NCAA Tournament Basketball Marketing: What we can learn from #5 Seed Temple

Today we continue on our journey into the East Region, from a marketing point of view. We're in search of inspiration - things that all of us can take and apply into our worlds. And, for fans, of each team, that's a look into what makes you special.

Thus far, we've reviewed top seeded Kentucky, #2 West Virginia, #3 New Mexico, and #4 Wisconsin.

We previously broke down Temple Athletics (here), and I'll do my best to add a new perspective on the Owls.

Let's roll.

East #5 Seed Temple (Link Here)

What Inspired Me About Temple Basketball?

1. Hear Coach Dunphy's take on Lexy.

This is pretty interesting. If you hadn't heard of Lexy, it's probably worth a click here. Lexy allows you to use your phone, create a playlist, and sign up to get alerts on when the latest broadcast is up. And that playlist becomes kind of an audio version of Twitter, but it goes much further than that since you aren't limited to 140 characters in your audio.

I like this for many reasons. First, it is a signal that Coach Dunphy is moving to the front end of technology by becoming a part of this. There's not to many coaches here, and the fact that he's early in this is pretty sweet. Next, it allows you to be heard. I think that you can get a lot out of the tone of someone's voice. It really does connect you in a way that's more intimate than a video message or a text. You can sign up to get these. And, finally, they are by pure definition, mobile. So a kid can take these with him or her as they hit the road.

Clicking in takes you here. (See below) Note the sign up on the right hand side of this window.

How could we make this better?

• Start by giving us a little more information on what we get. Don't just say "Coach Dunphy's Take," but rather let us know more about what he's going to talk about.
• Add a participation element. Let fans vote on the topic.
• Archive these posts on TempleOwls.com.

2. Photography you can't find anywhere else.

Take one look at the picture below and tell me how anyone else could get this photo? It's impossible. It's intimate, and thus, it has power.

Temple has a gallery (shown below) of photos around the team and their appearance in this year's NCAA Tournament. This is great. It's very much a gallery that only the Owls themselves could make.

How could they improve this?

• Leverage social media. These pictures should be posted on Facebook, and thus easy to share. They are great, it's just tough to leverage these into your own site.
• Give these to other Owls blogs. What? Give away the great stuff they have? Yes. I think a partnership with other Owls sites will only more deeply connect fans and recruits to the program. And photos are one way of doing just this.

3. Temple Brings the Atlantic 10 Conference's Social Marketing to their space.

In the Owls Social Media directory, shown above and here, you'll see something we don't see that often. They take the Atlantic 10 (and the Mid-American) Conference and include access right here, on the Temple site.

How could we make this even better?

• A weakness of this layout is that you have to click on to the A-10 Twitter link in order to see this. I'd love to see Temple include a feed that literally brought the A-10 Twitter page into the Temple site. Or better yet, that combined A-10 Basketball posts with Temple posts together. The interaction between the 2 could become addicting and powerful.
• Can they get the A-10 to do the same thing? Elevate the Temple social media presence on the conference site and Twitter page?

That's it. I hope you're enjoying this. We'll keep moving through the East bracket tomorrow.