Everybody knows that the swoosh stands for Nike and the double arches stand for McDonalds restaurants. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone recognized the Rotary wheel the same way? There is a sign that says we have a Rotary club in our community at the edge of town, and yet there are many times when people just don’t make the connection of what the sign signifies.
I was the chair of the Rotary Rose Float Committee for the 2001 Rose Parade. During the preceding year, many Rotarians took the time to share their concern over spending a hundred thousand dollars to enter a float in what they perceived as a local festival. I had the pleasure of hosting RI President Frank Devlyn to watch the parade from the official grandstand. We were sitting right behind the corporate executives from Natural Balance Pet Foods, and Frank was determined to have them join Rotary before they left the grandstand. As everyone knows Frank is a very persuasive and tenacious salesman.
It was fascinating to watch as the folks from the Pet Food Company sold Frank on the concept of Gorilla Marketing, explaining how our floats would be in front of television cameras for about one minute and the audience for our ‘brand awareness’ message was more than the million folks along the parade route. They explained that not only would 40 to 50 million people be watching the parade live throughout the United States, but another couple hundred million people would see the parade internationally, either live or delayed. They won Frank over as one of the Rose Floats best advocates.
We should all experience a little pride on new Year’s morning when our float goes down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California. It is not only a great brand builder for the future, but also a celebration of all we have accomplished in the past.
The Board of Directors of Rotary International fully supports putting a float in the Tournament of Roses every year, but their support does not include money. Raising that money has been the job of the Rotary Rose Float Committee for over thirty years, a task that is proving more difficult every year. I am no longer a member of that committee, but continue to believe in the value of this Public Relations Project. Do you have any ideas that might help with this daunting task? Your thoughts would be helpful, CLICK HERE TO ENTER AN OPINION. I will forward them to the current Float Committee.
By the way, here is a picture of the float for January 1, 2013.
