Ron Goch
The Telios Group
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Jazz Meal Deal for TV Games
November 30th 2006
Sports teams usually offer a meal deal to sporting events that typically include tickets and food for one price, but the Utah Jazz of the NBA are offering meal deals to fans watching its games on television.
Each time the Jazz air a game on television, they run a half-page newspaper advertisement in The Salt Lake Tribune sports section with the header “Watch the Utah Jazz Tonight!” and the ad includes a Jazz Meal Deal pizza coupon for a large pepperoni pizza, cheesy bread and a 2-liter soda for $9.99.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Colts Create a Walk of Fame
November 29th 2006
The Indianapolis Colts have created a unique Walk of Fame where fans can purchase bricks that will be placed in the Colts new stadium in 2008. It’s a great idea for involving the fans and generating revenue.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Finish Any Job With “Want To”
November 28th 2006
Today’s Telios Tip comes from a story shared by Neil Eskelin:
“I remember the night in Miami when our son, Ian, was just five years old. We were staying with relatives and it was his bedtime. When I looked at the living room floor, I knew we had a problem. Toys were all over the place. “’Ian,’ I said, ‘you need to pick up all those toys before you go to bed.’
“‘Daddy,’ he said, ‘I’m too tired to pick up my toys.’
“My immediate inclination was to force him to clean up the room. Instead, I went into the bedroom, laid down, and said, ‘Ian, come here. Let’s play Humpty Dumpty.’
“He climbed up on my knees and I said, ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.’ And he fell. Ian laughed and said, ‘Let’s do it again.’ Well, after the third ‘fall,’ I said, ‘Okay, but first go pick up those toys.’
“Without thinking, he ran into the living room and in ninety seconds he finished a job that could have taken half an hour. Then he jumped back on my knees and repeated, ‘Daddy, let’s do it again.’
“’Ian, I thought you were too tired to pick up those toys.’ He answered, ‘I was, daddy, but I just wanted to do this!’
“We can finish any job when we have the “Want to!’”
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Clean Your Windows
November 27th 2006
I came across the following short story and thought it would make for a good Telios Tip and reminder to us all:
“A businessman was highly critical of his competitors’ storefront windows. “Why, they are the dirtiest windows in town,” he claimed. Fellow business people grew tired of the man’s continual criticism and nitpicking comments about the windows. One day over coffee, the businessman carried the subject just too far.
“Before leaving, a fellow store owner suggested the man get his own windows washed. He followed the advice, and the next day at coffee, he exclaimed, ‘I can’t believe it. As soon as I washed my windows, my competitor must have cleaned his too. You should see them shine.’”
Confucius once declared, “Don’t complain about the snow on your neighbor’s roof when your own doorstep is unclean.”
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Work Hard and Play Hard
November 24th 2006
Today’s Telios Tip comes from a quote I read that seemed appropriate following a great Thanksgiving family gathering and meal, and is for all those who work hard and are tired most evenings when they arrive home.
If you work hard, play hard.
Here’s the quote: “The trouble with a husband who works like a horse is that all he wants to do in the evenings is hit the hay.”
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Tell Someone Thank You Today
November 23rd 2006
So many people touch our lives in special ways each day, and in this fast-paced world we live in, many times we don’t take the time to stop and give thanks and recognition to those who’ve touched us, or gone the extra mile so we could win.
I encourage to take a moment to reflect on all the special people – friends, family, associates, a teacher or coach from years past – who have reached out and helped you in some way (big or small) so that you could win. A simple “thanks” could make their day, and possibly impact them in a big way.
If you’re one of the many people who took the time for me along the way, I say thank you for your time – one of our most precious gifts – and mentorship, and most of all, your friendship.
To those I’ve yet to have the pleasure to meet and work with, I hope we meet soon. It would be my pleasure to pass on to you what others have graciously passed on to me.
Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Review and Learn From All You Do
November 22nd 2006
I’m a strong believer in evaluations.
During on site sales training with clients, we go through role play exercises and I like to go with sales executives on sales calls to test drive the techniques and strategies we’ve discussed and learned during our training.
Following each role play and meeting, we discuss what we did well, what we didn’t do well, and what we could improve for the next role play or meeting.
This evaluation process is easy to do and one I encourage everyone to consider for all business areas and events in an effort to continually learn and improve.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Touch a Person in a Positive Way Today
November 21st 2006
Today’s Telios Tip is a simple one: Reach out and touch a person in a positive way today.
