"Ideas that Work" is a periodic feature developed for The NCAA News by the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators. Individuals interested in contributing information may contact Trip Durham of Elon University at 336/278-6708.

Women's Athletics Student Nights
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

The marketing and promotions unit at Minnesota implemented a promotion designed to attract the large student population on the Minnesota campus. The many forms of competing entertainment in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area pose a challenge for women's sports attempting to break through the "clutter" of available options.

The Women's Athletics Student Night is administered in all six of Minnesota's ticketed sports. Organizers established sponsorships focusing on student-oriented services and products (University Bookstores, Papa John's Pizza, Coca-Cola) to assist with student-oriented giveaways in women's volleyball, basketball and ice hockey (smaller nights were conducted for women's softball, gymnastics and soccer).

Here is how Student Night worked for women's volleyball:

Student Night kids were sent to all residence-hall community advisors on campus. The kits consisted of volleyball posters, schedule cards and Student Night flyers that promoted all of the Student Night events.

Organizers advertised in the Minnesota Daily, the student newspaper. The ad included a sign-up form and promoted all the giveaways and Student Night games.

Student Night was promoted on all campus-area Papa John's pizza box tops two weeks before the event.

All students with a Minnesota ID were admitted to the game for $3.

The first 100 students received free women's volleyball T-shirts.

* Students at the game entered to compete in the on-court promotion, "Who Wants to Win Free Books for a Semester?" -- a takeoff on the television quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". University Bookstores provided a $250 book scholarship for one semester. The name of one student was selected randomly, and that student was put in the "hot seat" at halfcourt between games. The announcer had a series of volleyball trivia questions. If the student answered the questions correctly, he or she won a prize. If the student answered all five questions correctly, he or she won the free books.

Big Foot, Big Shot
Temple University
Zach Conen, director of advertising,
promotion and tickets

Who: Kids about 5 to 8 years old.

What you need: An oversize basketball uniform (shirt and shorts), oversize shoes (about size 18) and a basketball.

When: During a media timeout or at halftime of basketball games.

How: The contestant is at one baseline. The uniform, shoes and basketball are at midcourt. With 45 to 60 seconds on the shot clock or scoreboard, the contestant must run to midcourt, get dressed in the oversized gear and dribble the ball to the other basket. If the contestant makes the basket, he or she wins a Temple/Sponsor Prize Pack.

Results: The promotion is not necessarily unique, but it consistently draws the biggest fan reaction. It generally comes down to the last second, and the crowd generally is pulling hard for the contestant.

Baseball direct marketing
Wichita State University
Shannon Lawellin, advertising and promotions coordinator

Who: Boosters, individual game-ticket purchasers, sponsors without baseball season tickets, faculty and staff.

What: Direct dial marketing.

When: Mid-February, at the start of college baseball season.

How: Wichita State coach Gene Stephenson recorded a scripted message that mentioned several of the season's selling points (for example, a high national ranking). The message then was given to NVS Interactive Media, along with a database of telephone numbers of fans, boosters, previous season ticket holders who had not renewed, season ticket holders in other sports, and so on. The idea is for the message to be left on the fan's voice mail or answering machine, so the calls were made at a time when most of the target group would not be at home or at the office. If a fan purchased season tickets and mentioned the message from Stephenson, he or she won a free pizza and a Shocker hat.

Results: The season ticket promotion was a new and unique strategy that worked well. However, timing and planning are important on a promotion such as this one. First, there were problems in coordinating schedules, so the calls were made just before the first home series; ideally, the calls would have been made somewhat earlier. Second, organizers had a problem with calls made to on-campus faculty and staff. The telemarketing service can call up to 20,000 numbers in an hour. Because all campus numbers were called at about the same time, it caused problems with the university's voice-mail system. The organizers learned from the problems and plan on using the approach for other campaigns.

Halloween Hoop-La
Northwestern University
Tracie Hitz, assistant director of marketing

Who: The primary target is Northwestern students.

What: Since Northwestern does not have a Midnight Madness event for its basketball teams, it decided to do a smaller preseason event during a practice on Halloween. The athletics department invited Northwestern students to attend a scrimmage, which was followed by an interactive session with players and coaches. Coach Bill Carmody selected five students and taught them to run his favorite offensive plays. Organizers also conducted a three-point contest that involved students teaming up with men's basketball players. The band and cheerleaders also performed, and the women's basketball team appeared to introduce itself to the men's fans that were on hand. All students attending received a free T-shirt, pizza, soda and schedule cups filled with Halloween candy and snacks.

When: Men's basketball practice on Halloween.

How: The event was conducted in an on-campus facility instead of the basketball arena, which is about a mile from campus. It was publicized in the student newspaper, flyers on campus, public address announcements at football games, flyers at football games and through e-mail.

Results: Organizers were pleased with the turnout. Students took the opportunity to get to know the players and coaches, which helped increase excitement for the men's basketball team for the next season.