Pony Up Billboard

[SMUtrojanFAN]

The helmet looks nice and shiny.

[smupony94]

I have to admit I like the line the days of being a dark horse are over.

[perunapower]

Those are nice looking billboards. I like the dark horse ones too.

[mrydel]

I knew it was SMU!!

[MrMustang1965]

I knew it was SMU!!

Would you like a cookie? Seriously, though...will the non-SMU fan/person driving down Central Expressway know that these billboards are for S.M.U.? What's to distinguish them from - say - a new Arena Football League team coming to town? Or the Richardson J.J. Pearce High School Mustangs? If S.M.U. is trying to 'brand' itself in Dallas - and other markets - then the letters "S.M.U." or the words "Southern Methodist University" should be on there somewhere.

[SMU2007]

the billboards are close enough to smu that i would hope people recognize the red mustang logo without "smu" needing to be on the actual board.

i like the ads aside from the semi-stupid looking "speech bubble"

[MrMustang1965]

the billboards are close enough to smu that i would hope people recognize the red mustang logo without "smu" needing to be on the actual board.

So...what about the billboards that will (hopefully) go up in Richardson, Mesquite, Plano, McKinney, Colleyville, Grand Prairie, Irving, etc.? Or did the Richards Group only do a media buy on billboards that are within spitting distance of the campus?

[couch 'em]

I applaud these billboards. Just putting up your typical "Come see SMU football" billboard like we always do has/will get us nowhere. These at least will generate interest. My only complaint is the lack of the letters "SMU" on it. As it stands, someone completely clueless wouldn't even have a term to google to find out more info.

Then again, if someone has no idea what that symbol means when associated with a football helmet, are they really going to go to a game?

Sometimes change is good, guys.

[George S. Patton]

Really, I don't this campaign doesn't appeal to people like us because we're too close to the athletic department. It's appealing to other folks who may have no connection or a dormant connection that needs to be re-awakened.

In my limited marketing background, it would seem to me that companies are going more toward visual things to make the consumers curious and try and find out more what it is they saw. If someone knows better, please help out.

I would think there will be more to this, but I also think people are smart enough to figure out that Richardson Pearce isn't putting together a billboard campaign.

How well will it work? I'm glad we're going to speculate over that rather than complaining that no one cares what's happening.

[mrydel]

I want my cookie. I knew it was SMU!! Hopefully intelligence will allow people to figure out the CAMPAIGN. Why can people not understand this is just the beginning of a full advertising campaign. If you want to hate it please have the respect to wait until the entire campaign is unveiled and then criticize it.

[perunapower]

I don't get the negativity here. Does anyone honestly think that people will confuse the billboards with a campaign for JJ Pearce? A new arena team in Dallas? People in Dallas have heard of SMU. I think a lot more people than some of you realize will know what that giant red pony plastered on a billboard stands for, especially since there is an even larger football helmet. If it's a flop then I guess I'll be eating crow, but I believe that this campaign will create interest and buzz around the SMU athletic program when it is coupled with the increasing media attention that the football team is getting.

[Butts in the Stands]

Bob Sharp hooked me up with a t-shirt which simply has the "pony ^" logo on it. I have already worn it twice. At least 5 people asked me about it each time (and I noticed quite a few others checking it out). At a minimum it is catching folks attention. Everyone who asked me about it understood it was related to SMU. They didn't understand what it meant but at least asked. With the marketing campaign in full release, it's only a matter of time before others do the same. Most folks in Dallas are probably smart enough to know that SMU is located here and that we are mustangs. If not, that is the topic for another thread... So, the question is not whether they can link it to SMU but whether it catches their attention and prompts them to ask someone about it...and maybe stop by for a game. At a minimum the buzz seems to be positive.

[Mustang98]

Can anyone elaborate and compare the Mustang Mania campaign of the late 1970's to the Pony Up campaign? I sense some similarities in terms of SMU's aim and the catchiness of the slogans respectively.

[Stallion]

There are no comparisons. Mustang Mania was the greatest College Sports Promotion in the History of College Football covered by every major sports magazine, many national news magazines and just about every newspaper in the country while so far Pony Up is a couple of billboards. Seriously its just not comparable. Its high points:

1) The Jerry Lewis Bowl supporting the Muscular Dystrophy Association which garned National attention;
2) 6,000 to 60,000 in attendance increse in successive games against Rice;
3) Ford Motor Co. and other game Sponsorship which helped increase attendance even against schools like TCU, NTSU, Rice and Baylor to between 55,000-65,000;
4) Cheryl Tiegs and Morgan Fairchild as Honorary Homecoming Queens;
5) probably in the neighborhood of 100,000 Mustang Mania bumper stickers posted throughout the city which had a habit of showing up in the far reaches of the globe;
6) increased visiability which along with Clements' payroll allowed SMU to recruit the Best Team Money could Buy-Never could have happened without Mustang Mania;
7) attracted approximately 30,000 extra fans to each SMU game in its heyday until Bob Hitch essentially shut down the giveaways in 1981;
SMU cut a single also called Mustang Mania("Mustang Mania-its in the air-its everywhere-if you got the luck and you got the knack-you can be a Mustang Maniac")

[PonyLove]

[quote="MrMustang1965] What's to distinguish them from - say - a new Arena Football League team coming to town? Or the Richardson J.J. Pearce High School Mustangs? [/quote]

Give the general public a little more credit for intelligence than that.

I think they look great. Pony Up!