Jack Lambert, a researcher and reporter for the Balitmore Business Journal, posts an interesting story on the BBJ’s website, “Baltimore offices somber, need 'time to heal' after Ravens' loss.” (http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2012/01/23/baltimore-offices-s...)
Just reading that headline was enough to send me into a cynical, smirking funk.
Wondered how many people called in “sick” after yesterday’s AFC Championship game that could be summed up this way—a dropped pass, a shanked field goal, and wait’ll next year.
As one business owner quipped when asked about employees potentially too-bummed-to-work following this football fiasco, “I only hire grownups.”
Yes, let’s put things in perspective. This wasn’t 9-11. Nobody died here. A bunch of millionaires lost out on the opportunity to play another group of millionaires in two weeks time for the chance to win a big silvery football stuck atop a pyramid and the right to supersize their commercial endorsement fees. Granted, it would have been sweet to have a rematch of the 2000 Super Bowl. But that’s football. That's why they play the games.
From a business perspective, this is a major hit as one can imagine the sales of all things Ravens would have gone through the roof if the team hadn’t snatched defeat from the jaws of victory…two weeks of helping a whole lot of local businesses, from restaurants and bars to department and specialty stores, stay in the black (and purple). Now, not gonna happen.
But I’m getting away from our subject which, on this blog, is always public relations. There are some PR issues here.
One, what do you to keep fans interested, and by interested, I mean, wanting to buy season tickets, Ravens merchandise, and grow Flacco-style Fu-Manchu facial hair (though WBAL-TV reports, he’s shaved it off http://www.wbaltv.com/sports/30279422/detail.html).
Offer a discount on tickets? Offer free merchandise to new ticket holders? Maybe a chance to join players for a workout at the Ravens training facility? Perhaps solicit a local TV station to run a 30-minute “thank you to fans” with interview with Ravens players about the past season and what the future holds…because the best way to rekindle hope (and by hope, I mean hope the Ravens can get back to the Super Bowl) is to remove the focus on TODAY (Today BAD, team lose, must console self with cable TV and fatty foods) and shift it to TOMORROW (Tomorrow GOOD, imagine beating Steelers 89-0, going to Super Bowl, celebrating by watching more cable TV and eating fatty foods).
Speaking of hope in tomorrow, that hope was quite rampant this past weekend at the Baltimore Convention Center where fans gathered to meet stars, get autographs, purchase memorabilia, and get free swag…only if you were seeking black and purple, you’d be disappointed…as these weren’t Ravens fans, but Orioles fans (you know, BASEBALL, best sport ever invented to paraphrase the late, great Sparky Anderson).
Yes, we’re less than a month from when pitchers and catchers report to spring training in Florida!
I have to admit, the Orioles know how to do it right when it comes to stirring up interest in their club. I’ve been to several Orioles FanFests and have noted what a professional job the O’s do in making the experience fun for all ages.
First, nothing pleases like free stuff. Despite lines one might expect at a Lady Gaga concert, they moved very quickly, and as a result, fans like myself came away with items like assorted bobbleheads (pitcher Brian Matusz, and outfielder Adam Jones), Orioles soft lunch boxes, O’s camouflage floppy hats, assorted O’s t-shirts, etc.
There was also a memorabilia room where one could take part in a silent auction for signed balls, bats and jerseys; lots of game-day jerseys, t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, caps, autographed baseballs and even “grab bags” where, for $20, you might snare an autographed item from a top Oriole. I couldn’t quite get myself to pay that much, however, especially when I noted one little boy learning he’d just became the proud owner of an Adam Loewen signed baseball. “A former pitcher who’s now an outfielder with another team,” his Dad said.
Still, for $6 I got a hot dog and some homefried chips, snagged a chair at a lunch table and enjoyably chomped away as I listened to new general manager Dan Duquette and his field general, Buck Showalter, field questions from fans on everything from the current search for a new DH to all-things-Prince-Fielder related, and more.
It’s actually a very simple formula. Fans like stuff with their favorite team’s logo smeared on it. Have a player sign it, they love that even more. Given them access to players (who were signing autographs all days) and members of management that they can hurl questions at, plus free stuff and, as always, food, and everybody’s happy.
Sometimes you don’t need a whole lot of creativity to make an event a success. And that’s our PR lesson for the day.
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