Hunter Lochmann Out
Lochmann on the left
Jim Hackett ain't having it. A "Chief Marketing Officer" who can't even market his own brain effectively is not long for the AD:
"He resigned his position to pursue other opportunities," said Dave Ablauf, Michigan associate athletic director.
Lochmann was the living symbol of Dave Brandon's incompetence, a buzzword-spewing yes man whose only ideas were bad ones. The fact that Brandon hired a CMO whose twitter handle was "LochDogg" for at least a year after he was hired says somethin' about somethin'.
Under Lochmann's watch, Michigan aggressively polluted its gameday experiences with relentless noise, chintzy contests, and above all money-grubbing. Michigan came to be defined by the bad ideas Lochmann rolled out only to quickly reverse course on and bad ideas it was too late to do anything about except lie. Michigan lied about hiring skywriters; they claimed the Cokes-for-tickets thing was a failed "retail activation," which isn't English. Michigan increasingly focused on roping in "families of four from Grand Rapids who go to one game a year," as he told a prominent member of the alumni association, taking the core fanbase for granted.
That fanbase rebelled against his boss thanks in no small part to Lochmann. Ticket sales now hover on the edge of collapse and Michigan Stadium is just another generic sports experience.
The best news of all is that Michigan doesn't know if they're going to bother to replace him. Air would have been more effective at marketing Michigan than Hunter Lochmann was, and less expensive.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^
He's a marketing type who lived in the vacuum wherein his shitty ideas actually worked. He isn't the only one.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:28 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
If I remember, some of the business school profs used Brandon's emails as case studies.
December 17th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^
Marketing guys so sure of how they envisioned their product to be that they openly opposed the wishes of many of their customers.
I so respect Hackett for getting rid of this guy
December 17th, 2014 at 10:58 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 11:01 AM ^
We need air. We don't need the Loch Mess Monster.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
Only one more job for Hackett to do before he removes the interim tag.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:05 AM ^
Crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their women?
December 17th, 2014 at 11:27 AM ^
Okay.................maybe 2 more.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:36 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 11:39 AM ^
the hedges of many small villages, and THEN ride off on them women.
December 17th, 2014 at 1:04 PM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 1:26 PM ^
I'd suggest moving "prune the hedges" elsewhere in that sentence. I won't say *exactly* where.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 11:01 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 11:33 AM ^
You think? Don't get me wrong, Lochmann was awful here. But compared to my usual experiences at Cavs games near where I live (game entertainment-wise, not basketball), I think the experience at the Garden is great. It's way less gimmicky and they let the game breathe a little more. That's why I was a little surprised that he turned everything into such a circus here.
December 17th, 2014 at 12:13 PM ^
I've been to a couple of Knicks games, and they all felt a little gimmicky. Admittedly I haven't gone this year, so perhaps it has changed. But I guess I grew up going to Pistons games with the Bad Boys (and then a couple of years with the Teal jerseys) so I was used to one type of game experience, and the Knicks game just felt too commercial. Yet when I went to see Michigan play KSU a couple years ago, I thought the atmosphere was much better, which sounds like your take.
December 17th, 2014 at 4:00 PM ^
The last Pistons game I went to felt really gimmicky/lame.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:01 AM ^
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December 17th, 2014 at 11:09 AM ^
There is talk from a few credible-seeming posters on Rivals (with the seeming blessing of the mods there) that the Harbaugh deal is nearly complete and Hackett will be on board for the first two years of his tenure.
Caveat is that the mods there feel that Harbaugh is flaky so they're less optimistic (50/50 compared to 90/10).
December 17th, 2014 at 11:33 AM ^
I don't think you need to kill rawk or the big screens, just recognize their appropriate role in the game day experience. During warm-ups or post-game or every couple of downs when the band needs a break, maybe a song gets mixed in (and never again commission a song like that big house song). Screens are great so that in-staduim fans can also watch replays after calls, but maybe focus more of the content on clips from old games, player bios (like when they introduce the players with clips at the begining of broadcast game), or comission Filmic to make some awesome content. People will mind the plugs for stadium rentals and boxes less if its mixed in with stuff worth seeing.
