When people say Boston is a "pro sports town," the underlying idea behind the message is people don't care about college sports. In my opinion, it is not that people don't care. It is more about people's loyalty and their spending habits are tied to the professional teams. If you look at BC's TV ratings, people clearly care. Not all those homes are BC alums. I think BC's big challenge is to get those casual TV fans in Boston to care just a bit more. Care enough that they come to games and care enough that they spend a little more money on BC merchandise.
To get them to care more you might as well play up the Boston angle. Let them consider us on the same level as the pro teams and let them try to get on the BC bandwagon.
There will always be challenges. Why are BU grads, or UMass grads or people from any other college going to start going to BC games? And how do you get the casual fan with no real affiliation to BC to come over to Chestnut Hill for a game? Winning is first. Reaching out is second and delivering a good game day experience is critical.
One Youtube video is not changing BC's standings among fans, but this is the right message to send.
Posts
27 comments:
Its all about winning and fielding competitive teams. This video will look about as lame as the trustees, Leahy, Bates, Addazio and Christian if we duplicate or just marginally improve from last year. Yes - its a swell video - great job.
what a bad video.
only highlight is shapely lass with the book bag in the beginning waiting for train
-- no one in video smiled. really?
-- B/w with color splash is very cliche and unoriginal. felt like post-apocylpse Boston...
- the chain link fence -- says they are heading to the gritty side of town... where the shanty Irish live -- in Bars with guiness.. yeah that is boston not..
-- Horror movie music was not exactly uplifting.
-
-- Bc game, Wake game maybe, is on in bar and no one is there, but one stone-faced guy with BC hat .. even bar tender skipped out. msg: BC games are really unappealing. angry stone faced dope is either drunk or super mad cuz he can't even muster a few words for the blonde girl staring at him. he is thinking " God Daz is fuckin brain dead with that call against Wake" WTF? Ha!
-- bogus use of Irish-American stereotypes - BC students have long ceased being some rough irish guys from Southie with a tattoo of a shamrock on their forearm.. geez...
c'mon BC
BC is an elite private school in a city of elite private schools. Not exactly a distinction in Boston-in Ohio or GA or Okla yes.
I get the push, although how long does it take to address this revenue issue?
I would say "just win," and yes that'll be key, but at some point the discretionary emotion and dollar just don't stretch any farther. Just ask GA Tech...in a similar boat for a different reason. They're in the heart of the best big-city college football area in the country bar none and they barely get a whiff of substantive media coverage here. Winning helps, certainly. But kids just don't grow up wanting to go to or really become a Yellow Jacket. The curriculum plays a role, as does the student body (drive through campus and you'd get it), but we're talking about a level of sustained success that is increasingly becoming harder to attain without sacrificing those things that make alumni and students think they're different than everyone else. Yes, Stanford. But yes, outlier.
Sustained success to a 17 yr old is not three 8 win ACC seasons in a row. BC joined the ACC to improve cash flow and their national footprint. Perhaps this campaign will address the local dynamic. It's a long-shot, especially in that region, but it might one day down the line convince a couple of kids to join up despite better offers. That would get the ball rolling, that is if their parents aren't turned off by the cops, the parking, the tailgating, the schedule, the results, the revolving door at coach. Sorta goes hand-in-hand.
Yet, in the back of my mind, I remember all the times I've been told that Atlanta is not a good sports town. Well, pro-sports town. And I know what college football means to Boston , Philly, NY. Not much. Some things are just woven into the DNA of a city because that emotional energy is a legacy issue passed down through the generations. I applaud the effort and hope people realize that this has limited upside with a long-term investment and should have been addressed long ago. Perhaps it was. In the end, I guess I don't really care if the team wins in front of 44k or 32k. As long as they do, the rest is for the accountants.
I spend a good chunk of my life in Boston townie bars, talking with local people who are avid sports fans, and I assure you, they don't care. They simply do not care about Boston College athletics. Sure, if BC makes the NCAA tournament or are challenging for a major bowl they'll watch, but to say they care is at the very least a gross overstatement if not an outright falsehood.
