No matter the size of the university or college, marketing the athletics department, its teams and student-athletes is a constant and necessary exercise. An Association-wide session January 11 at the NCAA Convention in Nashville called “Standing Room Only: Athletics Department Marketing and Promotions Best Practices” focused on ways of successfully meeting that need.

Moderator Chris Plonsky, women's athletics director at the University of Texas, called marketing “the ultimate contact team sport” because of the number of areas it touches within the athletics department and university. Plonsky guided panelists and participants through a discussion centering on five key areas: developing a marketing plan, stretching the marketing budget, outsourcing to a third party, implementing grassroots marketing efforts and creating and strengthening a brand.

Though comments from panelists representing all three NCAA divisions made it obvious that there's no one-size-fits-all approach, they also identified some commonalities such as the importance of achieving buy-in from the entire athletics department – from the top down – and creatively using internal and external resources to generate revenue and exposure.

In commenting on ways of creating and strengthening a brand, panelist Bradley L. Hewitt, director of athletics  at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, said if schools don't market and brand themselves, someone else will. Consequently, Hewitt not only stressed the importance of involving the entire athletics department in the marketing effort, but also supporting initiatives with research from internal and external sources.

For schools considering entering or that already are involved in third-party marketing relationships, IMG College's Kay Scott emphasized the importance of identifying expectations and defining areas of responsibility as well as holding the third party accountable for following all university and athletics department policies. Scott also said it was important to be clear about how terms of sponsorship contracts would be filled and who would be responsible for doing so.

In addition, Springfield College Athletics Director Cathie Schweitzer shared a host of strategies for developing and implementing grassroots marketing initiatives, including building partnerships with local organizations and outreach programs.  

Participants also had a chance to focus more specifically on one of the session's five areas of emphasis as part of roundtable discussions on each topic.