Settling in to the blog
Four days in and it sounds like we are heading in the right direction with our new blog. I have been keeping up to date with your comments and suggestions and we have plenty to work on in terms of material for the site.
I thought there was no better way to understand what is involved than to give it a go myself, so I have just posted to our YouTube channel a few videos I took yesterday introducing a couple of the guys on the team, Dave French and Richard Meacham. Martin Tasker is probably safe for now.
Just to finish one of the more common questions we get at the moment is around merchandise – we are currently working on this right now with North Sails Clothing, getting a look created to incorporate the new family of sponsors. We are aiming to have clothing on sale in the new year through a shop right here on our blog.
Grant
Thank you for the look ahead on gear.
Thank you for the blog
Thank you for all your efforts in and around ETNZ.
Great job on the new site. Looks like you guys have a big task ahead of you – can’t wait to watch it unfold.
Nice work Grant. Looking forward to following you and the team on your new blog!
Great work guys on the new web site, will be and am a big follower.
Looking forward to your merchandise store coming on line so we can start wearing our ETNZ gear (our team!)
Thanks Grant for your contribution.
New site looks great, good to see some engagement from the team and some social media immersion happening.
Would be good to get your Twitter stream rolling with someone manning it preferably and also I think ETNZ should look at doing a proper job in house with a production team with your vids, candid ones are fine but I think episodes similar to Alinghi’s AC ones and recently Oracle Racing’s, in that format would be fantastic and bring the whole level of blogging up a notch.
My 2 cents on merchandise…Would be great to see the New Zealand on the back of shirts etc retained along with incorporated Tourism NZ Fern design plastered somewhere. Also car decals of the Emirates Team New Zealand logo would not go a miss!
Hi Rob – thanks for your feeback. I know you are a big fan of the team and we appreciate your support. Just on the videos, I hear what you are saying but also remember that Alinghi and Oracle have a team of people who work specifically on video content – they have facilities, equipment and people dedicated to this. We don’t work this way – we can’t. It would add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the budget which honestly if I had would go towards making the boat go faster. We want to get a culture going where I can just wander past with my iPhone and say “what are you up to” and then let you have it, does anybody really want to see a controlled “read scripted” look at ETNZ? I recogn you want to see it as it is – more “Big Brother” like. Sure we will have edited and scripted videos, but I was just shooting the breeze with the guys.
Great to see the blog up Grant.. I am so looking forward to the Volvo kicking off.. Chuny showed me over the boat and I think she is drop dead gorgeous.. So well prepared and some reall clever (but not fussy) design.
All the best, Geoff
Great blog and site looks good, well done Grant can’t wait for the Volvo to start.
Jane
Where can we get some camper deck shoes?
Yep, no BS shoot from the hip style is appreciated, we like to see the rough with the smooth on video and life in general… Your long chats with Sailing Anarchy are great too.
Site is excellent. Hope you get to keep it
Had a quick tour of the V70 in London, what a greta yacht… really looking forward to the race and really want to buy some kit. A couple of A2 posters would be nice too!
Al
Hi Benny – Camper are due to start retailing their line of merchandise any day online, including the shoes the guys are wearing on the boat. You can buy in any Camper store around the world, and I am told they are going to set up a temporary store during the stop-over here in Auckland. The on-line shop will be global though – we will feature it as soon as we have word it is live!
Hey Grant, Lisa & team.
Thanks for your response and fully appreciate and get your view you wanting to keep the look & feel of the video’s rather organic with that uniquely kiwi casualness, very cool, and indeed does keep the cost down!
I think some nicely produced ETNZ summary videos of all news like a newscast episode every month leading up to AC events and the AC & Volvo itself would be great to kind of bring everyone up to date on the news in video format online and shared across your social media platforms. Being consistent in the content and delivery is all key but dont feel like it has to be done or is a chore as that will come across in the blog posts and people start switching off.
But otherwise I think what you have done on the social side has been great and I absolutely love the new look ETNZ blog website. RD2 have done a great job and also love the new look ETNZ base!
Rock on.
// Rob