PROMOTIONS UPDATE

[rotsen]

There is great news! The promotions page of gozips.com has been updated!!!!! Check it out:http://www.gozips.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_...=&ATCLID=743721At least the folks now know what teams they have to market. And as G.I. Joe say's "Knowing is half the battle!"

[zff]

What a damn joke!!!!!Can we get a real marketing team????Opps did I just say that........ :blink: :blink:

[zip81]

It says to click on your favorite team, but I didn't see any links there.Did they make a mistake, or am I missing something?

[AK-Zips]

It says to click on your favorite team, but I didn't see any links there.Did they make a mistake, or am I missing something?

you are missing nothing. The links really DON'T WORK! Here's to you marketing staff!

[GP1]

It doesn't matter what they put on the web page as long as they don't go out and sell the program to the community.

[rotsen]

AK---Great smilie, I didn't notice that. GP1 you are absolutely correct! It would be a shame to let NEO in on this secret. SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH...81

[mcperp]

A brilliant strategy to torture an obsessive/compulsive zips fan? Wow, some of these guys need to visit Trump's Apprentice board room.

[skip-zip]

I'm not surprise, considering what we've seen already this year.

[hy7604]

At least there is progress. Keep the faith.

[zippyrifle32]

It says to click on your favorite team, but I didn't see any links there.Did they make a mistake, or am I missing something?

i didn't even see my favorite team on the list

[Jalapeño Zippy]

At least there is progress.  Keep the faith.

This is progress huh? This is nothing more than a slap in the face to zips fans. A piece of $h!T promotions page with links that don't work. I bet they spent less than five minutes on this. Me -------> <------- Marketing Department!

[zip81]

At least there is progress. Keep the faith.

I don't think that argument would work with MY boss.Is there any oversight here?Don't you love the world a academia? It sure isn't the business world. They teach it, but they can't do it.

[GP1]

GP1 you are absolutely correct! It would be a shame to let NEO in on this secret.

Thanks for the props. I don't know if it as much a secret as a cultural problem in Summit and Stark Counties. A person can't drive through Akron without knowing the University is there, and everyone knows they have sports teams so it can't be a secret. The cultural problem must be challenged head on and the only way to do that is in person.You folks really need to understand something about college athletics marketing departments. These people go to conventions every year to learn the next great way to design a billboard and newspaper add. There is almost zero original thought (there is acutally little original thought in universities in general, but that is another subject). We have a long list of former and current athletic department staffers who have spent time at Virginia. Does anyone think Virginia needs to do anything more than put up billboards and newspaper adds to sell tickets? It's easy for them. It's hard to sell at Akron because billboards and newspaper adds are not the way to sell tickets in a market like Akron. In fact, billboards and newspaper adds aren't even selling.If we fired all of the people in our marketing department right now, we would just get more of the same because the culture of university athletics is so inbred that someone else would be hired, from some other school, that someone knows, who attends all of the same billboard and newspaper add conferences that the previous group did and the group before that, and the group before that, and the group before that.......... I've seen enought billboards and newspaper adds in the past 20 years to know they don't work for UofA. Listen to Marlo (signature line below).

[SouthernZip]

GP1 you are absolutely correct! It would be a shame to let NEO in on this secret.

Thanks for the props. I don't know if it as much a secret as a cultural problem in Summit and Stark Counties. A person can't drive through Akron without knowing the University is there, and everyone knows they have sports teams so it can't be a secret. The cultural problem must be challenged head on and the only way to do that is in person.

Absolutely yes! Absolutely yes! I have a dream... that one day the counties of both Summit and Stark are UA Zips fans! But let's begin with the U. Then the city. Then the ABJ. Then the county of Summit. Then the counties of 1) Stark, 2) Medina and 3) Portage. If we could just get the county of Summit to fall in love with the Zips we'd sell out every football and basketball game! Tickets would be a hot commodity. The other 3 counties have nothing going for them as far as entertainment or culture (no, McKinley high school doesn't counts, unless you're a small-town hick.) We've got a freakin' D-1 athletic program here!!! But as of now, we can't even get our own UA students very passionate.I think the ultimate answer is winning. If we string some winning football and basketball seasons together, I think people will come out of the woodwork.

