Werner Ladder and Hoop City

So I was lucky enough to head to Detroit for NCAA Final Four weekend. On Saturday before the games, I made my way to Hoops City, the basketball extravaganza set up for families to go and celebrate the sport. Lots of what you found was very predictable - loads of shooting stations, a 3-on-3 tournament, and a traveling museum of college basketball. But what I wasn't planning on seeing was Werner Ladder.

Werner Ladder. The official ladder of the NCAA (honestly, how many of us even knew the NCAA had an official ladder?) But the more I thought about it and witnessed what they did, the more I thought this to be pretty brilliant. So they had a contest to see who could hang on the rim the longest (see picture above). There was a clock that counted up and a virtual leader board. They took your picture and drove you here to pick it up.

And when you check out this site, you find their Flickr feed. And there's a collection of videos on the history of cutting down the nets. They are tapping into the emotion that exists in the minds of athletes and coaches (and fans) that going up that ladder symbolizes. And they are differentiating themselves in a big way.

Now this is really only a starting point, if you ask me. How can they take this NCAA model and apply it somewhere else? How can they get youth teams or high school teams to post their own ladder moments on this Flickr page? That is the power of this - when they can take the NCAA moments and apply them to a larger audience. When we all start thinking of Werner ladders as a part of an emotional journey. I am intrigued here - and would love to see how this develops.