“It’s Really Made Us, As A Federation, More In Touch With The Community.”
June 21, 2021
After World Archery recently organised their World Cup in Switzerland during the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisation is now ready to organise more events in a secure manner. iSportConnect’s Taruka Srivastav spoke with Tom Dielen, Secretary General, World Archery to know more.
What were the biggest challenges you faced during COVID-19 and how are you overcoming those, have you made any structural changes within the organisation to combat this?
World Archery has faced the same challenges as much of the rest of the sports world. Our calendar was cancelled in 2020, our revenues and partnerships impacted – and, probably most importantly for a sport with a passionate community at grassroots level, many people couldn’t get on the range.
As an organisation, we’ve embraced technological, virtual and proactive solutions to encourage people to get back to archery. We’re fortunate as a sport in which social distancing is the norm so safety is not a huge concern.
“It’s really made us, as a federation, more in touch with the community.”
Our entire Indoor Archery World Series – normally a destination mass-participation circuit – was run remotely in the winter, with 1000s of archers submitting scores from small events or their home ranges.
It’s really made us, as a federation, more in touch with the community.
World Archery went ahead with the World Cup despite the ongoing pandemic, how was the participation and how was the organisation able to run this competition?
The participation has been encouraging if about 20% down on what we’d expect in a normal year, mostly because some of the major Asian countries decided not to take part due to travel restrictions. We’re very happy with the response to the restart.
Each event has a tailored safety protocol, covering testing and isolation, social distancing and mask wearing. We’ve not had a single athlete or team official on-site test positive so far.
Tell us about your sponsorship and marketing strategy?
We have two partnership programmes, one for industry companies and another for non-endemic sponsors.
We’ve partnered with non-endemic brands that share the same values of precision, of excellence, as archery – like Hyundai, Errea, Longines and Turkish Airlines.
“World Archery provides a global but niche platform for growing medium-to-high-end brands looking to reach a more affluent, educated fanbase, particularly in major Asian markets.”
Our strategy is very simple. We ensure that the brands receive excellent return on investment, while putting focus on non-linear activations and working with partners to make sure the association is valuable.
Why should more brands support World Archery?
World Archery provides a global but niche platform for growing medium-to-high-end brands looking to reach a more affluent, educated fanbase, particularly in major Asian markets. Our entry point is reasonable and we work very hard to ensure the return.
“All our output boils down to three key tenets: educate, excite and engage.”
Our sport embodies accuracy, consistency, precision and skill. These are key values for many companies.
How do you plan to attract and engage fans further as we move forwards?
We have a strong understanding of our fanbase, from fanatic to casual, and a strong focus on producing content that feeds each of our audience pillars.
Just before the pandemic, we had hit record broadcast highs (77 million in 14 key markets) for our annual Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit and were supporting that with tailored communications strategies in growth territories.
All our output boils down to three key tenets: educate, excite and engage. We believe that with that focus, we will continue to grow archery worldwide.