Promotion Pills: Gameops.com Team Reviews In 2007 Gameops.com will be reviewing five games around sports. In our reviews we will highlight promotions the team does in-game to showcase what teams are doing over the course of their games and for one or two promotions we will look at how by applying a simple “pill” the team can power up and improve the promotion.
Our Promotion Pill feature is designed to help enhance your promotions with our prescription for extra strength promotional power. These Promotion Pills can be applied to your promotions to enhance them and make them more interesting and effective for fans and sponsors.
Erie Otters Hockey Game Review
November 18, 2006
Reviewed by: Jon Cudo and Isaac Wood
Now we can look at two promotions and introduce two of the Gameops.com Promotion Pills to see how the Otters and other teams might enhance the promotions. We can apply our first Pill to these two promotions.
Promotion(s) Considered:
McDonald’s Stick Girl and Boy
The Otters made an honorary presentation at their open area in the corner, which was a fan accommodations area. The new mascot was there to hand the sticks to the selected fans.
Lucky Numbers
The team had numbers listed in game program. If your numbers match the ones on the scoreboard you win a prize. Claimed at the Fan Assistance Center. It’s a good way to drive people to buy/read your game program.
Promotion Pill
Sponsorship Endurance
Ask the Questions:
How can you cement this sponsors longevity?
Is anything about the sponsor branding that is memorable?
Is there anything unique about the branding?
Every sponsor wants to be remembered, but often this can be hard to accomplish. Research can show an amazingly low retention by fans of branding of promotions, but much higher retention of physical properties (think stadium naming rights and NASCAR).
In this Promotional Pill we ask “is there a way to enhance the durability of a sponsor’s brand.” The goal is to create memories that can endure the numerous messages that fans get at the game.
For a sponsor it’s one thing to go to the arena for a game, it’s another to go to the Key Bank Arena. For these durable connections, the best example is building naming rights. But that’s not the only spot you can attach valuable sponsor value.
In the above promotions, one was staged at the fan assistance center; the other referenced it as “the fan assistance center”. Perhaps you can attach a branded name to your area, thus add some value to the area and clarify what value that area has to your fans..
The Prescription: Promotion Pill: Sponsorship Longevity
In this case a sponsor can be cemented in a brick and mortar way, buy creating a branded Fan Assistance Center. Currently the McDonald’s Honorary Stick Contest is staged at the Brand X Service Center. Now consider if the McDonald’s Honorary Stick Contest was staged at the Brand X Service Center and that Lucky Number winners can claim their prizes at the Brand X Service Center. In both cases you can expand the sponsorship value of the promotions by branding the location.
In the case of this promotion pill you may be improving a promotion other than the one you are examining, but you are enhancing the value of your show in other ways.
Applying this pill you will often find ways to enhance sponsor value, even outside of the promotion you are considering. In this case it takes nothing from the McDonald’s promotion, yet it adds sponsor value. In turn developing this physical space further can add value to fans and further define where fans go for special requests, promotions, or to perhaps meet with a ticket sales representative.
While we considered this in a permanent sense, it doesn’t need to be. For example the four pillars in St. Paul are permanent, yet the Columbus area is simply done with signage that can be removed.
Review:
We looked at these two promotions and asked “what could we do to make the branding of a sponsor more durable and lasting?”
What it might look like now: The timeout would introduce us to the winners of the McDonald’s Honorary Stick Boy and Girl for the night. Fans would be directed to the “Brand X” Service Center where the mascot would pop off a load of confetti (for the first mention of the Service Center) to increase awareness of the location. If the team uses Spotlights, they could also be used to highlight the area during active promotion use. The camera would pick up the mascot and host handing the sticks to the winners with a small McDonald’s sign in the foreground of the shot and a large “Brand X” signage behind them to highlight the area.
Later in the game Lucky Number winners would be directed to the “Brand X” Service Center to claim their prize.
In both cases you have added new strong and enduring sponsor inventory, as well as increased the awareness fans have of the existing fan service center.
In our second Promotional Pill we again look a how to strengthen a sponsorship.
In this particular example, this promotion was actually very strong and I would not alter it. However it served as the best example for this particular Promotion Pill. The promotion really worked. It was interactive (the crowd shouted out their guesses), it showcased the rental suites, it connected fans to the attendance, and it gave a good sponsorship hit.
Promotion Considered
Sprickland Heating and Cooling Paid Attendance Guess
A fan was selected to guess the total attendance. If they get within 100 they win a suite. The host stood on the balcony with the contestant and had him drop the sponsor name and guess the attendance. They were actually standing up in the suite that the contestant would win if they got within 100, connecting the contest and the prize (and also promoting the rental of this party suite).
