Go RVing’s Annual Media Summit Promotes RV Lifestyle – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
SAN DIEGO – Go RVing continues to make inroads with members of the media in promoting the RV lifestyle, thanks in part to its hosting of the annual Media Summit event.
This year’s Media Summit – which took place April 30-May 2 at the San Diego KOA – was the third annual event. Ten journalists from a variety of media outlets attended.
The goal of the event is to show media members – most of whom have little, if any, prior RVing experience – everything that RVing has to offer, according to Monika Geracia, director of public relations and communications for Go RVing. She described the event as “an introduction to the RV market.”
To give journalists a taste of RVing, Go RVing partnered with RVshare to provide trailer trailers for the journalists to camp in during the three-day, two-night event. And to make the process as smooth as possible, the trailers were set up in advance of their arrival, and media members were provided with an “RV 101” lesson on the basics of using those RVs by KOA campground owner Clint Bell.
During the multi-day event, Geracia said journalists had the opportunity to speak with key executives of top RV manufacturers and to tour a variety of models. RV executives on-hand for the event included Chad Reece, vice president of government and industry relations with Winnebago; Renee Jones, vice president of marketing with THOR; and Tom Gruger, vice president of marketing with Forest River.
RV manufacturers brought a variety of models with them for the journalists to tour, including a Jayco Jay Flight travel trailer, a Keystone Montana fifth wheel, an Entegra Class B model, a Forest River Dynamax Super C and Cherokee Wolf Pack fifth wheel, and a Winnebago Echo Class B+ and Newmar Dutch Star Class A motorhome. The RV executives and product managers were on-hand to give tours and highlight features of those models.
“Journalists stayed in conventional travel trailers, but benefited from being able to see the breadth of the RV market as far as units go,” Geracia said of the display units.
The Media Summit has resulted in positive RV news coverage, Geracia said, pointing to the San Diego Fox TV affiliate filming three TV spots from the KOA campground at this year’s event. Bloomberg and Motor Week provided media coverage at previous Media Summits.
“While we love to see stories come out of it, what we’re also looking to do here is build those relationships with journalists, so they have this baseline experience and contacts in the industry, so that when they are looking for a story, or when they are looking to do a travel story, RVing is more top-of-mind,” Geracia said.
Meanwhile, Go RVing works to coordinate one fun event for journalists at each Media Summit. At this year’s event, media members could participate in a 10-mile bicycle ride with eBikes provided by Buzz Bikes; last year, attendees had the opportunity to visit a crocodile farm while staying at a KOA outside of New Orleans; and at the first event, journalists could take part in white river rafting while staying at the KOA in Harper’s Ferry, West, Virginia.
As for how journalists for the Media Summit are selected, Geracia said decisions are made in consultation with the event sponsors, which are Forest River, THOR and Winnebago, as well as KOA, RVshare and RV supplier Camco. She said past attendees have included reporters from Men’s Health, Military Times, MotorTrend and journalists who freelance for a variety of publications serving markets that sponsors are interested in targeting, including ones who write about pets and conventions. Messages and themes that Media Summit sponsors have wanted to convey to journalists include “RVing is for everyone” and a focus on “pet travel,” Geracia said.
For many years, the Go RVing campaign has made individual RVs available to members of the media so they could experience traveling and camping, with the hope they would share their experiences with their audiences. Geracia said that she and Jeremy Greene, senior director of events and marketing for Go RVing, came up with the idea of the Media Summit, as a way to expand on those efforts.
