3 replies to this topic

[Farrout]

Thought it would be useful to aggregate all links to the Petersen Museum slot car event in one place. This is a start. Please add in other posts here or elsewhere as you find them

Will help to start process for next years event, and yes I am committing to leading a 2011 slot car festival.

Thanks all for the enthusiasm and support,

Stephen

PS: I Apologize if all the links don't work. Did this on a mobile phone while flying across the country. So cut and paste into browser if they fail. 

Good picture essay here by a former slot racer so not quite the mass market angle:
Keith Tanaka's Slotblog report

Article in Road & Track here:
Quick Vic Pulls the Trigger for Charity

Article in Autoweek with video here:
Slots of Fun: Racers gather for a good cause

Two good interviews on SoCal's National Public Radio affiliate here:   
Slot cars museum event to raise money for MS relief
And here:
A Race Down Memory Lane

Twelve-minute video of event here:
Petersen Charity Event

LA Daily News (city's second largest daily paper) front page newspaper coverage here: 
Remember slot cars?

KABC LA TV station main nightly news coverage here:
Slot racing gets back on track

[Cheater]

Over the last decade, and perhaps longer than that, when the all-too-numerous discussions turned to promoting slot cars and slot racing, I've repeatedly suggested that doing a tie-in with a national charity would be the most fruitful promotional avenue for our cash-strapped hobby (with its generally non-cooperating entities).

When a well-known charity is part of the mix, free publicity is regularly granted in just about every form of media (see the links above). Sure, the celebs and the venue contributed to the stature of the event, making the show more newsworthy, but IMO if a well-known charity had not been centrally involved, I believe the level of publicity generated would have been far less.

If the success of the Petersen event doesn't forcefully emphasize the veracity of my claim, I don't know what will.

Stephen, a few questions for you, if you're willing to address them.

Can you give us a recap of the pre-event publicity actions that were taken?

Were pre-event press releases sent out and if so, how was the distribution of those press releases determined, i.e. what groups were the releases sent to?

Were local media outlets contacted directly to inform and encourage coverage?

If there was a pre-event promotional budget, can you give us an idea of its amount?

Was there distribution of free tickets to media figures to encourage attendance and subsequent coverage?

The buzz and publicity generated by the Petersen event ought to serve as a serious wake-up call to anyone with the desire to help raise the visibility of slot cars and slot car racing. Stephen and everyone involved in organizing and running this event deserves our sincere thanks, not only for creating a terrific event but for clearly demonstrating that there are ways to promote slot racing to a larger and near-national audience without the necessity of a huge advertising budget.

[Farrout]

Wow hard to believe this was a decade ago!

[Keith Tanaka]

Glad I read this post today since it's been many years since the event was held at the Petersen Automotive Museum. I happened to talk to Craig Williamson recently and I asked him about this event and how did they get all those tracks installed in such a short period of time. His response was truly amazing as I had no idea how much planning and effort went into setting up for this event in such a short period of time (one day to setup all the tracks). Apparently, the tracks were stored in a building nearby and transferred on the setup day one by one at the Petersen parking structure/tent. It sounded like a lot of work by many members of the Farrout Club and they deserve a shoutout for their outstanding effort to make it happen.

 

Keith

 

p.s. - Stephen might want to expand on how the event was planned and how the setup day occurred. By the way, I updated the link to the original report (post #1) as I no longer use Phanfare but Smugmug these days.