Calling Out Our Marketing Team

[sgm405]

Akron Zips (9-2)2217 vs. Binghamton2309 vs. Temple2504 vs. Wyoming2225 vs. NC Central2259 vs. NC A&T2730 vs. YSUAverage Attendance - 2374Can't State Golden flushes (9-2)3455 vs. Hampton2046 vs. Coppin State2879 vs. Longwood3678 vs. St. Louis4378 vs. George Mason2507 vs. IPFWAverage Attendance - 3157Same record, similar strength of schedule...WE are the defending MAC East Champions, and they outdraw us by about 800 on average per game? I don't know what's worse, that, or the fact that I opened up a Beacon Journal a week or so ago to find a huge advertisement offering high school students free admission to home games. Or that on my way home yesterday, I passed a billboard (IN AKRON!) advertising the same thing to these students. Seriously, what does our marketing department do? And when they do have a semi-decent idea (Vote for Zippy, free admission) it's hidden on gozips.com so that nobody can take advantage of it. Coach Dambrot and the players deserve better than to play in front of 2300-2400 every nightIt's time for the marketing department to get going and stop letting Can't State out-advertise them in their own damn city.

[GoZips]

Dayum. I am awe struck. SGM has said something profound and intelligent in a post. This has to be a first. SGM, you are 100 percent correct. Its all part of the"who is the Sports Information Director" game played in Zippyland. The winning prize is two tickets to Orlando for the Capital One Bowl game. You leave Januaryfourth and return home on the ninth. Four free nights at the swank Motel 6 just two miles easy walking distance from the stadium.I, too, saw a crappy Cant billboard on I-76 in downtown Acorn. The shame of it all. Will the dissing ever cease?Nine hundred registered, tee shirt wearing AK-Howdies and only eight of them have access to a PC. Thus Zippy had a hell of a time in the mascot contest.All the Howdies must live out of state as nearly fifteen of them bothered to show up for the Youngstown State basketball foray. YSU had more fans in the JAR thanthe Zips did. Talk about embarrassing. Well, what the hell, UA kids are all Suckeye fans from birth anyway. Transfer to ColumnAss you fruits.

[zipseuph]

easy there killer. so what can we do about this situation. other than sit around and use this forum to bash Akron students?how can we help push for more advertisment

[Big Zip]

Same billboard is on 77N heading into Cleveland just over the 480 bridge in Cuyahoga Heights. Anyone care to guess how many eyes see that board on a daily commute.Even if they did something bad - we'd at least see them doing something. The really problem is I just don't seem them doing anything -- something poor is better than nothing at all.

[scottditzen]

Sometimes I wonder if the UA marketing dept. is trapped in a windowless room....no phone, no t.v., no internet, no imagination.

[Zipsrifle]

I see buy one get one free offers at Discount Drug Mart in Elyria for Cleveland State BB and billboards for BGSU everywhere. If UA want's to be the premier school in NE Ohio, then we better start advertising to the masses (that don't know we exist) like all of our competition.

[goodthts]

I see buy one get one free offers at Discount Drug Mart in Elyria for Cleveland State BB and billboards for BGSU everywhere. If UA want's to be the premier school in NE Ohio, then we better start advertising to the masses (that don't know we exist) like all of our competition.

All I know is that while driving around Lakewood and Cleveland, the only signs of college BBall advertising are for the close by schools of CSU, BGSU and Toledo. Yep, kids, you heard right. Billboards in the NEO are promoting schools 90 minutes away.Guess we will all have to wait for the tidal wave of promotions that will come when Ms. Zippy wins the National Mascot Challenge?

[ziptrumpet87]

There's still that uninformed populace that doesn't know that the MAC is the same division as Big11, SEC, etc. My brother-in-law asked me this weekend if UA and Can't were in the same division as OSU and LSU yet his wife went to Can't and my wife (his sister) and I went to Akron. I think that until we can crack the Cleveland news media, we're still going to be "the small local commuter college down south".

