A strong promotional
night can help attract new fans to your event as well
as keep your show fresh for the fans who attend every
night. A poor promotion can be costly, by not drawing
fans or disappointing your faithful.
In the last
few months Gameops.com has been looking for a Game Operations
Director who has been successfully creating new promotions
with clever marketing plans, added value, with complete
integration into the game.
We found him.
Peter Sorckoff,
the Manager of Game Operations for the Atlanta Thrashers,
just completed the inaugural season in Atlanta with rave
reviews from fans and his peers. Peter joins us
for the July interview to talk about Game Day Promotions
and Themes.
Gameops.com: What
are the best reasons to have promotional nights?
Peter
Sorckoff: First
and foremost, to sell tickets. Second, is to
add variety for your fans, especially season ticket
holders. Even well-packaged promotions and
contests can get old if you do them the same way
every night.
Gameops.com: How
important are promotional nights to fans?
Peter Sorckoff: It
is difficult to track if fans are coming to be entertained
or coming just to see the sport. We want fans
to leave being entertained either way and we can
often do that through promotional nights.
Gameops.com: How
do you approach each promotional night?
Peter Sorckoff: Our
goal is to tie in everything, so we look at each
element of our game presentation and ask how we can
tie that to our promotional theme. We also
consider our sponsor and what demographic we are
trying to reach with the promotion.
Presentation
is everything. A great promotional night will be
everywhere you look in the arena. It must touch
everything to be really successful.
Finally,
the promotion has to have its "call to action." It
needs to clearly give a reason for fans to buy a ticket
and come out to the game.
Gameops.com: You
talk about extending the promotion throughout your
entire presentation, can you expand on that?
Peter Sorckoff: It
is easy to identify when you see it...when you don't
go far enough with a promotion. If you dont
touch all aspects of the fan experience the promotion
can look half-baked.
We
look at all of our elements and try to find ways to involve
them in the promotion.
We
did a Toga Night last season. We did it as a sponsored
event to help promote the opening of a new "Coliseum" Movie
Theatre here in Atlanta. The whole theme was Roman
Coliseum Toga.
We
started by planting some fans in Togas. We posted
Roman Centurion guards around the building as our security
and we enticed some of our ushers to wear Toga's as well. Outside
we hired some Legionnaires to ride around on their horses
in outfits.
In
game we had altered our contests to include a chariot
race and our standard "Name the Movie" contest
used footage from 5 gladiator movies.
We
brought the theme to every game element we could. In
this case it was hard to use the theme for our in-game
music so we only used the theme music for contests.
"Promotions
are a lot like fishing.
It's all in the presentation."
Peter
Sorckoff
Atlanta Thrashers |
Gameops.com: When
does it become too much?
Peter Sorckoff: You have
to always be aware that your entertainment doesn't
become a circus and effect the integrity of the game. You
can't get to the point where it is overshadowing
the sport.
Here
in Atlanta we can get away with quite a bit. Our
fans are younger and often they are first time hockey
fans, thus they are much more open to it. For older
more purist fans (like Detroit or Toronto) these things
might not work for them.
We
also are careful to select which day we do a promotion
on. Our mascot birthday party wont play as well
on a Friday night with our more hard-core hockey fans,
but it does play well on our Sunday afternoon games when
we have more kids and families at Phillips Arena.
Gameops.com: Are
there some ancillary benefits to premium item nights
that should be considered?
Peter Sorckoff: Our
budgets vary greatly with sponsorship involvement. The
Toga example was driven by the sponsor so we had
more to spend on that. However it doesn't always
take big dollars to make a big impact.
I
look for possible synergies. For example, the Coliseum
Theatres were having their Grand Opening that weekend
as well, so I piggybacked on a lot of the costumes and
props with them. We use our tickets as currency
whenever possible as well.
Gameops.com: Can
you improve your attendance without doing promotions?
Peter Sorckoff: That
is the classic chicken and the egg argument. In
our case (expansion hockey team) people aren't coming
out based on what the promotions are, but they will
come back based on if they enjoyed the experience.
So
even if our team lost, fans must still enjoy the time
they spend here. We are the show when and if the
team falters.
Gameops.com: In
a recent Sports Business Journal article, writer Alan
Friedman took the Anaheim Angels to task for the lack
of creativity and imagination in their promotions. How
important is it to try new promotions each year?
Peter Sorckoff: It
really is the key to what we do. Trying new
ideas is really your job in game operations, if you
are not doing it then you really aren't doing your
job.
I
think that promotions need to be freshened up every year,
even the winners. For example our most popular
contest last year was a Sumo Hockey promotion where we
had 6 sumo-costumed contestants playing hockey during
intermission. The winners from our tournament went
on the watch the NHL Finals.
Our
sponsor (Budweiser) said lets do it again, but we said
no. We want to keep it fresh. It would be
real easy to roll it out again, but we are going to change
it up and keep it hot. It will be a similar
promotion using the Sumos and the carnage that goes with
those costumes, but we are going to set up a Sumo Olympics
instead to change it up.
This
role of "creative director" is really important
for the season ticket holders who come every night. We
have to keep them happy but changing the show enough
so they don't get bored.
In
general we try to change everything once every 2 years. In
our second year we have changed seven of our nine on-ice
promotions.
Gameops.com: Have
the Thrashers sponsorship staff been open to the idea
of telling a sponsor they can't have the promotion they
used last year?
Peter Sorckoff: Obviously
the key is to work closely with them and pitch them
alternative ideas that can accomplish the same goals
while keeping the show fresh.
In
our case with Budweiser we had a concept ready for them
that served them well and updated our show.
There
is a fundamental change happening now in the industry. It
is getting less common for the marketing department to
tell the game operations what promotions to do, and more
common now for the marketing departments to ask the game
operations staff what in-game elements they should sell.
Gameops.com: What
are the methods you use to promote your promotions?
Peter Sorckoff: We use
any method available, including media partners, email,
pocket schedules, our fridge magnet premium item
lists the promotions, and our game program and inserts.
Gameops.com: Finally,
the Nashville Predators recently shocked their market
by giving away Huffy Bikes to the fans valued at over
$100. they suggested that the promotion works because
the bikes are long term investments and strong mobile
advertisements for the team. Is that the trend,
bigger and better giveaways or merely an aberration?
Peter Sorckoff: That was
a fantastic situation for Nashville. Would
we do it? Absolutely. From what I understand
it was a straight up swap for the bikes. I
would also have to consider if the promotion might
upset some of our top sponsors.
Fans
always want more, but they are conditioned to expect
less. I think that premium items in the $1 to $2
range are what fans have come to expect and they will
be happy with those items.
We
have stepped up on some items, like our "Jersey
off my Back" promotion where players came back on
the ice post-game for our fan appreciation night and
gave selected fans their game jerseys.
Our
focus is mostly on prizing. For any contest we
want to give away items that everyone in the building
will want. We ask our sponsors to really step up
for prizes and usually try to have every prize we give
out for contest to be valued above $100.
