Video Relaunch - Crowd Source Ideas Needed

[Treadway21]

Guys Thanks for the input. Here is what I got back from WFAA; the Dale Hansen spot would be for News Years Day (which might be cool given the bowls):

Hi Mickey!

Great to "meet" you J

Here are the rates for a :60 as we discussed:

10p news $3000
Dale Hansen $2000 (after looking at inventory we could do $2000)
High School sports $600

Also, I spoke with my online rep and came up with a really good option for WFAA.com. We can offer a sports page ownership for $2,000. What this means is the two ad units I highlighted on the attached PowerPoint would be your ad, locked for one week. We could start airing on 12/31 and run through 1/6. Every time someone goes to our sports page, they will see your ad. If you go to http://www.wfaa.com/sports you can see the page live.

Not sure which is better, online for a week or Dale Hansen for News Years Day. I am still waiting for Channel 11. Not sure if we can raise the money either, Thad is still in the hole, but we need to show this thing. Thoughts.

[Treadway21]

SMU Brooks - good information , would be interested your thoughts in the proposal I got back from WFAA.

SMUer - I agree; lets have Thad do the Stampede.

I believe we should start working on a campaign again in August. Seemed like we were always behind and not very coordinated because of constraints and being novices. Starting in August next year with a coordinated plan that we can pitch to the powers that be will give us time to prepare.

[smuuth]

great song which I think would appeal to young AND old and across different races. If you are going to try to appeal to the Dallas area that this is their team and they need to support their team then I would promote the biggest names on the team(positive not ones with negatives attached) and heavily promote the local kids. Maybe it will help with recruiting locally. Also, I would try to link the local high school player transforming into an SMU Mustang, maybe include the local SMU players coaches name like TCU does when introducing their players. Don't you think those TX high school coaches like to see their names up on the video board as the high school coach of Kyle Padron or Cole Beasley or Taylor Thompson or Banjo? Yes and they might send us another great player. Somehow SMU has to get past the "image" that it is a snob school if you want to appeal to more people but I have always gotten the impression that is the image they want to convey which makes it very uncomfortable for others which affects attendance.

[Treadway21]

I have a friend in NYC that does media buying and asked her for some info on running commercial spots. Here is what she wrote back:

1. Are these :30 or :60 second commercials?- :30s are easier to place. :60s give the viewer more information :60

2. Are you going straight to the stations to purchase or working through an agency?- if you're looking to run 1 or 2 spots only then you're probably better off going straight to the stations. But you really show your hand by doing that and you're at the mercy of what the stations decide to charge you. With an agency you have a veil of not having to release your objectives and having other clients with larger budgets in the market to help leverage what you're paying for your spots. But you're also looking at an agency fee which for a short media campaign can probably be very steep. straight to the stations, but maybe for future an agency - no money right now

3. Idea of what kind of budget you'd like to spend? Idea of flighting- ie how many weeks do you want to run the spot? Idea of dayparts you want to run?- If you're going straight to the stations don't release your budget. Call it a test campaign with lots of future potential (i.e. small budget now but maybe big budget later IF it works). Play stations off each other. Station people are as bad and as sleazy as car salesmen. Agencies will get you the best bang for your buck and have the relationships/media savvy but I would strongly suggest SMU have someone who knows media assist with the negotiations w/ the agencies. They can sniff out clients w/ no media knowledge to take advantage (trust me ...)Again - in short term no plan - in future want to develop a plan and work through these issues with plenty of time to consider options and find funding

4. What are the objectives for running the spots? (i.e. phone #/url on spot to drive to call/website to purchase tickets? Exposure to SMU ftbl w/out going in depth to have a "call to action"? SMU branding?)- Having a phone number or website will help you track the results... i.e. this spot that ran at this time generated this many calls which led to this many purchases. Will help if you plan to run the campaign for a while. But you will have to implement potentially expensive things like services that encode each indivial spot that runs so you can track it and professional telemarketing services that will track where the call was generated from and whether it led to purchase or not. If it's just branding then you don't need any of that... but you're also blind in a lot of assumptions. Right now branding - want to connect SMU to Dallas and create visibility for the program. My thought is we commandeer with the SMU2BCS website. I have been in touch with them. It would be a good bridge until we get into the BigEast and more marketing $

5. What is your demographic you're trying to reach? Very basic. like Men 25-54.

5. Is this a one and done? Like a superbowl spot are you looking for a major event to air 1 spot around with potentially tons of exposure or are you looking for frequency- so less exposure with each airing but over time more people will see/potentially be influenced by exposure?One and done - What about buying an add on the bowl game to be broadcast only here locally, what is the cost of that?

Hope this helps. If you have any specific questions I can forward them on.I think these gives you an idea of my vision; others may see something different. None of this may even happen since so far SMU is not contributing anything financially and very little else in the way of resources. This is not a knock on Brad; he has a lot going on. I would love to get some higher level support. We are running out of time this year, but we can certainly develop some ideas and financial support for next season. Next season will be big given our pending move. We need to make things happen.

Please post your thoughts, SMUbrooks or anyone else

[Treadway21]

great song which I think would appeal to young AND old and across different races. If you are going to try to appeal to the Dallas area that this is their team and they need to support their team then I would promote the biggest names on the team(positive not ones with negatives attached) and heavily promote the local kids. Maybe it will help with recruiting locally. Also, I would try to link the local high school player transforming into an SMU Mustang, maybe include the local SMU players coaches name like TCU does when introducing their players. Don't you think those TX high school coaches like to see their names up on the video board as the high school coach of Kyle Padron or Cole Beasley or Taylor Thompson or Banjo? Yes and they might send us another great player. Somehow SMU has to get past the "image" that it is a snob school if you want to appeal to more people but I have always gotten the impression that is the image they want to convey which makes it very uncomfortable for others which affects attendance.

Thanks SMUUth - good to know. We definitely want to change the image for SMU or just increase visibility and brand of SMU and Dallas. We will need some of these ideas come August. We have an immediate need in conjunction with the bowl game and a medium term need in marketing to bridge the move from CUSA to BE for 2012.

Got a proposal back from 21 and 11 - they are together. Will post tomorrow.