Selling Tickets

[GP1]

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20070509/APS/705093074If we are doing something like this and at this intensity....good. If not.....bad.

[ZachTheZip]

I haven't seen a single piece of advertising that I would consider "obvious to the general public." Of course, I notice thing like ads buried deep within the sports section in a little corner of the page, but I actively look for them. Nobody who is just glancing over the page will notice it. The only radio comercials I have heard are for the Patriot bowl, and those aren't even paid for by Akron, instead being the work of the Cleveland Sports Commission. I've not seen a single TV ad for UA sports since 2005. What the hell is our marketing department doing, anyways? I know they read this occasionally, and I would love to know what it is they actually do all day in their office. One person working 40 hours a week given a modest four-figure budget could at least throw some billboards up around town, or on the side of some city buses. We have a whole department that is supposed to do that sort of thing, not to mention an entire group of marketing students who would jump at the chance to do this sort of thing for a project. Why not let them do marketing's job for them, for free? It has to be better than what we have now.

[FMR]

If we are doing something like this and at this intensity....good. If not.....bad.

Before anyone says that "those are big schools with big budgets" let's take a look at what you can do for very little money.To sell your product, you want to put the principles in front of the masses. There are so many Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis (and many other) clubs in town that you simply have to pick up the phone and schedule your coach or AD to speak. They are always looking for speakers and would jump at the chance to have a coach in. This would be the cost of gas to and from. Plus it puts you in front of people.But this would take coordination as you would want to have at least two other people with the coach, marketing and fund raiser, plus someone from Sports Information. You would want to sell season tickets on the spot and/or take season ticket orders. I guess you could call this the "grass roots" campaign that Mack promised when he was hired (which I am still waiting to see implemented).The reason schools do this in the Spring is:Spring football is ongoing.School is still in session (talking about grade, middle and high school, vacation season has not started).If you wait too long, you miss your audience...

[zen]

The problem is perception... and a billboard wont fix it.The perception for much of the masses is that UA is a commuter / community college.Unless people think of you as a campus-university with a genuine national presence, they are not going to latch on.The best you can do is put a dominant product on the field (or court) and raise the eyebrows of the students and alumni to the point that you are selling tickets to near capacity... but you aren't going to get Joe Blow and Jane Doe to walk past the huge Ohio State store in Summit mall with gleams of scarlet and grey rays beaming out at them to the sound of angels voices and think "Wait, aren't we 6 miles from the U.Akron campus?"I mean, we don't even have a local news cast to cram highlights down their throats and smack them in the face and say, wake up!A billboard is just going to cost you five grand a week and make every working class schlub who drives by it think to themselves "Oh, the local commuter college thinks they have a real football team"I hate to say it, and I know I will be ridiculed for saying it, but people need something serious and significant to wake them out of their fixed perceptions. We need to win the MAC, win a bowl game, and have scenes of students ripping goalposts down on ESPN.Fortunately, the new stadium will be here in a few years, and football is the key in this area. That will be good changing perception, particularly if it corresponds with some serious success on the field. Remember, you are trying to coax a population that is comprised of less than 5% who are genuine sports fans and enjoy a good sporting event for the sake of the sport itself, less than 50% who are bandwaggoners who want to wear your colors if it makes them feel like less of a loser by association, and over 50% who can't even spell Akron, let alone care.