The University of Michigan basketball has both season-long promotions as well as individual game-day promotions. The season-long promotions are sponsored by Arby’s and StubHub, a local movie theater. Arby’s gives away roast beef sandwiches to one lucky row in the middle of the game and StubHub selects two fans to move to the best seats in the stadium to better see the game, just as sitting closer to the front of the movie theater will be able to see the screen. The last seasonal promotion is the normal t-shirt toss from the cheerleaders and dancers to the fans. In addition, there are also individual game promotions such as giveaways to seniors on senior day or having fans wearing Maize when playing Indiana to cheer on the Wolverines. Lastly, the history of Michigan basketball is played during some of the halftimes.
Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) has a variety of sponsors for their men’s basketball games: Subway, Family ClothesLine, Hersey Kisses, AT&T, Deitz & Watson, PNC Bank, McDonald’s, and 20/20 Vision. Many of these promotions consist of contests and free giveaways throughout the games. For example, Family ClothesLine has a “Design a shirt” contest to win prizes and Subway has a “Subway toss” where other athletes throw Subway subs into the crowd. McDonald’s also does a “70-point Big Mac attack” where if the team scores up to 70 points, the students have a week to stop at McDonald’s and get a free Big Mac. There are also different promotions such as a kiss cam for Hershey Kisses or a dance off for a free mean from Deitz & Watson. PNC also does a t-shirt toss during media timeouts. These are local places that Penn State students recognize and the free giveaways encourage them to come to the games and support their school.
Ohio State University (OSU) has a multiple sponsors for specific games and also have a various halftime performances scheduled. There are multiple giveaways on different days such as bags and hotdogs on to fans. The marketing department at OSU is very organized and has many ideas that they can want to execute. These include different halftime shows such as various OSU teams as well as outside groups. This provides an assortment of entertainment to make each game different and interesting to the fans.
Since I could not find much on swimming, I am going to discuss why some places have come up with crazy promotions and then discuss 3 Big Ten schools that use promotions during their men’s basketball games. Throughout this process, I have noticed that some places will do anything to lure fans. Giveaways are a big crowd pleaser, but sometimes there are ones to really grab people’s attention; one place gave always pink thongs to the first 500 fans. The creative minds behind these unique clubs have tried anything to attract a larger audience. There are feature ideas that are so risky that they will either be a success or a bust, but thankfully crazy fans
are attracted to crazy promotions, which can only benefit the amount of people attending games. The overall goal of marketers is to provide crazy promotions to keep the fan’s interest.
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