Best Game Day Promotions
NAIA Member Institutions
Submitted by: Jim Abbott, Director of Athletics
Oklahoma CityUniversity
Title: “TFCU Shoot for the Stars Promotion”
Overview: I first heard about this promotion at the inaugural NAIA NACMA presentations in Kansas City in March 2007. I came home and contacted Tinker Federal Credit Union (TFCU) who was an existing sponsor that I was trying to get more marketing dollars from. The promotion involves logo basketballs that fans can win at home basketball games and I was successful in getting TFCU to pay for the balls.
Promotional Details: We ordered 400 rubber basketballs with the Oklahoma CityUniversity and TFCU logo on them. During home basketball games we made announcements reminding fans to come down on the court at the end of the game to participate in the TFCU Shoot for the Stars promotion to win their very own OCU basketball. Immediately at the conclusion of home basketball games we would wheel a large container with logo balls onto the court and invite fans down to win a ball. Fans could purchase one shot for $2 or three shots for $5 from the free throw line. If they made the shot they were allowed to keep the ball.
Results: This promotion was one of our biggest successes in 2008. We netted almost $2000 from people purchasing shots. At times there were lines of people waiting to take a shot and there is no better memory of attending an OCU game than taking home your very own basketball. Our sponsor was happy and we were happy because the logo balls have been very visible in our community. The fact that the promotion happens at the end of the game insured that folks didn’t leave early.
Submitted by: Jim Abbott, Director of Athletics
Oklahoma CityUniversity
Title: “Quizno’s Group of the Game”
Overview: We met with Quizno’s about the idea of bringing them in as a new athletic partner. In our meeting, one of the things that we discovered was that Quizno’s really wanted to reach out to our students to develop them as customers. We thought that the best thing we could do was have them try a delicious Quizno’s sub sandwich and bring to students attention the fact that Quizno’s is located just around the corner from our campus.
Promotional Details: We honor one campus student group at every home basketball game. At the start of the year we send every student group a form that allows them to nominate themselves as the group of the game. We select the winning groups and assign the game that they will be honored at. The group of the game gets to sit in a leather couch and loveseat (and surrounding bleachers if the group is large) in the front row of our student-section (courtside). At the game, Quizno’s delivers a 5’ sub sandwich and sets it up on a table (we display a banner hanging from the table with the Quizno’s logo) in front of the honored group. The group gets to eat the free meal, sit in front row seats, and is acknowledged through a PA announcement at the game as the “Quizno’s Group of the Game.” Fans passing by the section also get a look at Quizno’s great product at every game.
Results: This promotion has worked well for us. Quizno’s is very happy and sees a good amount of our student traffic in their store. We are happy because we’ve created one more promotion that brings 10-50 more students to the game.
Submitted by: Cindy Fotti, Assistant Director of Athletics
ColumbiaCollege (Mo.)
Title: “Burchard’s Bomb for Books!”
One of Columbia College’s Game Day promotion is to pick a student out of the crowd…either by the amount of noise they are making or if they answered a trivia question right or because they are showing school spirit, and they get to take a half court shot. If they make the shot they get $500 to the bookstore and if they don’t make it they get a ten dollar gift certificate to a local restaurant. We call it “Burchard’s Bomb for Books!, named after the Athletics Director, Bob Burchard. We used to advertise that we would pay for your books for a semester, but then that eliminates seniors and others who may not have that many books to buy. This way they get $500 to spend however they want.
Originally we didn’t give anything if they missed the shot, but we found that a lot of people (especially girls) didn’t want to participate because they knew they would miss the shot. Now people actually practice between classes at making their half court shot and they really get excited when their name gets called to shoot!
Submitted by: John Creer, Dean of Intercollegiate Athletics
LindenwoodUniversity (Mo.)
Title: “Lights Out Lindenwood”
T-shirts were made with the Lights Out Lindenwood logo and sold them in the school cafeteria beginning on a Monday for the Thursday night game. We had student leaders, selected athletes, coaches and student activity staff wear the shirts each day to advertise the event. When someone bought the t-shirt, they also received a raffle ticket. As the fans came into the arena, they were given glow sticks and told to wait until the lights went out before starting the glow. At half time, as soon as the teams left the court, the lights were turned off and everyone started waving their glow sticks. The band played and the cheerleaders led the crowd in cheers. As the lights started coming back on, we had the raffle at half court, giving out 5 IPODs to lucky winners.
Submitted by: John Nelson, Director of Athletics
CorbanCollege (Ore.)
