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Clock ticking on Ticket Challenge

New marketing-by-referral initiative looking for big finish

©2005 Bonesville.net

ECU SID and Bonesville.net staff reports
were used in compiling this article.

With just three days left in August and less than a week remaining before the East Carolina Pirates host the Duke Blue Devils in the 2005 season opener, the ECU ticket office, the Pirate Club, the Athletic Director’s office, and ECU Sports Marketing are burning the midnight oil.

Their preoccupation: an effort to solicit, field, process and deliver not only a packed house for Saturday's game, but a record number of season tickets to usher in the 2005 campaign.

To that end, since August 1st, the athletic department has been full-speed ahead in promoting and running the Pirate Season Ticket Challenge in an effort to generate a significant spike in the overall season ticket count, a primary performance indicator for Division I-A football programs.

“I don’t think that we’ve done anything like this before,” ECU Sports Marketing Director Craig Curtis said. “We got into it a bit during spring with online renewals, but the (August challenge) was the result of wanting to come up with new and different ideas.”

Curtis said that the unstated goal of the August Challenge was 1,000 new season ticket holders and that the initiative is closing in on that goal.

“This drive is going very, very well,” Curtis said. “We usually get the report on Wednesdays so I don’t have the exact numbers but I feel like we are approaching that number. We usually see increased activity in August, but we feel like this August has been much busier at the Ticket Office than (usual).”

The challenge is a referral-based challenge in which any season ticket holder who refers a new season ticket purchaser will be credited with the referral. There is no restriction on how the new purchaser may acquire tickets (online, in person, etc.). Each referring ticket holder will be tracked for total number of purchaser referrals.

At the end of August, the referrals will be tabulated and the season ticket holder(s) who has referred the most new season ticket buyers and total new season ticket sales will be awarded the Grand Prize, a Pirate Prize Package which includes an invitation for the winner and three guests to a luncheon with Coach Skip Holtz and the ECU football staff, a football autographed by Holtz, an ECU Golf Shirt, and 10 complimentary tickets to one home game of choice on the 2005 schedule along with 10 complimentary invitations to a pre-game tailgate VIP reception for that game.

The grand prize also includes recognition on the field at one of this season's home games.

The spring ticket drive winners unanimously pointed to the luncheon with Coach Holtz as the ultimate prize and a great time with lasting memories.

In addition to the Grand Prize winner, five others will be awarded Pirate Prize Packs based upon the number of new ticket accounts referred to ECU Athletics.

For those new season ticket holders, there is also the opportunity to win a similar prize. The new season ticket holder who orders the most new season tickets for the 2005 season between August 1st and September 2nd will win the grand prize package as well. All other new season ticket holders will be entered into a random drawing for one of five additional prize packages.

Curtis reminds new season ticket account holders to be “sure you let the ticket office know who referred you” so that proper credit will be given to the referring ticket holder.

To the larger issue of season ticket sales, Curtis believes that this August push should help move the season ticket sales to nearly 15,000 for this coming season.

“At this point last year, we were at just over 14,100 season tickets sold,” Curtis said last week. “We’ve passed that. With 10 days out, we (had) sold more season tickets than a year ago. ...”

ECU Sports Marketing focuses its heaviest sales efforts on the region from Tidewater, VA, to Wilmington, NC, as this is where the heaviest concentration of market is. Targeting alumni networks and leveraging opportunities for exposure through the Pirate Club and traditional advertising mediums, the athletic department's sales arm has been pushing hard this summer.

Though it has a ways to go to hit the record number of more than 16,000 in 2000, the Sports Marketing group sees promise in the response, particularly in the area of ticket purchases by the commercial sector.

“Corporate sales have taken off this year,” Curtis said. “We unveiled a new plan last year and a number of businesses participated and I think the word got out and we have really seen an increase in the number of participants and number of corporate season tickets sold.”

With game week underway, time is running out for the fan base to push to that season ticket record. Whether the final goal is achieved or not, the August Challenge is likely to stay part of the marketing strategy leading up to football season each year. Not only has it pumped up the ticket sales for the final month before the season, it also has helped raise the excitement level around Greenville.

If you would like to take part in the August Challenge or would simply like more information, call the ECU Ticket Office at 1-800-DIAL-ECU.

AUGUST TICKET CHALLENGE OFFICIAL RULES:

• All current football season ticket holders (account holders) as of July 31 are eligible.

• New paid football season ticket orders received from 12:01 a.m. Aug. 1, 2005, through 11:59 p.m. Sept. 2, 2005 will be eligible.

• All types of season tickets orders will be eligible with the exception of the Corporate Plan.

• All new season ticket orders that include a referral name must have only one name (first and last) to be eligible. Online orders should include this in the COMMENT box.

• In the event of ties, a drawing will determine the winner(s).

• Winners will be announced the week of September 12.

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02/23/2007 02:06:07 PM
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