March 17, 2008

Case Study: Navy Football

NAVY Football

The Goal
To reach a market other than students and alumni, expand the fan base and the footprint, and grow the season ticket base. The plan was to market Navy as a desirable destination for the general leisure product audience. Our objective was to develop and execute a complete advertising campaign to go beyond the standard maintenance advertising plan and sell out the stadium earlier in the season.

The Strategy
Located in Annapolis, between DC and Baltimore, Navy had two possible markets to advertise in, but needed to focus on one, in order to compact the media message and dollars so that the campaign was not spread too thin. We chose to target Baltimore, since it was the more affordable market, with less competition and more potential benefit. All campaign themes featured Bill the Goat. We focused on the mascot in order to create a lighthearted approach, pleasing to both sports fans and the general leisure product consumer. The initial campaign, Saturdays with Bill, ran for two seasons, then evolved into the theme, See Bill Run. This slogan called attention to Navy's unique triple option offense, and helped to keep the message light and fun, creating a pleasant escape mechanism for fans.

The Outcome
In the first year of the campaign, Navy saw a profit 5x the original investment. Years two and three of the campaign have seen a profit of 10x the investment. In 2007, Navy football's season ticket sales ranked as the highest in the country for a school with an enrollment of 10,000 students or less.