Applying Great Marketing Ideas to Sports...

Are you looking to add an element of creativity to your venue? Are you looking for new ways to drive brand awareness?

Here are five (5) examples of great marketing ideas that can have legs in the sports marketplace:

IDEA: Ikea showcased one of its store's main staircase as a chest of drawers filled with a variety of clothing in a neatly organized manner.

APPLICATION: Teams can benchmark this idea and use a staircase within their venue to showcase drawers of their newest apparel that fans can purchase in the team shop (jersey's, men's/women's gear, apparel for children, etc.). Consider tying in a retail/apparel partner to really make it an impactful piece for fans (and minimize costs).

IDEA: The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance created a captivating online piece where cancer survivors shared the moment when they found out they had cancer. The piece received a tremendous amount of exposure due to its extremely personable nature (where viewers could click on a user's picture and hear their story).

APPLICATION: Teams can create and feature a similar slideshow of season ticket holders/alumni donors sharing their stories (of when they received their tickets for the season in the mail, their reaction when the team clinched the playoffs, how they celebrated a championship/draft choice, etc.). Organizations can feature the slideshow as an intro page to the team home page where viewers can personally click on the pictures of individual season ticket holders to hear their story (teams can mix in players, personnel, cheerleaders, etc.). 

IDEA: Volkswagen brought a piece of text to life by simply underlining key words in the advertising message that are directed as key words the reader should focus on. After reading the passage, the reader will find that the underlined words they devoted their attention to actually combine to form a compelling statement.  

APPLICATION: Teams can work to bring their print messaging (either in gameday program ads or online articles) to life simply by adding an element of surprise. If organizations realize that the majority of fans will simply ignore the "Rules of the Game" or other features in game day programs, use a little creativity to turn these sections into enticing reads (that will hopefully drive sponsors to want to integrate their messages).

IDEA: Fisch Franke and Publicis teamed up in 2009 to create an award-winning outdoor messaging campaign that featured live fish swimming in an outdoor bus stop display space. The campaign helped the restaurant sell in its claim that it offered the fish fresh as can be.

APPLICATION: Fishing tournaments (FLW Outdoor, Bass Fishing Tournaments) and sports organizations with an oceanic thematic (fish, sharks, etc.) can create impactful branding displays in high traffic areas (downtown, near the stadium) by featuring live animals in an ad. The live demonstration can help a team sell into consumers that there is nothing like seeing a game live.

IDEA: Vaude Outdoor Equipment turned to the wings of airplanes to create an impactful messaging campaign that would resonate with airplane passengers. The outdoor apparel company featured an illustration of a climber hanging on to the wing for dear lfie (with a claim that Vaude makes Equipment for Extreme Conditions)

APPLICATION: Edgy brands like Red Bull ("gives you wings") and Mountain Dew (who are prevalent in the extreme/action sports space) can feature similar impactful campaigns on the wings of airplanes (if done in a tasteful manner that does not encourage fliers to attempt to try). Teams looking for new ways to leverage airline partners can also look to the wings as available space to feature mascot branding, etc.