Company: Capella University
Agency: Weber Shandwick
Timeframe: 2006-2007
Antarctica is considered to be the driest, coldest and windiest of the continents--hardly the place you'd want to go for a sporting event, let alone any event that involved
braving its uninhabitable, unforgiving terrain. But don't tell that to the communications professionals at Capella University, who gave new meaning to the concept of a brisk walk
with their media relations program surrounding the Antarctica Marathon, a cross-continent race founded by Boston-based Marathon Tours and Travel president Thom Gilligan in
1995.
Capella's PR department zeroed in on the unusual sporting event to boost awareness of the school--an accredited online university with 16,000 students--among working adult
professionals with healthy lifestyles, a target audience that mirrors the school's student body.
PR director Irene Silber and senior manager Michael Walsh had decided that acting as a presenting sponsor for a race would generate buzz with their target audience. But there
was one major challenge:
"From a public relations perspective, traditional marathon sponsorships are not great," Silber says. "Most races have hundreds of sponsors. How do you get differentiation?"
Inspiration In The Dentist Chair
One day while waiting in her dentist's office, Silber came across an article in the Smithsonian Magazine that discussed the little-known Antarctica Marathon, which
immediately piqued her interest.
"I thought we could get media attention if we were the only sponsor," she says. She contacted the organizer of the marathon, and not long after that Capella became the sole
presenting sponsor for the race, which was set for Feb. 26, 2007.
Although most of the planning for the program was done in-house by Capella University, Silber and Walsh did enlist the services of Weber Shandwick's Seattle office to help with
additional pitching. They provided logistical support and arranged radio interviews while Silber, Walsh and company were on the road.
To enhance its involvement in the race, Capella's communications team identified three students to compete in the marathon. The "lucky" runners were chosen in a contest among
23,000 students, all of whom submitted essays describing a challenge that they had overcome.
Known as "Team Capella," they consisted of Wesam Mahmoud, a recipient of two Purple Hearts from serving three tours of duty in Iraq; Melissa Hill, who had lost 150 pounds
thanks to healthy eating and running; and Michelle Johnston, a cancer survivor who had to learn to walk again after suffering a broken neck in a car accident.
These inspiring stories, coupled with the unusual circumstances of the marathon, lent themselves to a media relations juggernaut; it was just a matter of getting it off the
ground.
Gearing Up For The South Pole
The tactics the project team employed for the media relations campaign focused on both the traditional and new media spaces. In terms of traditional outreach, Silber's team
pitched national media outlets that included broadcast, radio, consumer print and trade publications. This phase of the campaign began several months before the race. The team
also identified unusual target audiences--those in the mental health and education fields--based on the students' professional experience in those areas.
"These are very important areas for Capella," says Silber, adding that they wanted to pick and promote people who were similar to their students who, on average, are drawn to
attending the school because the class schedules accommodate people who work and raise families.
As for the new media sector, Walsh oversaw the creation of a Web site at http://www.capella.edu
that included information about the marathon, two podcasts, an interview with
the marathon founder and a map of Antarctica. Then, each competing student kept
running blogs tracing their adventures and progress. All worked on their university
coursework by satellite on the journey to Antarctica and during their stay.
Cold, Hard Facts
Of course, Antarctica isn't right around the corner by any stretch of the imagination, so providing updated information on the marathon via feed and video technology were major
challenges.
"Before [we got involved], the organizers of the Antarctica Marathon had never been able to release the race results until the boat [carrying the runners to land] got back to
South America," Silber says. "Using satellite technology, we could announce the results with the feed." (Expedition vessels ferried nearly 200 runners from Ushuaia, Argentina,
through the Beagle Channel, across Drake Passage, through the South Shetland Islands and along the Antarctica Peninsula to King George Island. Runners took Zodiac boats from the
ship to the shore to run the race.)
Unfortunately, finding satellite companies to employ technology to do these feeds was complicated from a logistical standpoint.