You can check out an inspiring story here when you follow the link to The Telios Group blog post for today.
Make today an awesome day!
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Touch-point Ideas for Season Ticket Holders
November 20th 2006
All sports teams should have a year-round touch-point program for not only maintaining consistent contact with season ticket holders, group leaders, suite holders, corporate partners and individual game ticket buyers, but also in an effort to grow each of your relationships.
Here are five touch-points to consider: Utilize a suite to invite season ticket holders to a game; host a fan forum to get feedback from your full and mini-plan holders; offer a special merchandise sale exclusive to your season ticket holders, group leaders, suite holders and corporate partners; provide behind the scenes tours of your facility, as well as the TV truck if your game is being broadcast on TV; and recognize season ticket holders prior to a game who are active volunteers in your community.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Co-Op Advertising
November 17th 2006
I don’t believe sports teams, or businesses in general, do enough co-op advertising.
I recently picked up my dry cleaning and noticed a pizza coupon offer stapled to the dry cleaner’s receipt – a neat idea by both the cleaners and the pizza company.
The pizza business is in the same area near the dry cleaners, so my guess is the pizza business is likely taping a coupon from the dry cleaners on its pizza boxes. This is a great strategy for each of these businesses to reach people they normally would not be able to reach through traditional advertising, and the only cost for each business is the printing of the coupons.
Sports teams could execute the same strategy with its corporate partners, including dry cleaners and pizza companies.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Group Tickets and Group Night Advertising
November 16th 2006
Many sports teams run newspapers advertisements, as well as radio and television spots, to promote season tickets, but not many sports teams dedicate its advertising to group ticket sales.
I recently was paging through a newspaper and noticed a hockey team dedicated an entire ad to promoting its group ticket programs and the discounts fans could enjoy by attending a game with a group.
I like the strategy and believe there’s great potential for sports teams to significantly increase its home attendance with a focused sales effort on group ticket sales.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Hawks Offer Fan Photos Online
November 15th 2006
Have you been to Disneyland, Disney World, or one of your local parks where a photographer is standing by to take your photo as you enter the park?
The Atlanta Hawks are offering a similar photo opportunity for its guests with the Hawks FanFoto, where digital pictures are taken of fans and they can visit the Hawks web site to view and purchase their photos.
It probably won’t be long before more college and professional sports teams follow Atlanta’s lead on this fan promotion that could net incremental sponsorship and promotions revenue for teams.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Opening Week Strategy
November 14th 2006
There was a lot of marketing and promotions invested in the recent NBA and NHL “opening week” festivities versus the traditional “opening night.” It’s a great strategy to expand “opening night” to either an “opening weekend” or an “opening week.”
Traditionally, most sports teams have great attendances for opening night, and then suffer a significant drop-off in attendance for game two.
If more sports teams adopted an “opening weekend” or “opening week” strategy, and changed their strategic focus from one game to a weekend or week of games, teams would position themselves to improve their home attendance for multiple home games versus only its home opener.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Collaboration Helps Community and Sales
November 13th 2006
A community program sports teams could consider for increasing attendance and supporting its community is “Operation Warm.”
Many community civic groups – including Rotary International – have partnered with local businesses to support “Operation Warm,” a community coat drive benefiting kids and families in the community.
The Salvation Army has been involved as one of the non-profit organization who has distributed coats to kids and families.
Sports teams will want to partner with a business that has multiple locations where coats could be dropped off and sports teams could provide a two-for one, buy one get one, or buy two get two tickets offer for each coat that is donated.
Thousands of coats are donated each year to “Operation Warm.” Collaborating with this program to provide a donation incentive is a great way for sports teams to support its community, while also increasing ticket sales. ***********************
Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Sign of the Times
November 10th 2006
While reading the newspaper recently, I viewed a picture featuring a Denver Broncos fan holding a large sign, and the top banner sported the Broncos logo, a tagline reading “I’m lovin’ it,” and the McDonald’s logo. Below the banner was a large white space where this fan hand-wrote a message to all Raiders fans which read: “Raiders Perfect Season: 0-16.” Ouch! Luckily for the Raiders, they’ve won a game to foil their “perfect season.”
Since this particular sign was captured in a photo and featured in the USA Today sports section, it was great exposure for McDonalds and the Broncos, and not so good of exposure for the Raiders.
