Analysis by J. Reid Dickerson in SRM 334 (section 2)
Ever changing technology has allowed for significant growths in journalism and news reporting. News journalism has gone from regional reporting to international, from pens and paper to laptops and recording devices, and from newspapers and journals to radio and television then to internet reporting and cellphone news updates. Also with the improvements in technology, there is an increase in the amount of pundits putting forth their opinion on certain topics in the news. Nowadays, anyone can get or give opinions on certain news topics in a number of ways from comments on a news article to phone calls to a television station or radio station. The growing popularity of the public being interested in the opinions of former players and reporters on certain topics has led to many networks such as ESPN, ABC, NBC, and FOX News giving their analysts talk shows to voice their opinions to the tune of fantastic ratings and high listenerships. This occurrence is most popular in the sports reporting world with shows like Mike and Mike, First Take, and The Herd with Colin Cowherd, all on ESPN, featuring reporters giving their opinions on athletes and certain sports. This way of reporting has put the athlete at a disadvantage because it gives the athletes no real way to respond to their critics except in interviews and game news conferences where they have to field questions and can’t always respond the way they want. Because of this, more and more athletes have been writing first person articles to show their perspectives on certain sports topics, giving the fan a completely new way to interact with the athletes of their favorite sports.
When Derek Jeter retired in 2014, he quickly invested himself in life after baseball by starting a website called The Players Tribune, a website that gives current players a voice and a way to share their opinions, ideas and thoughts on their sports and athletics as a whole. Contributing writers and topics that have been tackled have been Derek Jeter on cleaning out his locker, Blake Griffin about Donald Sterling and the teams overall thoughts about the entire situation, and Danica Patrick on racing against her boyfriend. The Players Tribune seems to be the leading outlet for athletes to contribute their ideas and thoughts but is not the only way for athletes to let their voices be heard.
Blog posts and letters also are a way for athletes to give their view and outlook. Recently, Josh Gordon has published a letter he wrote to Stephen A. Smith, Charles Barkley, and other individuals who had criticized him for repeatedly getting suspended from the NFL for marijuana and alcohol related transgressions. In the letter, he describes why he got suspended most recently and why he doesn’t care what Stephen A. Smith or anyone else has to say about him because he has never met them. The article was hard to believe and seemed like a long string of excuses written by a hard-headed person who doesn’t want to stop living the life he is living but perhaps it is really the truth.
Other blog examples have come from the freeskiing community. Before the X Games one week ago, many people in the ski and snowboard community were in an uproar about the double booking of the FIS World Championships and the Winter X Games Aspen on the same weekend, making it nearly impossible for athletes to make both contests. Each contests has its merits. The FIS World Championships is the top competition offered by the FIS and has strong ties to Olympic qualifying. The X Games are the action sports world top contest and the first of its kind. Both David Wise, half pipe skier who is defending champion at both events, and Jacob Wester, who is not competing at either event, published articles describing the unprecedented problem, both with their own points. David Wise explained that the FIS were acting very arrogantly by expecting the top action sports stars in the world to skip the X Games, an event that was literally made for them, and attend the FIS World Championships. The X Games have always been held the weekend before the Super Bowl so as to obtain the greatest viewership and by the FIS scheduling their contest the same dates showed their pompous attitude and uncaring nature towards freestyle events. David Wise explained that he and other athletes tried to get the FIS to move the freeskiing events to the beginning of the contest so the athletes could make both events, to which they refused. The fact that the top 16 (16 riders is a full field) skiers and snowboarders for each discipline were on location in Aspen for X Games shows how much these athletes care about the X Games. In Jacob Wester’s post, he explained how he liked the comradery of the X Games because each athlete is competing for themselves instead of for their country as they are at the FIS World Championships which shows that the athletes are more supportive of each other doing well rather than winning for a country. Overall, the FIS hurt themselves by scheduling their event on top of the X Games because the best athletes were in Aspen and their competition was downgraded in intensity because of the lackluster attendees.
Due to the increase in these first person essays and blog posts written by current athletes who are in the middle of the sport and are most up to date on such topics rather than former athletes working for a news network, it seems that athletes are interested in sharing their opinions. The articles give fans an inside look at an athlete’s life and their feelings without the athlete feeling like they have to write the article or are writing it for someone else as they might feel in interview or news conferences. Hopefully, more athletes across all sports disciplines will join in and contribute their own pieces to continue this positive trend.
