2300 Blog 7

Reflection on Crisis Campaign for Real Salt Lake

The key to a good campaign, in my opinion, is research. Before my group did research trying to come up with an action plan for Real was a disaster. After research we threw those ideas out the window and took the direction laid out before because of what we had discovered through research.

The biggest help was discovering what current demographics did and did not come to Real games. Major league soccer has a reputation for drunken angry fans. In a state that is so focused around families it was no wonder that the ticket sales were low. Parents will not take their kids to that type of environment. Another point is that while the economy is having a rough time people are going out less often and when they do they make it a family affair. When researching soccer in Utah we found that over 200,000 youth participate in soccer. Our biggest soccer fans are those who don't have jobs or pay bills but they influence what their parents buy. If we can get youth soccer players wanting to come to games and convincing their parents that the games are friendly to their children then more fans would buy tickets and come to games. When we researched the competition we found that the reason for minor league baseball success was their focus on the family. They have family packs for tickets and concessions, family friendly pre-game and post-game activities and activities for restless kids throughout the game. These actions give MLB more ticket sales than the NFL or NBA.

Research drove our campaign to focusing on bringing families to Real Salt Lake. Research is what made our campaign successful.

-Melanie Fenn