When I ran marketing for Sports Radio WEEI\u00a0in Boston, we spent an ample amount of time sending interns out to different sports venues prior to games to blanket the area with\u00a0WEEI paraphernalia \u2013 all to engage with sports fans, our core target demographic. The reason we were so successful in reaching our targeted listener was that we knew what they liked and where they played. By the way, it wasn\u2019t brain surgery. Our listeners were sports fans, and guess what? \u00a0They happened to spend time at sporting events. What made us effective was that we were relentless; every game, every venue \u2013 we were always present.<\/p>\n
We did a little deal for vehicles with a local Ford dealership, Rodman Ford (hi Don), and wrapped the vehicles with our logos. So, pretty easy stuff. \u00a0We had some brand presence and gave away some items with Sports Radio WEEI\u00a0logo on them. We gave away a ton of \u201ccoozies\u201d because, of course, sports fans drank beer, and we were there to help keep the beers cold and their hands warm. It was very basic grass-roots marketing; it was low-budget (which was key since we barely had a budget) and it was an effective way to remind folks that we were the place to turn to for sports information and entertainment.<\/p>\n
We were constantly looking for ways to get new, low-cost items that people wanted and would keep. At the time, Roger Clemens was pitching for the Red Sox; fans in the bleachers would paint \u201cK\u2019s\u201d on cardboard and hang them up every time Roger struck out a batter. We decided that would be the perfect item, only we would have them professionally designed and printed with our logo on the \u201cK-cards\u201d. \u00a0Given the high volume at which we printed these cards, the cost was minimal (I can\u2019t remember the exact cost now, as it was almost 20 years ago, but it was absolutely the least expensive item we gave away). The \u201cK-cards\u201d caught on big, and fans were flashing them for every strike out, so at times we would also get some TV exposure.<\/p>\n
Well, in the 1996 season, the Patriots had a nice little run and ended up hosting the AFC Championship Game at Foxboro Stadium. One of our on-air hosts, Eddie Andelman, came up with a code word that he urged everyone to say when they called the station, indicating that they thought the Patriots were going to the Super Bowl. He didn\u2019t want folks to just outright say they were going to the Super Bowl, because sports fans are superstitious and he didn\u2019t want there to be any chance of a jinx. The Super Bowl was in New Orleans that year, so the code word was \u201cJambalaya\u201d \u2013 and man, did it catch on. Folks began printing up signs, putting the word up on their business marquees, and walking around shouting, \u201cJAMBALAYA.\u201d It was incredible.<\/p>\n
The station jumped all over it, and as a marketing tool, it became the focal point for everything we were doing. It was a fun and contagious campaign. We even converted the \u201cK-cards\u201d to \u201cJambalaya cards.\u201d Then came game day; I sent out Will McDonough (our main intern), who had recruited some friends and literally blanketed the parking lots with WEEI Jambalaya Cards (I believe we handed out something crazy, like 25,000 cards).<\/p>\n
At the same time, the Patriots organization had done a deal with Bank of Boston to hand out blue pom-poms with the bank\u2019s logo on the handle. Of course, we were not in the business of coordinating our efforts with the teams, and our efforts didn\u2019t sit so well with the team\u2019s executives. They were so ticked off, that over the loud speakers, they were announcing, \u201cWEEI Jambalaya Cards will not be allowed in the stadium.\u201d I got a call from Will, who explained what was happening, and that folks were hiding the cards under their jackets to sneak them into the stadium.<\/p>\n
The next day, I was in the office, quite satisfied with the results and our efforts, and I received a call from Dan Kraft, who ran marketing for the Patriots, and whose family owned the team. The part that made this awkward for me was that a couple of months prior to this event, Dan had indicated to me that he liked what I did for the station, and would be interested in chatting with me after the season to see if I would fit with the team. Let\u2019s just say that on this particular day, he wasn\u2019t too pleased with me, and he let me know it. After he finished, having more guts than brains, and not apologizing for the outcome, I said to him, \u201cDan, I don\u2019t work for you, I work for WEEI, and if you were my boss, you would have been thrilled with what we did.\u201d So much for Dan hiring me now<\/em>. But, Dan\u2019s answer was interesting; even though he was ticked off, I believe he knew we were trying to do the right things for WEEI. Dan said to me, \u201cThat\u2019s right, you don\u2019t work for me\u2026YET,\u201d and hung up the phone.<\/p>\n I began working for the Patriots six months later.<\/p>\n Even though I may have jeopardized my opportunity to work with the Patriots, I did what was right for my brand, my employer, and the responsibilities of my job. My obligation was to WEEI, not any other company; that\u2019s all I knew and the only way I approached it. Some may say that I was foolish and just got lucky. I believe that if you are true to yourself and what you are charged to do, all the rest will fall into place.<\/p>\n The funny part of the entire episode was that each year, NFL Films produced a team video that they sold prior to the next season. \u00a0Dan and I were watching it together at an event my first year with the team, and wouldn\u2019t you know, right in the middle of the video, there is a fan flashing a WEEI Jambalaya Card. I can\u2019t lie; I still smile at the thought of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I ran marketing for Sports Radio WEEI\u00a0in Boston, we spent an ample amount of time sending interns out to different sports venues prior to games to blanket the area with\u00a0WEEI paraphernalia \u2013 all to engage with sports fans, our core target demographic. The reason we were so successful in reaching our targeted listener was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1626,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/1626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}