RVIA’s New Web Portal and National RV News
BY DANA NELSEN
On February 1st, I received an e-mail from RVIA announcing a new web portal “to provide members, the press and the general public” with links to local and national newspapers’ news stories regarding RVing. I know that RVIA has tracked this information for a long, long time because they usually give a presentation at the national trade show outlook breakfast.
When I saw the press release, I couldn’t help but think that this Web site has come none too soon. While as a journalist, I often scour the newswires looking for RV-related news stories, I know most people in the industry don’t have the time to undertake such a project on a regular basis. That makes RVIA’s new web portal kind of handy. Plus it is a great public relations tool to promote the industry we all know and love.
One question I have for readers, since I’ve only been in this business for 2-1/2 years or so, is do you think news coverage for RVing has increased over the last 5, 10, 20 or even 30 years? If so, has the type of things covered changed at all? Can we identify any trends from the news coverage?
As usual your thoughts are always welcome.
January 26th, 2011 at 3:16 am
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April 3rd, 2010 at 3:09 pm
[…] it after five years of … had dropped in for a couple of days to see what RVIA was all about. …RVTradeDigest.com Blog RVIA’s New Web Portal and National …RV Weekly: RVIA’s New Web Portal and National RV News … On February 1st, I received an e-mail from […]
February 10th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I agree with the last writer.Give us some more on fewer models, and show more thing on the ones that you do show. I like the RVTV show but like to hear what others are doing and sometime how much it cost to stay at some of the Parks you show. How much some of the rigs are? and information on things besides the glitz of lights and Tv sets. Dont see much on the everyday rigs that everyday people use. Any way keep up the show and hope you get $$ from the RV people.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:17 am
News coverage follows ACTION! and EXCITEMENT! When was the last time something truly action packed and exciting came out of RVIA or RVDA. The Dometic or Norcold recalls? Look at the banner that’s been on your opening page for 9 month’s.
When it comes to TV and Movies, RV’s are always showcased in action. The audience loves it and identifies with the freedom and adventure. Interesting though that 90% of the time the Make has been blocked out. Is that because everybody knows that all “Mobile Homes” are “Winnebago’s”? Why confuse them with a strange name?
I can remember when the term ‘RV’ was coined in the early 70’s. It took years of debate for us to even define what we were going to call these things. In motorized it was Class A, B, and C. Do the rest of you guys have as much fun describing what those are? And that a B is smaller than a C but more expensive, unless the C is on a deisel truck of some kind.
I’ve also marveled at what often happens when the customer finally chooses his RV and then bands together with like types in a segregated park. The ‘A-lite’ against the ‘trailer trash’ as was so poignantly showcased a couple of weeks ago on an RVTV episode.
You want news and great coverage on RV’s? Go where the action is. Almost every sporting event be it cars, horses, motorcycles, boats, snowmachines, or just big piles of sand. How do you think “Toy Haulers” became so popular? It had absolutely nothing to do with our industry or its associations. A funny thing happens too at these events. Nobody seems to care what’s parked next to them.
I think it’s time that the industry starts movin’ and shakin’ where the excitement is instead of a Stag convention or a training seminar. “Driver, . . . Move that Bus!”
In fun,
Mike
February 8th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
We’re in the midst of producing our 5th season of RVTV, the only television show produced by RVers for RVers. So far we’ve produced 65 half hour shows covering destinations, rig reviews, product reviews, tech tips, safety tips, lifestyle stories and cooking segments. We’re seen across the U.S. on the Outdoor Channel who reach 28 million households; and on stations across Canada that reach 10 million households. Our show is well received by RVers and aspiring RVers. We won two Telly awards last year and our web site gets really high traffic.
The problem has been getting the RV industry to support the show with their advertising dollars. The folks at the Outdoor Channel have been great! They’re the only network in America that has supported an RV television show for the last five years. But nobody from the RV industry has supported it with ad dollars. We deliver a targeted and loyal audience in the U.S. and Canada and get zilch from the industry that stands to gain the most from this type of program.
In Canada, we are on a barter deal with the broadcasters, which means they don’t pay us any money, but give us commercial time to sell. Again, no support from the industry. Even the GoRving fund for Canada has again refused to invest a mere $8,000 for commercials across Canada and a banner ad on our web site. And get this, our web site gets more traffic than the Canadian GoRving site!
So we are a targeted media company trying our best to promote the RV Lifestyle. It would be nice to have a little support from the industry. We’ll keep plugging away and for those of you who haven’t seen the show, it airs Saturdays at 12:30 p.m. as well as Tuesday mornings at 9:00 a.m.on The Outdoor Channel. Outdoor Channel is on Direct TV channel 606 and Dish Network channel 153.
It would be great to see some of you industry movers and shakers get behind a show that informs and entertains current and aspiring RVers!
Rob Engman
Executive Producer/Host
RVTV
February 8th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Dude,
You’re in the news business, not the associations.
Surely they have something else to do to benefit the industry rather than provide another avenue dealers, manufacturers and suppliers need to look at daily to get news.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Good Point Chris. Here is a link to the site.
http://www.rvia.org/inthenews
February 7th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
The Maine RV Dealers Association is sponsoring a “Discovering RVing Maine Week” late March-early April. This information would be a great tie-in to the editorials and RVing information that will be offered through a statewide newspaper insert. Could you pass along the access information? The writers for the publication are working on stories through February.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
How about a link to the portal for us to see?
February 7th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Hello, Dana
I would say that awareness to the RV lifestyle has increased, however not because of news coverage increase, and we could sure use that now especially with the slight downturn in the market. I think that the Industry awareness campaigns have helped some but I don’t feel that the RV Lifestyle and RV’ing has ever received enough attention from the news media.