Grant’s Blog: Backing winners
Well that was a close one, the French played really well but you never remember the score , just the result. Not since we won the America’s Cup in ’95 has the country gone off like this. You know its been tough hasn’t it; the West Coast mining disaster 12 months ago, the earthquakes in Christchurch, the recession.
Life hasn’t been easy for anyone and this victory and the Rugby World Cup in general has shown all of us once again that the country backs winners, the country wants teams and events to be successful, the country wants to be positive, the country wants heroes.
I was down at the ‘Cloud’ the other day, part of the fan zone area on the waterfront. It was a Thursday, mid-week, there were people everywhere enjoying themselves. I thought to myself, ” if we were lucky enough to win the Cup make sure you make it interactive for the public”. It has never really been that interactive before, team bases, a few shops but never a huge interactive village that I can think of anyway – note to self.
The other thing I have noticed and ‘made note to self’, flags, just cheap as possible flags, the fans want to support you, give them an inexpensive way to do that’. As I watch and learn there are lessons everywhere, my mind is full of ideas but first as a team we need to concentrate on the now and get it done in San Francisco in Sept 2013. But it’s good to ‘visualise’ and in your quiet times think ahead, live in the now, plan for the future.
Really pleased with how it is coming along at present, CAMPER boys are in good shape and a number of us head up this week to the start in Alicante. We need to be fast, early indications are encouraging as Shoeb was saying in his blog. The collective opposition decided to lob in a protest against our forestay which never stood a snow balls chance of going anywhere. Let’s hope they spent so much time thinking about it they missed something on their own boats. But certainly these are all good teams and I am struggling at this stage to split them apart – as I say you need to be fast.
So next week’s blog from me will be from Alicante and we will have had the first inshore race for the Volvo boats, can’t judge too much from that but certainly can get a feel.
Grant
a suggestion, flags are a good idea and how about tell tales of various sizes that you can put on cars and even use them on sails?
Bring it on! The Volvo then the AC. Its going to be fab.
The ideas for the future are everywhere, good chance to see whats working, whats not and what to do IF and when the time comes to do something along a similar strain. Interactivity is the key to gaining public integration and converting fans and followers.
Good point about the flags too… Still got my massive ETNZ flag draped across the wall!
We are next
To all the ETNZ/Camper crew preparing for the Volvo race we wish you all the best and
cheers from Wellington
Sneaky, Tails, Senator, Bimbo, Slave, Ozziliz and all the crew on Andiamo
Flags are good but keep the good quality shwag coming along too.
During the All Blacks vs Wallabies semi-finaI I was proud to be wearing my good old BNZ AC Supporter’s Club Canterbury polo – the one with the NZL20 sail cloth stitched in. Boy that takes me back a while – but it still wears well after nearly 20 years!
… and even though I was a guest of Oracle at Plymouth earlier this year, I was able to flash my “Bring it Back Home” tee shirt at the boys before they took on Master Coutts, and the ETNZ sailing cap I picked up on my way to Valencia in 2007 still travels the world everywhere I go… so keep it coming and we’ll be proudly wearing your colours at the end of the Volvo race and at San Francisco in 2013.
Go ETNZ!
Further to my earlier comments about shwag – it has just occurred to me there is no merchandising on this site or the ETNZ AC site – so what am I supposed to do when I need to replace my ETNZ sailing cap? It is getting a bit salty now!