Final Project — Senator Athletics Concept Paper

Founded in 1904, Davis & Elkins College is a small liberal arts college nestled in the mountains of north central West Virginia.  With a highly desirable 12:1 student to faculty ratio, students enjoy individual attention in a nurturing college environment designed to provide a positive college experience.

Athletics have always been an integral part of campus life at Davis & Elkins College.  The Athletics Department, as an extension of the educational process is committed to assisting student athletes to achieve their academic and athletic potential and become contributing members of society.

FOCUS

In order for Senators Athletics to reach out and engage the local Randolph County community, an image piece should be created. The commercials should portray the excitement of NCAA Division II sports available in their own back yard.   

 

A :30 television spot showcasing the top male & female sports on campus, while also touching on the lesser-draw sports, should be produced and aired on local network television affiliates during morning and evening sports news.  I recommend spending additional funds to air first in the commercial rotation to maximize our exposure.

Placements should also be made on the cable ESPN channel and around WVU football & basketball games. Leveraging YouTube, the college’s website & Facebook page along with the Senators Athletic website & Facebook page should also be considered.  While posting the :30 spots on individual athletes’ Facebook pages is a violation of NCAA rules and regulations, coaches could encourage their athletes to ‘like’ the YouTube and Facebook spots and thus create a link to the video(s).

BRAND

The spots should focus on the action-packed excitement available close to home at all Senators athletic events.  Senator games/matches/meets aren’t difficult to get to, nor costly to attend.  With many events taking place during the evening, they are the perfect ‘cheap night out’ for family and friends. 

No need to call ahead and reserve tickets, the D&E Senators are ‘your’ team.  Over 55% of the student body and almost 20% of Senator Athletes come from the state of West Virginia.  Thanks to the Highland Scholarship program, residents from the seven surrounding counties can attend to D&E at the same rate of the state funded institutions.   

The level of athleticism of NCAA Division II sports is definitely something to witness.   The D&E fan experience allows you to be close enough to the action to feel the pulse of the game.  We don’t want you to simply ‘watch’ the games, we want you to participate.  Hear the athletes’ hearts pound, see their sweat build, and feel their breath as they run past you down the court.  The simple act of watching a Senators commercial should bring all levels of sports fans to the edge of their seat.  We’ll not be satisfied until you’re screaming for the coach to let you in the game!

 
AUDIENCE

Working to make the audience part of the game experience, the spots need to appeal to a wide range of demographics — sports enthusiast, families looking for something to do, and anyone wanting a bit of excitement.   Sports enthusiasts would target men age 18 – 45.  Families with children would target adults 18 – 35. 

CONTENT POINTS

Senator Athletics is FUN! EXCITING! And a great place to bring the family.

 

• Senator action…up close & personal…no binoculars here!
• If you miss a Senators event, you miss a lot of fun 
• Commercials should make you want to play the game yourself

CREATIVE APPROACH

The main goal of the creative is to convey excitement around Senator athletic events.  Excitement on the field…excitement in the hearts and minds of Senator athletes…and excitement in the local community. 

The spot will open with three to four seconds of shots showing people walking to games, game crowd scenes, kids / families in the stands enjoying pregame, etc.  while a male announcer invites fans to experience a Senators game.  No background music, just a normal heartbeat barely audible. 

A game whistle sounds and images quickly change to action footage of various sports ‘starting’ their respective game as the heartbeat increases in pulse and volume.   Images and heartbeat continue to increase in frequency and intensity.  The final seconds will show a graduated red screen with a Senators logo pulsing to a fast, loud heartbeat trying to come to rest.  On screen copy will appeal to fans to not miss a second of Senator action. 

