SU Marketing and Game Hype

[Rocco]

So, we discussed this quite a bit last week at the game. As we all know, the recent attendance is greatly disheartening and frankly, depressing. We need to fix this ASAP as this will undoubtedly hurt recruiting. I am not asking for a sellout every game, but there really isn't a reason why we don't have a solid 37-38k in that dome every football game. Obviously, the bigger name games (LSU, Clemson) should easily draw 42k and up.

One of our good friends is a morning TV anchor in Syracuse. This person comes from the Knoxville market (home of Tennessee) and not ONCE were they asked to promote the OrangeOut last week in the morning. While down in Tennessee, the football game notes were at the start and end of the morning program. Basically, it was plastered on all of the local news outlets and was drilled into everyone's minds. It was a drip campaign. There is no reason why Syracuse is not pushing the 4 local TV stations about the games during the morning, midday and evening news ALL week.

This will be Coyle's most pressing challenge IMO. He has already said that this keeps him up at night at times trying to figure out the solution. The issue is that there is no ONE solution. This needs to be a multi-pronged marketing approach. We've heard all of the reasons why people don't come to the games recently. Those people are your target market. Time to attack and win them over. Clearly, winning will greatly help and the last 12 years of categorically bad football has really done it's number on the local fanbase.

Sorry, but this just drives me nuts. We really need to invest in the marketing department and get people in there who know how to promote and sell a football program. Time to sell ice to eskimos. There are a boatload of people in the upstate market, plenty to fill out the Dome on a Saturday. The problem that needs to be solved is getting them to the game.

As Jordan (or Gretzky) said, "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take". Time to get creative and overwhelming.

 

[orangenauburn]

Basically, it is non existent compared to our peers nor is it acceptable for the supposed prestige the school likes to tout with its communications programs.

Send students in the programs out to do promotional projects throughout the semester to help out

JUST DO SOMETHING

 

[rrlbees]

That's all well and good and some fine ideas, but we can promote all we want it won't make a huge dent until the cost structure changes. Joe fan still isn't buying sideline seats at the current cost even if he gets pummeled every day with promotions.

 

[Rocco]

This is a perfect example of the lack of communications SU has. rrlbees, I know you disagree with this in the other thread, but I completely agree with Ozcuse. We need way more of a drip campaign on social media, email, television, radio and maybe even phone calls or text messages. Like 4x more than they are doing right now.

I bought tickets to the UVA game this year through the UVA website to be able to sit in the SU section. I get multiple updates and news each week from UVA that I NEVER get from SU. I have gotten more correspondence from UVA in the last month than I got from SU in the last year. Infact, the only times I remember receiving messages from SU was from Dan Bartlett or Ian before him to renew/buy more tickets.

SU's attendance problem is an SU created problem. Both from previous year's results and an inability to engage and motivate the fan base.

 

[upperdeck]

connect with the community. remember back in the day when they had a real game recap show. actually showed plays and had coaches talk. the orange zone is nice but watching 2 plays a few times doesnt really do much for drawing people in.

how can you have an Orange Out and not let people know and why was it scheduled a week out and not done for the big game like lsu/clemson. UL did theirs last night not next week for Samford.

pick any 5 people off this site and have them sit down the with the school and they would get more ideas than they have used the last 10 years.

 

[Gooorange]

So, we discussed this quite a bit last week at the game. As we all know, the recent attendance is greatly disheartening and frankly, depressing. We need to fix this ASAP as this will undoubtedly hurt recruiting. I am not asking for a sellout every game, but there really isn't a reason why we don't have a solid 37-38k in that dome every football game. Obviously, the bigger name games (LSU, Clemson) should easily draw 42k and up.

One of our good friends is a morning TV anchor in Syracuse. This person comes from the Knoxville market (home of Tennessee) and not ONCE were they asked to promote the OrangeOut last week in the morning. While down in Tennessee, the football game notes were at the start and end of the morning program. Basically, it was plastered on all of the local news outlets and was drilled into everyone's minds. It was a drip campaign. There is no reason why Syracuse is not pushing the 4 local TV stations about the games during the morning, midday and evening news ALL week.

This will be Coyle's most pressing challenge IMO. He has already said that this keeps him up at night at times trying to figure out the solution. The issue is that there is no ONE solution. This needs to be a multi-pronged marketing approach. We've heard all of the reasons why people don't come to the games recently. Those people are your target market. Time to attack and win them over. Clearly, winning will greatly help and the last 12 years of categorically bad football has really done it's number on the local fanbase.

Sorry, but this just drives me nuts. We really need to invest in the marketing department and get people in there who know how to promote and sell a football program. Time to sell ice to eskimos. There are a boatload of people in the upstate market, plenty to fill out the Dome on a Saturday. The problem that needs to be solved is getting them to the game.

As Jordan said, "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take". Time to get creative and overwhelming.

