Email To Gary Barta regarding black and gold sections

WDMBleacherHawk

WDMBleacherHawk

Well-Known Member
My Email To Him: Hey, im super pumped for the game coming up this weekend vs PSU. I was just wondering how you plan on getting the black and gold out to work? Do you plan on giving out cheap shirts? If you want this to work, thats about the only option. Thanks!

Response from Richard Klatt:
[FONT=&quot]Frank:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thanks for our note about Black and Gold Spirit Night at historic Kinnick Stadium. Gary asked that I take a minute and respond to your concerns. First, I hope you’ll be there for the 2010 Big Ten Conference season opener and, more importantly I hope you’ll be wearing the appropriate color of shirt. Well, what I should be saying is, “more importantly, I hope you see a great Hawkeye victory and will be dressed appropriately!â€[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Providing a free t- shirt is one option but it is, frankly, not even a consideration. That would require a minimal investment of $200,000 in complimentary t-shirts. Plus cost associated with distribution. The fact is, the success of these activities doesn’t require such a commitment because success rests on the capable shoulders of our fans, some of the very best in the land![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Frank, it’s our opinion that we’ll have success for the following reasons: [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]The fans of this team love this team and its head coach.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]The fans know the importance of the Big Ten season and a victory over Penn State[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]The fans know the importance of making a “statement†on national television and are excited about contributing to it[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]This group of fans are highly motivated and highly engaged and have indicated that they’ll be embracing this idea.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Our communications plan began before the season opener when we announced the line-up of three “colorful†games – Be Bold,Wear Gold at the season opener, Black and Gold Spirit Night at Penn State, and the annual Blackout on Halloween when we entertain Michigan. Remember (a) our audience this year is made up of primarily season ticket holders and (b) we have the vast majority of e-mail addresses for that group…so communicating effectively and efficiently is very simple.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We have been reminding our season ticket customer – close to 67,000 of the fans who will be in attendance Saturday -- with regular instructions and a map to find their section and their color. The pace of those electronic reminders will continue this week.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We have reminded our students – the easiest group to get engaged – that this is a blackout event for the entire student section and they are on board and, of course, will hear about it all week.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Last week we made three public address announcements at the game and also distributed maps of the stadium to people pulling into our parking lots.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This week, we’ll ramp up our e-mail, social media and “free†media – stories in the newspaper – and utilize our radio opportunities aggressively to remind our fans of their opportunity to help the Hawkeyes and provide the television audience a stunning images. We’ll also lead on the “paid†media – newspaper, radio, ect., to help us tell our story. Of course, the last big push will come during Wednesday’s call-in show and electronically Thur-Fri-Sat morning. We may elect to spend some money on newspaper advertising because that allow us to display a map[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We’re also incentivizing fans by letting them know that one lucky fan who is dressed appropriate will be a finalist to win a trip for two to the Hawkeyes’ next bowl game….all they need to be is dressed appropriately.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Successful activities like these are the result of great fan support and a good plan. I believe we have both. And it’s been a bonus that some of the local retailers – HyVee Food Store in Coralville and Scheels in the CoralRidge Mall reproduced our maps and have them on display in their stores to help fans get engaged and make the right purchase.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]So, since I think the marketing plan for this on is simple, the question for you now Frank is simple: Are you wearing black or gold? And, if you not sure, you better check the map![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Are You Wearing Gold or Black Saturday to Kinnick? - IOWA OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]GH![/FONT]
 
The main problem we're going to run into is people that scalp or buy tickets the day of the game. Do you bring a gold & a black shirt just in case? Do you go and buy an appropriately colored shirt once you find out where your section is? Boise St. made it work really well so hopefully we can, too, but that'll be the main problem. People who don't know what color they're supposed to wear because they don't know where they'll be sitting. A reversabal gold/black hoody would work perfect!
 