"All satellites orbit the equator," says Silber. "We were in Antarctica, which is close to the [South] Pole. Originally, I contacted the major satellite companies, and they
said it couldn't be done without a satellite truck, which was a problem. Because of the technology, because the distance was great and because we were on a ship, we had to have
our own satellite technology. We had to bring our own video crew; we had to do everything to capture the immediacy of the events."
Thanks to the services of former CBS engineer Stuart DeBaan, who own his own Internet company, this predicament was soon resolved. Using cutting-edge spot beams, DeBaan was
able to send feeds, both audio and video, using his equipment. "The whole ability to send photos and video was based on new technology, and if Stuart hadn't done that, we would
have been lost," says Walsh.
"We wanted people around the world to know who won and know about the race the day of the race itself," adds Silber. "This was largely done through video, which they had never
done. It was important to show the experience. We also wanted to provide interviews via telephone."
Not surprisingly, another challenge was the weather. The course traverses both glacial and rocky terrain, looping through the scientific research bases of Uruguay, Chile, China
and Russia. Temperature at the time of the February 2007 marathon ranged from 10 degrees to 30 degrees Fahrenheit--that's the end of their summer season. Spectators included
southern elephant seals and penguins.
"The race course is a combo of snow, ankle deep mud," says Walsh. "The terrain in the best part is rolling hills. At one point in the race, the runners have to run up the
glaciers."
Finding personnel who could shoot video in those conditions was difficult, but Silber managed to find two videographers. Walsh also supplemented their duties by becoming a
still photographer.
"We had two videographers spread out in different parts of the course," Silber says. "We had to follow our Capella runners along."
Fortunately, the time zone (Antarctica's standard time is Greenwich Mean Time) was propitious. "We had time to make the feed, but we had to edit very quicky. Because of the
distance from the equator, the video had to go to a lot of different places--up from the satellite, then to Minneapolis [where Capella's parent company is headquartered] and then
to the national news satellite to go out."
Then there were the unexpected snags, among them wandering penguins.
"Our feed was slow," sighs Silber. "It took 90 minutes for broadcast quality to go through. Every time a penguin would walk in front of the unit, the beam would be broken."
Running For Cover
Despite the tough climate, the winner of the race (a non-Capella student by the name of Matthew Tyler) managed to cross the finish line in 3:51:33. As for Silber and Walsh,
they set a few records of their own:
"We set a goal of $200,000 of media mentions and exceeded that by about more than $250,000," Silber says. Among the notable outlets that covered the Antarctica Marathon and
Capella's sponsorship of it were Time Magazine, Houston Chronicle, ESPN and Reuters. There were also numerous radio spots that picked up the coverage, but because the team
didn't have the metrics to track it, Silber and Walsh are unable to provide an exact dollar figure representing the overall value of the radio impressions.
In addition to Walsh, Silber and DeBaan, other team players who worked on this program were the video producer Ken Stone and videographers Bob Davidson and Larry Falk.
Providing support with media pitching from Weber Shandwick's Seattle office were Amy Gallagher and Jaclyn Ruckle.
When asked what the lessons learned were, Walsh answers wryly, "Bring really good gloves." PRN
CONTACTS:
Irene Silber, [email protected]; Michael Walsh, [email protected]
Getting Senior Management On Your Side
For all PR initiatives, it's imperative that upper management be supportive. For Capella University's Irene Silber, director of public relations, and Michael Walsh, senior PR
manager, this was especially important when it came to driving the media relations surrounding the Antarctica Marathon.
"It's important to involve as many people in your organization as possible as a way to build morale and excitement around an event," says Walsh. "After all, an internal
audience can be a critical audience in a successful PR campaign.
Certainly working for a company that is receptive to all sorts of initiatives helps.
"We are very fortunate to work for a progressive company that's open to 'out there,' cutting-edge PR," says Silber.