:30 Script

Senator Excitement

	Video	Audio
1.	WS crowd walking through parking lot wearing red & white Senator gear motioning the camera to follow	ANNC:  COME TO; SX:  heart beat
2.	CU of 3 young children together with red & white painted faces	ANNC:  THE CAMPUS;
3	CU of students wearing school colors (red/white) walking on campus to game	ANNC: OF DAVIS AND; SX:  heart beat
4.	CU Cheerleaders piled into a convertible during a campus ‘Spirit Parade’	ANNC:  ELKINS COLLEGE
5.	Shot of Highlanders bagpipe band marching towards fields	SX: heart beat & bagpipe music
6.	Shot of (3) student fans wearing unibody suits waving bam stix before a soccer match	ANNC: AND EXPERIENCE
7.	Crowd (inside sport) doing the ‘wave’	ANNC:  SENATOR; SX: heart beat
8.	CU shot of team lined up for National Anthem	ANNC:  NATION
9.	Fade to black	SX: heart beat (amplified)
10.	Black screen	SX: heart beat (amplified)
11.	Basketball team bursting through large Senator banner	ANNC:  SX: one long whistle blow
12.	Baseball team running onto field	ANNC:  SENATOR; SX:  heart beat (amplified)
13.	Huge volleyball spike	ANNC:  ATHLETICS; SX:  player grunt & heart beat (amplified)
14.	cross country team starting a race	SX: heart beat; breathing (amplified)
15.	CU swimmer doing butterfly	SX: heart beat; splashing water (amplified)
16.	Men’s soccer player heads the ball	ANNC:  EDGE; SX: amplified head-hitting-ball sound & player grunt; heart beat
17.	WS of crowd of fans all standing up (fast) as they concentrate on the game	SX: heart beat (amplified)
18.	Golfer teeing off; shot from side view	ANNC:  OF; SX: golf ball hitting driver; heart beat (amplified)
19.	Softball player swinging the bat; shot from side	ANNC:  YOUR; SX: ball hitting bat; heart beat (amplified)
20.	WS of crown ALL turning their heads from left to right (following the action)	ANNC:  SEAT; SX: heart beat (amplified)
21.	CU Tennis player hitting forehand volley, concentration of face	SX: tennis ball hitting racket & heart beat (amplified)
22.	Massive basketball dunk in traffic	ANNC:  EXCITEMENT; SX: player breathing, background game noise; heart beat (all amplified)
23.	WS Crowd cheers; show all standing in unison; concentrating on the action; shot from the side	SX: crowd roar & heart beat (amplified)
24.	Softball pitcher throwing; concentration on player face	SX: heart beat (amplified)
25.	WS Soccer player brings the ball down field in a crowd of opponents	ANNC:  COME ON; SX: heavy breathing; heart beat (amplified)
26.	Women’s Basketball – Fast break & pass	ANNC:  GET IN; SX: heart beat (amplified)
27.	CU Tennis player backhand return	ANNC:  THE GAME; SX: heart beat & breathing (amplified)
28.	WS Soccer scores a goal as opposing goalie dives and misses	SX: crowd roar & heart beat (amplified)
29.	Soccer player running down the side of the field high-fiving the crowd of fans on the sidelines.	SX: crowd cheering; heart beat (amplified)
30.	WS Baseball Team celebrates win; whole team on pitching mound	SX: heart beat (amplified)
31.	WS Crowd going wild; jumping up & down; shot from side	SX: crowd cheering & heart beat (amplified)
32.	CU of group of player faces showing intense emotion at win	SX: heart beat (amplified)
33.	CU of fans in the stands going wild!	SX: heart beat (amplified) crowd cheering
34.	Graduated red screen; Senator logo dominating the middle of the screen; Logo pulsing with heartbeat; below logo copy to read (not pulsing) “Men’s Soccer vs. West Virginia Wesleyan College” next line “Saturday, September 3 @ 2:00 PM”  next line “Join the Excitement  @ www.SenatorsNation.com  NCAA Division II logo in lower right side of screen	ANNC: WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?; SX: heart beat- several beats

 

My Digital Adventure

I’m seriously considering changing the name of my blog from “Digital Media Virgin” to something more relevant.  Something that will convey the fact that I’m no longer a stranger to digital media and all it has to offer.  Something professional.  Something with personality.  Maybe something like “Digital Media Princess” – I just love the idea of a tiara!   No, really.

