Interesting article about USF advertising

[USF_Bill]

FKQ Advertising running with Bulls to observe USF's gridiron decade

Tampa Bay Business Journal - July 7, 2006by Carl CronanReal estate editor

TAMPA -- The University of South Florida is looking to its alumni base for support of its 10th season of college football, starting with several graduates of a Clearwater advertising agency.

FKQ Advertising & Marketing Inc. is working with the USF athletic department to promote the Bulls' decade of gridiron history, which dates back before its first-ever game at old Tampa Stadium in fall 1997.

A commemorative logo incorporating the number 10 with the team's trademark was recently introduced as part of a summer-long football season ticket campaign. A special highlight DVD is also being produced.

A private party for the team's corporate sponsors and donors is planned for early August, and members of the inaugural Bulls football squad will be honored at halftime of the Bulls' season opener Sept. 2 versus McNeese State University.

Big league marketing

The 10th-anniversary campaign marks a new step up for USF, which joined the Big East Conference in 2005 and played in its first bowl game last December. Marketing budgets previously were almost non-existent, and sports promotion efforts had to be handled in house if at all.

USF is spending roughly $25,000 to hire FKQ for its year-round athletic campaign, including basketball and other collegiate sports -- not a big-money account by ad agency standards. But USF will get two to three times the value of that work, said Tom Veit, associate athletic director of external affairs at the Fowler Avenue campus.

"They're giving us a lot of extra work because they have a lot of USF people on their staff," said Veit, a USF alum who assisted with the Bulls' first football radio broadcasts as director of sports marketing with Clear Channel Communications.

George Ferris, FKQ executive VP, said the new deal is a way for his agency to give something back to USF for all its talented personnel who graduated from there.

"USF is seen as a big-league program now, and our alliance seems to further demonstrate that position," Ferris said. "Everyone certainly wants to be associated with a winner and something that makes the community proud on a national level."

Broadcast component

A radio and television ad campaign recapping USF football's most memorable moments over the past 10 years is being aimed at the school's 40,000 area-wide students and more than 100,000 local alumni, offering season tickets starting at $119 for all six home games including four Big East matchups.

"We really want people to look back and see what we've accomplished," Veit said. "Now that we've done it it's expected, but that's what we wanted from the beginning."

Higher ticket sales naturally mean higher expectations, he said. Nearly 15,000 season tickets were sold last year and a 10 percent increase is expected for 2006, though sales of group and individual tickets also increased last season, he said.

Average attendance last fall increased about 25 percent to 38,000 a game, Veit said.

USF hopes its football program eventually becomes successful enough, along with its new Big East rivals, to sell out all home games each year in 65,000-seat Raymond James Stadium, also home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"We expect to be even more productive in our next 10 years," Veit said.

USF football highlights

Sept. 15, 1995: USF Board of Regents approves football program

Dec. 3, 1995: Jim Leavitt, an assistant coach at Kansas State University who is from St. Petersburg, is named USF's first head football coach

Sept. 6, 1996: USF holds its first formal football practice

Sept. 6, 1997: USF defeats Kentucky Wesleyan 80-3 in inaugural game attended by 49,212 fans at Tampa Stadium

Oct. 3, 1998: Bulls debut at newly built Raymond James Stadium

Sept. 8, 2001: USF wins its first landmark game 35-26 at Pittsburgh

Sept. 27, 2003: USF beats Army 28-0 in its first Conference USA game

Sept. 24, 2005: Bulls rout Louisville 45-14 in their first Big East game on national cable TV (ESPNU)

Dec. 31, 2005: USF loses 14-0 to North Carolina State in its first-ever bowl game, the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C.

[E.T.]

...USF is spending roughly $25,000 to hire FKQ for its year-round athletic campaign, including basketball and other collegiate sports -- not a big-money account by ad agency standards. But USF will get two to three times the value of that work, said Tom Veit, associate athletic director of external affairs at the Fowler Avenue campus.

"They're giving us a lot of extra work because they have a lot of USF people on their staff," said Veit, a USF alum who assisted with the Bulls' first football radio broadcasts as director of sports marketing with Clear Channel Communications.

...

Where was this article ?

This is a great job by BULLS !!!

[72bull]

They have been airing the ads during the Devil Ray's broadcasts.

[USF_Bill]

...USF is spending roughly $25,000 to hire FKQ for its year-round athletic campaign, including basketball and other collegiate sports -- not a big-money account by ad agency standards. But USF will get two to three times the value of that work, said Tom Veit, associate athletic director of external affairs at the Fowler Avenue campus.

"They're giving us a lot of extra work because they have a lot of USF people on their staff," said Veit, a USF alum who assisted with the Bulls' first football radio broadcasts as director of sports marketing with Clear Channel Communications.

...

Where was this article ?

This is a great job by BULLS !!!

Tampa Bay Business Journal - July 7, 2006by Carl CronanReal estate editor

[E.T.]

Great Publication ... hope to get more corporate help.

SOON ... USF Football will be the place for Saturdays ! Club seating is geat and inexpensive for a company. Perfect for entertaining.

Go BULLS !!!

[Minotaur]

George Ferris, FKQ executive VP, said the new deal is a way for his agency to give something back to USF for all its talented personnel who graduated from there.  

Nuke: he is talking about Phil Hartman. Hell I even spent some time there.