Gonzaga Using Interactive Marketing To Sell Women's Hoops Tix

By Erik Swanson, Staff Writer

Gonzaga Markets Women's Basketball With Interactive Web Campaign

STREAMING SUCCESS: Gonzaga has been marketing the site for the last month via local TV and radio spots, as well as radio interviews and other PR efforts. Gonzaga Dir of Marketing Matt Beckman estimated the school has spent more than $25,000 in total on the campaign, which marks the school's first significant marketing push in support of the women's basketball team, expanding on past TV and radio efforts. As a result, Gonzaga has seen a 45% increase in women’s basketball season-ticket sales, selling around 1,750 tickets this year compared to about 1,100 for the ’07-08 season. “It’s really been a big push,” Beckman said. “A lot of people have commented on the video and some people have said they came in because of it.” Beckman added the Inspired Season site has received about 50,000 unique visits so far, which currently ranks the site as the most popular link on the Gonzaga athletics site. Beckman said the school developed the concept, the school’s first such viral online marketing campaign, based on a proposal by Spokane-based ad agency Magner Sanborn. The agency wrote the coding and software for the site, which it adapted from a similar campaign launched last year by DraftFCB for Portuguese Liga club Sporting Clube de Portugal. Beckman said Gonzaga "definitely" plans to utilize similar interactive marketing initiatives in the future, adding the budget will remain similar for future efforts. “It’s been pretty successful for us this year," he said. "We’re going to put a new spin on it next year. I’m not sure what that is yet, but I’ve got a couple of ideas and I have to see if they’re technologically feasible or not."

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