When I started this project, the thought of blogging took me so far outside my comfort zone, that GPS was required to get me back on solid ground.  I had read about blogs, watched movie characters blog and even read some blogs myself.  But I had NEVER considered blogging myself.  Now look at me…I’m a blogger! 

I must admit that blogging is fun.  Once you get past all the funky setup jargon, that is.  Words like tag, category, and dashboard were thrown around with little or no explanation.  I guess the folks at WordPress thought that surely to goodness (by now) everyone knows the basics.  It would actually take me longer to jazz up the post than to write it.  One day, I spent three hours trying to incorporate audio into my post only to find out that audio and video components were only available with site upgrades and an annual fee. 

Every day was a new, digital adventure.  I’d click this and that and put my new-found knowledge to good use when creating a post.  I eventually got the hang of tags and managed to capture some views by people simply searching for a flash mob incident at Ohio State.  Who knows, maybe one of them became a follower and is reading this right now!  Hello.

It’s strange really, being in marketing, hearing about the social networking explosion and never considering diving in myself.  Sure, it’s time-consuming and participation levels are definitely an individual decision.  But, hey…I’ve been missing out!  A lot! 

Twitter is OK, but if you’re someone like me, totally disconnected in the digital world, it can make you feel like the last person picked for dodge ball.  Facebook is the place to establish a digital identity.  Their set-up questions pave the way for digital interaction quickly.  I can’t wait to catch up with old friends and make new ones.  Southern High School ROCKS!

In the end I’ve decided that blogging and the whole notion of social networking is like sex.  Once you find out how to do it, and you get better at it, you want to do it all the time.   So go ahead…live a little! 

Property Rights on the Internet. Great Idea. How?

Property rights and the internet…I’m sure you toss and turn most nights pondering the quandary.    But while current laws and regulations governing traditional media outlets with regard to commercial speech, libel laws, negligence laws, privacy laws, copyright laws and trademark laws can be applied to emerging media, there is still very little on the books that specifically targets the Internet. 

“So what does this mean to me”, you ask?  Well, it depends on your internet footprint.  Those with a large internet presence have the most to lose from property right infringement.  When you consider that the content we put out on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. is designed, by the very nature of the platform, to encourage interaction in the hope of going viral, you begin to see the problem. 

Accept for traditional academic guidelines regarding plagiarism and my elementary knowledge of trademarks and copyrights, I worried little about security.  I skipped merrily through my blogs without much thought to protecting myself or crediting photos.  I’m sure there are billions of ignorant people just like me, except they probably have more followers.    But as you may know from episodes of Law & Order, ignorance of the law is no defense.

Historically, our government has been slow to react to changes in society and typically takes a one-size-fits-all approach to regulating anything new.  The social media explosion and almost daily enhancements, new gadgets and capabilities have made regulating emerging media that much more difficult.   Too often government action is too late, too weak and contains more loopholes than health care legislation.   The lack of serious regulations governing the banking industry is a great example of the fix-it-after-it-becomes-a-serious-problem mentality. 

Don’t get me wrong.  The thought of violating any law or regulation scares the pajeemers out me.  I’m not cut out for prison, but I would also venture to guess that I don’t fit the profile of an internet scammer out to steal a trademark.   The majority of people out there want to do what’s right (that’s my glass-half-full mentality).  But court rulings are all over the map, rules and regulations too complicated, (hence law school) and technology definitely outpaces safeguards. 

Participating in what the Internet has to offer is by nature a simple process.  Starting your own blog, Facebook or Twitter account is a snap.  It seems almost counter-intuitive that protecting yourself and your content is so complicated.   Make it S I M P L E people.  I’m sure there’s a computer geek out there somewhere that can come up with a way to protect trademarks and copy from cut and paste thievery. 

By the way, all the photos in today’s blog were retrieved from Royalty Free Scared Photos (free photo section) with a simple right click and then download onto this  blog platform.

All is NOT what it seems

Does anyone really know what they’re getting when they something?  You know that simple act of typing in a word or short phrase and hitting the “search” button.  Now, I bet you think that some sort of unbiased, natural search optimization occurs and the results show the most popular, most visited sites first and proceed in descending order.  WRONG! 

