The document provides guidance on marketing strategies for college athletic programs. It discusses 6 major avenues for marketing: 1) technology/media, focusing on websites, videos, and social media. 2) advertising/local media and sponsorships. 3) utilizing coaches and staff as brand ambassadors. 4) creating engaging content for social media outlets. 5) engaging alumni relations. 6) tying all marketing efforts together under an organized plan from the marketing department. For each avenue, it provides specific tactics and examples from other schools. The key message is that smaller schools can effectively market through creativity and grassroots efforts.

1. M
arketing
for your
athletic
brand
Build
the
foundation
&
Prom
ote
your passion
By: Aaron Sagraves & Pam Chvotkin

2. Any college athletic program, large or small requires
the following
for its success:
 Official university publications
 Radio and television programming
 Internet websites for driving traffic through posted content
 Game and event promotions
 Stadium and arena signage

3. Sports Marketing is big business — using multimedia as fast as new
media can be developed — combining sales, public relations, media
relations, sports and education experience and business
management.

4. Focus on different marketing avenues
How many members of your staff do you have to work with and what do you
need (full-time & part time):

5. Major Avenue # 1: Technology/Media
 Website, Videos, Releases
 Use what people are on the most these days (technology, internet) to show off your
brand
 Cross Promotion is huge in this aspect
 Promote your Twitter Handles/FB Pages and contact information at the bottom of your
press releases – Davenport Univ. utilizes this idea for every release and has it broken
down by sport. Example:
Volleyball Contact: Aaron Sagraves | 616-554-5045
| asagraves@davenport.edu
DU Athletics: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram
Volleyball: Facebook
 Videos – having a lead in and lead-out
 Davenport used to have the Panther roar (yes, it got a little old (FAST), but it was a
branding item for us…people recognized it was a Davenport video by the roar at the
start


6. Major Avenue #2 – Advertising/Local
Media/Sponsorships
Promotions and Sponsorships
 Working with local media outlets (radio, TV, print)
Create a budget with your boss/department to advertise and get the word out
about events, honors for your coaches and student-athletes
Build relationships with them – usually, if you are spending money with them,
they tend to want to cover you more and give you some “side deals” that
another school might not get
Constantly sharing stories and ideas with the media – being creative to get
them to want to cover you
Offer to meet with them and see how you can help them do their job –
Davenport Univ. athletics set up an FTP site of video sharing with our three
local media outlets.
Sponsorships – forming relationships within the community with businesses
and getting them on board with what “product” you are putting on the playing
field
John Phillips – ERAU (Fla.) is great when it comes to marketing and getting in
touch with the community (@JP_Daytona)

7. Major Avenue #3 - Coaches/Staff
Apparel, recruiting, word of mouth, setting consistent communication
points?
Are your coaches/staff communicating the same things about the school
they are trying to “sell”?
An example, a marketing director (campus-wide) will meet with their
coaches on a regular basis to make sure the communication and
promotion of the school is consistent to what his team is doing for the
University as a whole. Excellent idea.
Out Recruiting
Wear your school’s stuff!!! – its FREE Marketing
Attending local high school events and wear something with school
apparel. Often, several questions about the school and coaching staff
will be asked – it starts to create relationships within your community –
they see your school showing up to games (even if it is NOT to recruit,
but just to watch a friend’s kid play)

8. Major Avenue #3 - Coaches/Staff
 Make sure coaches know they represent the school, the department, their
team and ultimately the ideals of the athletic department as SID’s. They are
the brand extension!
 SID’s job is to build relationships with media and get coverage for our
student-athletes/coaches/teams – a coach can screw that up very easily
with one bad interview or one bad run-in in the community.
 Working with them to create smooth channels of communication
through various outlets – emails, texts, phone calls, social media

9. Major Avenue #4 : Social Media Outlets and
Creating Content
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Foursquare, Vine, Pinterest
 Social media is the new trend – it has changed the way people
communicate and has placed a heavy burden on college football recruits,
who must learn how to handle their celebrity statuses in appropriate ways
on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Remember,
QUALITY> QUANTITY. Create your own conversation with hashtags. Take
advantage of Google+ hangouts (an example: have fans engage with
questions for players, coaches).
 Image-based content will never get old. Other image-based social media
sites like Slideshare, Tumblr, Path, and Mobli will continue to grow

10. Major Avenue #4 : Social Media Outlets and
Creating Content
-Human connections are imperative. Make sure what you are saying on social
media is translating to what is going on during events and throughout the
game day experience. The ultimate goal is to make the fan, student, alumni
feel as though they are the 6th
man, make them feel apart of the team by
offering content they could never obtain before social media.
-The relationship model is DIALOGUE. Create your own conversation and
have a crisis management plan in place to handle unruly comments and
fans. Allow your athletes to be their own media platform. Education for
athletes is KEY. Do not hinder, encourage, with proper education.