[akronzip12345]

Well we arn't "small" but we are still essentially a "Commuter school" which is normal. K-e-n-t is the residential campus in the region, and I think its gonna stay that way because Fingerhut has close ties with Can't State. We should be concentrating on being a research school, which we are doing. It doesn't help that we don't do much with the City of Cleveland, k-e-n-t has multiple partnerships with Cleveland and even they have hard times getting into their media market...It'd be sweet if we won the mascot bowl...but don't count on it doing miracles for us, I personally don't think many people care about that, can you remember who won last year without looking? K-e-n-t signed on to a marketing company to do the marketing, this company is really good but I forget the name...

[ZachTheZip]

In the interview with Mack Rhoades in the ABJ, he mentioned that they outsourced the marketing department. Their primary goal was to focus on generating revenue, which has succeeded because they have doubled their revenue stream since the switch. You need money to make money, and now they have the money to invest back into getting the communitty involved. I seriously doubt that the athletic department will ever be self-sustaining, but lessening the burden on the university is very doable. The stadium is supposed to be able to generate money instead of draining it which should be a huge help. If the mayor ever actually builds his basketball/hockey arena downtown, that would help as well. Then they can focus on getting the rest of the communitty to hop on the bandwagon after the big the money-makers are on board.

[sgm405]

In the interview with Mack Rhoades in the ABJ, he mentioned that they outsourced the marketing department. Their primary goal was to focus on generating revenue, which has succeeded because they have doubled their revenue stream since the switch. You need money to make money, and now they have the money to invest back into getting the communitty involved. I seriously doubt that the athletic department will ever be self-sustaining, but lessening the burden on the university is very doable. The stadium is supposed to be able to generate money instead of draining it which should be a huge help. If the mayor ever actually builds his basketball/hockey arena downtown, that would help as well. Then they can focus on getting the rest of the communitty to hop on the bandwagon after the big the money-makers are on board.

Soooo when does the whole getting the community involved begin?

[ZachTheZip]

In the interview with Mack Rhoades in the ABJ, he mentioned that they outsourced the marketing department. Their primary goal was to focus on generating revenue, which has succeeded because they have doubled their revenue stream since the switch. You need money to make money, and now they have the money to invest back into getting the communitty involved. I seriously doubt that the athletic department will ever be self-sustaining, but lessening the burden on the university is very doable. The stadium is supposed to be able to generate money instead of draining it which should be a huge help. If the mayor ever actually builds his basketball/hockey arena downtown, that would help as well. Then they can focus on getting the rest of the communitty to hop on the bandwagon after the big the money-makers are on board.

Soooo when does the whole getting the community involved begin?

When the stadium is built, of course. That's when it's supposed to magically appear. I said the marketing was successful in what they set out to do, which was to make lots more money. They haven't shown that they can succesfully market to the pathetic NE Ohio masses yet. They have next year to really do something, but that's it. I am starting to doubt that the home opener at the Infocenter (my new nickname for the stadium complex) will be a sellout in terms of actual attendance, although I'm sure those empty blocks of seats will have been bought by some corporation who has no idea what to do with all those tickets.

[nbs95]

Just one Question Where are all th Akron Students???

[ZachTheZip]

Just one Question Where are all th Akron Students???

Rooting for other schools. The university does very little to instill any type of school spirit in its students. And then they wonder why they don't give back once they're alumni. This keeps happening despite the efforts of the AK-Rowdies and the AK-Oldies. It will take more than just a pair of fan groups to fix this problem. It will take the entire university administration and faculty to change these students minds. Unfortunately the professors have a worse attitude about the school than many students.

[GP1]

Akron Zips (9-2)2217 vs. Binghamton2309 vs. Temple2504 vs. Wyoming2225 vs. NC Central2259 vs. NC A&T2730 vs. YSUAverage Attendance - 2374Can't State Golden flushes (9-2)3455 vs. Hampton2046 vs. Coppin State2879 vs. Longwood3678 vs. St. Louis4378 vs. George Mason2507 vs. IPFWAverage Attendance - 3157