Nowadays, what you’ll get is a jumbled list of natural, paid placement and paid inclusion search results.    Back in 2005 the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that “only one in six users of Internet search engines can tell the difference between unbiased search results and paid advertisements.”  Yikes! 

Paid placement refers to advertisers paying a fee in exchange for higher rankings within search results.  You simply need to type in one of their pre-determined search words or “tags” and they will be listed at the top of the search results.  Paid inclusion also refers to advertisers paying a fee in exchange for being listed within the search list, but there is no guarantee where you’ll be placed on the list.

Thankfully, most major search engines have conformed in some manner to new FTC recommendations to provide “clear and conspicuous disclosure” of search results.    By now, you’ve probably noticed “Sponsored Links” at the top of Google searches have been replaced by a less obvious faint color block.  These are paid placements. To date, Google does not accept paid inclusion.  Check the table below for more info:

Search Engine Chart

 

Today’s Advertorial: Stretching Ethical Boundaries.

In my previous life, I sold ads into a network of local newspapers. It was a wonderful job. The employees generally cared about the reputation of the paper and followed strict guidelines to remain unbiased in the reporting. Editorial was in one section of the building and advertising was waaaayyyyy across the building in another section. It was absolutely taboo to think that the two would mix in any way. That was then.

Today, the rules of the game have changed and advertorials seem to be straddling the line between news and advertising like never before. Advertorials have emerged as the latest trend in both traditional and emerging media.

By their very nature, advertorials are disguised to lead readers to view them as editorial content with real news value. What makes spotting these cloaked ads even more difficult is the fact that some advertorial topics are indeed newsworthy and do present some educational value to consumers. The proverbial sheep in wolfs clothing, so to speak.

Traditional outlets such as newspapers and magazines typically include “paid advertising” labels at the top of the ad and in some cases even insert third party disclaimers so as to not mislead a reader. With minimal government regulations on Internet marketing, online media outlets are largely left to the honor system with regard to advertorials.

So what’s driving this trend? Money, of course. Patricia Riedman of Advertising Age writes, “in today’s economic climate, what once was unthinkable by the most successful search engines is now being accepted as status quo and a means of eking out desperately needed online ad revenue.

So, do you consider advertorials unethical? In my mind, anything having to disguise itself as something else is not right. I learned this early on when my mother convinced me that a helping of cooked carrots was actually sweet potatoes! Be on the lookout…all is not what it seems!

How Private is Your Life Online?

It’s no secret that securing your personal information online is important.  But what about from your mobile device?  We sign-up in droves for various apps and give away our personal information like its candy.  Sure, we personalize our security settings and opt-in and out of loads of stuff.  But how safe is your information.   Privacy concerns and how a site handles your personal information is yet another form of measurement for effectiveness on the internet, and can be applied to mobile marketing as well.

As mobile consumers, we’ve morphed the rules of the game.  We don’t just want

we 

Convenience and instant access are necessities.  We sign up as fans of our favorite brands and products and have grown to covet the personalized messages, sales and insider information that come along with these relationships.  So why are we so surprised when our personal information is compromised in the name of giving us what we crave?

Those cool messages from Starbucks when you’re near a store come at a price.  The whole idea of GPS navigation only works when the “system” knows exactly where you are.   Uploading coupons to your phone to be scanned at the register pass along more than just the percentage off the purchase.   Those bar codes also give your personal information to that store so they can continue to track your buying habits and pass along personally relevant information in the future. 

Sure, uncertainty about whether personal information will be sold or shared with other vendors is a huge concern.  Transparency and full disclosure of a sites security policy make consumers less hesitant and more willing to remain a customer.   Opt-in and opt-out features along with an easy way to discontinue a site relationship are key elements to marketing success.   

But just think…you’ve got your life on display on Facebook and give an almost constant stream of conscious over Twitter.  Some responsibility for security must be taken by the individual.  Pay attention to design changes on the sites you frequent.  Changes to a sites page design usually mean changes in security options back to default settings.  Pay attention.  Monitor your security settings. 

