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OK going to NOT officially get this thread on here about 2 weeks early. But I am starting this thread now not only to get some game talk on here, but also get some other information out about the game and pregame festivities as well...and apparently marketing of the game included.
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I'd like to take his time to apologize for apparently posting information about a tailgate that is, in fact, not meant for the public. I apologize for those who had to take phone calls about the event that shouldnt have had to. Again sorry for the inconvenience.

Does anyone on the inside know how the university plans on advertising this game so that we can put more people in the stands than last year? Also, does anyone know if the university is planning on having an official tailgate there or not?

my best guess would be to call over to the athletic dept officies and try to get a hold of anyone of our marketing people. But I do not have those numbers handy, so I can't help you out much on that aspect either.

I'll now add this information in this game thread as well for al lto see.

As a side note for the Capital City Classic on August 31...

The Buzz will be on campus again here at UCA on Thursday August 31, with Justin Acri's and Nathan's show being broadcast live on The Buzz 103.7 that morning/afternoon from 10 am-1 pm.

http://www.kabzfm.com/1037thebuzz/listenlive.htm

If it were my guess...the athletic dept. prob wont advertise the game until game day or the day before. And most likely the only thing that will be done is talk about it on the Buzz like last year!

Next year they need some TV commercials!

There are some teevee ads running with Clint, the head of childrens hospital and some youngsters, but I have yet to see them run on anything other than Conway Corporation Cable System.

They may be more like public service announcements/

Burly Bear

D@mn people, you've got to promote something BEFORE gameday. Everyone's already made plans. The Admin. is gonna show up for the dance a day late and a dollar short....... AGAIN!!!! I mean, we (the rabid bear fans) already know about the game, don't try to appease us. It's the rest of the state that doesn't have a clue. That's who you have to reach. Mass media should have started on 8/1, this is already the 16th. Who else other than us on the board even knows?

Preach it brother, I'm with you

I dont know who else knows about the game, but I do know I've seen UCA practices covered more on LR tv stations the last 2 weeks, and even the last 2 days than more than anything all last year until it was time for the playoff home game. So someone is getting the word out about something on UCA football.

Agreed. And the SID office has written a ton more stories this year. Which I applaud.

The word will slowly get out about UCA. About this game specifically, who knows about that?

It is about time they start paying attention to the most successful college football program in the state!

Just out of curiosity for those who incessantly bitch about the marketing, and I'm not making any assumptions or accusing anybody, I just want to know:

1. How many people have you personally communicated with (face-to-face, phone, email, smoke signal, etc.) and told that you are going to the game and asked if they are going then encouraged them to go? If you are in the area, you should be telling every friend, relative, and coworker and tell them to tell everybody. And if they aren't familiar with UCA, give them a brief lesson as to all the goodness they're missing out on.

2. How much money are you pouring into the program? More specifically, how much are you donating to the athletic department and are you earmarking it specifically for marketing purposes? If the fans are going to want, want, want, they're going to need to give some too. You think tuition and athletic fees pay for everything the UofA gets? Nope. They don't even have a damn athletic fee. What they do have is a whole bunch of boosters that shell out some major cash.

Now obviously I don't expect anybody on this board (or any UCA fan at all, really) to shell out Wal-Mart, Tyson or Reynolds Foundation level cash, but even average fans throwing out some cash can add up.

3. What exactly is it that you're looking for? There have been articles in the Conway paper, the statewide paper, and if Henderson had a paper worth half a square of used toilet paper then I'm sure there'd be something in there. There was a press conference in Little Rock. There is stuff on each school's official athletics site. There have been snippets on Little Rock TV. Justin and Nathan have been brought in to do their show live from campus on game day. And, you know good and damn well they'll start talking about the game long before that.

So what, specifically, is lacking? TV commercials? Is it common for a university to purchase air time to run its own commercial saying "Please come to our game?" If anything you'd think Children's Hospital would be the one to pony up the cash to pay for an ad to increase exposure because the bigger the gate, the bigger check they get. It's typically the sponsor's job to take care of stuff like that. So I don't know if I'd go throwing the blame on the athletic department.

UCA also has an athletics marketing director. Her name is Lisa Cooley, which is much less intimidating to pronounce than the last one. So take advantage of that and call the athletic department and they could put you in touch with her. I'm sure she would gladly appreciate some suggestions from the group of geniuses assembled here.

1. I do invite all of my friends and coworkers whenever I make it down for a game, usually the ones from Memphis don't come, but a couple from the LR area usally go with me. Just the other day I was talking to my boss about UCA, he is from England and so I thought I would have to explain the entire classification system to him, but as it turns out he used to work at the University of Montana and so he was well aware of the I-AA system.

2. I am not financially able at this point in my life to make yearly contributions to the UCA Foundation/Athletics Association and such, but I do support my school by buying tickets and merchandise from the Bookstore. One of these days when my wife and I have real jobs and get out of school we have plans on making yearly contributions.

3. I don't know what I am really looking for. I guess I really shouldn't expect to see anything seeing as how I live in Memphis, but I just don't hear that much about UCA stuff. Also, I know the University of Memphis has numerous commericals running advertising tickets to all of there home games at the Liberty Bowl this season.

Also, thanks for the info about the marketing director KOTS!

I'm not 100 percent sure about this, but I have a feeling Barnes and Noble takes a cut of the apparel revenue sold in the bookstore and the university just sees a portion. Somebody might want to check on that to be certain.

If that is the case however, I'd take the money I would regularly spend on stuff from the bookstore and instead go buy a t-shirt for cheap from Wal-Mart and then donate everything else straight to the athletic department. That way they get every cent. Even if it's not but $50 a year, that's better than nothing. If 10 people did that, that'd buy an ad in the Democrat-Gazette to help promote a game. Or surely there are 100 recent graduates who could give a one-time gift of $25, which would be a fairly substantial amount that could definitely be put to use.

But if you can't do it you simply can't do it, and that's understandable. But at the same time you have to realize that the university might be in a similar budget crunch. Don't you think they'd pull out all the stops if they could?

And I wasn't necessarily singling you out. It's obviously other people too and it goes on at every school in the country. Fans are the lifeblood of every program and the program can't be any stronger than its fan base/alumni base will allow.