lesson for a project-based learning environment, I wanted to share with you Product Placement, version 2.0.

In this version, students act as consultants working with Procter & Gamble to devise a product placement for a P&G product. The setup, as laid forth in the entry document, is that P&G is looking for product placements that will reach the teenage demographic. So, for students, the task is two fold: find a P&G product that teens would be using, and develop a product placement that would reach teenage eyeballs.

Aside from changing up the scenario the students are working with, I’ve also added some scaffolding activities that examine whether product placements are an effective marketing strategy (ie, do people remember/act on the hidden ads).

In true Project-based learning spirit, here’s the Driving question:
Can we develop a Product Placement strategy that would be memorable and effective in marketing a Proctor and Gamble product to teenagers?

Why It’s Important (What I tell my students):
Understanding Product Placement will help you understand some of the hidden ways in which marketers try to get you to buy their products (which may save you money!). Plus, Proctor & Gamble is THE LARGEST consumer goods company in the world, with nearly $80 Billion a year in sales. As one of the largest advertisers in the world, it spends billions of dollars a year promoting its products. And, P&G is close to Scottsburg – in Cincinnati, OH. If you are interested in a career in Business/Marketing, P&G could provide a great opportunity for you to grow as a professional and still live close to home.

Here are the files associated with the project:
Product Placement PowerPoint – Background introduction on Product Placement w/ YouTube links to examples
P&G Product Placement Project Entry Document (PDF) – Used to kickoff project
Project Rubric – P&G Product Placements – Rubric for grading presentations
Transformers Scaffolding Activity – Used to help students identify product placements in feature films
Product Placement Quiz Scaffolding Activity (PDF) – Students conduct research to see if product placements are memorable
Buyology Reading Excerpt Questions – Students read an excerpt from Martin Lindstrom’s Buyology to learn more about what makes an effective product placement.

In addition to the files linked above, there are a ton of excellent resources online that can be used in this project. I’ll list a few below:
www.brandchannel.com - Provides product placement lists and analysis for movies

www.adage.com - Leading Marketing trade publication

www.youtube.com - Search product placement…they have all kinds of montages and clips

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19562215/ns/business-autos/ – (MSNBC Article about Product Placements in Transformers movie)

http://brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/01/18/Hollywood-Marketers-Face-The-Impossible-Blurring-Product-Placements-In-Sandler-Film – (Product placements in Adam Sandler films)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uObLcznfjY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPJpgjfFJpc

(A few examples of some really BAD product placements from Days of Our Lives)

As always, enjoy. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a line at travis@travisrmartin.com

Related posts:

1. Marketing Lesson: Product Placement in Movies and Television
2. Project Based Economics: Vanguard Black Swan Fund (Part II – Project Rollout)
3. Class Project: Opening Pandora’s Box

Lesson Background

In 1982, Elliot lured an alien out of hiding with a bag of Reese Pieces, and a phenomenon was born.  And no, I’m not

ET & Reese's Pieces = A Match Made in Product Placement Heaven

talking about the birth of the Summer Blockbuster.

Product placements in movies and television shows have become common thanks to Steven Spielberg and his inclusion of a little-known bite sized Hershey product into his movie, E.T. Since then, the practice of product placement has become widely adopted.

In this lesson, students learn the basics of product placement by:

• Participating in a classroom discussion that includes YouTube clips of popular product placement examples
• Watching the movie Transformers and identifying product placements
• Developing a product placement plan for an existing product
• Discussing the ethical advertising issues surrounding product placements

My main goals for this lesson are to:

• Have students identify product placement
• Have students understand why companies engage in product placement
• Have students look at existing product placements with a critical eye (are the effective or not)

Note: The PowerPoint discussion below contains hyperlinks to clips on YouTube. In presentation view, if you click on the photos, it will bring up the YouTube clip. (Links checked as of 4/19/10).

If you have any questions about this lesson (or any of the other ones posted), feel free to drop me a line at travis@travisrmartin.com or leave a comment below.

