I think that in this economy, successful businesses are going to take over sponsorships. For example, in Cleveland, Jacob’s Field and The Gund Arena used to be symbols for Cleveland fans. When the economy changed, Progressive and Quicken Loans Insurances decided to take over the stadiums and change the traditional names. Many Cleveland fans, such as myself, were very upset by this move. In this economy it is all about who has the money to pay for everything and certain businesses are slowly gaining power and buying arena’s/courts. Smaller, local businesses or well-known individuals can no longer compete with the big-time businesses. I do not think that sponsorships will change due to technology, but I do believe that the news of changing sponsorships will spread a lot faster no matter where or what sport is involved. Now that Instagram,
Twitter, and Facebook have been created, instant information is provided for fans sometimes before anything official is decided upon or not. In a later time, it will come out officially in the newspaper or online articles, but social media has given way to the immediate material for others. This can be beneficial for bringing in fans, however. The business can help with promotions and discounts at games to help bring in fans.
When I initially thought of sports marketing I thought of posters, flyers, etc. I did not realize the amount of effort and detail that goes into a good marketing and promotions program. In relation to flyers, which I thought would be a simple task, there is a lot of information that needs to be represented onto a small space such as date/time, sponsors, title, registration (if needed), a visual effect, etc. It also needs to be visually appearing to attract an audiences’ eye in order for them to look at the flyer to begin with. After this class, I have learned that marketing is more than just advertisements, but social media has now grown into a prominent role. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram bring instant information to fans. Statistics, updates, changes of players or management, all of this can be provided by social media.
I have also realized that the quirkier the promotion, the more likely the promotion will work. Although those types of promotions require a larger risk, normally those risks are worth it; however, traditional events such as t-shirt giveaways and other free memorabilia are effective as well. Sports marketing and promotions as a whole is a wide variety of creativity and innovation that the teams need to use in order to attract fans successfully.
 Michael Phelps was caught in a picture of him smoking a bong. Although no regulations were violated with what Phelps was doing, some of his sponsors decided to take him off of his contract while others kept him on. Kellogg’s is a cereal that is structured around helping kids get through their day so they can learn and become smarter. Kellogg’s was possibly drawn to Phelps because he is a hard-working swimmer who is dedicated. Also, Kellogg’s is a healthy brand and athletes always want to have a healthy image. With this being said, when Phelps was found with a bong, this is not a kid-friendly, good decision-making athlete that Kellogg’s wants to show to children. This does not fit the image that Kellogg’s is trying to promote to its target market; therefore, they felt as though they had to release Phelps from his contract. Speedo on the other hand, focuses more on Phelps as a successful athlete. In his contract, Phelps is obligated to make an appearance at swimming camps. Swimmers will be more impressed that they get to meet Phelps as opposed to thinking about him smoking a bong. Also, Speedo’s goal is to sell their apparel; its goal is to have Phelps appear to be swimming faster because he is wearing Speedo’s gear. Other swimmers will want Speedo because Phelps wears Speedo to help them swim faster too. What Phelps does on his spare time does not affect what he wears in the pool or affect his performance. With sales still up, Speedo did not feel that the released picture was worth losing Phelps over, especially since nothing was against regulations.
Promotional means to attract more fans normally consist of memorabilia. This can occur through the first so many people at the game get a bobble-head or online contests where tickets or other prizes can be awarded to fans in order to encourage them to come to games. Theme days are also a great marketing tool for ticket sales. If the marketing team comes up with the right theme, it could attract a lot of fans to the games and create a great experience to help fans want to come back. Social media is also becoming a great marketing tool to help improve sales. At the games on through online contests as well, fans can “like” when something happens on Facebook or comment on twitter and the first to “like” or comment can win a prize or tickets to a game. This technique could also include the fans into a theme night. If the theme is a specific cause, then the fans could “like” or tweet something about the organization and the number of “likes”/comments will be the amount of money donated to the charity. Marketers constantly use social media to attract the fans. They produce updates of big plays and players to make the fans want to come to the next game.
University officials have decided not to have a title sponsor at Ohio State because they have many different sponsors for different games. If the stadium has a specific sponsor, then that would be the main sponsor for the school as opposed to getting discounts and other rewards from the multiple sponsors that they have. This goes along with naming rights. If a stadium is not named, then there is no devotion to a particular company and the school can take advantage of using multiple companies for sponsorships and promotions.
Since sports is such a wide topic there are many different forms of social media for all different types of fans. The simplest would be a website. Every sports team has a website that has stats, schedule, and any other updated articles about the team and how it is changing. One would think that an impactful social network would be facebook, but in reality, twitter is huge. There are many ways to get the latest news whether from other tweets, player’s tweets, and/or team’s tweets. It is a way to connect to athletes by following them specifically while also following a team; it is the ability to follow almost anyone and it comes up instantly. Other than twitter, there are many apps for phones that can get sent straight to one’s phone for an instant update. Scoremobile is an app that is similar to twitter, but the fan can customize his or her page, jam-packed with useable context. With Scoremobile, one can get more information from a specific team and/or athlete while getting the general notifications all while the team is playing and the games are going on. The last one is fantasy
sports. This app has a research of past and current stats of both players and teams in order for one to set up a “draft.” Fantasy sports give one the ability to customize a team on the go while getting the latest updates.
