Kansas Basketball Lets You Get Coach Self on Your Answering Machine

The more I think about it, the two most personal areas for most college fans (and for future college athletes) are their social profile and their mobiles. And, if you do it well, the reality is your mobile plan becomes social (and vice versa).

Kansas Basketball is leading with Mobile in a way that, yes, will become extremely social.

I came across this article on ESPN. It took me to Coach Bill Self's Official Crowdrise page (here). Side note, until now I'd never heard of the site "Crowdrise" but it seems like an interesting place to raise funds for good causes. Coach Self, like many of us, has a cause which is important to him. But as you'll see below it's the creativity in his approach that has me a blogging...

Much like the NPR Show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", Coach Self is offering to record a personal voicemail message for you. To be considered, you need to donate to his cause (helping families in need during the Holiday season). Everyone who donates has a chance and the lucky winner gets Coach Self on their phone.

Check these images.

There's a disclaimer, for sure, as it is not something they are targeting towards prospective student-athletes nor to fans of other teams who'd be upset with this prize. But if you are a current student/diehard fan of the Jayhawks, how sweet would it be for your friends to find not you but Coach Self on the voicemail.

It'd be bragging rights, it's social, and it is something that almost makes you not answer your phone more often.

The only things I'd add to the mix would be to 1) get Coach Self to also drop that voicemail as a Tweet, so the world can see, hear, and admire the winning fan's position as the luckiest Jayhawk fan around and 2) encourage fans to enter this for their friends/family members as a Holiday gift! While the prize may not appeal to you, you'd be hard pressed to find a better gift for a fanatic fan on your shopping list!

And for the rest of us, take inspiration here -- this is a fantastic example of taking a simple idea (a voicemail message) and turning it into a prize that could unite a fan base.

Thanks for reading. You can tune back in Wednesday for more digital best practices. Until then, follow me here, or on Facebook (here) or Twitter (I'm @andypawlowski)

Andy