Lesson Resources
PowerPoint Discussion: Product Placements in Movies and Television
Worksheet: Transformers Product Placement Hunt
Instructions: Determining Product Placement Activity

Website: BrandChannel’s Product Placement in Movies

Article: “Transformers” a GM Ad in Disguise – MSNBC

Related posts:

1. Marketing Project: Procter and Gamble Product Placement (Updated PBL version)
2. Marketing Lesson: An “Eggcellent” Distribution Channel Activity
3. Marketing Lesson: (Price) Anchors Away

Ariely's book focuses on "The Hidden Forces that Shape our Decisions"

As consumers, we’d like to think that we have a pretty good handle on what things should cost. But, a growing body of research is proving that we aren’t as smart as we think. One of the pioneers in this field is Dan Ariely, a Professor of Economics at Duke University. If you haven’t had a chance to read his book, Predictably Irrational, you should pick it up. It provides a lot of great examples of how we as consumers act in ways that sometimes don’t make a lot of sense.

One of my favorite concepts in Ariely’s book is anchoring, which he defines as the human tendency to rely too heavily (or “anchor”) on one previously acquired piece of information when making a decision. For a quick discussion of anchoring, check out the Wikipedia entry. 

Even if you are not familiar with anchoring, you’ve probably seen it in action. Anchoring is why McDonald’s can charge $3.00 for a medium McCafe Latte and still get people to think it’s cheap, despite the fact that it’s one of the most expensive things on the menu. Since many people are “anchored” to Starbucks’ even higher prices, McDonald’s seems cheap by comparison.

You can demonstrate the power of anchoring to your classes using this activity, which comes directly from Predictably Irrational.

In the activity, you have your students write down the last two digits of their social security number on a sheet of paper. After the students have written down their numbers, they are asked to translate the number into a dollar amount (i.e., if the last two digits of the social are 82, that becomes $82). Finally, the class places mock bids on a series of products (I have them “bid” on things like a car stereo, a wireless keyboard, and a navigation system).

What Ariely found, and what you should find if you perform this experiment with your class, is that students who wrote a higher number tend to bid higher than students who wrote down a lower number. In fact, Ariely’s data shows that students with the higher numbers bid as much as 60 to 120% higher than students in the low group.

This activity works great in Marketing class when you are discussing pricing. I also use it in Personal Finance during my unit on consumer skills.  You can perform the experiment using the resources below.

Lesson Resources
Worksheet: Anchoring Activity
Photos: Products for Anchoring Activity
Website: Wikipedia entry for “Anchoring”
Website: Predictably Irrational Excerpt on Anchoring Experiment

Related posts:

1. Marketing Lesson: Product Placement in Movies and Television
2. Personal Finance Lesson: Choosing a Bank
3. Marketing Lesson: An “Eggcellent” Distribution Channel Activity

In case you missed it (and maybe it’s for the best if you do), the latest internet craze is People of Walmart, a website that allows users to upload photos of the colorful characters they encounter while shopping at their local Walmart.

Cleanup on Aisle 6? No species is exempt from the mockery of People of Walmart.Com

If you’ve ever been to Walmart at two in the morning, you may already have a good idea of the subject matter involved here. Think mullets, outrageous tattoos, profanity-laced ball caps, and ridiculously undersized clothing, all captured on camera phone and shared with the world.

People of Walmart, launched a month ago as an inside joke between three friends, has gone viral with thousands of visitors and hoards of media attention.

Based on the site’s success, it is clear that people find humor in seeing someone browse the cereal aisle with a live parrot perched on their shoulder. What isn’t as clear is what, if any, effect the website will have on Walmart’s new makeover strategy, Project Impact.

The premise behind Project Impact is straightforward: improve the Walmart shopping experience by providing customers with better service, more attractive store layouts, and higher quality merchandise in areas such as apparel.

Anyone who has spent an hour fighting their way through the big-box retailer’s crowded, narrow aisles only to spend another thirty minutes waiting for a cashier can tell you that an improved shopping experience is a noble goal for Walmart.

But, creating a better atmosphere for existing customers is only part of Walmart’s new plan. The real hope is that Project Impact will help the Bentonville, Arkansas based company expand their already dominate market share by luring customers away from competitors like Target and Toys-R-Us.

