Marke

ting fo

r you

r

athle

tic b

rand

Build th

e fo

undatio

n & P

rom

ote

your p

assi

on

By: Aaron Sagraves & Pam Chvotkin

Any college athletic program, large or small requires the following

for its success:

Official university publications

Radio and television programming

Internet websites for driving traffic through posted content

Game and event promotions

Stadium and arena signage

Sports Marketing is big business — using multimedia as fast as new media can be developed — combining sales, public relations, media relations, sports and education experience and business management.

Focus on different marketing avenuesHow many members of your staff do you have to work with and what

do you need (full-time & part time):

Major Avenue # 1: Technology/Media Website, Videos, Releases Use what people are on the most these days (technology, internet) to show off your

brand Cross Promotion is huge in this aspect Promote your Twitter Handles/FB Pages and contact information at the bottom of your

press releases – Davenport Univ. utilizes this idea for every release and has it broken down by sport. Example:

Volleyball Contact: Aaron Sagraves | 616-554-5045 | asagraves@davenport.eduDU Athletics: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | InstagramVolleyball: Facebook

Videos – having a lead in and lead-out Davenport used to have the Panther roar (yes, it got a little old (FAST), but it was a branding item for us…people recognized it was a Davenport video by the roar at the start

 

Major Avenue #2 – Advertising/Local Media/Sponsorships

Promotions and Sponsorships

Working with local media outlets (radio, TV, print)Create a budget with your boss/department to advertise and get the

word out about events, honors for your coaches and student-athletesBuild relationships with them – usually, if you are spending money with

them, they tend to want to cover you more and give you some “side deals” that another school might not get

Constantly sharing stories and ideas with the media – being creative to get them to want to cover you

Offer to meet with them and see how you can help them do their job –Davenport Univ. athletics set up an FTP site of video sharing with our three local media outlets.

Sponsorships – forming relationships within the community with businesses and getting them on board with what “product” you are putting on the playing field

John Phillips – ERAU (Fla.) is great when it comes to marketing and getting in touch with the community (@JP_Daytona)

Major Avenue #3 - Coaches/Staff

Apparel, recruiting, word of mouth, setting consistent communication points?

Are your coaches/staff communicating the same things about the school they are trying to “sell”?

An example, a marketing director (campus-wide) will meet with their coaches on a regular basis to make sure the communication and promotion of the school is consistent to what his team is doing for the University as a whole. Excellent idea.

Out RecruitingWear your school’s stuff!!! – its FREE MarketingAttending local high school events and wear something with school

apparel. Often, several questions about the school and coaching staff will be asked – it starts to create relationships within your community – they see your school showing up to games (even if it is NOT to recruit, but just to watch a friend’s kid play)

Major Avenue #3 - Coaches/Staff

Make sure coaches know they represent the school, the department, their team and ultimately the ideals of the athletic department as SID’s. They are the brand extension!

SID’s job is to build relationships with media and get coverage for our student-athletes/coaches/teams – a coach can screw that up very easily with one bad interview or one bad run-in in the community.

Working with them to create smooth channels of communication through various outlets – emails, texts, phone calls, social media

Major Avenue #4 : Social Media Outlets and Creating Content

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Foursquare, Vine, Pinterest

Social media is the new trend – it has changed the way people communicate and has placed a heavy burden on college football recruits, who must learn how to handle their celebrity statuses in appropriate ways on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  Remember, QUALITY> QUANTITY. Create your own conversation with hashtags. Take advantage of Google+ hangouts (an example: have fans engage with questions for players, coaches).

Image-based content will never get old. Other image-based social media sites like Slideshare, Tumblr, Path, and Mobli will continue to grow

Major Avenue #4 : Social Media Outlets and Creating Content

-Human connections are imperative. Make sure what you are saying on social media is translating to what is going on during events and throughout the game day experience. The ultimate goal is to make the fan, student, alumni feel as though they are the 6th man, make them feel apart of the team by offering content they could never obtain before social media.

-The relationship model is DIALOGUE. Create your own conversation and have a crisis management plan in place to handle unruly comments and fans. Allow your athletes to be their own media platform. Education for athletes is KEY. Do not hinder, encourage, with proper education.

 

Major Avenue #5: Alumni Relations Take advantage of notable alumni, where do they live/do/what have

they accomplished? -Demographics, etc. Can explore campus involvement and campus relations.

-Can be used to help with nostalgic marketing, i.e. old stadium/arena photos from previous decades, old campus photos, look through and take advantage of archived material!