Knuckleheads wear either a black shirt with gold "knucklehead" on front or gold shirt with black "knucklehead" on front. I'd buy 'em, just sayin :)
 
My response would be that I you don't have to give out complementary T-Shirts. Just have a special T-Shirt made for this game in Black or Gold that you could sell for cost.

If you wanted to go real cheap you could make the shirt blank.

But a simple Iowa / PSU 2010 would be sweet.

I would buy one online if you sold it for around 5 bucks.
 
It will not be any more of a problem than it was for Bosie State. Just tell everyone you know, if you dont know where your tickets will be bring 2 shirts, if all else fails a couple thousand odd balls will not take away from the look (see Boise State)
 
i think there will be a relatively minimal amount of scalping for this game, at least outside of the stadium.
 
I think it will work, the scalpers won't throw off the look much at all.

The Boise St game looked great and you could still see many people that didn't coordinate with the color scheme for the section. I was looking pretty close to see if people wore the wrong shirt.
 
While this shouldn't be hard to pull off, the tough part is what the weather will bring.

1) Having a black or gold t-shirt, no problem. Everyone should be able to pull that off.
2) When the weather turns colder, then everyone having either a black or gold hoodie, coat, etc. is much more difficult.

Luckily, looks like a hoodie should suffice for this week so hopefully Kinnick will look as sweet as I think it can come Saturday night.
 
H8IAST8 said:
It will not be any more of a problem than it was for Bosie State. Just tell everyone you know, if you dont know where your tickets will be bring 2 shirts, if all else fails a couple thousand odd balls will not take away from the look (see Boise State)
Click to expand...


Take it from the Georgia Tech people it should be easy.

I remember a post on their site that said something like, "All the clothes in Iowa must have a Iowa logo. Like if you went into a Gap there, the shirts wouldn't say Gap, they would say, "Iowa," and they all would be Black or Gold."

Let's face it, he is right. There isn't one Hawk Fan that will be at that game that doesn't have half a dozen or so Hawkeye shirts and we all have at least one that is Black and at least one that is Gold.
 
CAARHawk said:
My response would be that I you don't have to give out complementary T-Shirts. Just have a special T-Shirt made for this game in Black or Gold that you could sell for cost.

If you wanted to go real cheap you could make the shirt blank.

But a simple Iowa / PSU 2010 would be sweet.

I would buy one online if you sold it for around 5 bucks.
Click to expand...


All they had to do was sell tshirt rights to put a logo on the back. This would have been an easy and cheap investment for a large sponsor to undertake. Plus, they can roll this into a philanthropy effort and have many of their employees actually place the tee shirts in combination with a non-profit event at/near the stadium or hospital for homecoming. I don't think the geniuses in the marketing office thought this one through completely- maybe they didn't have time with the focus on this with all the effort on the Case IH redzone.
 
If they truly have been publicizing this game as they say they have, then you have to be pretty stupid not to be able to figure out what's going on. But I wouldn't be surprised if this thing is a total failure. Tons of people are going to wear the wrong color and say "Oh, I thought I was in the OTHER section!" or something like that.

Weather will also play a role. If it's chilly or if it's raining, you're going to have tons of people wearing jackets and ponchos and things that may not even be school colors, let alone the 'right' section colors.
 
CAARHawk said:
My response would be that I you don't have to give out complementary T-Shirts. Just have a special T-Shirt made for this game in Black or Gold that you could sell for cost.

If you wanted to go real cheap you could make the shirt blank.

But a simple Iowa / PSU 2010 would be sweet.

I would buy one online if you sold it for around 5 bucks.
Click to expand...

They may not be $5, but they are selling shirts for the game online. $1 of the price is donated to the Iowa Children's Hospital, too. I think they have been selling them since this was announced in August...

http://www.bravosportsmarketing.com/bravoStore/*******/prodView.asp?idproduct=369
 
Some people will ***** about anything. This thread is proof. Can't you go back to ******** about the tailgating rules?
 
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