Walmart has lost the hyphen and created a new logo as part of their Project Impact strategy

Unfortunately, the popularity of People of Walmart suggests that Walmart may have a hard time winning over the loyalties of Target shoppers who expect a more “upscale” experience.  Even though the site’s original purpose was to poke a little fun at the most extreme Walmart shoppers, People of Walmart has unwittingly become a microcosm for how the public perceives the store.

Walmart’s “always” low-prices have earned them the reputation of being a store that caters to society’s lowest common denominator. It’s as if the Yellow Smiley Face logo of Walmart has been saying “give me your most eccentric, possibly unstable shoppers yearning for Ramen Noodles by the case load.”  

If that sounds elitist, it shouldn’t. I shop at Walmart every week. But, the truth is, you won’t find a People of TJ Maxx or a People of Target or even a People of KMart.

And since the “shopping experience” includes store aesthetics and the makeup of the shoppers, the idea that Walmart can go upscale by throwing out a few nice sweaters is questionable.

Walmart’s problem is as much about image as it is about inventory, and a website highlighting the store’s anything goes demographic isn’t helping matters.

So, now we’ve come to Walmart’s viral dilemma. They can try to shut down the defamatory, yet beloved, website or just ignore it. As B.L. Ochman of Advertising Age points out, both paths have complications.

“If Walmart tries to squash the site, they’ll quickly become the laughing stock of social media. If they laugh with the site, they’ll be accused of laughing at their own customers.”

Ochman’s conclusion is that Walmart should lay low and wait for the internet crowd to move onto something else, which will eventually happen, as Lol Cats and Awkward Family Photos have proven.

For the time being, Walmart appears to be taking Ochman’s advice, having declined the opportunity to speak with ABC News on the matter. In addition to sparing Wally World from the wrath of “social media,” this approach helps keep the website on the internet fringe and out of the six-o-clock news.

What this approach doesn’t do is address the fact that many of the stars of People of Wal-Mart are unwitting participants, snapped covertly by fellow shoppers. Nor does it address the potential damage the site could have on Walmart’s brand.

At some point, Walmart may be forced to respond to these concerns.

Until that day comes, you may want to double-check yourself in the mirror before heading to your friendly Walmart.

Related posts:

1. Feds Should Seek Corporate Sponsors for Post “War on Drugs” Era
2. KFC and the Danger of Free: Why the Great Chicken Giveaway of 2009 Wasn’t so Great
3. Wal-Mart’s Great Value Gamble

The two approaches could not be more different.

For example, your local bank may run a promotion that promises to give new customers a $25 credit when they open a checking account.

In the Minors, they give away the same $25, but instead of executing an electronic transfer or handing someone a check, they have fans step into a phone booth full of swirling, wind-blown cash and urge them to grab all they can in 30 seconds.

Another example.

Your local bank probably puts suckers at the teller window for everyone to enjoy. (I personally enjoy the Blue Raspberry ones).

In the Minors, they hire helicopters to drop buckets of candy and marshmallows onto the playing field.

Kids participate in Quad Cities "Mega Candy Drop" promotion

I’m not saying that either approach is wrong. When we go to the bank, we expect a certain degree of professionalism. Most people would not enjoy seeing their loan officer brandishing a squirt gun while sporting a cartoonish mascot outfit.

However, when we go to a ballgame, we expect to enjoy the experience. That’s why the tongue-in-cheek, don’t be afraid to laugh promotional style used by many Minor League franchises is so successful. It’s the right approach in the right environment.

High school athletics could be marketed in that same vein. Unfortunately, local amateur sports are either a). marketed like banks as opposed to family-friendly entertainment or b). not marketed at all.

A little creativity can go a long way towards changing that, and a good place for high school athletics to start is by implementing small contests into their game day schedules.

Getting Creative with Contests

As I discussed in the last post, Minor League teams fill down-time between innings with fun, interactive games that involve the fans. Since these contests are only 1-3 minutes in length, they could easily be integrated into any athletic event (half-time of basketball, between quarters in football, etc.).

