We don our leathers, pull on our helmet and pull alongside Geoff Wilson to find out how Ulster Grand Prix has gone from a loss maker to the forefront of the road racing calendar in what can only be described as the fastest Q & A in the world!*
*actually wasn’t that quick really although Geoff is a fast talker!
PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON
Q Give me a bit of background to the Ulster Grand Prix and the issue
Geoff – In essence, it’s an international motorcycle event located in Northern Ireland just outside of the city of Lisburn in Northern Ireland and is the world’s fastest road race. Raced on closed public roads it involves going at high speeds with high skill around the course.
The race includes a motorbike festival consisting of a Bike Week which runs from Sunday to Saturday in August each year. The race is an annual event in Northern Ireland and currently attracts 50,000 spectators each year and is heavily reliant on volunteers – 600 volunteers
Pre 2009 the UPG brand was at an all-time low. Poor attendance (circa 10,000), the event was in debt, there was a lack of commercialisation, poor event management, no clear strategic plan or direction and an overall lack of local and international marketing to promote the race.
Q – What makes UGP the world’s fastest?
Geoff – Basically it’s the average speed that it takes somebody to complete a lap of the circuit. In this race the average speed is 131mph but they can reach speeds of up to 200mph so this is an extremely fast bike race going around an extremely fast circuit and that’s what makes it the world’s fastest road race.
Q – It’s been struggled in recent years as interest waned, how did you begin to turn it around?
Geoff – Our turnaround was in 2009, before that it was struggling. How we turned it around was to focus on our story. Get our brand right. That was all around the idea of the world’s fastest road race. We took the whole story, history and background of the Ulster Grand Prix and use that to ignite the fans imagination for the race.
Once that was established we focussed on the strategic plan and generating money and costs and then focussing on engaging with our fans and bringing the excitement back to the world’s fastest road race.
Q – What structural changes needed to be made?
Geoff – First of all, we set up as a business with a professional board. We then put in place the policies and procedures such as the volunteer policy, the marshals, safety and all of those elements. We’ve also spent a lot of money on the track and we’ve worked really closely with the local council to make it as safe as possible.
Q – Branding played a big part in its transformation – what did you focus on and why?
Geoff – Like anything, you have a key message and I think in marketing in a lot of sport they end up have five or six different messages and that confuses the fans about what the organisation or event is. We have one brand – The World’s Fastest Road Race. This makes us unique, it makes us stand out. That is something that can be broken by other events but since 2009 it hasn’t and since 2009 it has been that single message over and over and over again that has helped to get the Ulster Grand Prix back on its feet.
Q – What technological innovations did you introduce?
Geoff – For a simplistic point of view, we brought in Ticketmaster to sell tickets and wristbands and that has allowed us to reach a wider audience. We’ve also worked with our local TV provider to look at [BBC] iPlayer and extended highlights online. We’ve also worked heavily on social media and the development of video content and we’ve also worked on developing our own app.
At the event we have speed cameras and technology the records the racers’ placing, speeds and where they are on the track and we have three huge LED screens that are all linked to cameras in helicopters and those helicopters follow the riders and beam live the pictures back to the fans.
What we’ve done for a few years now is put GoPro cameras onto the bikes so fans can see what the riders experience. These guys are inches from the road and are travelling at speeds of up to 200mph. So there’s a lot of technology on the bikes to enrich the experience.
Q – How did you develop the digital and social media aspects of UGP?
Geoff – What we done first of all was focus on the platforms that our fans use. So we looked at Facebook and Twitter and Periscope as well as Youtube. We also looked at Linked In. Then we focussed on the content and developed a content plan that included everything from behind the scenes footage to competitions and the history of races gone by. There was ‘Throwback Thursday’ and ‘Wheelie Wednesday’ which were quite unique. So it was about focussing on the platforms and the content that goes on them.
Q – How are those platforms performing?
Geoff – Our Facebook has well over 21,000 likes and our Twitter site has around 15,800. Maybe to some people they aren’t huge numbers but what you’ve got to realise is that we attract real motorbike fans. If you’re into motorbikes you’ll know of us, so what we’re trying to do over the next couple of years is to bring it to people who maybe have a motorbike but aren’t into the racing and then widen it even further to sports fans who might not know of it but would like to go to an international event.
Q – What have you learned throughout the process?
Geoff – We’ve learned four key things. You need a plan- a roadmap of where you are and where you’re heading. You need great volunteers, we have over 600 volunteers that give up their time and some of them are world class at what they do. Number three is a focus on financial manage, generating money and maximising opportunities. Finally, you really need to engage the fans, get them on board and make them feel that they are a really big element of what you do.
Q – What advice would you give to other sports executives facing similar problems that UGP faced?
Geoff – First of all, develop your story and create your brand. You need to have a story that you can tell not just every other week that changes but one that is constant. What is your brand, what are you telling people about yourself? Secondly, you need a great team around you to help roll that story out and then commercialise it. Three, you need to build your own marketing channels so that you can really engage and grow your fan base and tell them about all the wonderful things that you’re doing. Lastly, build your event each year and that could be the small things. Last year we had the most Bike Week events (on days before the actual race at the weekend). Don’t let the event become stagnant, be innovative and have events within your main event but always under the same message.
You can follow the UGP on twitter @UlsterGrandPrix or visit www.ulstergrandprix.net. Geoff will be speaking at Sport and Entertainment Alliance in Technology (SEAT) conference in Las Vega from 17-21 July – check out www.seatconsortium.com
Geoff runs his own Sports Consultancy, working with clients such as FIFA across the world. He is also on the board of Tourism Northern Ireland. You can follow Geoff on twitter @geoffwnjwilson ; connect on Linkedin at www.linkedin.com/in/geoffwnjwilson or email geoff@geoffwilsonconsultancy.com.