The product on the field has improved, so marketing efforts for the Nevada Wolf Pack football campaign this year have begun to focus on the total experience of attending a game at Mackay Stadium.
And the school and its advertising agency, The Bauserman Group of Reno, are putting $50,000 cash into an effort that in the past relied exclusively on trade-out agreements with media outlets.
The advertising campaign carrying the theme "Mackay is Back," reflects research findings that Wolf Pack football fans fondly recalled the buzz that surrounded the team in its glory years of the 1980s and early 1990s.
"We want the glory years of Mackay to return," says Jim Bauserman, whose agency designed the campaign.
The effort gets a boost from the improvement of the team's fortunes. It was 9-3 last year with a trip to the Hawaii Bowl, and athletics executives expect that a winning team by itself could help generate crowds this year.
Says Kurt Esser, associate athletics director for marketing and communications at the school: "We need to make the games as exciting and as fun as can be. And they're more fun when more people are there."
But the total experience involves more than a game and crowd. Bauserman's agency is working with Reno-area companies to provide promotional items Hawaiian visitors, for instance to fans. Promotional themes are in the works for each game.
The athletic department, meanwhile, hopes to build good experiences with tools such as a meet-the-players event that drew about 600 people in August. Also on the books is a fan-appreciation breakfast at which the team of cooks will be led by athletic director Cary Groth.
The paid advertising campaign, meanwhile, seeks to cut through the competition of other recreational possibilities to remind consumers to get tickets for games at Mackay Stadium.
Billboard and print ads picture two Nevada players, carry the tagline "Mackay is Back," and are dominated by the number to call for tickets.
"Sometimes, you just need to let people know that it's here," says Bauserman. "We want people to see the product and know where they can call to get tickets."
Past advertising efforts have been financed with trade-out agreements as media outlets provided space or broadcast time in exchange for tickets to games. The dollar value of those deals, Esser says, totaled about $200,000.
But as political campaigns soak up much of the available advertising inventory in this election season, trade-out agreements become more difficult to swing, Bauserman says. That led the school to budget $50,000 for outright buys of advertising to augment to the trade agreements this season.
Bauserman and Esser both note that improvement of the total experience surrounding games at Mackay Stadium will be a multi-year process, and they're avoiding the temptation to launch a large number of ill-considered events.
"We want to do a few things really well," Bauserman says.