11. Major Avenue #5: Alumni Relations
 Take advantage of notable alumni, where do they live/do/what have they
accomplished? -Demographics, etc. Can explore campus involvement and
campus relations.
-Can be used to help with nostalgic marketing, i.e. old stadium/arena
photos from previous decades, old campus photos, look through and
take advantage of archived material!
 How old is the university? Remember that reaching out to prospective
alumni to build relationships does not necessarily mean you can just reach
out to alumni who have graduated from your university.
 Tap into ANY alumni who are locally in the area. Newer universities might
not necessarily have an older donor base (or wealthy) to tap into. Become
the adopted team of any “alumni” fan who might be looking for a new team
to cheer for “in their own backyard” and allow them to see the program's
potential.

12. Major Avenue #6: Your Marketing
Department and how to tie it all together
Who are you? Develop a media plan to make teams widely known. Good
story? SHARE it! Storytelling is extremely effective, especially ones that tug
at heart strings. We all love success stories, encourage it. Reach out to your
media contacts. Radio, TV, Internet, magazines. Local coverage first and
build your audience. Use alumni to help push your message.
A lot can be done with little to no budget. A “professional” marketing
campaign can be successful if you pay attention to details and focus on
simplifying logistics.
What are the main facts of your school? Enrollment, where do students come
from? States, countries, how diverse? Think of how the university markets
to perspective students, their parents, etc. to the university. Use similar
methods with athletics.
**Biggest issue with smaller schools is TIME MANAGEMENT. What are yours? Do
you manage multiple outlets, do you teach as part of your responsibilities? Figure
out how much time you actually have to focus on responsibilities and seek help to
delegate responsibility for tasks that aren’t currently managed.

13. What can be done to be most effective?
Here are some social media marketing examples to
explore:
Digital In-Game Experience
Content Marketing
Word of Mouth, Grassroots Marketing
BE CREATIVE!

14. -Digital In-game Experience-
 Gamification ideas (point systems for coming to games,
etc. Sharing content, loyalty reward programs) –
 The potential for virtual goods. (Five game mechanics,
points, badges, levels, leaderboards, challenges)
Check out this video on more insight to Gamification:
http://interaction-
dynamics.com/blog/tag/leaderboards/
 Fans are seeking more reward/more engagement, with
little turn around time. Make them want to come back
for more.

15. -Content Marketing –
 Create content to share with your audience.
 Explore social broadcasting, encourage coaches, team to share behind the
scenes photos, etc. to give fans access they normally would not be able to
see via social media. Video is the most persuasive, as it is visually
stimulating and more effective than just text or a picture.
 Be creative and use the resources you have to make it fun. This can also
offer fans to give real-time feedback which also boosts traffic to the
website and encourage networking amongst students, alumni, family,
friends.

16. -Word of Mouth, Grassroots Marketing- –
Players talk to their family and friends, they can be major influencers to your brand.
Get their network involved, high school coach, local business owners, etc.
Maintain a listserv to share articles and information about your school/teams,
etc.
Where are your Superfans? Are they being featured/recognized? Explore
crowdsourcing activities
With media, it is difficult to get noticed when you are competing with larger schools
in the same market, but that doesn’t mean you could miss out on those
opportunities – CREATE them with your own technology. Use newspapers and
get recognized online via social media and websites.
Encourage engagement. Are games available to live stream or download? Give
individual sport websites more depth. What is the message you want to give?
What is your message? Does it match the overall mission of what the university
upholds?

17.  Stay fresh, on trend and relevant!
 How effective is your ticketing plan? Once fans are in seats, what are you doing to
keep them? Give them the EXPERIENCE of game day, and worry less about the
win/lose outcome. Is it family friendly? Is there an extra incentive for students?
Alumni? Give-aways, theme nights, meet and greets, photo opportunities, etc.
 The benefit of a smaller school allows room for more experimental marketing.
Example, have you ever been to a minor league baseball game? It is often their
season tickets sell out based solely on promotions alone. Food promotions, family
night (father/daughter night, mother/son), teacher appreciation, seasonal
promotions, etc.
 Many major league baseball organizations, similar to larger schools could not get
away with most of those promotions, so take advantage! Create the environment for
your staff to make it more exciting to come to work every day. Find the passion that
you have for your university and share why with others. Don’t ignore any
demographics. All men’s college? Reach out to women! All women’s college? Reach
out to men! There is a mother, father, brother, sister in there that might be a
prospective influencer!

18. Links to explore further beyond today’s
conversation:
 Harvard Business School Asst. Professor Doug J. Chung looks into the brand
awareness that comes with a successful collegiate sports program. While
this mainly focuses on Division-I athletics, it is a fantastic read for those
looking for more insight.
--Do not be overwhelmed by larger universities and what works for them. Smaller
schools can also adapt ideas on a reduced scale:
http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/13-067_99c551d6-c484-
4245-9e49-964d2283cd98.pdf
 Read/Purchase: iAthlete: iathletebook.com – Kevin DeShazo - Fieldhouse
Media
 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics – http://www.naia.org