Analysis by Jessalyn Stone in KIN 501 Quince Imaging is a company that provided a 3D video board display show for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The pregame show they designed for Cleveland was honoring the jersey retirement of Zyndrunas Ilguaskas. To create this “science of display” anywhere from 8-12 projectors are placed throughout the arena and used to project the video. Approximately 60 days before the final product is displayed the arena must be mapped out to figure out the location of the projectors and meet with the media department. A 3D CAD model of the court is built and used to create the video. The content of the video then lined up and rendered to create the final project. A few days before the presentation the projectors are installed and tested. Come show time literally the play button is pressed and all of the work is complete. This kind of technology can be used on basketball courts, ice, grass, turf and even on city buildings. The cost for these applications is based on the image area and ambient conditions.
From a marketing standpoint this kind of technology is the “up and coming” and the “new age” video displays. Having a team or University use this kind of projection for a video is still a new thing that not many places have been able to utilize and enjoy. If the team was given the opportunity to have a project like this displayed that can be used as a huge marketing ploy to their advantage. Because this is something so new and top of the line when it occurs it needs to be capitalized on and used in a manner that “sets the standard” for other teams or programs. Although this kind of program is expensive it is comparable to other special lighting and video projects. As a marketing professional it could even be used in a way that introduces it to your staff in hopes of using it and boosting your team or program. This course teaches us the different aspects of marketing and obviously video boards are just one aspect but it can be a very influential means of advertising. Being aware of new technologies and utilizing this kind of video boards can be very beneficial to a marketing department. In marketing you have to know the market that you are targeting and this kind of video board can be utilized on many different levels within the market. This kind of technology can be used on buildings, for presentations and for sporting events. These videos are relatively new and are created to be very unique to whatever specifically you are marketing and that can be very beneficial to the marketing department.
Analysis by Annie Comber in SRM 435 (section 1) After years of research and planning the historic racket company Babolat, has created the first “plug-in” racket of its kind. This new racket is called the Babolat Play, which allows players to collect data of their performance after playing. The high-tech racket enables players to connect through Bluetooth connection with a Smartphone or from a USB in the handle of the racket and connect to a computer or tablet. Sensors in the handle of the Babolat Play are responsible for collecting information about the player’s game. This racket can measure various performance data such as shot power, ball impact location, number of strokes, spin level, total and effective play time, endurance, techniques, consistency, energy, and rallies. Players can then compare and share either information online through Babolatplay.com and on a Babolat Play app. The racquet has been approved for play by the International Tennis Federation but not until January of 2014.
From a marketing prospective, the Babolat Play has been slow to launch in the United States however with the use of social media, a famous spokes person and onsite activation, Babolat hopes the top players will be using the racket in the near future. Babolat is a French company that has always launched their rackets in Europe but they have decided to take a new approach and introduce it in the Unites States first because of the strong presence of social media and other wired sports equipment products. Babolat is planning to promote the racquet by traditional advertising in tennis outlets as well as some social media outlets and events. In addition, Rafael Nadal arguably one of the greatest tennis players in the world and is the official spokes person for the Babolat Play racket. Nadal has practiced with this racket and has created a few promotional videos while giving Babolat key feedback. As part of a promotion Nadal used his Facebook page to engage with fans and get them excited for the Babolat Play racket and then chose three fans to speak with him on the phone. Currently ranked number two in the world with over five million twitter followers, Babolat could not have picked a better spokes person for the new racket. In addition, American Express has a two-story, fan suite at the US Open that is the most trafficked on-site activation area at the open. The large space has 6-by-30 foot digital board that lets fans create Art by swinging a racket. There are also full tennis courts for clinics for kids and adults to improve their tennis skills. The Babolat Play racket is not yet incorporated into the American Express Fan Experience but this may be the next step to market the racket. This article relates to our class because it explains how new technologies in sports equipment will be marketed in the future. Babolat show us the effectiveness of marketing in the media via Facebook, Twitter, and videos, while having a famous spokes person promoting the racket as well. Technology in tennis equipment is a new concept for many athletes and fans but with the proper marketing and promotion techniques gathering data about ones’ tennis game will soon become the norm. --- Analysis by Stephanie Nielsen in SRM 435 (section 1) The world of sports is constantly changing and improving as the years go by. New additions to technology keep appearing and adding more to the athletes and games that we love to watch. The newest phenomenon that is offered for individual athletes is the ability to have devices that can record and track their play during competitions. The Babolat Play Racket is a new addition to the world of tennis and is scheduled to hit the market in January of 2014.
