Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Marketing: 3 Inspiring Things About #13 La Salle

There's something (or things) that every program does a fantastic job of that we can learn from. In anything you do, if you can find the good in what someone does and do more of that and then avoid what you find to be less effective, you'll end up in a better place.

Thus far our journey through the Atlantic 10 has shown us #14 St Joseph's. Let's keep moving.

#13 La Salle

What the program is known for? Before we dive in, the history at La Salle is mind blowing. Do you realize that in the 3 year window between 1988-1990, the program won 80 games and went 43-1 in the conference? That's just nuts. They were voted the 53rd best program of all time by Street & Smith's.

Now that's success. And that should permeate everything (attitude and storytelling) we see on the site. Not to say we need to dwell in the 20 years ago past. But to say we need to show recruits that this is possible. That there's history here. And that you could make it happen again.

Why are they 13th? Like St Joseph's, La Salle doesn't bring you along with their storied history. Also like St Joe's, there's really not any way of following along with this year's squad - you have abilities to connect with the athletics department, but the tight connection to hoops was missing.

What inspired me about La Salle? (linked here)

1. In Their Words. If you click here, you'll be taken to this section, packed full of alumni who describe their experiences at La Salle.


You'll find Bill Raftery, the famous CBS Sports announcer. Who puts the La Salle experience into his own words in this section. The section is not that deep (only 5 people). It also was done recently (Bill is definitely not a recent grad in his visual). But it is very powerful to hear from alumni about the experience of being on campus.

Now what could this become? That's where inspiration hits you. What if La Salle took every Senior after the season and did a filmed exit interview? Those interviews could then become part of a big collection that could rotate in and out. Our they could pull these out via simple text and allow for people to fall in love with the program like we all do with our college. It is very tough to bring alumni back and to film them after they "make it big". But it's very powerful to hear from them while they are still in the college zone. Big opportunity here.

2. The Men's Basketball News Feed, Blog style.

I don't know - but there's something about this that inspired me. I guess it's the fact that this is so simple. It's a collection of images and short text files written about the team. But it's done every day, and it is focused around the team. Take a look at the past 3 days in this image:

Feb 19 Preview of Matchup vs St Bonaventure

Feb 18 Loss to Dayton

Feb 17 Travel Date

Every day, each team has a story. And this is what you get from the La Salle basketball section. So many of us stick to just providing links to news releases. That's easy, and it gets posted quickly. But the power of a simple image with a paragraph and a link is impressive.

Now imagine if we could take that image and text and change it so the image is taken in real-time, with a cell phone. So the travel day is a picture from the team bus. And the matchup preview is taken from the shootaround? That gives you the same story but in a much more intimate way.

3. Coach John Giannini's Radio Show.

You can listen to this online, witnessed in the image below. And it links from here. I am a believer that the coaches shows are one of the most hidden and powerful things in marketing. You get quite a sense for what a coach is like from listening to it. Is he energetic or passive? Does he love his team? How does he react to adversity? Do you sync to his sense of humor (assuming he's got one!)? So I love this idea. Now, how do we adapt to what's possible now?

There should be a big schedule of when these are coming. Make it obvious. Even consider a countdown clock or ticker, much like you'd see for the Super Bowl (or the Premiere of American Idol if that's more your style). That way people know when to come and listen. Now that people know, here's a series of "what ifs" as it relates to coaches shows.

What if people who were online at the time could ask questions?

What if this could be connected to your Facebook page?

What if the interview was done via UStream, so that people could also see the coach as he's being interviewed?

What if the highlights of this radio show were posted in the blog immediately afterwards?

We can't get there immediately. But before we toss the radio out as an afterthought, let's look at that inspiration and build on it!

That's it. Come back tomorrow as I keep rolling through the A-10!

Andy