Talking strictly Tampa Bay here...
The NHL's Tampa Bay Lighting entered the new season, with a relatively new owner and management team, with a terrific marketing campaign. I'm a big fan. They worked with Atlanta/Tampa ad agency 22 Squared to create the "Be the Thunder" campaign. How obvious... thus, how perfect. The Lightning are the team The fans must be the thunder. And the team plays to win. And the fans show up to be heard. This is a campaign that has legs. It should (I hope) last for seasons to come. It has that sort of potential.
And then we come to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Boy. did they ever stink up the NFL this year. The ownership, who is probably as much to blame as anyone else,or more, responded by firing the entire coaching staff, the head coach all the way through to the assistant coach's assistant are gone.
So now they face their off-season. They have to hire a coach, who has to hire a full staff. They have to work their way through the free-agent period (which they took a pass on last season, nearly). They have to live through the spotlight of the NFL draft. Then they need to convince fans to renew, and buy season tickets.
How do they do that?
This is a brand that has some work to do. It has disappointed their fans. The team refused to invest in talent while they demanded that the fans invest in the team. They had a strong base of evangelists which eroded to a large, vocal force of disgruntled consumers. with good reason. What should they do? What would you do?
Personally, I think this is a situation that calls for the Domino's approach.
I've written a couple of times about how Domino's Pizza has scored significant points with the pizza-buying public by coming out and admitting that they sucked... but they're getting better. They have gained brand loyalty and increased sales by being honest. They didn't try to gloss over their deficiencies. They owned up to them and promised to do better. Then they promoted what they were doing to fix things. Honesty.
The Bucs would be wise to learn from Domino's. They are now being compared to their NHL brothers. The Lightning are the fans' darlings. The town is becoming the thunder, loud and proud. How will the Bucs accomplish this? This is where the solution begins... People are won back by earnestness, not by spinning a message.
The NHL's Tampa Bay Lighting entered the new season, with a relatively new owner and management team, with a terrific marketing campaign. I'm a big fan. They worked with Atlanta/Tampa ad agency 22 Squared to create the "Be the Thunder" campaign. How obvious... thus, how perfect. The Lightning are the team The fans must be the thunder. And the team plays to win. And the fans show up to be heard. This is a campaign that has legs. It should (I hope) last for seasons to come. It has that sort of potential.
And then we come to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Boy. did they ever stink up the NFL this year. The ownership, who is probably as much to blame as anyone else,or more, responded by firing the entire coaching staff, the head coach all the way through to the assistant coach's assistant are gone.
So now they face their off-season. They have to hire a coach, who has to hire a full staff. They have to work their way through the free-agent period (which they took a pass on last season, nearly). They have to live through the spotlight of the NFL draft. Then they need to convince fans to renew, and buy season tickets.
How do they do that?
This is a brand that has some work to do. It has disappointed their fans. The team refused to invest in talent while they demanded that the fans invest in the team. They had a strong base of evangelists which eroded to a large, vocal force of disgruntled consumers. with good reason. What should they do? What would you do?
Personally, I think this is a situation that calls for the Domino's approach.
I've written a couple of times about how Domino's Pizza has scored significant points with the pizza-buying public by coming out and admitting that they sucked... but they're getting better. They have gained brand loyalty and increased sales by being honest. They didn't try to gloss over their deficiencies. They owned up to them and promised to do better. Then they promoted what they were doing to fix things. Honesty.
The Bucs would be wise to learn from Domino's. They are now being compared to their NHL brothers. The Lightning are the fans' darlings. The town is becoming the thunder, loud and proud. How will the Bucs accomplish this? This is where the solution begins... People are won back by earnestness, not by spinning a message.
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