How old is the university? Remember that reaching out to prospective alumni to build relationships does not necessarily mean you can just reach out to alumni who have graduated from your university.

Tap into ANY alumni who are locally in the area. Newer universities might not necessarily have an older donor base (or wealthy) to tap into. Become the adopted team of any “alumni” fan who might be looking for a new team to cheer for “in their own backyard” and allow them to see the program's potential.

Major Avenue #6: Your Marketing Department and how to tie it all together

Who are you? Develop a media plan to make teams widely known. Good story? SHARE it! Storytelling is extremely effective, especially ones that tug at heart strings. We all love success stories, encourage it. Reach out to your media contacts. Radio, TV, Internet, magazines. Local coverage first and build your audience. Use alumni to help push your message.

A lot can be done with little to no budget. A “professional” marketing campaign can be successful if you pay attention to details and focus on simplifying logistics.

What are the main facts of your school? Enrollment, where do students come from? States, countries, how diverse? Think of how the university markets to perspective students, their parents, etc. to the university. Use similar methods with athletics.

**Biggest issue with smaller schools is TIME MANAGEMENT. What are yours? Do you manage multiple outlets, do you teach as part of your

responsibilities? Figure out how much time you actually have to focus on responsibilities and seek help to delegate responsibility for tasks that aren’t

currently managed.

What can be done to be most effective?

Here are some social media marketing examples to explore:

Digital In-Game Experience

Content Marketing

Word of Mouth, Grassroots Marketing

BE CREATIVE!

-Digital In-game Experience-

Gamification ideas (point systems for coming to games, etc. Sharing content, loyalty reward programs) –

The potential for virtual goods. (Five game mechanics, points, badges, levels, leaderboards, challenges) Check out this video on more insight to Gamification: http://interaction-dynamics.com/blog/tag/leaderboards/

Fans are seeking more reward/more engagement, with little turn around time. Make them want to come back for more.

-Content Marketing –

Create content to share with your audience.

Explore social broadcasting, encourage coaches, team to share behind the scenes photos, etc. to give fans access they normally would not be able to see via social media. Video is the most persuasive, as it is visually stimulating and more effective than just text or a picture.

Be creative and use the resources you have to make it fun. This can also offer fans to give real-time feedback which also boosts traffic to the website and encourage networking amongst students, alumni, family, friends.

-Word of Mouth, Grassroots Marketing- –Players talk to their family and friends, they can be major influencers to

your brand. Get their network involved, high school coach, local business owners, etc. Maintain a listserv to share articles and information about your school/teams, etc.

Where are your Superfans? Are they being featured/recognized? Explore crowdsourcing activities

With media, it is difficult to get noticed when you are competing with larger schools in the same market, but that doesn’t mean you could miss out on those opportunities – CREATE them with your own technology. Use newspapers and get recognized online via social media and websites.

Encourage engagement. Are games available to live stream or download? Give individual sport websites more depth. What is the message you want to give? What is your message? Does it match the overall mission of what the university upholds?

Stay fresh, on trend and relevant!

How effective is your ticketing plan? Once fans are in seats, what are you doing to keep them? Give them the EXPERIENCE of game day, and worry less about the win/lose outcome. Is it family friendly? Is there an extra incentive for students? Alumni? Give-aways, theme nights, meet and greets, photo opportunities, etc.

The benefit of a smaller school allows room for more experimental marketing. Example, have you ever been to a minor league baseball game? It is often their season tickets sell out based solely on promotions alone. Food promotions, family night (father/daughter night, mother/son), teacher appreciation, seasonal promotions, etc.

Many major league baseball organizations, similar to larger schools could not get away with most of those promotions, so take advantage! Create the environment for your staff to make it more exciting to come to work every day. Find the passion that you have for your university and share why with others. Don’t ignore any demographics. All men’s college? Reach out to women! All women’s college? Reach out to men! There is a mother, father, brother, sister in there that might be a prospective influencer!

Links to explore further beyond today’s conversation:

Harvard Business School Asst. Professor Doug J. Chung looks into the brand awareness that comes with a successful collegiate sports program. While this mainly focuses on Division-I athletics, it is a fantastic read for those looking for more insight.

--Do not be overwhelmed by larger universities and what works for them. Smaller schools can also adapt ideas on a reduced scale: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/13-067_99c551d6-c484-4245-9e49-964d2283cd98.pdf

Read/Purchase: iAthlete: iathletebook.com – Kevin DeShazo - Fieldhouse Media

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics – http://www.naia.org