[RowdyZip]

Dear Marketing Department:I just had a thought, a perfect way for you to introduce a fantastic team to it's home fan base. Beware, however because this will involve spending a small of money. Don't be afraid, it will pay much more dividends than your current strategy of doing absolutely nothing. That being said, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite movies of all time, Major League. I would like to explain one of my favorite quotes to you from the movie, as it's obvious that none of you have seen it because of your lack of general knowledge of sports. At one point, early in the season, the Cleveland Indians (that's right, the movie is about a team from CLEVELAND!) make a television advertisement to promote themselves. Now at this point, I'm sure your saying, "TV!!! We can't afford THAT!" Contrary, local advertisements are very affordable on cable television. Now back to the quote: "Hi, we're the Cleveland Indians, and a lot of you don't know us, but we're a Major League Baseball team." My request is a simple team shot, lined up in front of the seats at the JAR with coach Dambrot holding a baskeball in front of a smiling team saying, "Hi, we're the Akron Zips, a lot of you don't know us, but we're a GOOD Division 1 basketball team." Now before you fret too much about cost, remember this: it takes spending money to make money. We all look forward to you developing and affinity for sports promotion.Sincerely,RowdyZip and The ZipsNation GO ZIPS!

[zip81]

My observations are not so much advertising..just professionalism.It's obvious just putting up a billboard at the corner of W. Market and Miller isn't going to put one more butt in the seats. A tradition of winning will do that.However, if you are going to put up a Web page with links...have the links.If you are going to give your season ticket holders blankets..have the blankets.I dont' know how much brain power you need for that.I worked in TV and radio for 25 years. There's no new ideas there either. You just rip them off from another market. I don't have any problem with that. But when you implement something, at least be professional and have the logistics complete and make your customers problems your problems. One should not get a pass just because they work for a university.These are not volunteers - correct?Then do your job right!

[blueandgold]

Let me start the process for the Marketing Dept. First: Target the students. Have special things for them. Special pregame activities, giveaways, anything! 2: Target the alumni. What would persuade an alumini to attend games and/or buy season tickets when the general public can attend for the same prices most of the time. Those are the first two steps. There are enough students and alumni to fill all of our venues. Now get moving on it!

[ZachTheZip]

You know, I think a lot of people reading this don't understand our marketing department. Let me clue you all in. The marketing department is here to make money. As far as that goes, they are doing an incredibly good job. They are selling tickets to companies at inflated prices and once those seats are sold they never look back. It doesn't matter to them whether anybody shows up to sit in those seats because they have their money. There is one problem with this business model, though. They are selling short the university's athletic future and fan base so they can make money here and now. Maybe it is to raise funds for the football stadium (hopefully), or maybe the administration is just a bunch of greedy bastards (I just spent $400 on books for my spring classes ). Either way, they are going about their jobs wrong. They will fail at their long-term goal of making the U a regional power in sports with a large fan base (read: like OSU). They have their money, and now it is time to re-invest it into the athletic department by building a fan base.That's my $0.02

[seatea]

You know, I think a lot of people reading this don't understand our marketing department. Let me clue you all in. The marketing department is here to make money. As far as that goes, they are doing an incredibly good job. They are selling tickets to companies at inflated prices and once those seats are sold they never look back.

Oh, you poor misguided uakronkid! The marketing department is not here to make money... Look at the promotions they have done since arriving.1) Discounted tickets if you wear your jersey - UA vs. Indiana (Soccer)The crowd was already expected over 3,000, lost revenue.2) $1.00 night for women's basketball (and stay for the men's game)Most people would have paid the full price for a women's ticket to stay for the men.3) Coupon day for the Women's Can't State game (my contacts at Can't State got a kick out of that one, they all came free).You do the math on how much money this brought in.Those are the ones I know about...There has not been any group sales at any full ticket price for any event out of the marketing department. Everything has been a give-a-way.They have contacted schools to sell tickets. I caught wind of a promotion for football where they had three schools lined up to sell tickets. The winning school received $1,000.00 from the Marketing department. Oh, the winning school sold 16 tickets at $5.00/ticket.How much money did that bring in?

[ZipAlumn]

Oh, you poor misguided uakronkid! The marketing department is not here to make money... Look at the promotions they have done since arriving .......Those are the ones I know about...They have contacted schools to sell tickets. I caught wind of a promotion for football where they had three schools lined up to sell tickets. The winning school received $1,000.00 from the Marketing department. Oh, the winning school sold 16 tickets at $5.00/ticket.How much money did that bring in?

