Public Domain Marketing Ideas

To anyone that’s been following the program for any period of time greater than zero, the lack of creative ideas from the marketing department is an overwhelming constraint to the success of our athletic teams. While they probably have shackles from a higher power (Charlotte Title IXers) they rarely do themselves any favors (Football Pep Rally during Panthers-Broncos game).

So as a passive aggressive gift to the marketing department, feel free to share pro bono any ideas you have for the greater good.

Marketing, we know you read this, feel free to take any ideas you read in this thread and implement them.

Go Niners!

First Idea: Take advantage of the new light rail next season with a cooperative effort with CATS. Somehow bundle game tickets, LYNX tickets, and tickets to the alumni pavilion tailgate in a fair deal that’s cheaper than the sum of all parts.

Second Idea: Charlotte has an NFL team, an NBA team and a NASCAR team. There is no excuse that during basketball season there isn’t a Panthers Night, a Hornets Night, and a NASCAR Night. NFL & NASCAR offseasons overlap with College Basketball Season and the NBA has the All-Star Break. Get some players/coaches/drivers into the building and promise a pre-game and post-game autograph opportunities. They all have sponsors that would love the chance to get their brand to more people so the overhead should be pretty low.

A couple seasons back, I noticed that we sometimes had trouble getting a 40 - 9ers chant going across the football stadium. As many of you know, this is a common chant throughout many sports(i.e Keep - Pounding which the panthers use). If anyone has been to a Panthers game, you will notice the Keep Pounding Chant is complimented by a Huge Keep on the screen which would entice fans to scream “keep” and then conversely the word “pounding”. I drew up a diagram for the “Forty” and “Niners” chant for the marketing department but have yet to see anything deployed. Simple and cheap way to make the game day experience and home crowd advantage better. Also, our music before and during the game is absolutely GARBAGE. Marketing should attend a panthers game and just follow accordingly within reason(I understand we have not even 1/100th of their money).

[quote=“keeper768, post:3, topic:30646”]A couple seasons back, I noticed that we sometimes had trouble getting a 40 - 9ers chant going across the football stadium. As many of you know, this is a common chant throughout many sports(i.e Keep - Pounding which the panthers use). If anyone has been to a Panthers game, you will notice the Keep Pounding Chant is complimented by a Huge Keep on the screen which would entice fans to scream “keep” and then conversely the word “pounding”. I drew up a diagram for the “Forty” and “Niners” chant for the marketing department but have yet to see anything deployed. Simple and cheap way to make the game day experience and home crowd advantage better. Also, our music before and during the game is absolutely GARBAGE. Marketing should attend a panthers game and just follow accordingly within reason(I understand we have not even 1/100th of their money).[/quote]They had an arrow on the scoreboard last year to try to get this chant going. It still didn’t really work.

Getting the cheerleaders and band to do it with the scoreboard would go a long way.

[quote=“Niner National, post:4, topic:30646”][quote=“keeper768, post:3, topic:30646”]A couple seasons back, I noticed that we sometimes had trouble getting a 40 - 9ers chant going across the football stadium. As many of you know, this is a common chant throughout many sports(i.e Keep - Pounding which the panthers use). If anyone has been to a Panthers game, you will notice the Keep Pounding Chant is complimented by a Huge Keep on the screen which would entice fans to scream “keep” and then conversely the word “pounding”. I drew up a diagram for the “Forty” and “Niners” chant for the marketing department but have yet to see anything deployed. Simple and cheap way to make the game day experience and home crowd advantage better. Also, our music before and during the game is absolutely GARBAGE. Marketing should attend a panthers game and just follow accordingly within reason(I understand we have not even 1/100th of their money).[/quote]They had an arrow on the scoreboard last year to try to get this chant going. It still didn’t really work.[/quote]. They had it up Saturday against MTSU…the cheerleaders right beside the fieldhouse didn’t even notice it.

this is WAAAAY outside any area of competence i have, but would it be possible to record a “FORTY” and “NINERS” to be played over the system to help prompt the sheep?
drastic problems sometimes require drastic solutions. it might embarrass the crowd into chanting anyway!

