February 28th, 2010
11:12 pm
Events
Thanks to Shanthi Subramanian at Gimmel Group for providing us with the event recap below:
The presentation focused on how the Houston Rockets sought to improve the experience of customers by creating the “Red Nation”. We discovered that an injured Rockets player decided to sew the Rockets logo on a red blazer (he sewed the logo himself) and wear the jacket while he was sitting courtside. The idea started spreading among people within the organization – the marketing group asked the announcers to wear the jacket and then the idea spread to the actual customers.
From this experience they realized that their employees are some of their best advocates (and customers as well), in addition the expected customers: people who attend games in Houston, attendees of away games, and then those who watch the games on TV. The marketing organization also did some research to further segment their customer base into: superfans, naysayers, experientialists, party people, and traditionalists. One of the tools they used was the Net Promoter Score which asks fans if they would recommend attending games to their friends. This was a way for them to track how good the customer experience was for fans.
The Rockets launched their marketing campaign to show that they are back, attract casual sports fans, keep fans involved, reinforce sponsor relationships, continue year-round promotions and get customers to buy season tickets. They built their marketing campaign to address the economic downtown, competition from other teams, going to playoffs but not having a championships, injuries to major players and a reduced budget.
The approaches fell in the category of performance and fun. It is important to have honest promotions/taglines to build credibility with fans and the press. They have studied the current team and fan situations to build the momentum of “red”.
Having a color campaign has been something that everyone can get behind. Red is associated with passion. Fans know what to do – wear red. Color campaigns are sustainable year over year and can be changed slightly while reinforcing messages. Their marketing efforts have resulted in a increased market share and a better customer experience for fans.
Note: If you are an AMA Houston Member, you can go to our LinkedIn group and download the full presentation presented at the lunch!
Events / by
Robin Tooms
There’s a special place in heaven for sponsors. Yes – the Healthcare SIG collected around 75 people for the extra-special “Outside-the-box Healthcare Marketing” seminar on Friday morning. Combined with the three top-grade speakers – Partha Krishnamurthy, Cara Zorzi and Steve McKee – there was a lot of energy and even laughter in the room…for more than three hours. The volunteers all were volunteery, the Houston Technology Center folks were great.
I’m going to drop more names, though, because a SIG seminar is fueled by more than elbow grease, bagels and coffee. (Okay – not altogether an attractive metaphorical collection.)
The sponsors Friday are supportive and involved. In no particular order, special sunny Sunday appreciation goes to Alleen Mitchener and Ana Rodarte of Gelb Consulting. Julie Laguarta and HALO/Lee Wayne. The people of Inn at the Ballpark.
There’s Karen Kershner and Communications Plus. Emily Bernard, Erin Lehr and Jen Pearsall of Pierpont. Susan Saurage-Altenloh and Richard Cisneros and Saurage Marketing Research. Randy Rigdon of Signature Media Group. Winnie Hart and The H Agency.
Author Unknown (not a SIG sponsor) said, “Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.” Thanks again to all our sponsors for keeping us raveled. BTW, I’m Richard Laurence Baron, AMAHouston volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing.
Events, Sponsors, Volunteers / by
Richard Laurence Baron
This week at the February luncheon, we announced the following honors for our wonderful volunteers
- Board Members of the Month:
Becca Castillo, VISION Production Group: As the VP of SIGs, Becca’s is keeping our event calendar going and is always on top of the SIGs – she’s even recruited quite a few new chairs for the upcoming board year
MaryJane Mudd, Full Tilt Communications: As President-Elect, MaryJane has also been working hard to shape our new board for the new year. She’s also a big part of the positive attitude you see on all of the AMA Houston volunteer faces.
- Volunteer of the Month: Allyson Bandy, Halliburton, for being the real hands-on talent “behind the scenes” on all of our AMA Houston monthly press releases. It’s because of Allyson that this important piece of communications stays on schedule too.
Thanks to all of our volunteers for their help!
Board Leadership, Volunteers / by
Robin Tooms
The early birds get the worms. The early risers find the extra time they’re looking for every day. The raw recruits get kicked out of bed by the drill sergeant before the crack of dawn.
We all noted that “crack of dawn” thing immediately when we showed up for the AMAHouston SIG boot camp yesterday. Good news for us, though: We got croissants and fresh fruit instead of worms. This get-together is your AMA chapter at work, a room full of volunteers teaching and learning how to make the Houston Special Interest Groups – the SIGs – better, smarter, more valuable to our members.
This isn’t a recap. My first “official” post to the AMAHouston blog is more about attitude and amplitude. I’m glad for the chance to make just four points.
Volunteerism is not dead. It’s not even sleeping. The 30+ people at Frank and Jo-Anne White’s photography studio early Friday AM are our colleagues, our co-workers, our fellow marketing and advertising professionals. Every one’s a chapter member. Every one’s a volunteer. So it’s really all of us (or a lot of us) that make the chapter go and grow. There’s even a certain amount of cheerleading built in.
Chapter programming is strategic but simple. The chapter’s monthly luncheons focus on broad-ranging speakers and subjects. It’s in the SIGs where the specific how-we-did-its get passed along to other professionals. SIG committees aim to deliver two out of three objectives every time there’s a special-interest seminar – hot topic, hot speaker, hot company. The more meaning there is in the presentations, the more value AMAHouston gives (and gets).
There is no “i” in “Team.” Alright, that’s awful (and trite) but it’s super Bowl weekend, c’mon. Even though every SIG committee has co-chairs, they don’t get everything done by themselves and they aren’t supposed to. We have to pitch in. In other words, even though they have the fancy club title and the key to the executive punchbowl, they need help from…the rest of us on their committees. You know, the other volunteers. “We” is the people who make the SIGs pay off. (Hmmm. There’s no “I” in that word, either.)
With 900+ members, “we” don’t have to do it all by ourselves, either. Right – you may hear from us when a SIG event needs attendance, or someone to help lay out the bagels and juice or even set up chairs. Remember, we’re the colleagues and the co-workers and the friends and it’s not a bad thing to ask for a hand. Also, help someone join us. AMAHouston was over 1,000 members a few months ago but you know what happened. (Think market crash, etc., absolutely not in any way connected with the Toyota recalls.) So the more the merrier.
MaryJane Mudd, President-Elect of AMAHouston, never actually referred to the early morning hour at all. She reinforced the fact that our SIG programs are what make our chapter unique among all the other AMA groups nationwide. MaryJane also posted more pictures – and larger – on Facebook and even added amusing captions. Like she doesn’t have enough to do already.
I can also reveal that there appears to be no snooze button on any of these board members. So even starting at 7AM, we had fun. BTW, I’m Richard Laurence Baron, an AMAHouston volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing.
PS: Brenda Bramhill was merely visiting the teapot you see her holding. It was still at the White Photography studio when I left. RLB.
Board Leadership, Volunteers / by
Richard Laurence Baron