Title: “Buzzer Beater”
Overview: The origin of this activity comes from a “fun” drill I used in summer basketball camps. In thinking of something we could do that would involve more fans at halftime of our home basketball games, we enhanced the activity into a halftime promotion that would be fun both for the participant and the fans in the stands.
Activity Setup: Equipment needs are 4 cones, 4-5 basketballs, a referee shirt and whistle, the shot clock, and whatever prize you want to give. Place cone 1 on the court baseline halfway between the key and sideline. Place the other 3 cones in a zigzag arrangement out on the court. We find it best that cone 2 is top of key extended about 5 feet from sideline. Cone 3 is upcourt from cone 2 and placed more toward the middle of court. Cone 4 is place on halfcourt line again about 5 feet from sideline (remember zigzag formation for cones 2,3,4). Earlier in the day, I’ll get someone to give me a trial run so I know better where the cones should be placed. Placing cone 3 more toward the middle of the court usually accounts for any adjustment necessary. The basic rule of thumb is that the “average” fan can get a shot off after zigzagging around the cones and before they would get to the opposite 3 point line.
Activity Procedure: Fans line up on the baseline under the basket and have 7 seconds to get a shot off and make it to win a prize. Participant 1 (and succeeding participants) waits for the horn or whistle to start. He/she must dribble around cones 2, 3, 4 by first going outside (sideline side) cone 2 and then zigzagging around cone 3 and then back around cone 4. After rounding cone 4, they must get a shot off before the buzzer in order for it to count. If they get the shot off and make it before the buzzer, they win a prize. An outgoing faculty and/or staff member who is willing to ham it up and have fun should be the referee, and can either wave off the shot or count it as good. The shotclock buzzer works well as it is easily seen by the dribbler, does the counting down of the 7 seconds, and has a buzzer. Quickly reset the shotclock and start the next participant. It’s possible to get quite a number of participants involved.
Results: We have had a lot of fun with this halftime promotion. We get students, parents, opponent’s fans, etc., to participate. The fans have almost as much fun watching in anticipation of a shot that will be a buzzer beater. One time an athletic fan not only beat the buzzer, he dunked it at the buzzer. That brought the house down, almost as if at a real game. Our prize has been a concession coupon good for a soft drink and popcorn, as we anticipate having multiple winners during the activity.
Submitted by: Embry-RiddleUniversity (Fla.)
Title: “Single-Day Attendance Promotion: Olympic Sport”
Who:Embry-Riddle (Daytona Beach) Women’s Soccer vs. Embry-Riddle (Prescott)
What:Orientation Week Soccer Kickoff
When:August 28th, 2004 at 7:00 pm – pre-game concert & student BBQ at 6:00 pm
Where:Embry-Riddle Soccer Stadium - Daytona Beach, Fla.
Why:Kick off soccer season as well as the school year and entire fall athletic season
Goals:
•Turn this soccer game into an EVENT by adding a complimentary BBQ, a live band and promotional booths inside the stadium prior to the game
•Make positive first impressions with first semester students that will help our attendance and image throughout the school year and in the future
•Break our single-game Women’s Soccer attendance record
•Use this event and the marketing process to create relationships/bonds with the 2004-05 campus leaders
•Bring new students to the first day of The Flock (student spirit organization) sign-ups, supporting an Athletic Department initiative
The Event:
Through funding acquired from the University’s Orientation Services and Touch-N-Go Productions (the entertainment branch of the Student Government Association), we secured a popular local band (Yummy) to play inside the soccer stadium (adjacent to the field), from one hour prior to the game until kickoff. These funds were also used to host a complimentary student cookout, which coincided with the band, inside the stadium. Additionally, we utilized members of Touch-N-Go to prepare and serve the food at the event.
The event also included our normal in-game promotions and half-time contests. One of our sponsors served complimentary smoothies to the students in attendance. Various campus organizations set up booths to promote their organizations. To increase their visibility, we asked our cheerleading team to help run The Flock sign up booth.
Marketing Strategy:
Our strategy was to use a wide range of cost-efficient resources, including word-of-mouth, fliers and multi-functional marketing tools (i.e. schedule magnets, Flock mail-out), to create an on-campus buzz about the Women’s Soccer game held during new student orientation
Marketing Process:
A. Three-weeks prior to event:
Sent mail-out to all incoming students regarding The Flock, our student spirit group, which included the first opportunity to sign up – at the Orientation Week Soccer Kickoff
B. Week of event:
Early in their college experience, most new Embry-Riddle students are highly likely to have frequent contact with two student leaders: their Orientation Team (O-Team) leader and for most, their Resident Advisors. Therefore, we decided to attempt to form bonds with these two groups, Orientation Services and Residence Life, and utilize them as much as possible in planning and promoting our event.