Babolat is a French tennis, badminton and squash equipment company that is best known for its strings and tennis rackets that are used by several top players, such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Kim Clijsters and many others. The Play Racket offers many interesting features that will greatly benefit the development of professional and amateur tennis players. The product has sensors integrated into the handle allowing players to have access of information about their game. Shot power and ball impact location along with number of strokes (forehand, backhand, serve, smash), spin level, total and effective play time, endurance, technique, consistency, energy and rallies are all the types of data that are collected through the racket. After the player is finished the information is transmitted through a Bluetooth connection with a smart phone or a USB form. Through a marketing standpoint this individual racket is very pricey for the amateur tennis player. However, knowing the prices of private tennis pro lessons and clinics for this sport, this racket will be able to keep up and have the potential to become a driving force in the development of tennis players. Rafael Nadal is currently the company’s most prominent spokesperson. He is an extremely beneficial aspect to this campaign and product. The Babolat company will need to actively promote this product with social media campaigns to encourage fans to learn about the product. One campaign that Babolat has already done is a Facebook competition where three random fans were selected to have a conversation with Nadal. Another marketing opportunity for this product is for fans that are attending the U.S. Open to be able to test out this product. This will encourage fan involvement while the product is being implemented. The Babolat Play Racket may take a little more time to get off the ground and going but this is an innovative technology product that will open doorways for other individual and team sports to have products developed for their particular sports in the future.
From ESPN.com Review by Emily Goodin in KIN 332 (section 1) Hall of Famer Jerry Rice is helping the NFL in the fight to battle against obesity rates in the U.S. by becoming this year’s new spokesman. Jerry Rice is teaming up along sides the NFL by implementing the use of the Xbox 360 to get kids of all ages excited about physical fitness and fight the obesity epidemic that is surging the nation. According the American Heart Association today 1 out of 3 kids and teens in the U.S. are obese. I is estimated that by 2030, 42% of the U.S. population will obese unless something is done. Research led by Duke University, estimate 11% of the adults will be nearly 100 pounds overweight.
On Monday, September 24, 2012 the “60 Million Minutes Challenges” was launched as part of the NFL’s Play 60 program. The program wishes to educate children about the importance of daily exercise, and help reduce the growing trend of childhood obesity. The program challenges children of all ages to pledge to be active for 60 minutes every day.
In October 2007, marking its 5 year anniversary this year the NFL has teamed up with The American Heart Association to launch a national wide campaign to inspire kids to get 60 minutes of physical activity a day, encouraging kids to live a healthy life style. It is a program that has been implemented in schools across the cross the country, number over 1500 PLAY 60 Youth events have been organized, and with other 100 youth fitness zones having been built.
The Xbox “Run the Hill” with Jerry Rice is an interactive video game that helps promote physical activity through using your entire body through connect. Play 60 is getting the message out to children to live healthy active lifestyles.
Tim McDermott, chief marketing officers of the NFL Philadelphia Eagles made the decision in late July that for 2012 football season the Eagles would be using the world’s first visual browser mobile app known as Aurasma to incentivize season ticket holders.
Seeing that the age of the Smart Phone has caught up to speed and is commonly found in the pocket of the average everyday American, the Eagles has chosen the “quasi Harry Potter-ish” talking newspapers Smartphone app known as Aurasma to relay addition information including a combination of highlights, previews, messages from players and analysis to season ticket holders. The Aurasma app has a very simple concept that brings simple print material to life by providing a video image to the consumer.
Once season ticket holders has downloaded the Aurasma app and Eagles Official Smartphone App all they have to do is merely point their phones at the season ticket and with a snap of their phones a detailed video will be displayed on their iPhone or Android. The mobile application has brought static images to life just like the enchanted newspapers found in the Daily Prophet found in the world of Harry Potter.
