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BY JOE FAVORITO
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
ON N.J. SPORTS MARKETING
There are so many events pulling at a shrinking discretionary dollar these days, it is often hard to find those places where we can get the best bang for the buck while still delivering a quality experience for sports and entertainment brands.
With New Jersey nestled between the professional sports towns of Philadelphia and New York, the lure of bright lights and big prices can sometimes be very alluring.
However the real Petri dish of effective sports marketing development remains in the minors. And one of the best organizations to create unique programs and brand promotions – many of which may eventually wind up in the majors – is the Lakewood BlueClaws.
The essence of minor league baseball sales anywhere in the U.S. is to find experiential, low-cost programs and build them around the game, because at the minor league level your star players are often gone before any effective marketing program can take hold.That obviously is a hindrance to ticket sales, but it gives teams at the minor league level – especially those in longer seasons – the ability to innovate and take chances to draw interest that the majors sometimes can't.
Some examples of BlueClaws innovation: In talking to their fans, the team realized in this challenged economy that families would come but spend less at the ballpark, or may come less because all the extras would take a toll on the dollar.
They expanded their "kids eat free" nights to a once-a-week event, giving families a reason other than baseball to come and enjoy the BlueClaws in a more cost efficient way. It also built tremendous good will in the community and gave great added value to sponsors participating in the night, which usually were nights midweek that had tickets available.
The BlueClaws were also one of the first into the Twitter fray, using Twitter to offer their followers discounts, meet-up sessions and ticketing offers as a reward for following the team through the technology. Tweetups and social networking for job fairs are now regular popular events on the BlueClaws schedule.
These simple ideas which now have been replicated across the country in best practices by other teams and leagues, and ones which will surely find their way in some form to the majors before long.
Now do the BlueClaws do all the other standards to build their brand – like fireworks, group discounts and constant on-field promotion? Of course. However their ability to look beyond and come up with cost-effective and forward thinking promotions, especially in the way they listen to and react to what their core fans are thinking, doing and following, makes the BlueClaws a minor league team worthy of Major League sports marketing exposure.
Jersey sports marketing notes: New Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti will have his challenges making Rutgers athletics the continued focus of an area outside of New Jersey, but this week's announcement of a football game with Army at Yankee Stadium was another great step forward to move the brand more top of mind in the New York area and help Greg Schiano with recruiting ... Also on the football side, North Jersey resident Frank Vuono continues to find ways to keep the start-up United Football League relevant as they move toward their October launch at a site in the area TBD. The UFL continues to come up in the Michael Vick mix, and the league has effectively used former NFL coaches to get exposure as they move ahead – smart moves to grab attention in a crowded and challenged marketplace.
Joe Favorito has over 23 years of strategic communications/marketing, business development and public relations expertise in sports, entertainment, brand building, media training, television, athletic administration and business. Visit him at JoeFavorito.com
