We're Back

We're back. It's been a busy past few weeks at Home Team Marketing with the Charity Game we hosted at Cleveland Browns Stadium last week. But with the start of the high school football season we are back in action and ready to roll.  Having a break was good because it allowed us to step back a little and refocus on what we want to do with our blog.  It's still evolving, but one topic that is very important to us is the "Deal Breakers". These blogs will be written by Dan Malone, our Group Director of State Associations.

Here is Dan' first "Deal Breaker" blog.

“Deal Watcher” Blog Post

August 30, 2012

In our continued effort to ensure that information relating to the high school marketplace is shared among all organizations, this post will be the first of many “Deal Watcher” posts. The idea is to make the followers of this blog aware of the various corporate partnerships that are being signed and activated across the country, with state high school athletic & activity associations. It is perfect timing, as I have two new deals to report.

I begin with the Michigan High School Athletic Association where Subway has signed on to become the “Official Restaurant” of Michigan high school athletics. In a deal that was brokered through Home Team Marketing, Subway sees the partnership with the MHSAA as a perfect fit. The missions of both organizations align in a common message of promoting a healthy lifestyle among the student athletes in Michigan.

Moving to the southern United States, Farmers Insurance has extended their support of high school athletics through a partnership with the Alabama High School Athletic Association. Alabama becomes the 18^th state association to have a partnership with Farmers, who continues to show its desire to be a active player in the community.

More to come!

Social Media in the World of High School Sports

By Cheryl Roche

The era of social media continues to grow and change how we engage fans in the world of sports.  We have seen evidence of this recently during the Olympics opening ceremony which garnered 8.9 million social media mentions, topping the total number of Twitter posts during the entire 2008 Beijing Olympics in just one day. 

Although High School Sports is on a smaller scale, digital communications tools are opening the doors into the high school sports space at increasing levels.  With 901 million active users on Facebook and 140 million using Twitter, there are endless opportunities for sponsors to engage with these tech savvy fans.

For sponsors who are specifically targeting teens, social media and other digital assets at sporting venues are a very effective means of engagement.  That’s because for the vast majority of teens, social media is a daily part of their lives.  According to the Common Sense Study, July 2012, 68% of teens text every day, 51% visit social networking sites daily and 11% send or receive tweets at least once every day.    

And it’s not just teens who watch High School Sporting events.  For corporations who seek to reach adults, their brand and message is also exposed to the parents, faculty, and community members in attendance.  In fact, more than 66% of the high school sports audience is made up of adults 18 to 49 years (Scarborough Research Study of select U.S. Markets, August 2010 – September 2011).   These adults are adopting social media in an escalating fashion as well.  Experian Simmons recently reported that 52% of adults who can browse the web on their phone do so and at least 41 million Americans now use their cell phone for shopping-related activities. 

Home Team Marketing (HTM) offers digital opportunities to increase consumer engagement and to maximize our sponsors’ return on investment beyond the field or gym.  Through our exclusive partnership with Phizzle (a leading technology provider of advanced mobile marketing products and digital advertising solutions), HTM offers a platform that delivers customized online and mobile marketing solutions including customized websites, text to win contests, sweepstakes, social media promotions, customized smart phone applications, QR codes, in-venue digital interaction, mobile marketing, viral campaigns,interactive games, video and trivia. 

Incorporating these mobile and digital solutions into our traditional media elements such as signage, public address announcements, print advertisements and onsite access, HTM can help our sponsors get liked, tweeted, pinned and shared with more than 500 million onsite high school sports fans throughout the country!