The technology Aurasma was created by Cambridge based software campus Autonomy in late 2010. It wasn't until May 5, 2011, the application Aurasma Lite was launch and was originally designed for the iPhone 3GS phone; a month later a version for the Android was released on June 10, 2011. Aurasma is the worlds first visual browser, and allows Smartphone picture to recognize images and objects. These images and objects may be taken from any angle, and will be recognized as “trigger images” and will be identified by the Aurasma app. The app will then relay a brief video providing the season ticket holder with additional information about the upcoming game. This year there will be 10 games played at Lincoln Field, and this gives the Eagles 10 more opportunities to provide their fans with details of upcoming events, special promotions, opinions or interviews from team players, or update fans with new statics and highlights as the season moves on.
A mass email will be sent out to Philadelphia Eagle ticket holders explaining to fans that each season ticket issue, total of 10 tickets, holds the key to addition information about each game day event. Hopefully for the Eagles it will create an incentive for season ticket holders.
The article I chose was an article recently written on ESPN.com under their Sports Business section. The article talks about how the New England Patriots have decided to install Wi-Fi in their stadium so all of their fans could access it for free. This has been a common theme in the NFL and the Patriots join the likes of the Jets, Giants, Panthers, Buccaneers, Saints and Colts to do so.
The NFL has seen a reduction in ticket sales over the past few years but nothing to drastic. The shocking statistic is the ESPN Poll that showed fans no longer prefer the in game experience over watching it at home. In 1998, over 54 % said they would rather watch the game at the stadium in contrast to at home. ESPN’s most recent study conducted last year revealed that only 29% of people would rather watch the game at the stadium instead of at home. This is the biggest drop in any professional sport.
The reasons for this drop is in large part due to being out of the loop while at an NFL Game. You no longer have access to other score or highlights. Fantasy football has also played a huge role as fans no longer have access to all of their fantasy players stats. The NFL in their meetings in May began to brainstorm to try to make the in game experience better for all fans. Their main focus has been the addition of Wi-Fi. Although not all stadiums have installed it due to its high prices (upward to 6 million), more have begun too. The NFL will also be researching the Wi-Fi statistics and usage from these stadiums to share it with the league as a whole to find the best strategies and solutions. The NFL’s goals within the next 5-10 years will be not only to challenge the at home experience but surpass it.
I believe this article relates to marketing in numerous ways. The NFL I feel has been proactive in their approach to fix a minor problem before it escalates. As any good marketer should do. They spent this past May brainstorming ideas and solutions to help enhance the in game experience. They have already began advertisements and marketing campaigns to help entice fans to attend the game with the new addition of Wi-Fi. They believe this will entice fans to return to games who were originally deterred by being out of the loop. The defined a problem, came up with solutions and implemented them. They used a marketing strategy to implement this campaign.
The choice for JMU to provide free coverage of home JMU athletics shows a changing market for the sport media industry.
For starters, a big reason for the change is social media. Users can instantaneously comment and discuss about games and events for free via blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. This type of coverage forces better coverage (i.e. video coverage) to compete with coverage one can receive on one’s smart phone.
As for MadiZONE, turning to free coverage of JMU Sports was just a natural evolution of media. Free coverage means a greater number of viewers and more viewers means there will also be a greater demand for advertisement space. Subsequently, the revenue loss from MadiZONE subscribers when MadiZONE had to be paid for to watch, is made up and surpassed by advertisements.
To further increase the demand for advertisement space, MadiZONE must first increase the number of viewers even more; by increasing the quality of the production, MadiZONE can achieve just that. One suggestions we had for Mr. John Martin was to further market to students who, for example, may be studying but able to flip between homework and the game. In addition, by having more sequences of student spectators at the game could increase viewership. For one, people want to see their friends and family on camera. Also, prospective students will also see a better student atmosphere which could ultimately attract better student and better athletes to James Madison University.