Promotion Pill
Sponsorship Connection
Ask the Questions:
What’s the hook?
What is the connection to the sponsor?
Does the promotion connect directly and in an obvious way to the sponsor?
Sponsors and fans alike recall, connect, and react to contests which have a connection to the sponsor. Good examples include the ATT Long Distance Shootout, Sherwin-Williams "In the Paint" Scoring Numbers (for basketball), and the Burger King Build-a-Burger. Finding a connection can be profitable (by retaining sponsors) and can help you create a unique and memorable show.
Building a successful promotion often starts with your partner or sponsor. Providing sponsorship sales staff with promotion ideas can help them sell sponsors, but providing them with sponsorship connections can help the sales staff as well as help you create a show that connects the fans entertainment to sponsors fiscal support.
Example: Shuffle Ball link
When providing your sales staff or sponsor with promotional ideas, you should present as many possible connections as possible. For example, if you have seen a contest like Shuffle Ball (where contestants push custom basketball shuffle pucks to a target) provide them with the possible connection points, for example:
• Cruise lines/Travel Agents may connect to shuffleball directly, as it is a common activity
• Products or sponsors related to Seniors
• Any sponsor whose name appears on your floor, and contestants try to land their shuffleballs on the logo. This can also be done with your team logo at center court as the target.
• You can construct arches to shoot and label them with travel destinations for a airline partner
The Prescription: Promotion Pill: Sponsorship Connection
To improve the promotion, find ways to directly connect the sponsor with the promotional contest or game. As much as I liked this promotion I thought there was an opening to use the “Heating and Cooling”.
Perhaps having 2 contestants play against each other. One starts guessing the attendance. Now the second guesses and the host will tell them if they are getting hot or getting cold. You would alternate between the two until you get to the number. In this way you are talking about “hot and cold” during the entire Sprickland Heating and Cooling promotion. Fans would be more likely to recall that sponsorship connection than they would the more straight-forward guessing game.
Review:
We looked at this promotions and asked “how can we strengthen the sponsor retention by making a stronger connection between the contest rules or game play and the sponsor?”
What it might look like now: Sprickland Heating and Cooling Hot and Cold Attendance Game
Two fans are hosted in the party rental suite to try to guess the total attendance, shown on the video board from inside the suites. If they get within 100 they win a suite. (for the example the attendance was 4,164) .
The first contestant guesses 4,050. The host then asks the second contestant for their guess. She guesses 4,300. The host lets her know she is cold (further from the number than the first guess). They go back and forth (hotter or colder), narrowing the guess until one gets it.
As noted, the Otters promotion was very strong, but this Promotion Pill is intended to look for a stronger connection. You also would be encouraged to “game” this one out (practice it with random staffers to see how it works and how long it takes them to whittle down to the number.) Like any promotion, you may have to simplify it to make it fit in your time frame.
Promotion Pill 1: Sponsorship Endurance
Every sponsor wants to be remembered, but often this can be hard to accomplish. Research can show an amazingly low retention by fans of branding of promotions, but much higher retention of physical properties (think stadium naming rights and NASCAR).
Promotion Pill 2: Sponsorship Connection
Sponsors and fans alike recall, connect, and react to contests which have a connection to the sponsor. Good examples include the ATT Long Distance Shootout, Sherwin-Williams "In the Paint" Scoring Numbers (for basketball), and the Burger King Build-a-Burger. Finding a connection can be profitable and can help you create a unique and memorable show.
Promotion Pill 3: Variety
Find ways to make every contest unique. Through the creative use of your game elements, use of various contestants, contests with different degrees of difficulty and fan engagment by creating a vested interest in the stands.
Promotion Pill 4: Creating Movement
When possible, create movement and action in the contest or promotion. Fill the space and make it more interesting.
Part 2: Gameops.com Promotion Pills
Promotion Pill
The timeout would introduce us to the winners of the McDonald’s Honorary Stick Boy and Girl for the night. Fans would be directed to the “Brand X” Service Center where the mascot would pop off a load of confetti (for the first mention of the Service Center) to increase awareness of the location. If the team uses Spotlights, they could also be used to highlight the area during active promotion use. The camera would pick up the mascot and host handing the sticks to the winners with a small McDonald’s sign in the foreground of the shot and a large “Brand X” signage behind them to highlight the area. 
The Prescription: 