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.
Chicago Rush Game Review
July 9th, 2007
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 RUSH and other teams might enhance the promotions. We can apply our first Pill to these two promotions.
Promotions Considered:
LaSalle Bank Football Toss - A very good promotion using the field, the trademark AFL net/field goal, signage spelling out the sponsor name, good sponsor visibility and connection.
Throw like a Champ - Contest to throw the ball through the uprights from mid-field.
2 chances to win $25. Followed by a commercial in-arena for the sponsor.
Catch Off the Net Contest - Another interesting sport-specific contest. The backup QB throws the ball high off the net and fans try to catch the ball in the air
Football Toss (Pepsi Twist) Contest – Contestant picks 3 dancers who are holding numbers. The numbers determine how much they are throwing to win. He gets a chance to "Twist It" and double his money by throwing from 10 yards farther. He electes to do that, makes the throw to win the cash.
Promotion Pill
Variety in your Promotions
Ask the Questions:
How is this contest different from my other inventory?
How will it stand out to our fans?
What is the likelyhood of a winner?
Who might win and who has a vested interest in the contest?
As noted the Rush had a few contests that were similar. Many sponsors like to follow the well travelled path and do promotions they have seen or similar to ones you already have. In addition, some organizations limit promotions to their sport (for example a basketball team that mandates every contest must be basketball related). This can cause your show to feel repeatitive.
The Rush did have several contests built around throwing footballs (and a couple more kicking footballs). To limit these promotions from running together for fans most had an element that none of the others had. The one that did not (the Throw Like a Champ) felt under-produced and could be easily forgotten by fans.
There are many ways to make contests stand out and feel unique.
The Prescription: Promotion Pill: Variety
Promotional contest variety is an easy fix, since there are many ways to make a contest stand apart from the others. The Rush used several of these in their show and kept their show from growing stale. Consider these methods of producing two similar contests into two more memorable contests:
Include differernt elements of your game entertainment staff. The Discover Card kick used the mascot, the LaSalle promotion used several cheerleaders, and the Off the Net featued a player. The variety made them each feel different.
Contestants. Over the course of your show you can use kids, athletic adults, families. The Rush used kids to catch the football off the net, athletic adults for the long throwing contests, and even celebrities for the trike race.
Prizing: Prizes can also make contests unique, from sponsor-related items (like a Bosch Power Box), cash, to team autographed items.
Odds of winning. Does your contest have a winner everytime? Are the odds of seeing a winner incredibly slim?
Who wins a prize? Does anyone else win along with the contestant, or does everyone win?
Do the fans have a vested interest in a winner? Some contests award prizes to whole sections, lucky rows, or to a huge percentage of fans.
Review:
We looked at these promotions and asked “how can we add variety to the contestants to maximize their impact?"
What it might look like now:
As noted there isn't much to change with the Rush's game promotion, which is very strong. In the case of these handful of football-related contest there are ways to make stand out more by applying the Variety Promotion Pill. By asking the questions above we can find ways to differentiate.
I would start with trying to connect the fans to one contest. Perhaps having the contestant in the "Throw like a Champ" contest playing for himself and a row, section, or segment of the audience. This would both vary who wins in a contest and potentially give a vested interest to more people.
Another way to create variety within this list of promotions would be to make one of the contests significantly harder and approach it as a indemnified prize, like throwing the footbal through a small target for $5,000. That level of prize would also make a contest differ from the rest.
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.
Related Info
First here is a look at all the Chicago Rush related videos. You can scroll down the right side to see them all. Also see over 400 videos on Gameops.com YouTube pages with videos related to game operations and entertainment.
Part 2: Gameops.com Promotion Pills
Promotion Pill
The Rush did have several contests built around throwing footballs (and a couple more kicking footballs). To limit these promotions from running together for fans most had an element that none of the others had. The one that did not (the Throw Like a Champ) felt under-produced and could be easily forgotten by fans.
I would start with trying to connect the fans to one contest. Perhaps having the contestant in the "Throw like a Champ" contest playing for himself and a row, section, or segment of the audience. This would both vary who wins in a contest and potentially give a vested interest to more people.