[quote=“earlyniner, post:7, topic:30646”]this is WAAAAY outside any area of competence i have, but would it be possible to record a “FORTY” and “NINERS” to be played over the system to help prompt the sheep?
drastic problems sometimes require drastic solutions. it might embarrass the crowd into chanting anyway![/quote]

Without more butts in seats, this cheer is always going to sound poor.

Need to get creative on getting people to buy. I recently got an email from the Checkers offering a ticket for $49 to each of their next 10 home games. The actual seat assignment would be made on day of game and could anywhere in the arena. For that price, who cares where the seat is? Obviously 10 game package wouldn’t make sense for football but could sell 3 games at a rediculous low price.

[quote author=earlyniner link=topic=34612.msg677212#msg677212 date=1479775828]
this is WAAAAY outside any area of competence i have, but would it be possible to record a “FORTY” and “NINERS” to be played over the system to help prompt the sheep?
drastic problems sometimes require drastic solutions. it might embarrass the crowd into chanting anyway!

[quote]

That is a good idea. They have played the Forty Niners with arrow all season long. The problem is the speed and lack of coordination with cheerleaders, gold dusters and band. Right now the Forty Niners is so quick people can’t keep up. Sound travels slowly across a football field. The scoreboard is timed for six people sitting across the room from each other. It is an attempt but a very pitiful one.

My idea is pretty innovative (sarcasm). How about a billboard like the NC State one that says Statement. It is about two minutes from our campus on I85. I see just about every team advertising on billboards between the Triangle and Charlotte including NC A&T, Elon and Winston-Salem State. I have never seen a Charlotte board outside of Charlotte.

Just to be the Debbie Downer… the marketing department gets paid the same, and keeps their job, whether 1 fan or 20,000 show up. They have zero incentive to perform better.

I’ve been to coaches shows in Uptown at Black Finn where the only people in the audience were me and the AD / IMG staff; meanwhile, the downstairs is wall-to-wall bodies. Instead of handing out $5 drink coupons on the sidewalk to get butts inside, they all expressed an attitude of indifference and spent the hour on their phones, not even pretending to listen to what the coach was saying, except to clap exuberantly at commercial break, to give the appearance of a larger crowd on the radio.

NWA started the St. Patrick’s Day Parade participation. That’s a $50 entrance fee annually to expose your brand to a 100,000 pairs of eyeballs in Charlotte. Not exactly marketing rocket science to tie a green / white brand into that.

I mentioned the light rail advertising/discount in the other thread too. I also think what could help as well is discounted parking. I’ve heard from different ppl about parking prices being an issue. I know the majority of the decks and cash deck are roughly $20. I think if we can utilize some of the further out lots away from the stadium for a cheaper price, that could be beneficial. Maybe $5- $10 dollar parking. Hate to keep using panthers as an example but further away from the stadium, the cheaper the parking.

To piggyback off the parking topic, I think it could be a cool idea to be able to have discount bundles that consist of football season tickets and parking tickets and/or alumni Pavillion tickets. The idea behind it is the more you bundle, the more you save. So if I buy season tickets to all the home games, a union deck parking pass for all games, and alumni Pavillion for all home games, fans should be rewarded with a nice discount for bundling.

I can think of this kind of stuff all day long, but I know it’s probably easier said than done, but at this point, doesn’t hurt the AD to try something new.

clt says we need to get our games back on wccb. Mofo factor.

[quote=“cltniners, post:12, topic:30646”]clt says we need to get our games back on wccb. Mofo factor.[/quote]I’d rather us leverage ESPN3 and get all our games there. Not sure why that isn’t being done now.

clt has an idea: 49er bucks!1

The self-sustaining economy we’ve been looking for.
Judy: That’s right.
Phil: How much fresh cash did we make?
Judy: Fresh cash! Uh, well, zero. Zero if you’re talking about U.S. currency. People didn’t really seem interested in spending any of that.
Phil: That’s okay. So, uh, when they run out of the bojangles, they’ll come back in and they’ll have to buy more 49er Dollars. Keepin’ it moving.
Judy: Right. That is assuming, of course, that they will come back here and eat chicken.
Phil: They will! They will because we’ll re-distribute these to the chat boarders. Thus ensuring them coming back in, keeping the money moving.
Judy: Well, no, but if we just re-distribute these, people will continue to eat for free.
Phil: Okay…
Judy: How does this work, Phil?
phil: The money keeps moving in a circle.