The one thing that sticks out here is George Mason. Two years ago, they were in the final four. That helps quite a bit. Take out that game (someone with a calculator) and what is their attendance?The biggest "P" in marketing is Product (Price, People, Packaging, Projects, etc. are others.). Both of those schedules are horrible with the exception of George Mason and maybe Temple. One of the things I notice on this board is that we sometimes have trouble putting ourselves in others shoes. The point about product is this. When you go to a basketball game, the product consists of two teams, not just one. As long as the Zips, and the Yellow Flush, continue to schedule junk for home games, they will continue to draw poorly. I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything when I type that, but that's just the way it is. The people of NE Ohio are not stupid and will not throw their money away on something where there is no value. Longwood? Where the heck is that place? NC A&T? I didn't even know the place existed until I saw the schedule. NC Central? I thought that was a magnet high school.Akron and the Yellow Flush will draw better when the MAC schedule starts. People know OU, Miami, etc. and they know the product will be better than the likes of NC A&T, NC Central or Longwood. When marketing, always remember that people are not as stupid as they may seem at times.

[ZachTheZip]

GP1, we all know the home schedule is pretty weak. What teams do you think are crazy enough to play the Zips in the JAR when they know they are going to lose? Next year we will have Dayton and Winthrop at home, and a few of the weak series (Binghampton, UIC) will have ended. MAC play always draws better due to the local rivalries. The only options we have to get lots of good teams to come here are the Bracketbuster, and to start playing 2-for-1s, which Dambrot will not do because you lose 1/3 of your OOC home games trying to apease the greedy Major conference teams.

[Valpo Zip]

I don't consider UIC to be a weak game. Remember that we lost to them last year.Their RPI is i think around 120.If we have a bunch of UICs instead of the NC central, NC A&T and Binghamton, we would have been in a much better situation.

[ziptrumpet87]

I think it's more of a name recognition thing than a strength thing. Even some of the stronger teams on the schedule are no-names to the casual fan. Even Nevada was somewhat of a no-name because the casual fan had no clue that they had an NBA-caliber player (Fazekas). The local fans are very Big10-centric so any other conference gets very little notice or respect IMO.

[nbs95]

People, People; Please let me say this from one who sells tickets for an entertainment venue in Pittsburgh, and is an outsider to Akron and all connections. Here is my take on this whole thing. Please before I continue I'm not here to insult anyone Person or group. so if I do please accept my most humble of apologies. Over Christmas eve I had this very conversation that you are having now, with my nephew. my words were this were is the marketing people? Are they the same group that works for Geuaga Lake?? Free tickets are great, but anyone can give the store away. Cardinal Rule Number 1. By giving free tickets away it tells people your product has no value. Conneaut Lake was giving free ticket to everyone that purchased a Pittsburgh Pirate ticket. They are out of Business. The JAR needs to sell tickets at a nominal fee let say $10.00 at least. Then they should go after group business. IE: Scout Day, Youth Basketball Assoc, Cheerleader Groups, Business groups. offer then a $5.00 dollar General Admission ticket, and have a meet the players session either before or after the game. Give the schools and Scout groups a tour of the locker rooms and Press box or some warm up drills with the players. If you want to do give aways, do bobble heads this always sell out the PNC Park. People go crazy for them. There could be a zippy bobble head or three of the top players. do this on a game day when you know the attendance will be low.There are numerous give a aways Mouse pads, Seat cushion, Hat night. All can be done through corporate sponsorships. Target the ethnic days IE: Polish, Italians, look at the population in a 25 mile area and target those large ethnic groups. PNC park also does this and they do well. Kennywood park does the same thing and the Heinz History center is starting this winter to do them as well. Hire a polka band to play music before and after the game and during half time. If I recall Idora Park had a big Polish day My family drove all the way up from Idora to go. which was a big deal since my father never wanted to leave PA. Free food night, come see the zips and eat all you can. this will bring an ugly looking crowed, but how cares your feeling the seats. As for the students and the school is Swiech and McNees not the liaison between the school and the team?? Swiech is red-shirted he has time. Have him go to the head of the university and mend that fence. I have seen him do it with the EF School board as well as the Township commissioners. He is you best voice and his leadership abilities are exceptional. Point him in the right direction and you will be amazed as what he can do off the court. I'm sorry to say this but from being in Pittsburgh who only heard about Can't State, and more recently Miami (OH) because of Big Ben. I have not heard much about the rest of the MAC conference Let alone Akron. The perception is that they are all small schools and are not all that great. Big Deal. Coach KD has his work cut out for him. Before any well known school will play the zips. The zips need to get in the NCAA tournament two or three years in a row. or Win the NIT the same amount of times if not more. KD has to put forth a quality product for the next 7 years. He has to build a reputation better then Can't State. I'm not saying the the team is bad now, However, this year they need to win a spot in the March Tournament. UNC the number 1 team in the country is playing Can't State why because Can't State has proven themselves. The are a strong team that won't hurt UNC power ranking if UNC should win, and UNC will most likely win that game. I'm sorry I'm sure I have offended you all but until recently you haven't hear of Akron all that much. unless your from Akron. I also believe that Akron is dangerous enough, that a team like Wake Forest, St. John, or Villanova don't want to play because they have a good chance of loosing. which will hurt there RPI. Top teams have more to loose by playing the Zips then if they win. I sell tickets for an entertainment venue in Pittsburgh, I have been doing it for 26 years. I and the company have been very successful. I even try to get my company to advertise at the JAR but the value just was not there for us to spend the amount of money that ISP sport were asking. Free tickets do not work. anyone can give the place away. Once again please do not reponed to this post if I upset you I already apologize.