Don’t trust anyone…someone IS watching.

What World Do YOU Live In?

While studying the various measures of effectiveness in interactive marketing on the internet, I ran across the notion of “presence”.  The term presence relates to the correlation between the real world and the virtual world created online.  Two measures of presence are “telepresence” and “social presence”.

Telepresence is achieved when the virtual environment is more real than the physical environment.    Over-the-top graphics and enhanced mobile devices make these apps a wonderful escape from the daily pressures of life.  A good example of telepresence would be the uber popular virtual reality video games out there.  Or even the hundreds of people you see walking around the city with their heads down and their thumbs moving at Mach One, sending text messages or surfing the net on their smart phone at the speed of light.  I swear if you watch long enough, you’ll see mindless robots running into each other with barely an “excuse me” or “sorry” uttered…that’s telepresence.

The second measure of presence is “social presence”.  Personally, I think this one is scarier than the first.  To achieve “social presence”, a consumer feels they exist in BOTH the virtual world and in their physical environment.  Both realms feel real.  That got me thinking…that’s exactly how the popular GPS navigational apps on your phone or in your car operate. 

Remember those reports not long ago from England about a rise in cars running into buildings, lakes, trees, etc?  Apparently, people were so engrossed in what there GPS navigational system  told them to do and their blind devotion to information from a computer chip, that they literally drove into houses and office buildings…that’s social presence. 

With today’s internet technology having evolved to include mobile devices, the concept of presence (or lack thereof) could have serious consequences in the future.  Hey, back in the day a phone simply made phone calls.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not against instant internet access anywhere, anytime.  Just use your head and keep it up while you are mobile.

Facebook as a marketing tool

Statistics show that consumers are turning to the internet more and more for information about companies, products and brands.  With literally thousands of social media channels available to marketers today, Facebook, with its 250 million active users, has emerged as a popular platform choice for many companies today. 

Social networking has been described as a cultural phenomenon.  The basic concept is simple and the hidden potential of the platform is when people create a buzz through word-of-mouth. 

Today, Facebook is one of the fastest growing social networking sites.  What started out in 2004 as a networking site for people with university e-mail accounts has grown into one of the favorite marketing sites for major companies like Toyota, Dell, and BMW. 

Perhaps the best social marketing example is

Starbucks.  In a recent engagement study conducted by Charlene Li with Wetpaint/Altimeter Group and Engagementdb, Starbucks earned the highest score, 127, with engagement in eleven channels. 

Starbucks not only has a robust strategy and dedicated team focused on social media, but it also makes social media a core part of their go-to-market strategy.  It’s an element that is embraced by the entire organization.  The fundamental belief of their small, six-member social marketing team feels that it’s about the relationships they form with their customers, not marketing.  Starbucks has a three-pronged approach to social media that includes an idea website, as well as Facebook and Twitter pages.

Starbucks launched MyStarbucksideas.com in July, 2008 as a platform where people engage with Starbucks.  They can submit, comment on, and vote for their favorite ideas.  The website now has 180,000 registered users who have submitted over 80,000 ideas.  Fifty of the ideas have been implemented in-store. 

Starbucks created a Facebook page in October, 2008.  Today, the Starbucks Facebook site has nearly 3.7 million members and represents one of the largest groups on Facebook.   The site combines Starbucks-generated content with consumers sharing their passion for the brand.  Chris Bruzzo, VP of Brand, Content & Online explains, “That for every four people that interacted with a particular news item, another three people are added virally as friends of those people.”   

While their Facebook sites strives to engage the masses with the brand, their Twitter site offers more personal communication.  With over 775,000 followers, Starbucks uses Twitter as an “in the moment” channel to deliver timely customer support and spread the word about the latest breaking news and contests.

Starbucks is truly doing it the right way when it comes to social marketing.  They create the internal mechanisms necessary for success.  They have a core belief in customer engagement.  They understand that social media should be used as like building blocks, not as stand-alone mediums.  They believe that two-way communication as the best way to build their brand.

How secure is social media these days?

