Is there just a lack of importance on marketing and production re: Sports?

[ChinaDogSunflower]

I'm genuinely curious. Mississippi State typically puts out a sub par product from a marketing/advertising standpoint. Most recently, the new school slogan is changing from We Ring True to Focusing on What Matters or something that's equally mediocre. Not sure how that ties into our brand at all.

I saw the thread about OM's schedule, so I looked at it on their website. Every game has their designated colors to wear for the game.

It resonated with the ongoing theme of our overall sub par marketing of the AD. We aren't poor ole MSU anymore. We have a multi million dollar annual budget.

So my questions are..

Is there a general lack of concern or importance regarding the marketing?

OR

Is there an assumption that they are genuinely doing a sufficient job marketing?

 

[The Fatboy]

Its all about who is in charge of marketing. Everyone has a different eye for what appeals to them. Do I love everything our marketing dept puts out ? No. But alot of it is really good. Also alot of this is being designed by students so they come and go. Some are better than others. Not everything Ole Miss puts out is great. Remember that dumbass riding the tricycle?

 

[ronpolk]

I'm genuinely curious. Mississippi State typically puts out a sub par product from a marketing/advertising standpoint. Most recently, the new school slogan is changing from We Ring True to Focusing on What Matters or something that's equally mediocre. Not sure how that ties into our brand at all.

I saw the thread about OM's schedule, so I looked at it on their website. Every game has their designated colors to wear for the game.

It resonated with the ongoing theme of our overall sub par marketing of the AD. We aren't poor ole MSU anymore. We have a multi million dollar annual budget.

So my questions are..

Is there a general lack of concern or importance regarding the marketing?

OR

Is there an assumption that they are genuinely doing a sufficient job marketing?

You must not pay attention to the annual thread on here bitching about our athletic department telling all these tough guys here what to wear to each game… the athletic department has done this for years.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

and while we're at it, at most stores UM gear is placed in prominence over MSU gear. Our AD needs to make inroads there. Also at far away places, like ATL, there's a better chance to see UM sports merchandise than MSU.

 

[DAWGS1.sixpack]

You’re right in some degree in that WHO matters but when you can’t pay WHO what 70% or more of the the other schools pay and you also mention multi million dollar budgets.
Well we may be multi millionaires but our competition is mostly Multi, Multi, Multi millionaires.
This makes a huge difference.

 

[RiceDawg]

I’ve seen more done since Rhett came back than in the years he was gone. Give it some time to turn around.

 

[The Peeper]

If you've missed the multiple emails, Tweets, mailings, Instaposts and bitchin on here about what colors to wear and when, you need to go back to sleep and stop complaining because it's been covered many, many times. The consensus is don't tell me in preseason emails to wear maron (yes maron since you don't seem to remember) on Sept 21 when the temperature may be 95' but the week before it was 80'. This concept looks awesome in Happy Valley in early September but early September in Happy Valley isnt early September in MS. Also, if our team is fragile enough to win or lose because I or you wore a particular color shirt then we are beyond help

 

[DAWGS1.sixpack]

Hey Peep,since I’m sure based on your comment about Happy Valley that you have actually attended a game there - in September or s anytime for that matter, well I have actually attended a game there in October - October 28th to be exact and it was about as hot as a mid-September day in MS
I found zero people that day complaining about how hot it was or about wearing white vs navy blue- and back then they didn’t have White Out days vs big name opponents and this game was as big a name opponent as it gets
Its all about fan support and the team producing competitive teams to generate interest.

 

[onewoof]

It's no coincidence that marketing plans are made in the Dunning Kruger building on campus

 

[paindonthurt]

Our schedule shows designated colors also.

Is that your main point to down our marketing compared to theirs? You need to look harder if so.

 

[mstateglfr]

It'd be cool if secondary sports had more fan gear- mostly shirts.
MSU soccer, MSU volleyball, etc etc.


This isn't directly applicable to the thread topic, but it goes to what seems like an overall approach in promoting the university's athletics.

 

[paindonthurt]

I would imagine it’s the same everywhere.

You aren’t finding secondary sports merchandise for most schools.