Coming up with a good contest idea is surprisingly easy. Just think of your current sponsors and ask “what do they do, and how can we turn that into something fun our crowd can interact with?”

By using this line of thinking, you might end up with something like a Subway “Sing for Your Supper” contest where two fans sing the “$5 foot long” jingle. The best jingle, based on audience applause, would win a Subway gift card (provided by Subway, of course).

The Blue Eye pulls ahead during the Cedar Rapids Kernels' Eyeball Race

Even service businesses can get in on the act. The Cedar Rapids Kernels stage a between-inning eyeball race at every home game. If you’ve never seen an eyeball race, it is exactly what it sounds like. Two fans, each dressed in a huge eyeball costume, race across the field. It’s quite a spectacle. And it’s also quite an advertising opportunity for the local optometrist that sponsors it.

These are just two examples. The possibilities are as endless as your own imagination.

Providing advertising opportunities that go beyond signage on the field and logos on the back of a program provides a unique value for sponsors. It helps make their brand “sticky,” or memorable. When other businesses in the community see this, they will want to develop partnerships with the school as well.

Getting Creative with Theme Nights

Contests are great, but why settle for a few minutes of fun when you can go the extra mile and provide a whole evening’s worth of memories?  That is the idea behind the ever-popular “theme night,” a promotional strategy mastered by the Minor Leagues.

If you’ve never been to a theme night, the premise is simple: the team picks a topic and then weaves it into every aspect of what goes on at the park on that given night.

And, as the Minors have proven, any topic is fair game for a theme night. Here is a short sampling of some of the more popular theme nights from the past year, with links to their descriptions:

• Plumber Appreciation Night (South Bend Silverhawks)
  

  An awful Marilyn Monroe hands a program to a teen during the Altoona Curve's annual "Awful Night"

• Awful Night (Altoona Curve)
• Fan Bailout Night (Clinton LumberKings)
• Country Night (Bowie Baysox)
• Salute to Cows (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers)
• “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” World Record Night (Wilmington Blue Rocks)
• Break a World Record Night – Largest Kazoo Rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (Northwest Arkansas Naturals)
• Face Your Fears Night (Bowie Baysox)

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Theme nights like these help Minor League franchises make a connection with fans. Instead of simply being spectators, the fans become a part of something bigger. They also create publicity for the teams involved. People want to know what happens at an “Awful Night,” or a “Face Your Fears Night,” and that curiosity often leads to attendance.

Why Get Creative?

For those involved in high school athletics, theme nights and contests provide an opportunity to do something that’s simply not being done at the amateur level. In Indiana, there will be over 1,000 high school football games played this year. Triple that in basketball and baseball. The approach to these contests is pretty much the same. Schedule the games, and if people show up, they show up.

For large high schools with powerhouse programs, this type of hands-off approach is fine – people will still pack the stands. But, those schools are in the minority.

If the student-athletes at your school are playing in front of more empty seats than filled ones, maybe it is time to get creative.

Next Time: Using technology to make a fan connection

Related posts:

1. Lessons from the Bush Leagues: Applying the Minor League Mindset to High School Athletics (Part I)
2. Silver Hawks Find Promotional Inspiration in Plumbers, Mustaches
3. Drying Paint and Growing Grass Highlight Altoona’s Seventh Annual Homage to Awful

There may be better ways to spend a summer vacation, although I can’t think of any. For two months this summer, I traveled around the country watching Minor League Baseball games, thanks to a Teacher Creativity Grant from the Eli Lilly Foundation.

A large crowd looks on at Smokies Park in Kodak, TN

Officially, the idea was to study the marketing methods used by Minor League Baseball teams, which happen to be so good that they’ve helped some Minor League franchises across the country to record attendance, recession be damned.

Unofficially, I am never at a loss for an excuse to go watch baseball.

In the course of my travels, I was also hoping to get some ideas to bring back to the classroom.

Ah, the classroom – where I teach Business to high schoolers who are sometimes (most of the time) more interested in shooting arrows at balloons with a cartoon monkey (God bless internet games) than learning business fundamentals.