Now that I’m a digital media “expert” (yeah, baby) I’m starting to connect this whole notion of web security. Sure, I had heard of hackers and identity theft. But I naively thought stuff like email, text messages and Facebook were somehow above all that. Yeah, right!

My first clue, as if news about hackers and identity theft on television weren’t enough, was the little joint announcement by Twitter and the Library of Congress earlier this month that they would archive all public tweets since the advent of Twitter. Initially, I thought “cool, I’m published.” Then I realized the real implications of that move. 

Currently, my small Twitter following of 4 is a kind bunch that seems to humor my semi-sporadic tweets begging for blog followers. However, do I really want to be searchable in the Library of Congress? Sure, they plan to emphasize “tweets with scholarly and research implications”, which means I’m probably safe from scrutiny, but the recent spanking that officers from Goldman Sachs took on Capitol Hill (they deserve harsher punishment in my opinion) using their emails and text messages as evidence against them got me thinking. You never know when an innocent tweet could bit you in the butt.

Before I had time to fully digest the Twitter / Library of Congress deal, Facebook pops up in the news with security issues. Apparently, their new “Instant Personalization” service is designed as an “Opt-In” rather than “Opt-Out” by default. Why do we care?  Here’s why…the main issue is that Facebook made a huge decision affecting you without your consent. Essentially, your personal data will be shared with select partners (currently limited to Docs.com, Pandora.com, and Yelp.com) the moment you visit the site.   Doesn’t sound too damaging until you realize that Facebook recently posted more weekly traffic in the United States than internet search giant Google.  I knowwwww, right?  According to Experian Hitwise, “for the week ending March 13, visits to Facebook.com accounted for 7.07 percent of all Internet traffic in the United States.”

Bottom line – Be Careful What You Tweet or Post. It’s out there. Forever. For the whole world to see. Sharing information through various digital mediums has become a huge part of how we communicate. Just be careful…everyone is watching.

Some little known Twitter facts:

• Twitter has over 105 million registered users
• Twitter posts 55 million tweets a day
• Twitter serves 600 million searches daily. WOW!

Crowdsourcing Anyone?

So, what do you do if you’re a company – say L’Oreal or Sony – that needs fresh and creative marketing ideas but you don’t want to throw a lot of money at the project? Crowdsource, of course. The term, coined by Magazine’s Jeff Howe in 2006, goes like this, “crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call.” In other words, “getting customers to do the marketing – at little or no cost to the company.” Hey, I’d like to crowdsource my homework for the rest of my degree…anyone interested?

This new buzz strategy is possible because of; you guessed it, evolving new media platforms. So what’s in it for the various parties involved? Well, on the corporate side “crowdsourcing can generate loads of creative ideas, shorten development time, reduce costs dramatically and get customers deeply involved in a product or brand.” Wikipedia and eBay are examples of successful crowdsourcing models.

For the individuals involved as part of the crowd, the project needs to make them happy, and be something they are passionate about. Crowdsourcing actually appeals to their desire to develop and share ideas of their own. The idea of crowdsourcing is catching on so well, Jessi Hempel of came up with some rules to follow for success –

• The more details about the project the better the chances for success.

• Effective filters will help companies wade through the mountain of ideas generated.

• Recruit the right crowd. Search for social network sites that relate to your particular product.

• While cash helps generate participation, passion about the product increases involvement.

Once ideas are generated, companies need to incorporate them into their internal processes. This is the point where the focus on the project and types of filters become deal breakers; pay close attention or otherwise you’ve just wasted company time.

So, who’s crowdsourcing these days? Converse is considered the pioneer of consumer crowdsourcing. A contest from 2004 designed to reinvigorate their Chuck Taylor brand is still getting submissions today. More recently, Doritos has had success crowdsourcing with their 2007 Super Bowl contest for original ads. My personal fav is the T-shirt company Threadless.com, that uses crowdsourcing to keep costs down and designs hot. Check them out, you won’t be disappointed. I think I’ve seen some of these designs worn by Sheldon on the CBS hit show Big Bang Theory.