team and make sure we were all aligned on the mission. It’s critical that any event or brand speaks in a unified voice with everything it does. And I’ve learned from my past mistakes that micro-managing never works. Just get out of the way and let smart people do good work.
Overall, I loved the experience.