And while I did come up with the inspiration for a handful of great lesson plans, I realized that nearly everything I was seeing at the ballparks – the wacky promotions, the entertaining mascots, and the carnival-like atmospheres – could easily be applied to high school athletics.

It may sound outlandish, marketing high school sports in the same manner that a professional sports league markets its product, but, the reality is that Minor League Baseball and high school sports already have a lot in common.

I’ll give you a few examples in friendly, bullet point format:

• Due to athlete turnover, both the Minor Leagues and high school athletics typically promote teams as a whole as opposed to individual players
• In most markets, fans will attend Minor League games regardless of how well the team is playing. In other words, it doesn’t matter much if the team wins. Fans attend the games to have fun and see young talent develop. Is high school that much different?
• Minor League teams, especially in the lower levels where the teams play in smaller towns, are a big part of their communities.  As a result, the fan mix at most MiLB games is a cross-section of hardcore fans, casual observers, uninterested socialites, and hyper-active youngsters. In a lot of ways it is the same type of crowd found at a high school sporting event.

Any high school athletics program, regardless of size, can adopt a Minor League mindset to help boost community interest, fan support, school spirit, and attendance – all of which lead to more money for the school.

A group of mascots discuss their gameplan.

So, as a back to school gift for Athletic Directors everywhere, I will be offering a four part blog series on the tenets of the Minor League Mindset and how they can be applied to high school athletics.

Part I: Focus on the Fan

It is hard to create a caricature of the “typical” Minor League Baseball fan, because the crowds that attend the games are so diverse. All age groups and levels of interest are represented at the ballpark. Yet, for all their differences, fans at Minor League games seem to have one thing in common: they all have fun.

So, how do these franchises go about entertaining fans ranging in age from infants to octogenarians? Most minor league front office people readily admit that it’s not always about the team on the field.

Sure, some of the fans are there to watch baseball. But, even big baseball fans would have a hard time mustering up enough excitement to go see a lineup like this:

Means – RF
Sappelt – CF
Puckett – 2B
Mendez, C – 3B
Brown, T – LF
Coddington – DH
Day – 1B
Wideman – C
Rojas – SS
Janke – P

Not exactly household names. Nevertheless, 8,584 people piled into Fifth Third Field in Dayton, Ohio to watch these Dayton Dragons take on the Fort Wayne Tincaps on July 2nd.

If it’s not the game itself, what’s drawing 8,000+ fans a night to Dayton, and other ballparks across the country?

Minor League baseball teams have an unrelenting focus on the fan. Everything they do is designed to entertain, and most of the entertainment is interactive. Downtime between innings is filled with contests, with the participants being plucked right from the crowd. Fans may race one another around the bases, sumo wrestle, dance on dugouts, sing karaoke, and play “Let’s Make a Deal” – all before the seventh inning stretch.

As one front office executive put it to me, “baseball is just a backdrop we use to perform our shtick.”

Fans not participating in the “shtick” are treated to what basically amounts to a live-action reality show. What nine-year old will be able to put on a Dragons uniform and race around the bases the quickest? Tune in between the fourth and fifth innings to find out!

All of these contests provide family fun and help turn spectators into participators and casual fans into season ticket holders. In addition, they provide a unique opportunity for your sponsors – an issue we’ll discuss next time.

A fan participates in a dice rolling game at Bowling Green Ballpark

Focusing on the fan also means providing a comfortable atmosphere. I visited over 20 Minor League stadiums this summer, and I don’t recall seeing a single scrap of paper laying on the ground in any of the concourses or men’s rooms. All of the stadiums were clean, all had good food (some obviously better than others) and regardless of where I was at, it was always easy to spot an usher if I needed something.

Adopting a Minor League mindset requires more from an Athletic Director than scheduling officials, chalking the field, and turning on the lights. It’s about creating an environment where people are always wondering “what are they going to do next?”

And, the beautiful thing is, adopting a fan-friendly focus doesn’t take a lot of extra money or staff. Work with students to develop theme nights and contests. Leverage your school’s existing website to advertise your programs (a topic which we’ll cover in part three). Partner with the booster club to find volunteers to serve as ushers/fan assistants.