Curious if anyone knows..doesn't SU have an agreement with IMG? Aren't they a marketing group that would help get the SU brand out there? I know they help pay for coaches salaries so it seems to me they should be a partner in this and should share the responsibility, no?

 

[Shenexon]

This is a perfect example of the lack of communications SU has. rrlbees, I know you disagree with this in the other thread, but I completely agree with Ozcuse. We need way more of a drip campaign on social media, email, television, radio and maybe even phone calls or text messages. Like 4x more than they are doing right now.

It must be more difficult than it seems. Most of what needs to be done is common-sensical and I know Coyle & Syverud are bright guys. Bees & Cuseregular are right that season-ticket holders need some encouragement and gratitude from SU, with a change to the price structure that keeps fans out of the most important seats in the dome. The problem with that should be apparent. I hope they demonstrate their appreciation of the situation by making significant changes in offseason and getting better at communication in a hurry. No matter how many fans are at the dome tomorrow, we could have had more.

 

[Ozcuse]

Earth to SU AD. Not everyone uses Twitter and should not be used as the backbone of your marketing campaign. Cheap marketing gets cheap results.

 

[ImperialOrange]

As Jordan said, "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take". Time to get creative and overwhelming.

That was actually a Wayne Gretzky quote.

 

[upperdeck]

Earth to SU AD. Not everyone uses Twitter and should not be used as the backbone of your marketing campaign. Cheap marketing gets cheap results.

twitter seems to be the only reason to have ribbin boards

 

[Rocco]

That was actually a Wayne Gretzky quote.

View attachment 50862

 

[TheCusian]

Earth to SU AD. Not everyone uses Twitter and should not be used as the backbone of your marketing campaign. Cheap marketing gets cheap results.

Agree 100%. They should have a stronger FB/Twitter/Online marketing team. But relying on any one way is dumb.

Should be everywhere. Local radio, local TV, online, Instagram - all of it.

 

[Ozcuse]

Agree 100%. They should have a stronger FB/Twitter/Online marketing team. But relying on any one way is dumb.

Should be everywhere. Local radio, local TV, online, Instagram - all of it.

I've said it before but I think this year is going to be bad attendance wise for paid seats no matter what. Winning helps but it's hard to make spur of the moment decisions when you have families. A lot of people make these plans months in advance and that obviously did not happen in our favor this year. So if you have a ton of inventory left with a very short shelf life you do what you gotta do to get butts in seats.

Honestly I would be giving the expensive seats away to active service military in huge blocks. It would be a great gesture on part of the school to thank our military as well as celebrate our stronger connection to Ft. Drum. Also, it would be pretty taboo for the season holders in those sections to complain about thanking those who defend our freedom with free tickets.

Same thing with children from local schools- if we know we are gonna have crappy attendance then just dedicate an entire section for free kids. Don't make it the expensive seats but keep them somewhat together like the Tops Family section.

It doesn't cost the University more to have a 3/4 full Dome vs. a 1/2 full Dome. Maybe you bring on a few more temp ushers, etc. How much food does concessions throw out when we have bad attendance?

Also, for the love of God MARKET YOUR SPECIAL EVENTS!!! Sometimes it feels like you need to be part of a secret society to find out about these things like Children Under 12 Free. If the only ones who know are the ones who are die hards who will attend anyways, what the hell are you doing????

 

[CuseLegacy]

Down here in NC the honoring of a coach, the stature of coach Mac, would have been front page news and been noted on local tv without the university having to have a paid promotion.

 

[Rocco]

Down here in NC the honoring of a coach, the stature of coach Mac, would have been front page news and been noted on local tv without the university having to have a paid promotion.

It was such a disservice to Coach Mac, his former players and his family IMO.

 

[K Otto XLIV]

This is a perfect example of the lack of communications SU has. rrlbees, I know you disagree with this in the other thread, but I completely agree with Ozcuse. We need way more of a drip campaign on social media, email, television, radio and maybe even phone calls or text messages. Like 4x more than they are doing right now.

It isn't hard to do either. Plus colleges have free labor (interns) to cut costs. You only need to hire a competent manager to lead them. We have plenty of alumni who could do the job. The people we have now doing things are either lazy or incompetent. Either way they probably should be replaced.

 

[HeaterCuse22]

this is so true. Here's a story. As you know, Bam myself and Jekelish have been making videos for recruits and some hype videos. So last Saturday morning before the wake game at about 10am, I am going through twitter and I see a video from what I thought was a fan. Wrong it was the Director of Video from SU> I never have seen a tweet from him ever. I asked did you make this and he proudly said yes. I said any chance you could get these out say earlier in the week. SMH We make ours (not to that quality) in about 35 minutes. I imagine I could put one out every day of the week if I was in that job. LOL

Amazing. Oh and this week - no video no tweets. Hopefully I get an amp up video 2 hours before kick again.

