It has been said that you can be too esoteric for your demographic.
The Rapid City Rush might be in that territory, but I love it!
Posting content for a very narrow audience can limit you audience. However when you speak to that audience with content exclusively honed for them, you are sure to delight. The Rush sought to connect to theirs with an amazingly detailed and considered tweet series.
The Rush live in the city of Presidents (near the site of Mount Rushmore), so they have a connection to Presidents. Recently they ran a series of tweets connection all the ECHL teams to a President. As a fan of history and Presidential politics this speaks to me (and likely to the people in Rapid City).
Manager of Community Relations & Social Engagement Kayleigh Schmidt and Mark Binetti (Senior Director of Communications/Broadcaster) worked together on the thread for several months
Kayleigh said “The response has been pretty good to the thread… seems like everyone loved it, even those who don’t live around Rapid City.”
Schmidt added “We thought it would be a fun way to not only bring awareness to our team, but the city we’re in and an attraction that some may not know about. Tourism is the second largest industry in South Dakota and most of it is based around Rapid City, so it was something we thought was unique to us.”
Examples:
The noted the Newfoundland Growlers are the youngest team in the league, so they paired them with Theodore Roosevelt. Because he was the youngest president in history.
The @CincyCyclones are the last non-consecutive Kelly Cup Champions, so we’re pairing them up with Grover Cleveland. He’s the only president to serve in non-consecutive terms.
Thomas Jefferson had two grizzly bears as pets! It was a male and female pair, gifted from Captain Zebulon Pike. Because of their mascot, we’re pairing him up with the @UtahGrizzlies
Kayleigh also noted the popularity of the team merchandise that uses Mount Rushmore. She added an ongoing effort to incorporate more of the Black Hills area into our games.
Clearly Kayleigh and Mark had a lot of fun with this series. I love the targeted fun that is completely on-brand for the team and the city.
And any one who thinks you can be too esoteric is just thinking too narrowly. Great stuff Rush!
Click to see the whole thread in all of its glory.
We live in the City of Presidents (@VisitRapidCity), so we decided to pair up each @ECHL team with one of our previous leaders😎
A thread:— Rapid City Rush (@RapidCityRush) September 4, 2020
Like the convergence of history and sports, you will likely enjoy this interview Professor David Horowitz Connects Sports and History.
