Daily Campus on Marketing Dallas' Team

[Barksdale Pony]

First the "we are Dallas's team" marketing is relly awesome and the way to go. The problem is that it has only be going since Sept. and we need to stick with it to gain some traction. In regards to football the key is three phases to get kids interested in SMU football.

1) We need to run a scheme on both offense and defense that is a mirror of what we see on Sundays in the NFL. This will help recruit local kids that want a chance at thr pros. This we do not have now.

2) We need to offer a world class education as a backup for those that don't make the NFL/ kids that know they are good but not good enough to play on Sundays. This we have in spades.

3) The most important factor is a coaching staff that lives at the local high schools and can get the local coaches comfortable with pushing their kids to SMU in order to be ready for both the NFL and life after football. This is the area in which we are the farthest behind.

I think if we highlighted these areas we could keep a good deal of the local talent and in the process win a hell of a lot of games.

[smitty329]

Dallas likes winners and SMU has not won enough for Dallas to care.

Then Dallas must consider the Cowboys to be Arlington's team?

[Comet]

Dallas likes winners and SMU has not won enough for Dallas to care.

Then Dallas must consider the Cowboys to be Arlington's team?

Cowboys tv ratings have been dropping a lot lately though, so yeah, Dallas does like a winner.

[Charleston Pony]

I like this campaign but the challenge remains getting 1st timers out to games and then having a game day atmosphere and experience that they will enjoy so they will want to come out again. IMO, that starts with the students. Would love to see us build a culture that encourages students to come out and get loud at bball and football games. Even docile fans will tend to join in when the home crowd is getting loud at critical points in a game. Would love to see a student group of Mustang Maniacs or Moody Maniacs who might even wear game day tshirts of red, whilte or blue on any given date. Just 25% of the student population could make a HUGE difference in Moody, because that place can really get loud. Ford is a bigger challenge, but how many times have we even drawn 1500 students to football games?

[Longtime]

The problem with the slogan "SMU is Dallas' team" is that even most SMU people snicker at that. You've already put yourself behind when you start out by stating something blatantly untrue.

A better slogan might have been "SMU IS Dallas." It reinforces the connection between SMU and Dallas without overselling it. The logical extension is that if you say you're from Dallas, that includes SMU.

You're trying to get people to choose SMU as their team, the same as they choose the Cowboys, Rangers and Mavs simply because of geography. The inherent problem is that you're competing with those same pro teams for attention.

The upside of the "SMU is..." campaign is that at least they've got the right idea. SMU athletics will never be a hot ticket unless it can appeal to the average Dallas-area sports fan. The initial slogan is more wishful thinking than anything, but it can be tweaked. The main thing is to market, period, and not expect people to notice you just because you're winning.

[CalallenStang]

In St. Louis, SLU basketball uses the slogan "Our Town, Your Team" which seems to work well

Just an idea as to how it can be refined...

[SMU_Alumni11]

If you could pull one like this out of your hat, I'd be surprised.

Are people really that shocked that there are faculty who are avid sports fans??

Yeah I've only had the ones that said sports are conservative propaganda especially football

[jpe747]

We've had numerous threads where we discussed ways to improve the crowds and the atmosphere at SMU athletic events. I still like having connected events with the games like a rock concert after a game. As for the professors - hold an intellectual conference on the rewards of teaching teamwork and the benefits of reinforcement through University sanctioned sporting events...LOL

HOWEVER, THE BEST AND PERHAPS ONLY WAY TO DRAW CROWDS IS WINNING, WINNING, WINNING. Then, it doesn't matter what the professors or anyone else thinks. But, if we can't win and win big, we will always be that small school on the hill...in north Dallas.

[DickerJames]

There is seriously NO WAY to please the majority of posters on this board. There have been countless threads started in the past lamenting and crying about the lack of marketing, and how Orsini was a sh** because he didn't do enough marketing.

Now we actually get serious and crank up a marketing campaign, and my GOD the b*tching and moaning is unbearable!

Comet, please tell me you don't really believe that the slogan should have been "SMU The Park Cities Team".

The only way we will ever turn the corner is by beating the big boys (see TCU and Boise), but in the meantime be thankful that the school is actually TRYING to promote SMU in Dallas!