Also, could we get someone in graphic design to make a digital version of one of the old scoreboards for when they are showing the game stats? Those skeumorphic scrollers they have now drive me banannas, if we are going to pretend our super high-def digital screen is something older and lower tech, lets at least have it hearken back to what we used before.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:02 AM ^
He may be a nice guy but I am glad he's not collecting $250,000 annually to further corrupt Michigan football with shitty marketing ploys.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^
Lochmann sounds like a turd, but FWIW, Greg Dooley at MVictors loves him. He posted this a couple days ago:
And P.S., Lay off Hunter Lochmann! The guy is great and readers of this site, I hope, understand the point he was trying to make. And yes, feel free to bang on me for addressing this issue in this blurb– but I’m busy, darn it!
Dooley's bonafides are impeccable. I love MVictors, but I'm not seeing what Dooley's seeing.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:09 AM ^
I don't know that site, but that comment makes me believe I wouldn't enjoy it.
December 17th, 2014 at 1:44 PM ^
His writing, research, and website are nothing short of amazing. This is a blip. I wouldn't let it change your opinion of MVictors.
December 17th, 2014 at 1:07 PM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 11:22 AM ^
Spent a lot of time butting heads with Hunter over student seating policies last year, but we ending up working quite well together.
— Michael Proppe (@mikeproppe) December 17, 2014
Reporters for the Daily (in this case, a graduate) seem to have a different view:
@mikeproppe I wish @michigandaily could say the same!
— Adam Rubenfire (@arubenfire) December 17, 2014
December 17th, 2014 at 11:45 AM ^
My best guess (total speculation, mind) is that Lochmann was accommodating for on-field access and such, though the hole in this theory is that stuff would not seemingly be under his purview. Who knows.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:05 AM ^
If there's one thing marketing people do well, it's creating a fake need for their services, and if you think about it, Michigan doesn't really need the kind of help that a CMO pretends to provide. It needs a keeper or protector, someone who says no way more often than he or she says yes.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:12 AM ^
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December 17th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^
But how else are we going to gain approval for fireworks after every first down during day games?
December 17th, 2014 at 12:47 PM ^
You nailed it Wendyk5. When you have a piece of shit cardboard pizza, you need a CMO.
When you have something that is already good and rich in tradition, you need a steward.
December 17th, 2014 at 8:46 PM ^
with your statement. You're spot on. Michigan never needed a C-Suite officer in charge of marketing the football program. I didn't even know until recently that was a DB creation. Surprised that Lochmann kept his job for this long following Brandon's resignation, but evidently he's lost quite a few brain cells in the last couple months, enough to make Hackett's decision an easy one.
Marketing types in general, let's just say, that for every successful MBA that is able to actually create a market, and then fill it, or even understand how to meet customer expectations, there are thousands of others who find that it is one of the more useless degrees on the planet.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
This news calls for a rousing fireworks display!
December 17th, 2014 at 11:08 AM ^
assiciated with college athletics made my skin crawl.
I'm delighted that both Lochmann and his position are gone. I'm starting to warm up to this Hackett fellow.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:11 AM ^
Hackett is really, really growing on me.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:11 AM ^
Apparently LochDogg was one with whom we merely had a fleeting, four-year relationship.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 12:44 PM ^
I would bet if you went to Crisler and asked 100 random people "How do you feel about Hunter Lochmann being let go?" you could 95 responses of "Who?" and 5 "Good. He sucks"
December 17th, 2014 at 11:16 AM ^
December 17th, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^
Mmmm, the pimp hand is strong with this one...
December 17th, 2014 at 11:19 AM ^
Broom every last asshole who refers to Michigan as a "brand."
December 17th, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^
I really enjoyed this hot take. A resounding and well-deserved burn for the guy who was the face of all the stupid bullshit that has gone down in the past few years. Good riddance.
December 17th, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^
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December 17th, 2014 at 11:26 AM ^
Marketing people are fun. Some have no clue and think they know everything...others are actually very good at understanding what the market wants. Lochmann obviously had no idea.
December 17th, 2014 at 4:51 PM ^
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December 17th, 2014 at 11:31 AM ^
That's what he said.......................
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