Many times sports teams offer a sign making area for fans – particularly kids – to create a sign and show it during the game. Signing a sponsor or two as the presenting sponsor on each of the signs is a great idea.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Create A Community High 5 Program
November 9th 2006
I recently heard about a community program being offered by a television station – KSL Channel 5 in Salt Lake City – where they recognize outstanding individuals in the community with a public High 5.
This could be a neat program for sports teams to create and honor season ticket holders, group ticket leaders, fans and/or people in its community with high 5 recognition from a coach or player at a sporting event.
This is a great opportunity for generating sponsorship support for a community relations program that benefits a sports team’s community, and could be a neat season ticket holder recognition program for those who volunteer or donate time and/or services to the sports team’s community.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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A Food Drive to Sack Hunger
November 8th 2006
Here’s an idea for those looking to increase home game attendance, but do it in a way to assist the community with a food drive.
You could host a food drive prior to one of your home games – this could be one week leading up to the game or a few hours prior to kick-off – where fans have the opportunity to bring two cans of food and receive a two-for-one offer, a buy two get two, or a buy one get one ticket offer.
If you’d simply like to increase attendance at your game and paid tickets is not a concern for this promotion, you could offer a complimentary ticket for (determine an appropriate number) canned food items donated to your local food bank.
You could position food bank barrels near your ticket office for food drop off (as well as near each gate entrance for season ticket holders), and you may want to send a letter your season ticket holders encouraging them to bring canned food to donate to the food bank, as well as encourage them to bring a friend who could donate canned food and join them at the game.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Theatres Offer Over 30,000 Costumes
November 7th 2006
I noticed during the month of October leading up to Halloween theatres were offering costumes for rent. I thought this was a creative idea for leveraging its many costumes, but I had no idea theatres actually offer their costumes on a year-round basis.
CostumeRentals, a combined project of the Guthrie Theater and The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, was established in 2002 and offers over 30,000 theatrical costumes to the public year-round.
Many sports teams have created similar year-round programs where they make their sports facilities available to general public to rent when the arena is not in use by the sports team. Additionally, many sports teams conduct year-round sports clinics in its facilities – prior to games, on non-game days, and even during the off-season.
Tying in tickets to clinics and facility rentals – whether conducted during the season or the off-season – is a great way to increase ticket sales and revenues.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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College Student Ticket Offers
November 6th 2006
The Atlanta Hawks are reaching out to college students and offering specially priced tickets and a “enter to win” sweepstakes offer with various prizes, including tickets, team gear and autographed items.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Recognizing Season Ticket Holders
November 3rd 2006
The Indianapolis Colts have created a neat program to recognize its season ticket holders who volunteer in the community.
Every week, the Colts Community Relations Department keeps its fans updated on the ways its players and coaches are giving back to the community through the Colts “Horseshoe Happenings” newsletter. The Colts decided it wanted to recognize another important member of its team – the Colts season ticket holders.During the 2006 season, through the Colts Community Quarterback Award program, presented by Bose McKinney & Evans, the Colts will recognize 25 season ticket holders who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to their community through volunteerism.
The Colts created an online form, which you can access here – and season ticket holders can share with the Colts what they, or another season ticket holder, are doing in the community by completing the online nomination form.In an effort to enhance this program, we could have tickets underwritten by the presenting sponsor (Bose McKinney & Evans) and donate the tickets to the community group the season ticket holder has volunteered their time.
From the nominations the Colts received, they will select 25 individuals to be named “Community Quarterbacks.” Those season ticket holders will be recognized during a special luncheon in November at Carrabba’s Italian Grill, which is likely a Colts restaurant partner.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Hawks Paint the Town Red
November 2nd 2006
The Atlanta Hawks recently went out of their way to Paint the Town Red. This is a neat promotion to tip of the 2006-07 season, and would be well worth the time and effort for other sports teams to execute.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Theatres Offer Field Trip Guides
November 1st 2006
The Minnesota Children’s Theatre Company has a neat web page for teachers to download reference guides to print and use with each of the classes prior to taking a field trip to the Children’s Theatre.
They also have a neat page called Behind the Curtain that has free videos and downloads.
Sports teams could offer similar reference guides and resources for teachers to access prior to day games, as well as offer a Beyond the Sidelines page that shows teachers and students what happens behind the scenes of a sporting event. This would be both educational and informative to teachers and students, as well as season ticket holders, sponsors, and fans.
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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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