Bill Veeck changed the way that public relations developed during
games. He worked with both the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians. As the manager, he took many risks, pushing the envelope when adding Larry Doby to his team as the American Leagues first African American player and giving Satchel Paige a chance to pitch. This was his attempt to break the color barrier and many people were not happy. Sometimes his tactics were extreme, but they got people’s attention. Veeck was a very creative person and came up with entertainment that included the fans. Some of his ideas were between-inning activities and having the whole crowd sing “take me out to the ballgame.” This was to have the fans acquire a community feel with each other and the team they are supporting, giving them a great experience and a need to come back again. These were activities that people would talk about and want to see what would happen at the next game such as fireworks or bat-days where fans could come to batting practice or throw the first pitch. Veeck was also the first to put names on the back of the jerseys, give out free prizes, and discount beers. Although, at the time, some fans and colleagues considered his actions illegal and immoral, he was very creative and devoted to his main goal of increasing attendance at games. During his time with the Indians, he actually brought in the largest crowd in recorded history. There are many advertising tactics that are still used in baseball today.
In the choice of whether to sell 10,000 tickets for $2 or 1,000 tickets for $20, I think that both would have its advantages and disadvantages. Selling tickets for $2 will be appealing to the consumer. Since the price is so cheap, people will want to buy more in bulk. While price is a good factor, not everyone will want to buy a ticket because it is $2. People could think that they are getting cheap seats or that the product is not as good, that there is an agenda behind selling the tickets for so little, which could be a turn off to consumers. Selling tickets for $20 seems like it would be much, much harder, but in reality it will not be too bad. Showing the consumer that they will be getting their monies worth is always a big help when prices are higher like this. Even if $20 is a good deal, some consumers will be cheap and think that the price is too expensive, a problem that is not had when tickets are $2.
Personally, I think I would rather sell 10,000 for $2. No one will have a reason to complain that they are too expensive and in regards to “cheap seats,” I can just tell the consumer what he or she will be getting. Some people need to be sold on the experience in order to buy a ticket in the first place, let alone buy them in bulk. If you know how to sell the experience, I think that 10,000 tickets could be a bit of a struggle, but definitely do-able. It could be a struggle in the fact that it is so many more tickets than selling for $20, however, like I said, selling in bulk will definitely help to solve that problem.
While the SuperBowl was a very entertaining game, the sponsors and advertisements during the game were interesting as well. Every aspect of the game had a different sponsor: Hyundai kick-off show, Pepsi halftime show, Jeep Ram Trucks halftime report, and Toyota post-game show. In order to be the sponsors of these events, they must have put in a lot of money for the SuperBowl, especially Pepsi for the amount of lights and dancers that Beyonce had for her performance.
A few other advertisements that I noticed during the SuperBowl were Doritos, GoDaddy.com, and Audi cars. I saw these names whenever the game came back on from a commercial. Also, on the scoreboard at the beginning of the game I noticed that I think it is BudWeiser was right on top. In addition to the scoreboard, there were advertisements around the edge of the stadium, but when I would look, the lights kept reflecting so I could not read which company it was.
There are three things that I really noticed during the SuperBowl. The first is that both teams has the Nike “swoosh” on the shoulders of their uniforms. This to me is a big deal, because everytime the camera zoomed in on a player you could see the “swoosh.” This means that Nike is the provider for the SuperBowl and that could really influence places that still use Adidas. Secondly, when the lights went out during the SuperBowl, one of the first things the cameras showed that came back on was the scoreboard and the teams were not on it yet, however, Mercedes Benz, All State and Coca Cola advertisements were. These were some of the first things that people in the stadium saw when that half of the lights came back on. The final thing is not necessarily about the advertisement during the game, but the station that showed it. I know that the game was broadcasted through CBS, but there were CBS logos all over the stadium and on the screen as well. Another thing that I found interesting regarding CBS is that many of the SuperBowl commercials came from CBS shows. This makes me think that there could be a correlation; if CBS is broadcasting, maybe they can choose which commercials they play during the game and instead choose to show their own shows, just advertising CBS more.
 Blogging is a great way, affordable way for people to know all about what one is selling. Whether it be oneself, events, or organizations, blogging can be a great source of advertisement. Anyone can look at a blog and gather information about what one is trying to sell. Blogging is a place where on can put as much information up as necessary for the customer. Blogs are a place for information and discussion.
Blogs are informational, yet causal, which sets them apart from websites. On sport websites, for example, one would only find statistics, articles related to the team, and information about the players. Blogs can have articles or websites posted as well, but there is also a sense of opinion along with facts when it comes to blogs. When writing a blog on a sports team, one talks about the players, not just statistics, but one’s opinion of how good or bad each one is doing and using those statistcs as support as opposed to an informational feel. Blogs have rants about specific topics and make people want to think when they read them. They are also very interactive; others can comment on what they feel about the opinion that one presented.
If I were to write a blog for a sports team, I would probably use my blog as an advertising tool for events. Although blogs can be interactive, I like to tell people about what events are coming up so they can know a little bit more about them and want to go to them. For example, if I worked for a baseball team, baseball games almost always have theme days. I would tell my bloggers what theme is coming up, what fun things are taking place that day, and encourage them to come. After that theme day, I would ask for feedback. What did they like about the theme, what not? What could have been done/activities to enhance the theme?
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