Marketing department email?

[Carl Spackler]

UCONN Football. Rise and grind.

UCONN Football. Hit Hard.

UCONN Football. Bombs Away.


Whatever. You don't need a hook phrase to be successful, but if you're going to do it, man....do it right. Best season ever? PUKE IN MY MOUTH.
What happens next season?

I think Rise and Grind would be awesome. Because in a year. You could change it to UCONN football. Get Ready. THen in another 2-3 years. UCONN Football. It's a New Day.

I hope Susan Herbst reads this thread BTW.

 

[CTMike]

What, no "great pick"??? Haha

 

[Carl Spackler]

What, no "great pick"??? Haha

HA! But holy snikeys Mike. How many views did Johnny Mac get on youtube? How did we not capitalize on that? UCONN - Great pick. 6 million people saw that in a matter of days.

Because we have people staffing an athletic department that either unquallifed, or inept at their jobs.

 

[whaler11]

UCONN Football. Rise and grind.

UCONN Football. Hit Hard.

UCONN Football. Bombs Away.


Whatever. You don't need a hook phrase to be successful, but if you're going to do it, man....do it right. Best season ever? PUKE IN MY MOUTH.
What happens next season?

I think Rise and Grind would be awesome. Because in a year. You could change it to UCONN football. Get Ready. THen in another 2-3 years. UCONN Football. It's a New Day.

I hope Susan Herbst reads this thread BTW.

My friends and I usually start game day with texts that read:

'It's good hitting weather'

 

[whaler11]

I don't know what Johnny Mac's major was but certainly someone in Connecticut should have hired him.

Then he should perfect some throws and they should let him loose pre-game to get people fired up.

 

[whaler11]

It's past midnight and Siva got picked in the draft and my initial reaction was it will blow Twitter up. I wasn't wrong.

 

[hthusky74]

Don't worry, we have a new wolf mascot now. Everyone will be so excited that they will sell out all the games.

 

[J187Money]

One of my favorite things at the rent is the guy in 241 that screams "HIT Somebody!" all of the time. I adopted that and put that on the front of my Section 241 gear.

 

[J187Money]

Don't worry, we have a new wolf mascot now. Everyone will be so excited that they will sell out all the games.

Or they will run away in disgust and start cheering for WNEC.

 

[UConn Dan]

HA! But holy snikeys Mike. How many views did Johnny Mac get on youtube? How did we not capitalize on that? UCONN - Great pick. 6 million people saw that in a matter of days.

Because we have people staffing an athletic department that either unquallifed, or inept at their jobs.

UConn could have done more with the Johnny Mac video, but he did make some talk show appearances. I don't recall which ones.

They should have had him on the Today show doing trick shots outside at 30 Rock with UConn cheerleaders.

 

[CL82]

HA! But holy snikeys Mike. How many views did Johnny Mac get on youtube? How did we not capitalize on that? UCONN - Great pick. 6 million people saw that in a matter of days.

Could have done a whole Johnny Mac/Caroline Doty shoot off loosely based on the Bird/Magic McDonald commercial. Say they are competing about who is the better trick shot artist and who knows more about UConn. Have each say a fact about UConn, "best public university in New England, etc." and make a trick shot in a fake contest. Two good looking, reasonably articulate kids in a watchable video. It would have gotten a ton of free publicity, both in discussion and in you tube hits and been a positive buzz for the university. To do though the university PR dept. would have had to have been nimble and creative. We aren't.

 

[sdhusky]

Zero I'm sure. It's about people being aware you exist. And it as close to zero investment as possible.

Don't have much experience with this, do you?

I don't UCONN has an issue with people not knowing it exists.

Is is this your winning scenario? - "Wow, I just read on twitter that CT has a university. Double wow, they have a football team. I didn't know that. Cool. Here is my credit card, let spend $2500 and buy 4 season tickets. Now, where is CT?"

 

[whaler11]

Don't have much experience with this, do you?

I don't UCONN has an issue with people not knowing it exists.

Is is this your winning scenario? - "Wow, I just read on twitter that CT has a university. Double wow, they have a football team. I didn't know that. Cool. Here is my credit card, let spend $2500 and buy 4 season tickets. Now, where is CT?"

Like I have said a dozen times I'm no marketing expert. A good amount of the rest of the world sees twitter as a potential marketing vehicle. I'm sure they are all wrong and you are right - I'll be awaiting your documentation of what the right vehicles are for them.

