Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Marketing: What We Can Learn from #3 Charlotte

Today we up it another notch. We are down to the best 3 in marketing in the A-10. 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. And the top 3 in the A-10 do it really well.

Thus far our journey through the Atlantic 10 has shown us #14 St Joseph's, #13 La Salle, #12 Saint Louis, #11 Fordham, #10 U Mass, #9 Temple, #8 Duquesne, #7 St Bonaventure, #6 Richmond, #5 Rhode Island, and #4 George Washington.

Let's keep moving.

#3 Charlotte

What the program is known for? Coach Bobby Lutz is becoming an institution, now in his 12th season. It feels like Charlotte is in the NCAAs every year - as an 8/9 seed. In actuality, they've been to the dance 11 times, the last time in 2005. And they hit the Final Four in 1977!

Why are they 3rd? Wow. Charlotte delivers a solid branding presence that stacks up against the power conference teams incredibly well. (Look for that coming down the road!) People wonder if the mid major teams are being more innovative than the big guys. Charlotte is up there. And they are only #3... a deeper connection to the Hoops team could allow them to rise higher in what is becoming a marketing powerhouse conference!

What inspired me about Charlotte? (link here)

1. Just great branding and layout.

The site is gorgeous. Really well designed, with bold colors that make you feel as if you're donning a 49ers jersey when you hit this site. You hit this site, and your eyes move straight into the most important areas. This includes the upcoming matchups and the clippings from the media (shown closer in the images below).

Well done Charlotte.

This image shows you that elevating a big matchup is easy and makes a statement. Don't assume we know your schedule!

This image shows you that you can really make Media Clippings feel hip. And elevate your programs along the way.

2. Bold, prominent, and on target social media icons. What you need and nothing more.

Keeping up with my theme from yesterday, Charlotte does an amazing job of getting you where you want to go, but doing so in a classy way. The icons in the upper right hand corner of the site take you directly into the Charlotte Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blog, and TV components. They are classy feeling, while maintaining a tie to their brands (the Facebook brand in its royal blue, for example).

The only thing I'd long for is for these to link to a different Facebook page (and others of course) if you visited it from the Basketball home page. Now that'd be hot!

3. A Passionate Fan Style Blog.

I'm a big fan of this blog, on many levels. (link here). It's updated in the voice of the athletics department. It feels like it is a passionate fan writing on all things 49ers (which it probably is). And they link in the latest Twitter posts on the right hand side of the page.

The only thing missing is a schedule of content. (Nothing in the last month, which is a shame for such an inspirational area!). Here's a sample of the tone:

“According to Real Time RPI, the Niners are the 56th best team in the nation and will finish the season at 19-11 with a 9-7 Atlantic 10 record. However Ken Pomeroy, the mathematical genius that runs KenPom.com, has the 49ers currently at 86th with a projected record of 20-10 and 10-6.

Mr. Pomeroy takes into account much more than your regular RPI, his ratings include; offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency, a team’s consistency, strength of schedule, non-conference SOS and even a team’s luck. I don’t know about you but I have no clue how to put a team’s luck into numbers but I think it has something to with E=MC^2 (not positive about that one).”

That's it. We're down to 2 squads: Dayton & Xavier. Who's it going to be?

Tune in tomorrow.

Andy