Unverified Voracity Requires Kerosene

I can't for the life of me understand how anyone can think getting FREE PIZZA is ever a bad thing. (Free) Hungry Howies and (Hail To) The Victors? Match made in heaven!!

It seems like it's been a while since anyone on here railed against Gary Danielson.  It's nice to see that tradition starting up again.

If the marketing director says 'Dude, I don't have to do anything', then he wouldn't have a job for very long. Existences have to be justified.

That song is very Nickelbackish.

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>The chief marketing officer's primary duty should be to recognize and preserve the parts of the Michigan tradition that are unique, not turn everything into a February Knicks game.<

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Therein lies the rub. You don't need a chief marketing officer to recognize and preserve tradition. Any assistant AD worth their salt could do that.

The problem is in having a chief marketing officer in the first place. A big part of Michigan's brand is the affectation that we don't have a brand at all (an affectation I wholly embrace). It's really very zen, if you don't look too closely.

I live in Seattle and have had season tickets to the Seattle Sounders since the franchise began playing in 2009.  I am seriously considering not renewing for a fourth year, however, because of the obnoxious, constant PA system.  Before the game, at halftime, after the game, whenever possible--they play some loud PA annoucement that makes it almost impossible to think, let alone have a conversation with the people around you.  It's like the circus.  First there is the video-game race on the Jumbotron, then they are rolling fake dice down sections 107 and 108, then they are congratulating the Bellingham Knitting Circle on second place in the regional mitten-off. 

Frankly, I enjoy UM football games a hell of a lot more than MLS soccer, and if I still lived in Ann Arbor and was fortunate enough to have tickets, I probably wouldn't give them up due to annoying PA noise.  But anyone who thinks that stuff adds, rather than detracts, from the game experience is on crack.  The only value it may have is to keep children and other people who may be at-the-game-despite-not-being-actually-interested-in-the-game entertained.

One hope is that if the people who live in the neighborhoods south of Main and elsewhere around the stadium complain enough, they can keep the PA noise to its present pleasant minimum.  I used to live in a house on John street and from the second floor you could hear the PA system lout & clear.  If there was pro-sports-style PA stuff going on, it would have been intolerable.

Have you heard any scuttlbut about halftime at the "under the lights" game vs. ND?

Aren't people buying enough t-shirts or caps or sweatshirts?  There don't seem to be any empty seats at the stadium, and people seem to arrive decked out in M gear.  Most people would conclude the fans are happy and like things the way they are.  I personally loathe what has happened to pro basketball over the last 20 years (and don't even watch it any more), and what is happening to a lesser extent to the NFL and the Major Leagues.  If the games are good, who cares about the rest of the stuff?  If the games suck, who cares about the rest of the stuff?

anyone who uses the phrase "building the brand" with reference to michigan sports needs to be fired yesterday.

we already have a brand, you fuckwits.  use it.

I have to think that is the toughest job (across all sports programs).  You are in an urban area where your limited fanbase is outnumbered by about 15 other schools.  The facilities aren't great and the donor base is pretty much limited to alumni.  Indiana gets limited support because they stink, but loads of people still care about IU and IU athletics (they still outdrew Northwestern by about 5,000 per game last year).  If the Hoosiers were good, I think the support would appear instantly.  Maybe the quality academics provides a unique edge, but I would think those kids would choose a school like Stanford over Northwestern every time.

Here in Raleigh, the Carolina Hurricanes have a similarly dreadful arena-rock theme song. The chorus is "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, let's go, C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, let's go, C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, let's go Canes." The first line of the first verse is "Carolina has a fun hockey team". I cringe and apologize every time I bring my Red Wings friends into the arena and that songs starts to play. If Michigan ever adopts anything like this, I really will want to die.

I never want to hear that song again.  So bad.  Who thought that was a good idea?

So the bands at halftime aren't good enough?  I guess neither are the cheerleaders, dance team nor the on-field guests.

If the PA announcements become more than "Don't trash the Big House" and we start seeing mascot races, I'm calling for this guy's head.

Go figure this is coming from a guy who has been to 1(!!!!) Michigan game in his life!

I'm getting this vision of sideline reporter-type marketing girls given a microphone and a camera to the megatrons doing in-game promotions, games, and interviews with fans during commercial breaks.  Flashy lights.  Eye-blinding graphics.  Lameness abounding.

Close your eyes and turn up Frank and Jim on the radio headset, click the heels together.  There's No Place Like Home!  