In conclusion, MadiZONE is on the rise. It’s free subscriptions will help JMU Sports promote JMU by using MadiZONE as a recruitment tool for athletes and students alike. I look forward to the changes and updates to come to MadiZONE. ---- Review by Chase Warren in SRM 334
MadiZONE is the best place to go for all of your James Madison University sports, and it recently became free. In the past, a paid subscription was needed in order to use MadiZONE and get access to JMU athletics, but that has changed. For different reason, such as contract negotiations, MadiZONE decided to change its ways. This website gives JMU sports fans access to virtually any home game, and even a few away games. There are many perks to this website becoming free. It is a great way to promote JMU as a university in general and it creates a better fan base. Another perk to MadiZONE being free comes from a recruiting standpoint. For example, if a player is thinking about JMU but lives on the other side of the country, his or her parents will be pleased to hear that they will have free access to every home game right on their computer at home. One last thing that it does is creating a higher demand for advertising space. With that being said, the advertising space will help to make up for the lost funding created by MadiZONE's conversion to free, rather than paid. The amount of viewers has grown exponentially since the change has been made. Last season, football games averaged about 750 MadiZONE viewers per game, and in the home opener against St. Francis, $4,700 viewers tuned in to MadiZONE . The fact that this is a sports website that is interactive with fans makes it relevant to this class. It is a type of sport communication, and it becoming free is the type of thing that can happen to many different types of sports media at all levels of athletic competition. Money will always be a huge issue in the world of sports media.
Smart phones have made it possible to access immeasurable amounts of information and the ability to perform services anywhere a person could possibly desire. Whether it is checking the score of a game, finding directions with GPS coordination, shopping, or even renting your favorite movie to watch in the palms of your hands these phones continue to change the ways in which both businesses and individuals conduct business and leisure activities everyday. “StubHub, Paciolan Go Mobile For Four Schools” is an eye-opening article in the August 27th issue of the Sports Business Journal discussing the introduction of mobile ticketing to NCAA college football.
North Carolina, Purdue, Tennessee and Texas are the four schools that are introducing mobile ticketing for this upcoming season. In the words of Greg Ivry, Stubhub’s business development manager, “Mobile is a seamless experience that allows fans to buy a ticket on their phone. Receive a new barcode for that ticket and then scan it at the gate and get your seat.” Forget stopping by the box office or even printing out the tickets at home, this new form of service provides consumers with the convenience of having a ticket within a matter of seconds. Making it this easy for the consumer to purchase will result in new marketing and sales strategies for both Stubhub and the University introducing mobile ticketing.
Stubhub is affiliated with thirty colleges for ticketing services, however only a few maintain legitimate sponsorship deals. With more universities embracing the secondary ticket market industry I believe that this new form of convenience will soon become the norm of the college sports world. According to Paciolan eighty percent of school’s currently have the technology to scan barcodes off of phones. The Internet in recent years has proved to be a major game changer bringing in new ways for fans to purchase tickets. This leaves you to wonder what is in store for the athletic marketing and sales world with the dawn of the Smartphone era.
Sporting Club has decided to launch a High-tech consulting firm that will be used to share the knowledge gained from the technological advancements in the building of the Sporting K.C.’s new stadium, Livestrong Sporting Park. With the addition of Google, Inc. in the design and implementation of some of the new technology within the stadium, Sporting K.C. now has a high-speed connection “three to five times faster than inside Cowboys Stadium,” according to Sporting K.C. CIO Asim Pasha. Google has chosen the new stadium to introduce its new high-speed network. The Google Fiber service will be able to provide unparalleled video content, 3-D video, and even mobile applications developed specifically for Sporting KC fans that will allow them to view live video feeds from different camera angles. All of these advancements have given the company a wealth of information that could be shared and used in other sports, such as the NFL, MLB, and European Football Leagues. Sasha Victorine, director of business development for Sporting Club states that Sporting Innovations is, “based off of what we’ve learned with the stadium and the key relationships we have with tech companies.” She also states that, “There are a whole host of technologies we feel are going to change the way sports connect to fans.” As of now, no clients have been signed, but representatives from the NFL, MLB, NBA, English Premier League, Verizon, AT&T and Cisco, will be at the announcement of the new firm. Client offerings and cost structures have yet to be determined by the company, however, with the large amount of information and innovations that have been developed, it will be hard for other companies and leagues to deny such advancements in the fan experience and interaction with their teams. This relates to Sport Marketing because of how easy it would be to market a stadium that not only gives a percentage of all sales to Cancer research, but also is capable of taking the fan experience in sport to another level, which would be a sport marketer’s dream in my opinion. Furthermore, the new stadium provides fans with unprecedented access and use of social media, which could be used by Sporting K.C. as a way of viral marketing. If the fans love the new stadium, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter will receive posts about it, which will generate awareness and publicity.