In the end, fans that have fun at a sporting event will continue to come back. The Minor Leagues have proven that. There’s no reason why the same wouldn’t hold true at the high school level.

Next Time – Part II: Get Creative and Get Fans

What do these eyes have to do with drawing fans and providing value for sponsors? Find out next time.

Related posts:

1. Lessons from the Bush Leagues: Applying the Minor League Mindset to High School Athletics (Part II)
2. Kane County Cougars Thriving in Crowded Market
3. Micro-market Beloit Tries to Snap up Fans by Sticking to Basics

Captain Awful, the original face of Awful Night (www.milb.com)

There’s a bizzaro-world of Minor League promotions. A twilight-zonesque place where fans are given their freebie on the way out the door. A place where elderly ushers dressed in drag escort fans to their seats. A place where half-eaten hot dog buns are tossed into the stands. And yes, God help us, a place where the music of David Hasselhoff is used to pump up the crowd.

The place is Altoona, Pennsylvania. The theme is “Awful Night.”

In its 7^th incarnation, the Altoona Curve’s signature event is a satirical take on the everyday ballpark experience. As far as promotions go, Awful Night is, by design, as bad as it gets.

Among the high (or low) lights from Awful Night 2009:

• Slugfest 2009 – A blistering race ran by two slugs, Milli and Vanilli, who were liberated from underneath a rock by a member of the Curve grounds crew. Depicted on the videoboard, the race began in the middle of the first inning and concluded four innings later when Milli slimed his way to victory.

• Bun Toss – Hungry fans were relieved in the second inning when the Curve’s mascot, Steamer, tossed plain hot dog buns into the crowd.

• Watching Paint Dry – Fans were riveted during the third inning by a videoboard demonstration of paint drying.

• Stick Pony Race – Admiral Awful races across the outfield on his trusty stick-pony.

• 7^th Inning Fan Cam – Proving that the double entendre is alive and well, the 7^th inning stretch featured a “fan” cam that highlighted some of the best electric fans the park had to offer.

• Gross Growing Contest – The seventh inning concluded with a grass (of the legal variety) growing contest between two Curve groundskeepers.

• Awful Giveaway, Part I – Fresh new t-shirts have no place at an Awful Night. So, in their place Curve staffers chucked “gently used” t-shirts into the crowd.

• Awful Giveaway, Part II – The last five fans to leave the park saw their diligence rewarded with a photo of the Curve PA man sitting on a horse.

• You Call That Music? – The soundtrack for Awful Night consisted of satisfyingly annoying amounts of Celine Dion, Ashlee Simpson, Cher, and David Hasselhoff.

The awfulness extended beyond the music, bad puns, and between-inning entertainment. On the field, the Bowie Baysox pitching staff turned in a performance befitting of Awful Night, giving up 12 runs on 12 hits while walking 9 and helping the Curve run away with a 12-3 victory.

With their seventh Awful Night, and other theme nights like “Salute to Quitters” and “Please Come to Altoona, Will Ferrell” officially in the books, Altoona has cemented a reputation as the Minor League’s Master of the Irreverent.

Related posts:

1. Lessons from the Bush Leagues: Applying the Minor League Mindset to High School Athletics (Part II)
2. Silver Hawks Find Promotional Inspiration in Plumbers, Mustaches
3. Kane County Cougars Thriving in Crowded Market

With so many teams in such a small area, it would be easy to see how a small Minor League franchise like the Cougars, a class ‘A’ affiliate of the Oakland A’s, could get lost in the shuffle.

Instead, the Cougars are navigating their way through the crowded Chicago sports scene just fine.

Kane County General Manager Jeff Sedivy has been going head-to-head with the big boys for 18 seasons – and succeeding. “When you’re going up against them (White Sox, Cubs, Fire),” Sedivy said, “you’ve got to have your pencil sharpened and be ready to go.”

Fans Line the Berm at Elfstrom Stadium

Based on the numbers, the Cougars are more than ready to go. Last season, the team averaged 7,160 fans a night, placing them second in attendance in the Midwest League (behind the Dayton Dragons), and 17^th among all of Minor League Baseball.

