Lenka Kovářová
Organising Major Sport Events by the Czech triathlon association
Each year, the Czech Triathlon Association organises and announces a number of series events of national importance and championships and lends its support to dozens of “partner races”. In order to increase its exposure in the media and reach a wider public, the Association’s strategic plan includes the long-term support of and contribution to two major World Series events – the WTS – world triathlon series in triathlon (OG distance) in Carlsbad in order to boost its position within the Olympic community and the Challenge Family – world triathlon series in long distance triathlon in Prague, a mass event designed for both elite athletes and all age groups.
Due to the popularity of the Challenge Family series and due to the dynamic growth in long-distance triathlon in the Czech Republic, we decided to focus our case study on the latter event. The first race took place in the Czech Republic in 2015 and during the first two years it was promoted under the name “TRIPRAGUE”. The event met the Challenge Family criteria already in 2016 and was accepted to the Challenge Family series for a period of at least 5 years. The intention is to exploit the potential of sports in Prague and Prague for sports and make Prague the best city triathlon in the Challenge Family (CHF) world triathlon series.
The aim of this study is to analyse the TRIPRAGUE 2016 event and lay out recommendations for its future growth in order to fulfil the original vision. Within the case study, we used the PESTLE, SWOT and strategic analysis of internal and external environment.
Among the strengths of the event is the location (downtown Prague) and the date where the race does not collide with other big events. Another benefit is the support provided by the Prague City Council and the Region of Central Bohemia (the bike race ventures outside of the city into surrounding area). Distance races and the opportunity to hold accompanying events are also among the strengths. As for the weaknesses, we found that the the current organization structure does not correspond with the requirements of the event and that the race courses and athletes area do not have the potential to increase the number of athletes. We are also convinced that without big sponsors and media support, the event cannot develop further.
We, therefore, recommend several measures, namely:
- Professionalize the organizing team, provide the team with good conditions for days-to-day work, create job descriptions for each position, set up an honour committee to supervise the race.
- Change the courses and move the athletes areas to larger spaces to make sure the race is ready to receive larger numbers of athletes and ensure race course safety.
- Increase the budget by about 150% (increase the starting fee, increase the funding budget from sponsors and from the state sector) and find an external marketing agency that will develop a marketing strategy and a sponsor care strategy.
- We believe that the above recommended measures, identified during our analysis, will gradually help with the achievement of strategic steps and that the race will be able to reach its goal of becoming the best event in the series.
Managing Marketing in the Czech Triathlon Association
The Czech Triathlon Associaiton (CTA) is a civic association of sports teams, clubs, athletic collectives, regional triathlon associations and other organisations and individuals. Its mission is to promote and cultivate the sports environment in the Czech Republic for aquathlon, winter triathlon, triathlon (Olympic and long-distance), cross-country triathlon, duatlon, quadriathlon and paratriathlon. The CTA represents the Czech triathlon movement in international organisations, primarily in the European Triathlon Union (ETU) and the International Triathlon Union (ITU). In the Czech Republic, the CTA is member of the Czech Olympic Committee and the Czech Sports Union.
Triathlon is a new sport that has, over a short period of time, gained world-wide popularity (picture 1). It is sometimes argued that its popularity is due to the enormous interest it attracts among audiences who enjoy the dramatic spectacle. Another explanation for the sport’s fast growth may be the scientific finding that endurance training increases a person’s overall fitness. The popularity of triathlon as a mass sport is also driven by the fact that it does not necessarily require long distances. On the contrary, the difficulty of each race can be modified by adjusting the length of each stage of the race.
The CTA wants to focus its marketing activities on the attracting the attention of people who are becoming interesting in this sport both from the spectator stand point and as an active athlete. The aim of this case study is to produce an analysis of the CTA’s existing marketing activities and give recommendations for the future. Within the case study, we used the PESTLE, SWOT, strategic analysis of internal and external environment and stakeholder interest (control matrix).
The results of our analysis lead us to the following conclusions: the CTA organises many races for active triathletes, but has no offer for beginners. The marketing level of organised races is very weak. The CTA runs several communication channels (web site, FB account) for active triathletes, but doesn’t have any platforms for beginners. The CTA hasn’t used member database for communication. PR is restricted only to articles on the website and FB. The CTA has a small budget for marketing. Our analysis of the external environment shows that the main barrier to participation in the first triathlon is most often swimming performance and ignorance of event environment.
We recommend that the CTA commissions a marketing strategy from an external supplier with the aim of reaching the following goals:
- Raise the general awareness of triathlon – what is triathlon
- Change awareness in terms of availability (every person finds his / her event and can try / do regular triathlon)
- Improve visibility and raise the value of the CTA brand or the Czech triathlon team, czechtriseries, etc.
- Increase in funding / performance from partners,
- Increase the number of participants in competitions organized by CTA,
- Increase the number of visits of web sites (triatlon.cz, czechtriseries.cz etc.) and other communication channels of the CTA,
- Increase the number of fans and interactions on social networks,
- Increase CTA membership,
- Increase funding / performance from partners
Keeping in mind the expected CTA marketing budget, we recommend that the marketing of selected activities be outsourced to an external agency and that the CTA deal with all other activities in-house.
We hope that our recommendations listed in this study will help the CTA gradually implement its strategic goals and steer Czech triathlon towards a successful future.