 

[sdhusky]

Could have done a whole Johnny Mac/Caroline Doty shoot off loosely based on the Bird/Magic McDonald commercial. Say they are competing about who is the better trick shot artist and who knows more about UConn. Have each say a fact about UConn, "best public university in New England, etc." and make a trick shot in a fake contest. Two good looking, reasonably articulate kids in a watchable video. It would have gotten a ton of free publicity, both in discussion and in you tube hits and been a positive buzz for the university. To do though the university PR dept. would have had to have been nimble and creative. We aren't.

Would you be willing to pay 20% more for tickets if there was better/more marketing?

 

[CTMike]

Would you be willing to pay 20% more for tickets if there was better/more marketing?

I am seriously glad that you are not part of UConn's marketing team.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Would you be willing to pay 20% more for tickets if there was better/more marketing?

What kind of question is that? Is it deliberate?

Are you really suggesting that to do better than we are already doing with marketing for ticket sales.......we would have jack up the ticket price by 20% to cover increased expenses to improve?

I don' think so. They already have a budget, that I'd be shocked is not adequate. I think that by allocating resources differently, and taking different creative approaches with the same budget would be more than reasonable. In short - improve upon the existing plan, using the same budget. It's certainly doable. (I don't know the numbers, but I can't imagine that the numbers are so small for marketing allocations)

As I noted earlier in this thread - we are doing more than ever, in marketing and exposure, and online interfacing with ticket sales, donations wetc. The danger is that the people in Storrs in charge of such things, get lazy, and feel adequate that they are doing something, when there was nothing before. They must be pushed, as has been noted, the way things work in the business world, outside of academia.

The process of things in the academic world, in getting things done, exists - because educational processes need to work that way. It's not real world. It's academia. It has it's purpose, place and function. Real world business outside academia is do or die. There are aspects of the athletic department (ticket sales / marketing / fund raising) that need to be pursued with the same mentality as the business world. Produce, learn, adapt, overcome, continue to grow ...... or be gone.

So anyway - what's up with that question?

 

[sdhusky]

What kind of question is that? Is it deliberate?

Are you really suggesting that to do better than we are already doing with marketing for ticket sales.......we would have jack up the ticket price by 20% to cover increased expenses to improve?

I don' think so. They already have a budget, that I'd be shocked is not adequate. I think that by allocating resources differently, and taking different creative approaches with the same budget would be more than reasonable. In short - improve upon the existing plan, using the same budget. It's certainly doable. (I don't know the numbers, but I can't imagine that the numbers are so small for marketing allocations)

As I noted earlier in this thread - we are doing more than ever, in marketing and exposure, and online interfacing with ticket sales, donations wetc. The danger is that the people in Storrs in charge of such things, get lazy, and feel adequate that they are doing something, when there was nothing before. They must be pushed, as has been noted, the way things work in the business world, outside of academia.

The process of things in the academic world, in getting things done, exists - because educational processes need to work that way. It's not real world. It's academia. It has it's purpose, place and function. Real world business outside academia is do or die. There are aspects of the athletic department (ticket sales / marketing / fund raising) that need to be pursued with the same mentality as the business world. Produce, learn, adapt, overcome, continue to grow ...... or be gone.

So anyway - what's up with that question?

Its my impression - and I could be wrong - that for years, men's and women's bb sold very well with limited marketing.

Let's say in 2000, how much did marketing impact ticket sales?

Now, in football, there was marketing but the big driver in sales was the move to BCS and the BE, right?

I imagine having Michigan on the home schedule this year will sell more season tickets than anything short of a massive, multi million dollar sales/marketing/media blitz.

Getting the BB team eligible for the post season will help sales more than billboards.

A better economy would help too.

So, we have a product that has been sold with a modest marketing budget... and we have had a couple of poor W/L years and a been handed terrible cards in CR.

If we want to have billboards on trains and TV commercials and full-time social media marketing and aggressive PR etc, its going to mean spending more money than they days the CC sold out just because Jim or Geno were rolling out the ball or the Rent was brand new.

So, here is my question - is it worth an extra 20% (which seems like a reasonable amount for a professional marketing program) to pay for all those things?

The issue I have with this thread is the thought that all these things can just be done without any thought to budget or management.

Would you really want HFD as an official representative of UCONN on twitter? How long before Warde and Susan would be doing damage control and maybe having to resign?

"Well, twitter is free and we figured we could just have someone do it without a plan or supervision" isn't going to save them.

 

[Dann]

I'm having a bake sale next week.

In early August a guy from Hershey is coming with a full truck of boxes with 30 candy bars each and the boneyard is going to sell them door to door.

I'm thinking Labor Day weekend about a car wash. Thoughts?

 

[sdhusky]

I am seriously glad that you are not part of UConn's marketing team.

You are right.

The only way I know to get billboards and PR firm working and TV commercials and internet marketing is to actually pay for them.