Although Sedivy doesn’t have the marketing budget of the Chicago White Sox or the brand equity of the Chicago Cubs, he does have one formidable weapon at his disposal – one of the best atmospheres in all of minor league baseball.

Fans that find their way to Elfstrom Stadium, located in the West Chicago Suburb of Geneva, are treated to the sight of big league hopefuls playing in front of near-capacity crowds of knowledgeable fans while the smell of Elephant Ears and Roasted Corn-on-the-Cob fills the air.

It’s an environment that is equal parts county fair and baseball.

And then there are the promotions.

Sedivy has packed the Kane County home schedule with a variety of events, including a Jimmy Buffet theme night, 30 postgame fireworks shows, and in-game performances from acts like Myron Noodleman, the Zoopsters, and Rubber Boy. According to Sedivy, the effectiveness of Kane County’s promotional schedule is due, in part, to the amount of variety that it offers. “We try to create promotions that everyone can take part in, so there’s something for everyone – mom, dad, and the kids.”

Cougar Players Toss Logo-Balls to Fans Prior to the Game

This “something for everyone” approach led to a World Record in 2008 as the Cougars set the Guinness mark for World’s Largest Pillow Fight, a 3,800 person, feather-infused melee.

Kane County Cougar Fans Participate in the World's Biggest Pillow Fight

Despite being one of the best draws in the Minors, Sedivy has no plans to rest on his accomplishments, especially in a down economy. “A lot of people say that Minor League Baseball is recession-proof, but I don’t believe that,” Sedivy explained, “We do a lot of group sales, and right now, groups are hurting.”

For those groups that are feeling the pain of a recession, the Cougars have the perfect cure: an affordable nine-inning vacation to the county fair that is Kane County Baseball.

Young Cougars Fans Getting Autographs

Related posts:

1. At Elfstrom Stadium, Kane County Cougars Fans Make the Difference (Ballpark Review)
2. Micro-market Beloit Tries to Snap up Fans by Sticking to Basics
3. Lessons from the Bush Leagues: Applying the Minor League Mindset to High School Athletics (Part I)

This negative image was flushed away over the course of one doubleheader on June 17 as the South Bend Silver Hawks, a Class ‘A’ affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, celebrated Plumber Appreciation Night at Coveleski Field.

Plumber Appreciation Night at the Cove, as Announced on the Display Leading into the Ballpark

The stadium wide “thank you” to plumbers included a toilet paper giveaway (above and beyond the free tp fans have access to in the ballpark lavatories) and a number of on-field contests that gave fans the chance to become acquainted with the tool of choice for amateur plumbers everywhere – the plunger.

Silver Hawk Mascot, "Swoop," Waves a Plunger in Salute to Plumbers Everywhere

For Marketing Director Amy Hill and her staff, the ode to plumbers is just another promotion in a string of creative gems that are bringing fans out to the Cove.

Earlier in the season, the Silver Hawks generated buzz with memorable themes like “Ugly Sweater Night” (fans wearing ugly sweaters received free admission), “Halfway to Halloween Night” (fans wearing Halloween costumes received free admission), and the recession-themed “Name Your Ticket Price Night” (no costume or sweater necessary, just name your price, man).

And people are still talking about one of last year’s Silver Hawk promotional masterpieces, “Mustache Awareness Night,” an event inspired by pitcher Josh Collmenter’s circa-1970 pushbroom stache’ that garnered an endorsement from the esteemed American Mustache Institute.

“A good promotion is one that is fun and that fans are going to be able to interact with,” Hill explains, which in turn, explains why on any given night fans at the Cove are likely to be found participating in off-the wall stunts like tossing rings at a plunger, dancing atop the dugout in a ridiculous sweater, or wearing a fake mustache.

Swoop Celebrates with the Winners of the "Big Underwear" Race

So, what’s next in South Bend? Having had a Plumber Appreciation night and a Mustache Awareness Night, one can only think that it will be a matter of time before the Silver Hawks combine the two and honor the most famous Mustachioed Plumber of all time: Mario.

