With the cancellation of sports indefinitely and the uncertainty that lies within our industry, check out some ways that our partners are keeping fan bases engaged during this unique time.

 

Over the past few weeks, University of Illinois has hosted a series of Zoom video conferences with various Football coaches. The Zoom video conferences are exclusive to Season Ticket Holders and specific prospects the sales team would like to invite. The Illinois team provided a link to a Webform that asks about season ticket interest and sends an automated email with the Zoom link to anyone who fills out that form and asks for a call from their team.

 

SMU hosted a virtual Happy Hour featuring Coach Dykes on Friday, May 1st ran by Kurt Pottkotter, Deputy AD of Athletics. The happy hour amounted to 150+ SMU fans and prospects. Here are a few words from Kurt prior to the event,  “Several of our season ticket holders and donors reached out to say how much they enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to hear from Coach Dykes. I think the Virtual Happy Hour format is something we can continue to use during this period and when life returns to ‘normal'”.

Along with the virtual Happy Hour, SMU Athletics hosted a Facebook Live event called “Backyard Boulevard” this past Saturday. The event was a collaboration with SMU Athletics, SMU Football and Mustang Sports Properties. The SMU vs Tulsa game from last year was rebroadcasted via Facebook Live and the goal was to make the atmosphere as similar to a home football game as possible. Fans were prompted to sign in to watch the live, and it featured live tweets from Coach Dykes, highlight videos, interviews from current and former players and a large enter-to-win contest. Fans were asked to share their at-home Boulevard pictures during the game using the hashtag #BackyardBlvd.

 

Memphis is hosting a series of Season Ticket Holder Town Halls with Coach Silverfield. The team is promoting this event as a Season Ticket Holder benefit and the sales team has the opportunity to invite top prospects or fence-sitters. So far, they have capped attendance for all three of these Town Halls and hope to release a fourth Town Hall in the next week.

 

The University of North Carolina began hosting weekly Zoom calls online featuring various football coaches and is exclusive for current season ticket holders! These calls are also a great tool to utilize to close additional new season ticket orders from fans that would like access to this exclusive experience! They have 4 calls planned over 4 weeks and have limited the number of participants to 85 per call in order to give each call a more laid back feel.

 

On April 18th, in place of what would have been their Spring Game, Penn State Athletics held the 2020 Blue-White Virtual Tailgate. Penn State fans were encouraged to host their own virtual tailgates and interact with exclusive content across Penn State Football digital channels.The virtual tailgate allowed fans from across the country to come together and show their pride by  wearing all white. There was custom content available for virtual tailgaters, such as Penn State video conference backgrounds.
Fans were able to register their individual Zoom virtual tailgates the chance to have a member of the Penn State Football coaching staff, former student-athletes or the Nittany Lion mascot join in on their video conference. The Penn State fans were also encouraged to share screenshots of their virtual tailgates to be entered as one of the Nittany Lion Club Virtual Tailgates of the Game contest.

 

The University of South Carolina team has sent out 400+ coach videos to renewal accounts that the sales team has delegated as “fence sitters”. The coach videos were personally addressing the fans and sent via email. The special message was sent through a private Youtube link, and since sending, the South Carolina team has seen an uptick in renewals.