Start by renting a highly visible billboard on 85 near campus on a yearly basis. Starting around the spring game, have it showing our home schedule and ticket package info (EXAMPLE: Season tix start as low as $99.) (This would also require us to get our ticket packages together prior to the spring game.) Update it with new photos showing the home football schedule during the summer as the season gets closer, maybe even include promotions on it like Military Day and Homecoming. After Thanksgiving, the board can be dedicated to men’s hoops and then maybe fulfilling our internal Title IX requirements. Start the cycle over again in April with football.

I realize billboards may be expensive, but I view it as just the cost of doing business. There is no doubt that our marketing budget needs to increase and that goes back to fundraising. Selling football needs to be the #1 priority, and 90% of our marketing effort needs to go there.

It works when the Panthers do it because they allow enough time between the two words for sound to travel to the other side of the stadium. Our execution is rushed. By the time one side is saying the second syllable in “FORTY” the other side is yelling “NINERS” and then the crowd is off from what the screen is showing almost right away creating confusion. This is a hilariously easy fix.


FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LIGHT UP THE DICKSON GATE GREEN. Maybe even a combination of green, white and gold but DO IT.

There are few things that the University marketing folks and the AD marketing folks agree on but one thing they have in common unconditionally is the primary color of our shitty brand. USE IT.

It works when the Panthers do it because they allow enough time between the two words for sound to travel to the other side of the stadium. Our execution is rushed. By the time one side is saying the second syllable in “FORTY” the other side is yelling “NINERS” and then the crowd is off from what the screen is showing almost right away creating confusion. This is a hilariously easy fix.


FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LIGHT UP THE DICKSON GATE GREEN. Maybe even a combination of green, white and gold but DO IT.

There are few things that the University marketing folks and the AD marketing folks agree on but one thing they have in common unconditionally is the primary color of our shitty brand. USE IT.[/quote]

clt says our colours are now gold and black with a green accent.

It works when the Panthers do it because they allow enough time between the two words for sound to travel to the other side of the stadium. Our execution is rushed. By the time one side is saying the second syllable in “FORTY” the other side is yelling “NINERS” and then the crowd is off from what the screen is showing almost right away creating confusion. This is a hilariously easy fix.


FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LIGHT UP THE DICKSON GATE GREEN. Maybe even a combination of green, white and gold but DO IT.

There are few things that the University marketing folks and the AD marketing folks agree on but one thing they have in common unconditionally is the primary color of our shitty brand. USE IT.[/quote]

clt says our colours are now gold and black with a green accent.[/quote]

I laughed and then I cried.

What is the worst sports branding in Charlotte sports history?

This: Charlotte Bobcats Logos - National Basketball Association (NBA) - Chris Creamer's Sports Logos Page - SportsLogos.Net

or

This: Charlotte 49ers Logos - NCAA Division I (a-c) (NCAA a-c) - Chris Creamer's Sports Logos Page - SportsLogos.Net

Our number one goal should be to get people in the seats by whatever means necessary. Dynamic pricing would be ideal.

Encourage people who have purchased tickets in the past to buy more at a discount.

Sell tickets to high schoolers at significant discounts. At best future recruits start attending our games. At worst future potential students.

[quote=“NovaNiner, post:19, topic:30646”]Our number one goal should be to get people in the seats by whatever means necessary. Dynamic pricing would be ideal.

Encourage people who have purchased tickets in the past to buy more at a discount.

Sell tickets to high schoolers at significant discounts. At best future recruits start attending our games. At worst future potential students. [/quote]

THIS! SO MUCH THIS!

Designate a section of the stadium for local high schools, donate books of tickets to those schools to sell to their students for $5 or so as a fundraiser.

We get some goodwill with the community for helping the schools raise some money, we get prospective future students on campus for an afternoon, and we (hopefully) get some butts in seats.

It’s not like we’re losing money on the deal, since those seats aren’t being bought anyway. It seems like a win/win to me.