Regardless of what Hill and company dream up next, Silver Hawk fans can be sure of one thing: it will be fun.

Swoop Leads the South Bend Diamond Girls in a Toilet Paper Race

Related posts:

1. Lessons from the Bush Leagues: Applying the Minor League Mindset to High School Athletics (Part II)
2. Drying Paint and Growing Grass Highlight Altoona’s Seventh Annual Homage to Awful
3. Lessons from the Bush Leagues: Applying the Minor League Mindset to High School Athletics (Part I)

On Friday, KFC issued an apology and a raincheck to angry “customers” who were turned away during a recent promotion for the chain’s new Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

The promotion, designed to be the centerpiece of the Grilled Chicken product launch, was fairly straight forward: place a coupon offering a free two-piece grilled chicken meal on the KFC website, have Oprah mention the coupon on her show, serve up some free chicken, and then sit back and watch America fall in love with the new offering.

Unfortunately for Colonel Sanders and his crew, somewhere between plan and execution things got clucked up.

To understand what went wrong for KFC, it helps to compare their debacle to a recent restaurant giveaway that was executed successfully.

Not since the Chicken Famine of 1987 has poultry caused this much of a stir. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

In January, Denny’s surprised the breakfast world (which is not an easy group to surprise, given their penchant for early mornings and coffee) when it offered the entire country a free Grand Slam breakfast. The promotion, which was advertised during the Super Bowl, packed Denny’s restaurants across the country on the morning of February 3^rd. But, unlike the KFC freebie, the masses went home from Denny’s satisfied, and the breakfast chain enjoyed a flood of good publicity.

A closer look reveals three key ways in which the KFC promotion came up short.

Underpromise, Overdeliver

In offering the internet masses free chicken, KFC backed itself into a promise they were unable to deliver on.  By being unprepared for the amount of people who flooded their stores, KFC overpromised and underdelivered. In a business climate where one unhappy customer can vent their frustrations to millions of other potential customers with the click of a mouse, businesses can not afford to make promises they cannot keep.  Although KFC never anticipated that everyone would attempt to redeem their coupons at once (the original promotion was set to run over the course of multiple days), someone should have had the foresight to do some “what-if” planning.

Avoid the Coupon Mentality

Although coupons are not cash, they do share similarities: each is scarce, both are printed on paper, and both require effort to obtain. When KFC forced customers to get a coupon in order take part in the promotion, they inadvertently turned the act of giving away chicken into a monetary transaction. As a result, KFC did not just turn people away by refusing to honor the coupons; they essentially told the holders “your money is no good here.” The sense of entitlement that comes with holding a coupon led to a lot of strong negative reactions when the coupons went unfulfilled. As such, KFC may have been better served to forgo the coupons all together.

Own the Story

With a television show that draws over 7,000,000 viewers every weekday, Oprah has the ability to reach a captive mass audience. She also has the ability to draw a seemingly equal amount of people that enjoy lampooning anything she is involved in that doesn’t turn out as planned. While the power of “O,” initially helped spread the word on the chicken promotion, it also took ownership of the story from KFC. Instead of being a “KFC” story, the promotion became an “Oprah” story. This shift made it much harder for KFC to conduct damage control after the giveaway was botched.

The fact that KFC wasn’t telling a particularly good story to begin with did not help matters either. After Denny’s made good on their promise of a free breakfast for all, multiple blogs and newspapers praised the promotion as an altruistic act to help raise spirits during a down economy. Of course it wasn’t, but since Denny’s was in control of their publicity situation, they received this type of spin. KFC’s giveaway was never portrayed as anything more than a launch of a new product.

Next Time

Like all controversies that take on a life of their own on the internet, KFC’s mismanaged promotion will soon be an afterthought.

In the meantime, Colonel Sanders is urging his customers to UNthink KFC. As for the hungry patrons turned away during the chicken giveaway? They would like to see the Colonel’s team REthink their strategies before they try to roll out another promotion involving free food.

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2. Free (Business) Lesson Plans! No Purchase Necessary!
3. Lessons from the Bush Leagues: Applying the Minor League Mindset to High School Athletics (Part II)