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Commodore Notebook – August 9 8/9/2006 What We Did On Summer Vacation Those of you not involved in the education business still have about a month of your long, hot summer left to enjoy. But teachers, students and athletic teams have already put the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer in the history file. Here’s a quick recap of summer activities from one of the higher profile, yet most misunderstood, enterprises in our department — the marketing staff. New Sales Academy is Success You might have thought your summer phone bill was high but imagine the minutes logged by the foursome of Commodore marketers who let their fingers do their walking for almost three months. For way too long, some fans dropped from our season ticket rolls or out of the National Commodore Club and apparently didn’t receive as much as a phone call from our department as to why they left or what it might take for them to return. That left us looking as though we didn’t care, which was not true. This summer, our ace Director of Marketing Eric Nichols added new blood to his sales staff and then handed them a list with 10,000 names and phone numbers. These were not just random names and cold calls but carefully researched folks who had some kind of Black and Gold history with Vanderbilt Athletics. They may have once held season football tickets or at least purchased single game tickets on occasion. Perhaps they were former donors to the NCC or even had children that attended a summer sports camp. Every one of those 10,000 names received a phone call — some more than one and the results were very positive. The call team reported most people were appreciative of the chance to visit about their experience at Vanderbilt and quite a few even purchased tickets during the conversation. The primary purpose of this effort was to reestablish some communication with these long-lost friends. If in the course of connecting folks wanted to actually buy tickets or check out the National Commodore Club again, so much the better. Did You Notice our Ads? You saw all of our billboards, newspaper ads and heard our radio spots, didn’t you. What?you didn’t? Of course you didn’t, at least not up until about now. That’s because there weren’t any! We are set to run a modest set of radio, television and print ads as we get closer to the season but don’t let the fact that you don’t see conventional ads lead you to believe our marketing staff took the summer off! The fact is in today’s expanding communications market that old-fashioned advertising is not very effective, at least not unless one has a jillion ad dollars to just heave at the public. Some of us with gray hair still watch the six and/or ten o’clock television news regularly but the younger set gets its information from cyberspace, cell phones and Ipods. Cable television continues to diffuse any target market further; which channel would you select to reach the “Vanderbilt crowd?” Newspaper subscription totals have been sliding for years. What Vanderbilt has implemented for several years is called “data based marketing.” In other words, instead of pointing an advertising shotgun in the general direction of the Middle Tennessee population we have quietly aimed specifically at those we think are more likely to be interested in our message. While we would like to claim we originated this sensible idea, data based marketing has been around for a quite a while and is being used by innovative professional sports organizations, too. Just like with the 10,000 phone calls, much of our effort is below the radar of the general public and media. In fact, crazy as it may sound at first but if you are a current season ticket holder you may not have a lot of our literature needlessly clogging your mailbox or email inbox. We figure the choir knows when the service is to begin. But, as I’ve mentioned, if we suspect someone fits the profile of a potential single game or season ticket buyer, that person or group will be contacted by us in several ways. Right about here you are probably thinking that with this philosophy we aren’t reaching out to attract new blood. Not true. We have a comprehensive marketing approach that includes many programs designed to attract new fans, which will be the future of our fan base. Among the ways we bring in newcomers is through our group sales program, another successful endeavor that last year brought thousands, not hundreds, of new people to our games. Oh, and how is this plan working? Good question. We are ahead of our own projections and have been running 40% ahead of last year all summer with our football season ticket sales. Commodores in the Community If you didn’t personally attend Commodores in the Community event, you hopefully heard about them. Over a two week period in July, Vanderbilt football coach Bobby Johnson, several dozen of his players, along with other Commodore coaches and administrators toured the mid-state and Vanderbilt campus. The Commodores painted a boys and girls club in North Nashville (Coach Johnson was painting from the opening of the first gallon until the last drop of paint was applied). There were appearances in the Rivergate area, a bowling night in Franklin, a hot dog party for staff on campus and an appearance at a Nashville Sounds baseball game. At each event, fun was the main order with autographs and give-aways. This was the second summer for the Commodores in the Community program and it will be back next year, new and improved. |
