Conference USA Best Practices: Memphis Maximizes the Player Introduction Videos

That opening video.

Across all sports it's the thing that fires everyone up, fans and players alike. And I'm guessing it's one of the things that makes for a lasting impression for a potential student athlete.

I love these because they set the tone. They get the team hyped. They get the fans hyped (which gets the team hyped and the band hyped and the cheerleaders hyped). Essentially, do them well and they can aid in the creation of the home court advantage you seek. And which draws recruits to you... And then (normally) they get thrown away after just one year of using the video?

Memphis has an answer to this.

Hit the Memphis University basketball page and enter the Tiger Hoops Experience (from the right-hand side of the page).

That takes us here, to "This is Tiger Hoops," shown below. I'm normally not a fan of the digital yearbook. (And I'm still not a fan, as it takes the good pieces and puts them all together in a slow-to-load online catalog). But the content is great. And there are learnings here.

First, the video. Known in Memphis as the Ontro Video, the Tigers include videos all the way back to 2002-2003. Think a hot video of the past can't make an impact today? Guess again. I love this for many reasons. They're great videos. They raise the bar (you don't want to allow this year's video to be less exciting than last year's!) And they add up to a statement for what the team is about.




This year, Memphis took it to a new level. They created two videos, airing one on the home opener and the other before the second game. The top vote getter wins... So they involved the fans into the process to hype the team? Love it!

How could this be better? The energy is too bottled up for me. I couldn't easily share these videos with you as they are not set up for easy sharing. I'd love to see Memphis take the excitement they have developed and architect it in a way that makes it easy to take with you. To watch via mobile, wherever and whenever you want.

The risk? That the videos and content lose context and don't appear in the setting of a Guide to Memphis hoops. The upside? That they get seen exponentially more. This is a great case to put the energy in the fans who want it most!

That's it. Come back tomorrow as we continue our look through Conference USA Best Practices.

And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm@pawlow34.

Andy