I totally suck at getting them for free. In fact, I pretty much never can get them for my clients for free. Seems like I'm always asking them to pay for stuff like this.

So, they key is to hire those "marketing professionals" that can do social media, run TV commercials, build inside sales orginaztions, put up signs on trains and billboard, do direct mail ALL FOR FREEE.

A "pro" like that would be a MUCH better fit than someone who only uses money to get things like this.

 

[sdhusky]

I'm having a bake sale next week.

In early August a guy from Hershey is coming with a full truck of boxes with 30 candy bars each and the boneyard is going to sell them door to door.

I'm thinking Labor Day weekend about a car wash. Thoughts?

I actually think this a good idea if you approach it from a PR perspective.

I can image ESPN or other national media covering the quirky UCONN fans who are trying to make up for a $20+ million dollar a year conference re-alignment deficit with a bake sale and car wash.

If the boneyard gets behind this, I can get can get it placed on places like Huffington post etc.

 

[sdhusky]

I actually think this a good idea if you approach it from a PR perspective.

I can image ESPN or other national media covering the quirky UCONN fans who are trying to make up for a $20+ million dollar a year conference re-alignment deficit with a bake sale and car wash.

If the boneyard gets behind this, I can get can get it placed on places like Huffington post etc.

And HFD - notice I said quirky, not crazy.

 

[Dann]

I sent a nice email about 2 years ago with this idea. I will just quickly summarize the idea here.

In ct there are several very well known flea markets. NYC and ma also have good ones and this business and life style is very popular. Considering the location of the rent I though this was doable.

Pick a weekend in the summer where all the local flea markets will get involved. Call it the great New England blah blah. The rent is the perfect location. $50 for a selling slot/box. $35 if you are a seller from another local flea market. Or some type of deal to make sure this is THE event this weekend. Charge $5 for parking and this your entrance fee. If you have a uconn football parking pass from the previous season then you park free.

There was more a dim sure way better ideas can happen from bat I said. But things like this get uconn involved, use the rent o ppl become more familiar with it as a event place and there is some money to be divided up among the rent/uconn.

 

[sdhusky]

I sent a nice email about 2 years ago with this idea. I will just quickly summarize the idea here.

In ct there are several very well known flea markets. NYC and ma also have good ones and this business and life style is very popular. Considering the location of the rent I though this was doable.

Pick a weekend in the summer where all the local flea markets will get involved. Call it the great New England blah blah. The rent is the perfect location. $50 for a selling slot/box. $35 if you are a seller from another local flea market. Or some type of deal to make sure this is THE event this weekend. Charge $5 for parking and this your entrance fee. If you have a uconn football parking pass from the previous season then you park free.

There was more a dim sure way better ideas can happen from bat I said. But things like this get uconn involved, use the rent o ppl become more familiar with it as a event place and there is some money to be divided up among the rent/uconn.

Dan - the point isn't to make money, its to get coverage.

So, do a car wash outside the Rent with cheerleaders on street corners with hand made signs etc.

Make it look like the typical HS/Middle School football team car wash.

Get a Giant check for $463 or whatever made out to the UCONN Football with "To make up for lost revenue from the BE" in the notation.

Have the band play. Turn it into a party. Get the local news there. Tell Dez that Jim Boeheim will be there so he'll cover it. Have HFD dunk pool (big money maker).

Here is the key - you have to spend more time/effort on getting local media coverage than anything else - once you have that, it can go national.

Or not. This stuff doesn't always work

 

[Husky25]

I sent a nice email about 2 years ago with this idea. I will just quickly summarize the idea here.

In ct there are several very well known flea markets. NYC and ma also have good ones and this business and life style is very popular. Considering the location of the rent I though this was doable.

Pick a weekend in the summer where all the local flea markets will get involved. Call it the great New England blah blah. The rent is the perfect location. $50 for a selling slot/box. $35 if you are a seller from another local flea market. Or some type of deal to make sure this is THE event this weekend. Charge $5 for parking and this your entrance fee. If you have a uconn football parking pass from the previous season then you park free.

There was more a dim sure way better ideas can happen from bat I said. But things like this get uconn involved, use the rent o ppl become more familiar with it as a event place and there is some money to be divided up among the rent/uconn.

This is not a bad idea, but how does UConn get involved without independent advertising? They do not own or operate Rentschler Field. They pay rent as the primary tenant. Isn't this like saying UConn should get a piece of the gate for the Springsteen concert?

 

[sdhusky]

This is not a bad idea, but how does UConn get involved without independent advertising? They do not own or operate Rentschler Field. They pay rent as the primary tenant. Isn't this like saying UConn should get a piece of the gate for the Springsteen concert?

A store or gas station near the rent would love the traffic.