If the story about the high school "ticket promotion" marketing ploy is correct (and I have no reason to doubt it), then I think we should do more than just fire the marketing deepartment. We should take them out and bury their dumb ass bodies, as THEY ARE ALREADY BRAIN DEAD.If that had happened in the business world, I shudder to think about what would happen to that individual, yet in the world of academia, where they are expert enough to teach this stuff .....................'Nuff Said, I feel like

[ZachTheZip]

You know, I think a lot of people reading this don't understand our marketing department. Let me clue you all in. The marketing department is here to make money. As far as that goes, they are doing an incredibly good job. They are selling tickets to companies at inflated prices and once those seats are sold they never look back.

Oh, you poor misguided uakronkid! The marketing department is not here to make money... Look at the promotions they have done since arriving.1) Discounted tickets if you wear your jersey - UA vs. Indiana (Soccer)The crowd was already expected over 3,000, lost revenue.2) $1.00 night for women's basketball (and stay for the men's game)Most people would have paid the full price for a women's ticket to stay for the men.3) Coupon day for the Women's Can't State game (my contacts at Can't State got a kick out of that one, they all came free).You do the math on how much money this brought in.Those are the ones I know about...There has not been any group sales at any full ticket price for any event out of the marketing department. Everything has been a give-a-way.They have contacted schools to sell tickets. I caught wind of a promotion for football where they had three schools lined up to sell tickets. The winning school received $1,000.00 from the Marketing department. Oh, the winning school sold 16 tickets at $5.00/ticket.How much money did that bring in?

Yep. I'm so misguided. I know they do promotions like give away tickets to high schools, charge $1.00 for admission, and so-on. What you forgot to mention is that at the same time, they charge $500 to park close to the Rubber Bowl and they sell half of the student section at the JAR to make a quick buck. They are making money, just not in traditional ways like ticket sales.

[KeeprOFtheHous]

AS far as i can tell LOSING THe WAD and his clan of workers is our biggest loss thus far.i hope this marketing group does have any more dumb givaway plans.

[zip81]

You know, I think a lot of people reading this don't understand our marketing department. Let me clue you all in. The marketing department is here to make money. As far as that goes, they are doing an incredibly good job. They are selling tickets to companies at inflated prices and once those seats are sold they never look back. It doesn't matter to them whether anybody shows up to sit in those seats because they have their money. There is one problem with this business model, though. They are selling short the university's athletic future and fan base so they can make money here and now. Maybe it is to raise funds for the football stadium (hopefully), or maybe the administration is just a bunch of greedy bastards (I just spent $400 on books for my spring classes ). Either way, they are going about their jobs wrong. They will fail at their long-term goal of making the U a regional power in sports with a large fan base (read: like OSU). They have their money, and now it is time to re-invest it into the athletic department by building a fan base.That's my $0.02

If that's all they care about, then I don't want to hear any complaints about the attendance.Sounds like they completely disregard loyalty, which is the only thing that brings ANYBODY to the Rubber Bowl.When I used to get a free press pass, I would still buy my season ticket just to support the program.I guess I'm the fool for being true to my school.Pretty bold strategy when it's so easy to be an Ohio State fan.

[GP1]

They have contacted schools to sell tickets. I caught wind of a promotion for football where they had three schools lined up to sell tickets. The winning school received $1,000.00 from the Marketing department. Oh, the winning school sold 16 tickets at $5.00/ticket.How much money did that bring in?

This is so unbelievable it must be true.Why wouldn't the athletic department just offer 10% of any NEW season ticket order sold or Z-Fund contribution raised by an Athletic Department employee to that employee? Hell, open it up to anyone working at the University and get everyone involved. Employee sells 10 Family Packs for football @ $100 ea., employee gets $100 bonus, etc. The incentive must be there to produce similar to my company only paying independent sales agents commission. If they sell a lot, they make a lot, but so do we. If they don't sell a lot, they don't make a lot, but the cost of sale was kept low. I wonder if anyone at an athletic department convention has ever offered up this idea. The pay for some of these people is so low, they would bust their ass just to make a few extra dollars.Give 20% commission to any NEW reserved seat sold for football. I think my tickets were only $15 each, so the net after commission would still be $12 which was more than the general admission seating (normal or Family Pack) and they have a new customer buying high end tickets at face value. Even if tickets remain the same price next year, there would be an increase value of the ticket 20% if the person renews.UofA will never know if they can change the culture around Akron and sell more tickets unless they get away from buying billboards and newspaper adds. Try the other way.

[blueandgold]

GP1. That makes too much sense. It would never happen. You would think someone at the top would bring in a "real" marketing executive from the outside as in from a business not from another university.