Opinion: Marketing a Football Season Ticket Drive

[RaginCajun77]

You've been given the task of marketing a UL Ragin Cajuns football season ticket drive. What would you do? Attached is a rough draft campaign we did at UL. Looking at it now I see alot of things I would change and modify, but feel free to give me your thoughts on how we can better market Ragin Cajun Football and improve season ticket sales.

Operation Kickoff 2007
 

[Boomer]

John T gave me a list of UL graduates in Verm. Parish----fliped through so many names one would not beleive----I think that a parish wide drive would help-----For your school!!!!!

[RaginCajun77]

If we would market UL Athletics sucessfully in Lafayette, Vermilion, Iberia, St. Martin, St. Landry and Acadia parishes we would see Cajun Field filled week in and week out. These parishes are filled with UL alumni. I know alot of people have high hopes with Dr. Savoie coming in, I for one want all of these "hopes" to turn into a Ragin Cajun reality.

[ULtimateCajun]

I like the "support your hometown team" slogan. That is what I say every season to those folks around here that head east every saturday during football season. It's amazing how much and how many people complain about a problem but do nothing to fix it. "Why would i go to a cajun game" I here people say, it would be like a domino effect, we get a few interested to come out to the home games and they tell their friends to come out and they tailgate and see how much fun it is. I went to every game from the time i was old enough to go until i was out of 8th grade. I had those 4 years in High School saying UL games were no fun, no one would go, the team sucked, Until I actually went with some buddies and tailgated my freshmen year in college and made a day out of it. I've been to every game since.

[anhil8tor]

Get the kids involved! You have to keep the youth of Lafayette interested in the Cajuns.

[CajunCharlie]

_ Get the kids involved! You have to keep the youth of Lafayette interested in the Cajuns. _

Of my six children five attended UL. The sixth was a "child in exile", opting to attend another in state school.

Five out six (.833) isn't too bad. One of the reasons for this success, I believe, is that I enrolled each of them in the Young Ragin Cajun Club. Not only was it a "money saver" for me, but it allowed them to observe the excitement and tradition of UL atheletics, which in turn fostered a desire to be a part of the UL family. Even the "child in exile", despite living in N.O., makes as many UL events as possible. One daughter lives in Columbus, OH and is a died in the wool Cajun fan, and is passing that tradition on to her two boys.

I wish there was some way to effectively market the YRCC. It could be the catalyst to having the youth of Adiana take interest in the Cajuns.

[RaginCajun2010]

Looks like we need to boost the numbers in the YRCC also and get it some publicity.

[CajunNation]

_ You've been given the task of marketing a UL Ragin Cajuns football season ticket drive. What would you do? Attached is a rough draft campaign we did at UL. Looking at it now I see alot of things I would change and modify, but feel free to give me your thoughts on how we can better market Ragin Cajun Football and improve season ticket sales. _

Marketing in General

-Season ticket sales should be part of a greater fan-recruitment strategy.
-There should be focused efforts in every big city in Acadiana, such as Abbeville, Crowley, Opelousas, Breaux Bridge, New Iberia, and of course Lafayette.
-Efforts should be made to purchase advertisements on billboards and in local papers of each city.
-A traveling showcase of Cajun athletics where people could meet the coaches, AD, etc. should be an annual event with city leaders of each city where anyone is invited. Sell Cajun athletics to the city fathers, and it will trickle down.
-Fliers could be printed and passed out each game week inviting people to the game. Could be placed at establishments frequented often by the public in each city, such as Wal-Mart, major gas stations, etc.


This Season Sales

-Marketing this season is going to very difficult.
-Coming off of a very disappointing year
-Only 1 home game where opponnent has any name recognition to the general public(UTEP)
-4 of the 5 home games are in the second half of the season
-The only strategy that makes any sense at all is to focus on Fenroy, and the rushing attack of the Cajuns.


Marketing in the Future

-Perhaps it would be wise to not expect much this year from any season ticket drive.
-The huge jump we all want to see will not happen this year.
-It will happen when fan-recruitment efforts can revolve around a major milestone in Cajun Football such as coming off of a Bowl Game or the hiring of a new Head Coach.