I'm totally on board for a mascot and a gameday atmosphere that draws heavily upon that mascot... as long as said mascot is an artist's rendition of Marques Slocum's fuck lion.

is that they confuse consumers for customers. while FREEE PIZZZAAAA and mascots might fire up the 12 year olds, the 12 year olds do not pay PSLs or ticket prices or parking. while my mom and her ilk may love dancing to "old time rock n roll" and "shout" during the game, they are not the ones forking over the cash, they just get the crappy game tickets in september before it gets too cold. and for every screaming, hyper 12 year old who will remember a five hour period in the stadium as "the day i almost got a t-shirt" and for every dancing mom who tells her frieds "i danced, it was so silly!" there is some guy with his arms crossed and the palm of his hand on his forehead, pleading quietly for the game to get underway.

/i know, sexist, agist, all that. there are a lot of die hard ladies out there, so this is aimed at the other 98%

who are Iowa State grads to the Michigan-Iowa game (They weren't so much rooting for Michigan as they were rooting against Iowa and Ricky Stanzi - no complaints here). Their college football experience was limited mainly to Big 12 games but they said that game and the atmosphere was by far the most exciting one that they'd been to. This point falls in line with what most people think - its the fact that when you get 110k people cheering in unison for the same team its pretty awesome. Nobody gets pumped up bc you blast in some rock songs over the PA. Keep that stuff in the NBA, let us have our band and the cheers of the fans.

Bo's Last game in the Big Bouse was my very first game at Michigan stadium.   I was 8, and we won.  It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  This video was epic.  You rock.  Know this... you rock.

It's videos like this that I point to as evidence that Dave Brandon (as much better as he is than Bill Martin) has been influenced more by his many years in the corporate world than his four short years under Bo.

That, or he's another middle-aged guy who just doesn't know the diference between cool and corny. One or the other.

For the record, it's not "FREEE PIZZZAAAA," but "Hey Fans!   Who WANTS A PIZZZZ-ZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?"  (cue RAWK)

I can't even begin to explain how much I dislike the Crisler PA announcer.  He's just as bad at Comerica Park, too.  Even if more restrained.

What can anyone expect from Dave Brandon's marketing team, other than a constant assault to change things Michigan fans are already perfectly happy with?

It's one thing if you're a Bush League team needing to do something, anything, to put fans' butts in seats. It's quite another if you're Michigan.

I'm hoping, praying, that very soon Dave Brandon will wake up one morning and simply say, "You know what, I really miss being a businessman," and leave the Athletic Department.

Then again, I'm only hoping it if we don't get someone worse, which is entirely possible.

Yes, we are going to be treated to giant stuffed characters, balloons, halftime stunts, and eventually stadium advertising, tradition and the wishes of the faithful be damned.

I just don't like what people like Brandon are doing to college football, but I know, I know...I'm an old man and get off my lawn, etc...

Edit: I dunno, to me college football is more like religion than "branding." People don't suddenly root for Michigan State because they changed their uniforms or shade of green; they don't decide to attend games at Michigan because of what happens during pregame, or halftime, or because they saw a cute ad.

Branding an institution like Michigan is like branding religion; you can do all the distracting stuff you want and call it branding, but the reality is that none of that stuff has a damn thing to do with becoming a Michigan fan. You can do all you want to "brand," say, devil worship, but you're not going to get many converts to it from the main religions because it's not about advertising, branding, or anything remotely related to those kinds of efforts.

Branding is something you need to worry about when nothing distinguishes your product from another product except a name. Like toothpaste. Or the old GM divisions, that were obsessed with branding (and look what happened!!). That isn't the case with Michigan. Just my two cents.

I think most people are missing the biggest analogy one can make: that with ESPN. ESPN was rollin' in the mid 90s. I mean, people would work their dinners around SC. It was a must watch first thing in the AM and right after work/school at 6pm.

Since the late 90s (basically when they went to 60min SC), ESPN has been growing their brand NOT by attempting to attract the people who are already are glued to the TV (dedicated sports fans). They tried to attract the casual fans by producing debate and reality shows, more fluff peices on SC, the BUD HOT SEAT, etc. That's how businesses grow. attract new listeners/viewers. that's what minor league baseball teams have bee trying to do since about 1990.

Every sport and every TV station (MTV, hello?) have been doing the same. The problem is, most have grown their brands beyond what the diehards who were already hooked could tolerate. I think DB is trying to grow the brand in much the same way (NIGHT GAMEZ, JERSEYZ, etc) while not alienating the die hards (no advertizing, etc).

Like Colin Cowherd says about sports marketing, "they don't give a shit about you (us, the MGOBloggers)- they all ready own you. They need to attract the next generation and casual fans who may eventually become the die hards."