[Zippysgotagun]

The only options we have to get lots of good teams to come here are the Bracketbuster, and to start playing 2-for-1s, which Dambrot will not do because you lose 1/3 of your OOC home games trying to apease the greedy Major conference teams.

This is the nature of the college basketball beast. The same goes for football. The power conferences make the rules. They have earned the right to do so because they have earned their "status." It really isn't the (insert power conference)'s fault that they play at a higher level than the (pick mid-major or small) conference. They get better recruits because they are better teams, and they are better teams because they get better recruits. Power conferences will always make the rules. It sucks, but it's true. If KD wants to really break through, he'll play by someone else's rules and still find a way to win. That's what good small and mid-major coaches do.Let's try to put it in a little better perspective. Say Akron is in the Big 10. They routinely draw 10-20k fans to each home game, no matter who it is (heck, Kentucky draws 20k to their opening midnight madness practice session). Why in God's name would they forgo all that revenue to take their team to play Buffalo on the road? Would any of you do that? I know for sure that I wouldn't. As I said, I don't necessarily like the system, but it's how things work.

[Zipsrifle]

Want a job in Akron? My guess is that it doesn't pay much, but you could probably skim some off the top and nobody would notice.

[Zippysgotagun]

UNC the number 1 team in the country is playing Can't State why because Can't State has proven themselves. The are a strong team that won't hurt UNC power ranking if UNC should win, and UNC will most likely win that game.

Excellent point. Christian understands the system. They traveled to Durham last year and almost pulled off the upset at Cameron. This is what good mid-major programs HAVE TO DO

[nbs95]

Want a job in Akron? My guess is that it doesn't pay much, but you could probably skim some off the top and nobody would notice.

I would Love too Work for the Zips But I'm to honest to Skim anything.

[nbs95]

They get better recruits because they are better teams, and they are better teams because they get better recruits. I see you point my friend But Keep in mind the KD can get those big recruits. Look at Travis and Joyce.Ronnie Steward number 1 in OH, Swiech turn down Pitt, Xavier, Wake Forest to come to Akron.So he does get the big talent. That is because of who he coach in High School. and with that card in his pocket he will continue to get big recruits. The Players need to do their part by beating the Winthrop's of the world.

[Zippysgotagun]

I see you point my friend But Keep in mind the KD can get those big recruits. Look at Travis and Joyce.Ronnie Steward number 1 in OH, Swiech turn down Pitt, Xavier, Wake Forest to come to Akron.So he does get the big talent. That is because of who he coach in High School. and with that card in his pocket he will continue to get big recruits. The Players need to do their part by beating the Winthrop's of the world.

I will give KD some credit for his recruiting, but he can't hang with the power conferences. How many "McDonald's All-Americans" are on his roster? How many play for say, Duke, UNC, OSU, Florida, etc.? #1 in OH is an excellent starting point to build off of, but just because Steward was the best player in OH last year doesn't mean he's near the top in the country. And I don't mean this to seem that I have no respect for Akron's talent, either. They have assembled a very good team. Dambrot has to take them out of the JAR to prove it, though. Start at the Q in March, then the tourney, then next year, schedule some road games in the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, or Big 12. Get out there and play.