I'm all for doing whatever marketing is deemed appropriate to try to get people to care, and I think that playing up the Boston angle makes all the sense in the world, but this is far more of an uphill climb than you make it out to be.
I haven't posted since before Christmas - just needed a break from the historic low of Football and Basketball combined.
I'll probably get involved a little bit, because I have really enjoyed this blog since we joined the ACC.
I'm going to Ireland (and St. Andrews to play the Old Course), but I have declined to renew my season tickets this year for the first time in over 40 years! We are not valued as Season Ticket holders, as there was very little or zero effort to retain me.
I'm not impressed by this marketing effort at all. Where do they get the people who think this stuff up?
NB says "Its all about winning and fielding competitive teams," and he is right. It's true Doug Flutie and the Eagles brought us out of the 1978 wilderness starting at the end of the 1981 season.
But the exciting Flutie was aided by a 2 month pro football strike in 1982 (September to November), and BC was the only show in town (at the major level).
Tom Coughlin accomplished a great deal in his short time, expanding the stadium, etc. But he also had exciting teams.
Someone posted a video of BC playing at Michigan for our opening game of 1994, I think (to help get to know our returning DC). In front of 100,000 fans, we scored on the first play of the game - long bomb from local Brockton QB Mark Hartsell. We were up 12 to 0, before finally losing something like 34 to 28. Coughlin and Gladchuk brought Michigan to Chestnut Hill earlier in 1991, I think.
Bring on Wagner! Pitiful effort by our football administrators.
Make all the weird videos you want - BB doesn't get it.
BC Eaglekeeper sums it up on another blog - "Gladchuck (D1 AD of the year) knew that the best way to increase season ticket sales was to get your existing season ticket holders/donors to buy more season tickets and he would give you a free parking pass for every 4 bought. That was his sales force." Parking passes, good game-day environment, welcome alums and friends and fans to campus (instead of strong enforcement presence), ditch DBS, field a winning, competitive and exciting team, blah, blah, blah.
Bring on Wagner, UMass, Buffalo, UConn - and then lose to some of them. Oh boy, Brad - you got it going on.
See you in Dublin!
CT - Georgia Tech still gets a lot more press in Atlanta than BC gets in Boston. I wish these two teams were in the same division.
BJK
Welcome back! you haven't missed a thing.
agreed BJK - welcome back to the board of misfits. when i read these comments on my phone i have to scroll up from the bottom of the page and as i was scrolling up i had a feeling that comment was from you.
i agree with Mod 34B and BJK - the commercial is silly and it leaves me wondering who is making these decisions. you want fans to come? give them a reason to come. give us a quality product on the field, quality opponents, and a quality game day atmosphere. all 3 have been lacking in recent years.
also, i really don't care if people in Boston like BC or not. i don't live in Boston and i didn't grow up in Boston - i watch the games at game watches with other BC alum and its a great time. whether or not more people from Boston go to the games is irrelevant.
BJK - when you cancelled your season tickets did anyone reach out and ask why? ask what they could've done better? etc? or was it just silence. sometimes i wonder what it is Bates does all day long.
I was amazed that BCI thought this was a "home run" marketing piece.
Those BCI guys spend a lot of time sucking ass of BC AD office - to gain access, one supposes. The desire to suck up, I think, explains the ridiculous idea that the video is a home run.
Why am I not surprised mod didn't like this video
SoS - who cares what you think that I think? got you own opinions?
That was a pretty laughable video and it didn't really make any sense. Sure the slogan is nice, but how does this video support that slogan? Also, like mod, I thought I was watching a trailer for a post-apocalyptic thriller in the beginning.
Total suckfest.
It is the most Irish school in America. Add plays well to Catholic high schools.
Kind of plays off the Boston Strong theme. Seems like they are working to toughen the image of the school and show folks are proud of the school. The students there have gotten soft since the 90's. Lots of pastel shirts and 80's sunglasses.
Good ad.
The elite schools are in Cambridge. Not Boston. Jesus Christ.
People do care. They watch the games. The television audience is THE ONLY REASON we are in the ACC.
Riding the MBTA feels post-apocalyptic most times.