1. Orientation Services:
•Director of Athletics and marketing staff delivered smoothies to an O-Team meeting, met the leaders and promoted our event
•During orientation, all incoming students watched an orientation video that included information about Athletics and gave O-Team members the chance to pitch our event
2. Residence Life:
•Our athletics staff provided, served and ate lunch with the entire Residence Life staff (including all 55 RA’s) during RA training
•Worked to be part of the RA Scavenger Hunt where all 55 RA’s had to stop by the athletics department with their group for 20 minutes, where we served them smoothies and told them about our department and our event
•Through our relationship with Residence Life, we were able to have a fall sports schedule magnet placed on every refrigerator in the dorms rooms prior to new students moving in
•Additionally, through this enhanced relationship we were exclusively able to get fliers about our event placed on every bed on campus one day prior to the arrival of new students for dorm check-in
•The final group we utilized to promote the event was our student-athletes. Our fall sports student-athletes were asked to help new students move in to their dorm rooms. The student-athletes promoted our event while assisting with move-in
Word-of-mouth from the upper-classmen that the new students were meeting (O-Team, RA’s & student-athletes) all promoted our event and was extremely valuable.
Results:
•A new single-game Women’s Soccer attendance record of 1,022 - including a record 849 students (20 % of student body – PRIOR to first day of classes)
•New single-season records for student (341.7) and total (484.7) attendance per game
Indirect Results:
•New single-season student attendance records in volleyball, men’s soccer and basketball
•Great relationships with this year’s O-Team Leaders, Housing staff, RA’s, and Touch-N-G
Submitted by: Embry-RiddleUniversity (Fla.)
Title: “Student Promotion”
Who:Embry-RiddleUniversity
What:The Flock’s Theme Nights
When:2004-05 school year
Where:Embry-Riddle Athletics Events
Objective:
To turn our games into EVENTS on campus
To provide incentive students to attend our athletic events
To create an exciting atmosphere in order to bring fans back in the future
Background info:
Embry-Riddle’s official spirit organization, The Flock was established in the spring of 2001. Over the past four years, The Flock has evolved from a small group of students looking to have fun at athletic events to one of the largest student organizations on our campus. In the summer of 2001, Cingular Wireless became the official corporate sponsor of The Flock and has supported the organization continuously ever since. The Flock initially started as a free student organization and members received a free Flock membership t-shirt in exchange for their e-mail address.
Flock theme nights were introduced in the fall of 2001 and are a big reason for the popularity of the Flock, not only with students, but also with other Eagle fans and our sponsor, Cingular Wireless. The original Flock theme nights were successful, but only to the degree of motivation of the students participating in them. In the fall of 2002, the first four Flock theme night t-shirts were created in conjunction with Cingular Wireless, with the intention of giving students an extra incentive to attend athletic events, while simultaneously giving them apparel to “fit in.”
Marketing Strategy:
Since the inception of Flock theme nights, a great deal of strategy and planning have gone into determining what themes to have, as well as to when to have particular themes, what student groups to target, decorations, music, t-shirt designs and even distribution of the t-shirts.
In the 2004-05 school year, there were seven Flock theme nights encompassing Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Soccer, Men’s Soccer and Men’s Basketball. In conjunction with Cingular Wireless, the Embry-Riddle Sports Marketing staff designed six Flock theme night t-shirts. These six shirts included the membership shirt, which listed the Flock theme nights and dates on the back and served as walking billboards/calendars. All theme night t-shirts were in batches of 144 shirts (except for the Flock membership/theme night checklist shirt).
What themes: This year’s themes included Beach Night*, Biker Night*, Costume Night, Greek Night*, Camo Night*, Country & Western Night* and NASCAR Night
(* denotes Flock theme night t-shirt available at event).
Why themes: Themes have to be popular with students! It isn’t what you want to sell them - it’s what they want to buy. Many of the themes we used this year are based on themes that were popular in previous years, such as Beach Night and Camo Night. Other themes are based on popular annual events in the Daytona Beach area (NASCAR Night, Biker Night). Other themes are selected based upon the props and half-time contest that match the theme and create a great atmosphere (i.e., Country & Western Night).
When themes: Timing is everything…or at least that is what we believe. We try to have reasons for the timing of nearly every theme night.
•Beach Night was the first theme night of the year because it is so simple. Everyone has beach attire in Daytona Beach, thus students are much more likely to participate in this event, and also get excited about participating in other theme nights throughout the year
•Biker Night was on the first night of the popular “Biketoberfest” in Daytona Beach
•Costume Night was held on Halloween weekend