The Wheeling Nailers, taking advantage of the rancor felt by the state’s residents toward a certain former West Virginia football coach, is holding a “Shred Rich Rodriguez” night on Saturday.

The ECHL hockey team’s promotion is playing off reports that Rodriguez was seen shredding team-related documents in his office about the same time he left the Mountaineers to take the Michigan coaching job in mid-December. (ESPN Story)

Great promotion that touches on fan passions and loyalty, along with a current event.  The Nailers did a nice job reaching out to many fans on this one, WVU fans, Ohio State Fans and their own fan base.

This is similar to Honorable Mention Winner from 2007, Billy Donovan Night….and this is the first promotion in 2008 to be nominated for the Best of 2008 Awards.

–Cudo

Last season Minor League Baseball’s 160 affiliated clubs sponsored more than 5,530* events, promotions, giveaways, and appearances to attract more than 42 million guests.

The following data ranks those promotions that were most effective in increasing attendance over the participating teams’ average season attendance.

(Source Plan B Branding)

Really interesting data from Plan B Branding.  I have a little more data from them that I will post in future blogs as well.

Looks like Minor League Baseball still has some tried and true promotions and entertainment that draw. Bobbleheads and Fireworks nights seem to be the most reliable draws year after year, and entertainment acts like the Chicken, Reggy and the ZooperStars! draw at the gate.

I am always a little hesitant to rely too much on these stats, since a majority of entertainment acts are used on weekend games, which draw higher than weekday averages (which would make that “season average” stat slightly skewed.)  Same for Fireworks Nights, which are traditionally Friday or Saturday nights.  Do they work…yes.  But are they really drawing 1700 more fans on average just due the post-game show….probably not.

–Cudo

An interesting article about the use of mascots in sports marketing from Forbes magazine.

Rare nowadays is the vicious-looking tiger, or the fierce, non-politically-correct “Indian” wielding a tomahawk. Mean and scary is out, warm and fuzzy is in–all the better to warm youngsters’ hearts. Bring a second-grader to a football or baseball game, and there’s little chance he’ll understand what’s going on down on the field. But that muppet-like dinosaur or blue horse roaming the stands will draw his attention immediately. It’s what will stay in his memory long after the game is over, all but ensuring an upbeat first impression. Presto: a fan for life. (read the full article)

While I might debate their list of most recognizable mascots (I mean is the Denver NFL Horse really more well know than the Phoenix Suns Gorilla?) there is little debate on how important mascots are in marketing to kids.

I still hold that a great mascot is popular with older fans, it is undeniable that mascots are vital to community outreach and developing a bond with youth. In many ways kids are the low-hanging fruit (to use well-worn marketing jargon)…yes, they should have an impact with the kids, and it’s hard to find a good mascot who fails at that. A great mascot will also connect with adults. Its like the animated movies, Toy Story would be a great kids movie just with the story and animation. However it’s broad appeal lies in its ability to create characters and depth that adults can enjoy. It’s what makes Toy Story a great movie, not a good animated kids movie.

–Cudo

PS Thanks to David in Charlotte for sending us this new link.

This from Glen Gower’s blog….to funny not to post:

The Scoreboard Laws
Eight rules for video scoreboard operators, from scoreboard guru Paul Shubin:

1. When your team is losing, everything on the scoreboard is unacceptable.
2. A commercial of 15 seconds duration takes longer than 15 seconds to produce.
3. Agencies only deliver their material on the day of the game.
4. The more bulbs there are in a scoreboard, the faster you will spot the one that is burnt out.
5. The only time a game goes to triple overtime is on the evening you’ve scheduled a special outing.
6. The more outrageous the activity, the more cameras there were that failed to capture it.
7. The crazy fan who’s dancing like a fool will stop as soon as you put him on camera.
8. The better the replay, the more likely you can’t show it.

I love number two.

–Cudo

While I like to blog about book reviews, to be honest I read a lot of books out of the political and historical sections of the bookstore….which have zero interest to most readers of the “Gameops” blog.  So I was stopped dead in my tracks while reading a book about the Supreme Court Justices when I read this:

“At that moment, the door to the dining room swung open and a giant beast with green fur, purple eyelashes, and a Philadelphia Phillies jersey burst into the room. The Phillie Phanatic lumbered over to Alito, gave him a prolonged embrace, and then left the room, leaving raucous laughter in it’s wake.” (page 323-4)

Once I got past my shock over the inclusion of the Phanatic’s appearance, I thought this is a good example of the wide range of appearance any mascot makes. Talk to any mascot and you will doubtless hear stories about oddball appearances to random celebrity run-ins. These can be a great source of content for your mascot’s web page, blog or myspace page. It’s a way to connect with your teams fan base that is sometimes wide-ranging and hard to reach.

It’s also a way to tell fans about what your mascot does outside of the friendly confines of your arena or stadium. Show your fans your mascot is out doing appearances for kid’s birthdays, mall opening, or parades and you can be certain you will start getting more calls about doing birthday parties, grand openings and parades.  For performers and teams who count on appearances for revenue generation this can be a real boost.
Perhaps someday the Supreme Court will call you and request a mascot appearance including a prolonged embrace with another justice….if you are lucky. And if they do, let me know so I can blog about it.

–Cudo

PS: If you want to read more about the Supreme Court I do recommend Jeffrey Toobin’s The Nine. However I have read the entire book and there is no other mascot references, if you are only interested in giant green furry creatures you may be disappointed.

Over the holidays I had the chance to visit the Minnesota Wild again in Saint Paul. You might recall our Interview with the Wild’s Jon Maher from December 2000. At the time the Wild we new and building their game entertainment in a somewhat retro-style. Their show was light on the current theatrics, mascots, and wacky contests and heavy on a focus on the traditions of Minnesota hockey.

Now eight years later it was a real treat to watch their game presentation which has stayed true to that traditional focus and had built and trained an amazing fan base. The show is as unique as you will see in its style and as effective as I have seen.
The team has kept many traditions, like having a celebrity introduce the game by leading all fans in a “Let’s Play Hockey!” battle cry. On this night it was Minnesota ball base legend Paul Molitor. The have also augmented their show with a nice variety of more standard fan prompt videos, which kept the show fresh without making it seem like everyone else’s show.

Another update in Minnesota is their Goal Song. In the last year the team switched to cut of a Joe Satriani song. It’s really amazing to watch their fans clap and sing in unison after every goal. Here’s a clip from YouTube.

As anyone in hockey knows, your goal song is a critical piece and a real signature of your team. Like everything else, The Wild have done a great job with this as well. We have a special Goal Song section on our YouTube pages which have a growing collection of goal songs from around hockey. Check it out or submit yours to us.

Finally, I wanted to thank Bill Robertson and Jon Maher for their hospitality and time. Jon has recently been promoted out of his Game Director role to VP of Marketing, but he still has his finger on the pulse of game operations and entertainment. I enjoyed talking shop while the Wild came from a 4-1 deficit to win in overtime. And Bill Robertson (#4) is still a legend.

–Cudo