El Miz - I just gave a long answer but lost it for some reason
Short answer - no. I called a young man at the ticket office and informed him. He either didn't have the skills to ask me to please reconsider, or he was so discouraged working there that he couldn't muster up the energy to ask. He seemed demoralized.
Then I got an email saying I had one more chance to renew, even though I had missed the deadline.
Pretty impersonal, although it began "Dear Jack".
Thanks Head. Perhaps the point remains the same. Are u Rand or McNally? Being in the ACC is about audience, which is about A footprint. 10 yrs on, however, having been born and raised in Atlanta, not much has changed in SEC territory. But the campaign is for Bostonians- so I don't really care about it. Jesus Christ? You should wiki him.
34B - your recap of the ad made me chuckle. well done.
BJK - not surprising.
ATL says in the post that our TV ratings are good. as i said, i've been to game watches in several cities on both coasts and they are always well attended. the attendance problems in Boston are the result of (A) bad teams, (B) bad game day experience, and, for football, (C) a bad schedule. why would anyone pay $ and put up with the headache of getting to the campus on game day to go to any of the OOC home games this year? TV ads aren't going to change the fact that is not FUN to go to a game, its a hassle, its super expensive, and you're basically watching a scrimmage. it would be cheaper and you'd probably see as good of a product to go to the spring game.
get a better team (hopefully thats en route), get better opponents, and for god sakes change the game day experience - how hard is it to walk around incognito with a ballcap on to get a feel for how it is as a fan. there are so many easy changes to improve the experience and yet its the same BS year after year. sad!
Knuckle--nothing says that BC is Boston's College more than a random girl with a BC tote riding the T and a random dude with a BC hat day drinking alone at a bar while ignoring a BC football game. (I'm pretty sure that footage was from the USC game which was at night. Why it was on during the game for the lonely BC guy is beyond me.)
Should say day instead of game.
They should make an add with three girls and three men sitting in a coffee shop grousing about their relationships. You want a friends theme?
The ad serves a purpose for online promotion and niche tv. I doubt drastically that this ad replaces the "stock" ads the school uses during sports broadcasts.
The ad is good.
The video is fine - some will like some will hate.... its not going to change getting more people to BC games -- investing in the teams and building a better more competitive product on the field/court will.
For what it's worth, my husband (also BC '74), with 40+ years in television/media, thought the quality of the video was excellent, as are most videos produced by BC. That said, there are issues with its tone, e.g., why was that lone BC guy in the bar instead of at the game? Tickets too expensive?
I hated the music; needed something Dropkick Murphy-ish, rather than a soundtrack that signals impending doom.
Dixie -- the production quality was high, I agree. But curious as to your take o content: what do you and your media-savvy husband think the message/narrative was?
For me, the black and white filming, the emphasis on concrete, industrial settings, trains, chain linked fences, the empty bar, the utter lack of joy, the booze, the "impending doom" music, the screechy industrial noises etc gave it a nihilistic, depressing feel - with no discernible narrative or message.
Then some basketball guys from the nice side of Boston pop into the pic for unknown reasons.
I have no idea why this was "good" or what the message was? BC is everywhere and hence "Boston's college"?? or >>>>>>> BC people are depressed about the coming doom? Come to BC to escape the utter gloom that is Boston.
what did it convey to you?
Mod - I'll ask him his take on it tonight.
I thought it had an "escape your dreary, wrong-side-of-the-tracks surroundings and take in a game at BC" kind of feel. The lonely guy in the bar wearing a BC cap while wistfully watching a game on TV was mystifying to me. Felt bad for him. Were they going for the crowd who always wanted to go to BC but couldn't afford it? I am just not sure.
There's so much more to Boston than what was portrayed. BC as the only bright note in an otherwise depressing industrial city is just not accurate. Total mystery to me... though edgy looking.
The guy is reading and drinking a beer. That is as old school as it gets.
The only odd thing really is that the Prudential tower and hancock tower are highlighted in Maroon at the end. There is a serious relationship between BC and Pru(they had maroon and gold lights on the tower during the ND fenway game) but other than that it makes no sense literally or symbolically. The add shows that BC people are independent, proud of their school and strong(The guy at the end looks like he wants to take over).
I don't see anything wrong with that.
Post a Comment