USC Senior Associate AD Mark Jackson and Mississippi State AD Scott Stricklin represent two remarkably different institutions catering to starkly contrasting communities. So when the two discussed the ways in which they engage their fans during a panel yesterday at the ’14 IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, they offered two varying perspectives. As a program steeped in tradition, USC has made a major effort to tap into its history with the transformation of Heritage Hall into a state-of-the-art shrine to its years of athletic prowess. Jackson: “We put a tremendous amount of thought into building exhibits and displays that told our story in a way that connected to the 18-year-old kid and the 70-year-old donor.” Jackson and Nashville-based Advent CEO John Roberson, whose company USC contracted to design the space, both said that Heritage Hall has made an impact not just on those who visit it, but on their social networks. Roberson: “What’s so amazing is you can actually touch the Heisman trophies. Folks are actually putting themselves in those Instagram and Twitter photos, making themselves part of the exhibit, because fans believe that brand’s character is a reflection of them.” But Jackson acknowledged that the school faces several challenges, including a redesign of the L.A. Coliseum that is in the early stages and lagging student attendance for football. He said the school is evaluating connectivity options for the facility, as well as the potential for return on what would be a sizable investment. He added that the school is considering getting “more aggressive” with its uniforms in an effort to further re-energize a brand he said was sometimes “stodgy.”
THE DAWG POUND ROCK: Stricklin admitted early in the panel that MSU lacks the tradition of USC, as well as of its peers in the SEC West. However, he said he tries to use that to the school’s advantage. Stricklin: “The tradition model that was, ‘That’s a disadvantage. How are you going to overcome that?’ We have really tried to use that to our advantage. ... People who have tradition always have to have one hand holding on to that tradition. What that does is it limits how far you can get away from that and try new things with your other hands. We’ve taken the approach that we’ve got two free hands. We can go in any direction we want to go.” In addition to keeping its uniforms fresh and modern, Stricklin cited the school putting the #HailState hashtag in the end zone during the ’11 season and the prominent adoption of the “Stark Vegas” nickname as examples of outside-the-box ways that the program has been able to engage its fans. He stressed the significance of creating experiences for fans not just on game day, but seven days a week. One way MSU does that is by releasing weekly hype videos on Thursday mornings, which Stricklin said fans have become accustomed to viewing right after they are released. YouTube Manager of Sports Content Partnerships William Mao said that MSU is one of about 90 FBS schools with its own YouTube channel, but that they run the gamut in terms of quality. He said one of his goals for ’15 is to “bring as many of them as possible up to best-in-class, taking advantage of what native YouTube creators have shown us are the levers to really get that fan engagement.”
QUICK HITS
* Roberson, on fostering the fan experience: “College athletics is without a doubt the capstone of passion, of emotion. So we have to, as a community, choose the stories that you want to tell and be purposeful about the fan, or the recruit or the donor experience with your campus, with your ritual. And you have to do that in a way that creates a memory that becomes YouTube-able, Tweet-able, Instagram-able.”
* Stricklin, on tradition: “We live in a really nice upper middle-class home in a neighborhood full of millionaires in the SEC.”
