When most people think of sports, they often think of the hype surrounding games, the electric atmosphere they feel, and the joy they experience from seeing their favorite team win an intense matchup. While sitting in the stands, fans take in the rush of excitement that comes with seeing games play out right in front of them, often without recognizing the busy hands of those working around them. There is so much that goes into making the game day experience what it is and it is something that is rarely thought about when it comes to showing admiration for sports. While athletes and coaches are praised for the hard work that goes into winning a game, the work that is put into every other aspect of sports, win or lose, often goes unnoticed.
As a marketing intern for CU Athletics, I get the opportunity to see just how much work goes into preparing for a game throughout the weeks and months leading up to it. This blog post covers some of the tasks that I have personally completed over the past couple of seasons to prepare for game days across multiple sports.
Marketing Plan
During my first season with CU Athletics, I was given the opportunity to plan a full 2023 Women’s Tennis season from a marketing standpoint alongside one of my co-interns, Joie Sack. This was a super unique experience for us as interns as most sports students do not get the chance to both fully prepare for a season and fully execute that plan before they graduate.
There’s a lot that goes into planning for a season starting with the ability to set goals and objectives that all other aspects of the plan point to when deciding on what to focus on and when. Before the season even began, Joie and I spent multiple months researching previous seasons and brainstorming ideas for increasing fan attendance of a sport that doesn’t get much attention. We planned out themes for matches, giveaway ideas that would draw people’s attention, and ways to market via social media and other mediums.
Click the button below to see the full plan that Joie and I designed leading up to the 2023 CU Tennis season.
T-Shirt Designs
One of CU’s most favored giveaways at sporting events is always t-shirts. The department often plans multiple games per sport when fan attendance is encouraged using free swag. Particularly in sports where ticket sales are lower, these giveaways can sometimes make the difference between an empty student section and a giant crowd.
As an intern, I am often given the chance to use my creative skills in brainstorming ideas for t-shirt designs that are utilized when planning these giveaways. This is one of my favorite tasks to complete as I am able to contribute a unique perspective to our department as a student who has previously sat in the place of those receiving the t-shirts. Click on the button below to see some of the t-shirt designs I have come up with when planning for CU Basketball giveaways.
Script Writing
To prepare the staff working each game and to ensure a smooth beginning to end, it is the marketing department’s job to write a script leading up to each matchup so that everyone knows what’s going on and when. This is particularly important for the announcer at each game as the script typically lists what they need to say over the speaker throughout timeouts and halftimes. It also helps interns and staff know when certain promotions are supposed to happen so that everything is prepared beforehand.
As I have grown more accustomed to how a game runs and what needs to be done in order for a successful game to happen, I have begun writing scripts for certain matchups to help out the full-time staff. Most of the time, I am given a template that is already made and a list of what needs to go into the script so that I am able to plug in information based on efficiency throughout each game. Click on the button below to see an example of a full script that I wrote for a Volleyball scrimmage.
Research + Brainstorming
Lastly, one of the most common tasks that I work on during my time in the office is research. The best thing that we can do to strengthen our athletics experience is to learn from others and use statistics to come up with ideas that will work best for our program.
Most of the research that I work on leads to brainstorming different giveaway ideas that we can do to increase fan attendance and encourage people who have never been to a game to come. These can be anything from free food to exclusive merchandise that only those who attend can receive. Through this research, I am also able to learn about what some of CU’s competitors do to ensure that the department is keeping up with trends and/or coming up with unique ideas that may not have been done before.
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Follow @cufromtheside on Instagram and X to see exclusive behind-the-scenes content of CU Athletics and to be the first to know when new blog posts are published. To see all that I’ve mentioned in this blog and more come to life, make sure to check out the CU team schedules and attend one of our upcoming games as we head deeper into the fall season! Until then, Sko Buffs and I hope to CU from the sidelines.
Works Cited
All images are original works by me
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