Edit - I do appreciate the effort though

 

[HeaterCuse22]

Earth to SU AD. Not everyone uses Twitter and should not be used as the backbone of your marketing campaign. Cheap marketing gets cheap results.

Agree but even if you use twitter - ya gotta use it effectively.

 

[HeaterCuse22]

connect with the community. remember back in the day when they had a real game recap show. actually showed plays and had coaches talk. the orange zone is nice but watching 2 plays a few times doesnt really do much for drawing people in.

how can you have an Orange Out and not let people know and why was it scheduled a week out and not done for the big game like lsu/clemson. UL did theirs last night not next week for Samford.

pick any 5 people off this site and have them sit down the with the school and they would get more ideas than they have used the last 10 years.

Looked like Louisville gave out some Black out shirts also as I saw a bunch in the stands.

 

[SUFan44]

The real problem over the last 10 years?

Lael Gross managed the marketing department and corporate partners of SU Athletics from February 2005 to March 2015.

No idea who the next person in charge will be - or if there is one currently - but the marketing dept. has3 people on staff now to market the entire AD.

I don't know any of them personally, but when the best experience any of the three has is working for the Sky Chiefs, that's not a broad base of experience - IMO - to work with.

 

[K Otto XLIV]

The real problem over the last 10 years?

Lael Gross managed the marketing department and corporate partners of SU Athletics from February 2005 to March 2015.

No idea who the next person in charge will be - or if there is one currently - but the marketing dept. has3 people on staff now to market the entire AD.

I don't know any of them personally, but when the best experience any of the three has is working for the Sky Chiefs, that's not a broad base of experience - IMO - to work with.

To be fair we don't know what her role was. If it was her job to only handle sponsorships and their activation, then she had zero to do with marketing to the fans. I could be wrong but I believe SU outsources marketing, which could be part of the problem. Also we need football specific people. There should be marketing of SU athletics, SU basketball, and SU football. Football is its own animal that isn't even close to being like any of the other sports at SU. It needs to be treated differently.

Also SU needs to get on top of this for basketball as well. What if there is a dip after JB retires? You better have a plan set up.

 

[SUFan44]

To be fair we don't know what her role was. If it was her job to only handle sponsorships and their activation, then she had zero to do with marketing to the fans. I could be wrong but I believe SU outsources marketing, which could be part of the problem. Also we need football specific people. There should be marketing of SU athletics, SU basketball, and SU football. Football is its own animal that isn't even close to being like any of the other sports at SU. It needs to be treated differently.

Also SU needs to get on top of this for basketball as well. What if there is a dip after JB retires? You better have a plan set up.

In fairness, if she "managed the marketing department", then she had direct access to the people who the marketing was outsourced to. If that is indeed how they do things.

Just because it's outsourced doesn't mean you don't have input on how the messages are being delivered. And if anyone had any sense, they'd know that the message isn't being delivered the right way.

Not 100% of the blame, but hiring your wife to be the assistant AD for marketing seems a little fishy to me. But that's just me.

 

[BomberOrange]

That's all well and good and some fine ideas, but we can promote all we want it won't make a huge dent until the cost structure changes. Joe fan still isn't buying sideline seats at the current cost even if he gets pummeled every day with promotions.

Cost is one issue that I agree with but its one. I know a lot of people who wont go because they don't want to see them lose. There are lots of issues put together. The best thing is that this issue is in the forefront and Coyle will understand what he is dealing with.

 

[K Otto XLIV]

Cost is one issue that I agree with but its one. I know a lot of people who wont go because they don't want to see them lose. There are lots of issues put together. The best thing is that this issue is in the forefront and Coyle will understand what he is dealing with.

The preferred seating is a little harder to figure out. But the non preferred shouldn't be very hard. Upperdeck endzones costs STHs $14.25 per game. So why charge $30 for individual games? Why not $20? The upperdeck corners cost STHs $18 per game, yet individuals pay $30. Why not $25? The lower endzone costs $29.50 yet indy is $40, why not $35? Sidelines cost $32.25 per game yet indy is $45, why not $40?

It isn't like preferred is the only pricing problem. You can reduce the individual game tickets by $5 in each section and the STHs would still be getting a good discount. Who ever is setting the prices is out of touch with the market.

 

[Jake]

I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up, or maybe it has and I just missed it. But while the newspaper initiated a dialogue about why people don't attend games, it failed to acknowledge that a very important marketing tool is no longer available to the casual fan - a Friday newspaper delivered to their door.

That paper used to have "everything you need to know about the game"...and was brought to you. You didn't need to seek out this info and it was a reminder that the game was taking place. It also had the two deep for both teams that many people brought to games.

The next generation of fans may not have read it, but a significant number of people would have...and it was a way to reach the casual fan.