About a month ago, the University of Evansville external staff found themselves sitting (virtually, of course) in a brainstorming meeting looking for ways to engage our fanbase while the time since our last event (https://bit.ly/3h1vlif) continued to grow. Sound like a familiar scenario?
At that point, we knew we wouldn’t be playing anything until at least September 18th and since then our fall sports season has been postponed altogether.
What could we do to bring the Aces community together safely?
The idea that came out of that meeting was not original or even overly unique – a virtual 5K. This COVID-friendly type of event has been growing with popularity during the pandemic. In fact, my inspiration for the idea came from the BTN Big 10K (https://btnbig10k.com/) which I had just signed up for (kudos to those responsible for a job well done). Drawing from my experience as a participant in the BTN Big 10K and researching others who have been putting on similar events such as Virginia Tech and South Carolina (R&D anyone?) we began to plan our own race – the #ForTheAces Virtual 5K.
Here are some key questions that emerged (and how we answered them):
- When? Registration will be open Monday, August 10 through Friday, September 4. All race packets will be mailed by Monday, September 14. Participants may complete their 5K anytime Friday, September 18 through Sunday, September 20.
- Where? Participants may complete their 5K anywhere in the world – treadmill, trail, track or road! After completing the 5K, submit your times here: https://bit.ly/3g0JMBy.
- How much? The entry fee is $25 – all proceeds go to the UEvansville Fund, an unrestricted fund that will help the university offset the additional costs of operating safely during a pandemic. (Since we chose to benefit the entire university our proceeds, our alumni, advancement and marketing offices have been great in helping us promote the event.)
- What do I get for signing up? Your $25 entry fee gets you into the race, a commemorative sticker, event t-shirt and exclusive digital content.
- Digital content? All participants will receive exclusive digital content including: an “I signed up” graphic, printable race bib, access to the official race day Spotify playlist put together by our men’s basketball DJ, DJ McNaughty, training/race prep videos featuring student-athletes, our mascot and the event sponsor, and an “I finished” graphic. Participants are encouraged to share any and all of this on social using the hashtag, #ForTheAcesVirtual5K. The top finishers will be featured on the @UEAthletics social accounts. Since this is a fundraiser at its core, it was important for us to minimize expenses while still provide a top-notch participant experience. That is why we ultimately decided to make things like the bib and finisher “award” digital (shout out to Emily, as always, for doing a great job with the graphics).
Another major box this event checked for us was helping begin the make-good process for some of our major fall sports sponsors. Our #ForTheAces Virtual 5K is sponsored by ProRehab, one of our largest soccer sponsors. We knew that our fall season would be, at minimum, condensed with the chance of being postponed. We wanted to begin working with our sponsors on the front end of this to make sure that all our sponsorship elements were activated to the best of our ability. Brandon McClish, our Learfield General Manager, did an excellent job finding the right sponsor match for this event.
Like I mentioned before, nothing about this is groundbreaking. Several schools have reached out to us about our virtual 5K, so I thought it may be helpful to lay out our thought process in a blog post. I believe that a virtual 5K may be a good, relatively easy to plan a way to engage your fans safely, raise funds/replace lost revenue, activate sponsorships and bring your fan base and community together.
Have questions? Please feel free to email me at sp166@evansville.edu or DM me on Twitter @Scott_Peace. I would love to help however I can!
We would also be honored to have any of our #P5M friends join us for the event. You can find an FAQ about it https://bit.ly/3iKc3OE and can register online https://bit.ly/3hc46Bm.
- Scott Peace (@Scott_Peace)
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