Holding Inventory Hostage

The biggest joke surrounding advertising with high school athletic programs is this:

When you have signs on your scoreboards, inside your gyms, and on the back of your tickets and you are not seeing a dime for it.

Don't get me wrong.  With certain programs, it's easier to get that basketball scorer's table, or that new scoreboard for your football field, or free tickets to use for your athletic events. 

But, if you invest a little time and effort, you can make some serious cash from those spots. 

For example, in one of the high schools I worked with there is a company that put an illuminated billboard in the gym.  They come by and change the advertising in and out every year and keep promising a check but when you call them.... all you get is crickets. 

Outside companies that sell advertising don't care if they high-jack your inventory and hold it hostage. 

That's space you could have sold.  And next time hopefully you will.

Bringing The Right Company To The Table

We have this joke we always use in our slide presentations when we want to emphasize the fact that your sponsors should always be appropriate or, as we say, "relevant." 

We normally show a slide that our graphics guru, Eddie Hernandez, developed and it's this digitally-enhanced outfield baseball fence that has two sponsors that we felt didn't match... it always gets a laugh at presentations. See below:

But, now, thanks to the FHSAA (Florida High School Athletic Association) High School Football Finals at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, we no longer have to use an image we made up.  We have a real one that was displayed before the St. Thomas Aquinas/Plant football finals on Friday night....

Maybe we're just too sensative to the possible parental backlash.  To be honest, nobody at The Citrus Bowl seemed to mind or notice, probably because parents are so used to seeing this type of advertising at sporting events and venues.  I'm pretty sure though that, if anybody contacted Anheiser-Busch and said, "hey, we're running the state high school football finals... can we take the bulbs out of your signage or cover it up?"  Bud would be more than happy to oblige.  They don't want or need the bad press.

It might fly at the Citrus Bowl during high school football games but I would dare not test it at a high school.  Even with the same association presiding over the same coaches and student-athletes, there is a huge difference between watching a high school football game at a privately-owned facility and attending your students high school stadium and seeing the exact same signage.  Our expectations are different and it's good advice to keep that in mind when we're scouting for corporate partners.

Buses: The Inside Scoop and Outside Chance.

There's really a central question surrounding this one and it's simple Risk vs. Reward:  Does the revenue from advertising on your school buses justify the risk. 

Risk is the chance that the advertising on the inside of the bus while suffer the wrath of the public backlash and put the breaks on your program or that somebody reading that ad on the back of the bus isn't paying attention to the brake lights and now you have a much bigger problem.

Anybody that has talked to me about advertising in schools knows I'm not a fan of advertising to children in a "trapped environment."  That includes the insides of classrooms and school buses.  If they don't have a choice to leave the immediate surroundings then I don't think it's a good place to be putting advertisements. 

I don't like the locker wraps either.... too forced.  I don't like murals or mobiles either - blurs the line a bit too much for me. 

There's too much easy inventory out there to mess with the sticky stuff.  There's also two much more important groups your missing:  Parents and employees.   Most of the big companies have their own rules already in place about "advertising to children" and they are very strict.  Concentrate your efforts and focus on the parents and the employees.  There's good money in that and a lot less hassle.

41st National Athletic Directors Conference

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) are hosting the 41st National Athletic Directors Conference Orlando World Center Marriott Resort from December 15th through December 19th. 

I'll be presenting in the third workshop session on Sunday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.  The workshop will be on "Lining Up Sponsors For Your Athletic Program."  It will be moderated by Tracy Leinen, CMAA, Athletic Director from Boise (Idaho) High School.

We'll be discussing district-wide and single school partnerships.  We'll discuss how we can cultivate and keep these partnerships valuable and hassle-free.  At last count, we already have over 200 participants signed up for this workshop.  Hope to see you there. 

The flood gates

Looks like school districts all over the U.S. are looking into advertising programs.  I've been lucky enough to get to talk to some of these districts and have heard some good - and bad - ideas.

For example, putting electronic billboards on your chest and walking up and down the bleachers for fans to see... well, you call that one.

There's two things the school district I work with abides by that I think has distinguished ourselves and has prevented us from receiving any push back from anybody in our community.

Two simple rules:

• Keep the advertising relevant - Work with companies that complement the schools and/or programs that they affiliate with.  Neither the company or the school or school district will benefit from a partnership that is not relevant.  
• No trapped environments - we don't do anything on the inside of buses or inside of classrooms.  We haven't put any advertising anywhere that a student, employee or fan can't walk away from.  In fact, I really haven't found many companies even want the students.  School districts would benefit more from working with companies that want to reach parents and/or school employees and use that as the anchor to your program. 

Don't open the flood gates to outside companies that don't have the best interest of your school district in mind.  And, never allow multiple companies to sell the same inventory.  I know it sounds good initially when somebody brings it up and says let's just let all of them sell it so we ensure it sells... but, after you think about it, consider this:
You'll have companies over-promising and under-delivering.  They'll also undercut each other to win the business and that will drop the value of your inventory.  It also confuses local businesses when multiple school programs, the school district, the booster club, the band, football team, PTA, and teachers are all calling them asking for donations and proposing partnerships - add in multiple third-party companies and you'll confuse them even more.

Vendors at your games

This continuously seems to be one of the hardest things to transition among high schools.  Tradition should be considered in your program, not your vendors.  It's one of the most contentious topics I encounter, especially with media groups. 

If you are going to charge your vendors (and you should) the only important factor to consider is to be consistent and have an outline.  Here's the one we use:  Any company promoting a service, product, or brand at our high school sporting events falls under our vendor agreement policy.

This includes media.  They love to fall under the guise of "reporting" and there needs to be a very clear outline here.  If they show up with a journalist and/or photographer.... bingo: Editorial.  If they are handing out bumper stickers and tee-shirts and parking their van on your front lawn: marketing/promotions.  It's very clear cut.  Radio, television, and newspapers know that their favorite audience is sitting in your stands on a Friday night.

We'll get into the fees in the next post.

contact info

I get calls on my work phone for this blog and wanted to give some other contact details:
info@tebosportsmarketing.com
brian_siatkowski@yahoo.com