Sarah really set the tone for the day this morning when she sent me a BBM that read "Can we be casual today on this rainy morning?" I was off to work in my jeans before you could say "Brooks Brothers". When we got to work this morning, we realized that we LEGIT had nothing to do, so we had to get creative. And thus began my learning experience at the UCCF RS (University of Charlotte Collegiate Football at Raycom Sports).
We decided to head up to the production hall to do some voice over work for fun. Unfortunately, our trusty production intern, Duzan, was in God's Country (Clemson, for those of you who are sadly uninformed) today, and he was the one who offered to set us up to do some VO practice. Instead, we decided to mosey around the production area to see what we could learn. Luckily, they were feeding the ACC Football Impact show. Don't worry, I didn't have any idea what that meant either, but I'm going to take my best stab at explaining it. So they were "feeding" the show to a network in Atlanta. I am not going to be able to describe this technically right, but my best understanding is that essentially, they are running a show from our raycom office and sending it to a the local network, which in this case was located in Atlanta. So when we (as in Raycom) run it, they (as in Atlanta, or other local network) have the ability to record it, and they have 2 recording options from which to choose, HD and SD (standard definition). From the Raycom end, Peter Rolfe was sitting at a desk with a phone, waiting to answer any questions or respond to any problems that the Atlanta network might have dealt with. During the feed, they noticed a little glitch in the show. It was so small that it almost seemed like an effect, but it was indeed something that needed to be fixed before it aired. Luckily, Raycom feeds it twice with a couple of hours in between each feed, so they have time to fix any glitches.
And I finally figured out the commercial thing. So you know how there are all these different commercials some local, some that you see nationally? Have you ever wondered how they are placed during commercial breaks? I have. But it's cool. So the larger, national or regional companies make deals with networks like Raycom and so Raycom has those commercials "on file", pull them, and place them in the show BEFORE it gets fed to local networks. Now the local networks have deals with local companies and so they have the local commercials on file. When Raycom feeds the show to Atlanta, it is fed with the larger company's commercials already placed in it. So those are set. But it also has room for local commercials that the Atlanta companies can place at their discretion. The space just is fed as a period of black. I'm sure I have massacred TV language and the general explanation of how a television show is run, but that is my general understanding.
And I finally figured out the commercial thing. So you know how there are all these different commercials some local, some that you see nationally? Have you ever wondered how they are placed during commercial breaks? I have. But it's cool. So the larger, national or regional companies make deals with networks like Raycom and so Raycom has those commercials "on file", pull them, and place them in the show BEFORE it gets fed to local networks. Now the local networks have deals with local companies and so they have the local commercials on file. When Raycom feeds the show to Atlanta, it is fed with the larger company's commercials already placed in it. So those are set. But it also has room for local commercials that the Atlanta companies can place at their discretion. The space just is fed as a period of black. I'm sure I have massacred TV language and the general explanation of how a television show is run, but that is my general understanding.
After our lecture, Sarah and I took a field trip to South Park mall to perform some research on clothing pieces that we might use for several CCF events. After surveying a few floors, we found several options that I am sure will work well, so we decided to treat ourselves to a lunch break at Arther's. Going through the lunch line, ordering simple sandwiches, I remarked to Sarah about how terribly we used to eat at the start of this internship, and how much better we had gotten. That lasted through lunch. On our way out of the mall, we took a convenient wrong turn that led us right past Yoforia, a frozen yogurt joint ( I tried to write "Fro Yo here...it just doesn't sound right coming from me). I'm still contemplating whether or not to hold a grudge against Sarah for 'making' me walk into the store. But I'll be honest...I did not put up much of a fight.
When we got back, we went to our next 'class' with Professor Pitts on Sponsorships. He showed us the contracts and presentations he has come up with for each of the prospective sponsors. I asked Will if it was hard to be a Sales Person, like whether it's not easy to sell something that people are not necessarily excited about buying. He said it was hard, but he enjoys what he does. We talked about how it was hard to sell something that is not so much a physical product, but more of an experience. We also talked about how to target prospective clients. For instance, why would Bank of America want to be a title sponsor of the Bowl game? Their logo is literally on every piece of collateral we use for both of the games already because we are using the Bank of America Stadium, so they would be paying extra for advertising that they are pretty much already enjoying the benefits of. We also brainstormed some more innovative ways to cultivate relationships with prospective sponsors. Productive class.
Our last lecture was with Chad Swofford on marketing strategy. We have 1 pair of tickets to give away during the entire period leading up to the game. What I want to figure out is how to best utilize the tickets in a way that is fun for our followers, but also promotes increased followership...Have I mentioned that I reserve the right to use questionable words in these posts? One option I discussed was maybe putting it out there that we need to reach a certain number of followers and once we do that we will be giving away tickets. We could use our current followers to invite their friends to the site, in the hopes that we will have this contest...the problem is that we don't know if people will care enough to invite friends. It's frustrating because we are trying to promote 2 games that are essentially irrelevant until at least November. Anyways we had some interesting conversations about all of this. If you haven't already PLEASE follow us on twitter: @MeinekeBowlGame, @ACCFOOTBALLCLT, and @ExtraPointPass and "Like" us on facebook. I'm trying to reach a social media goal here people. Help me make the grade.
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