When you do, it’s typically because that school is dominant in said sport.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

He's right. The school no longer calls me every Thursday night asking me for donations.

 

[dawgstudent]

I thought we ring true was a great slogan. "Focusing on what matters" is pretty generic.

 

[FrontRangeDawg]

My perspective is that State's sports marketing got substantially better during the Mullen era. That's when I first remember seeing the high production value pregame videos, recruit commitment posts on Insta/FB, and a larger variety of quality logo and merch options. For example, I think the first time I saw something as mundane as a cool little cowbell insignia sticker was in 2012-13. We had some pretty good graphic design options like the stylized bulldog and things like that. One could argue that we haven't made many strides since the 2015 or so. That's my impression at least. I like that we tried out other uniform options; in particular, I wish they would bring back the NASA Flying M and make that our alternate uniform. It's the coolest thing we've ever had.

"We ring true" was pretty catchy within the brand to me.

Off topic, I still don't think we have a lot of great apparel that I would buy and wear. Everything in the Lodge looks like it was designed by AI then put through a committee of middle managers. All of the logo shirts and polos have badges on them that are as big as letters on letter jackets. I would love a grey polo with a small old school Walking Bully, for example.

 

[mstateglfr]

I would imagine it’s the same everywhere.

You aren’t finding secondary sports merchandise for most schools.

When you do, it’s typically because that school is dominant in said sport.

I see a lot of track, volleyball, and soccer shirts for large regional universities.
When I was at MSU in the spring they had 0 on campus or off. And online is nearly as lacking.

 

[The Peeper]

Just looked up the average temps for Happy Valley, average hi in Sept is 74' avg low 50'.

Here's last Sept. which would be warmer than Oct and you can look at any month for any year you want:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/happy-valley/18643/september-weather/2129211?year=2021

 

[aTotal360]

Stricklands team won several marketing awards over his tenure. Not sure how Coinz is viewed.

 

[8dog]

I dont really notice much difference over the last decade
or so. And no one in this thread has really pointed anything out.

 

[VegasDawg13]

I see a lot of track, volleyball, and soccer shirts for large regional universities.
When I was at MSU in the spring they had 0 on campus or off. And online is nearly as lacking.

Every time I've ever been in B&N, there are MSU volleyball, soccer, etc. t-shirts

 

[DirtyDog]

and while we're at it, at most stores UM gear is placed in prominence over MSU gear. Our AD needs to make inroads there. Also at far away places, like ATL, there's a better chance to see UM sports merchandise than MSU.

That's because the clearance racks are up front.....

 

[paindonthurt]

I thought I had seen plenty too.

The lodge, Barnes and noble, CBM.

 

[paindonthurt]

But people talked **** about loaferz while he was here.

It’s the Mississippi State way.

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

It's the off season, so not much going on.

Another thread about our production/marketing is always warranted until it is taken seriously.

People are free to wear whatever they want to the game.

Blue hairs will always ***** and moan when people want better. They can sit on their hands, complain that everyone around them was yelling, standing, wearing white for a white-out game, and striving to make the experience better. I don't value their opinion though.

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

That's a tough one. OM has a large presence in ATL compared to MSU. That's where a lot of OM students come from when UGA rejects them.

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

Are the other schools really paying millions and millions more to their marketing/production because they have so much more money?

OR is it that MSU is not paying what other schools pay for marketing because it isn't a priority?

It's not like our multimillion dollar budget is incapable of even paying people.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

Just looked up the average temps for Happy Valley, average hi in Sept is 74' avg low 50'.

Here's last Sept. which would be warmer than Oct and you can look at any month for any year you want:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/happy-valley/18643/september-weather/2129211?year=2021

Is someone arguing with you that a late October day in State College, PA is comparable to a September game in Starkville in terms of heat? July is the hottest month in State college and the average is still 5 degrees colder than September in Starkville.

State College has had 1 day of 90° in September in the last 5 years combined. Starkville has had 77. The all time record high for October 28th in State College PA was 79°. If someone happened to be at a game that day at Penn State, I would have to agree nobody would be bitching about the heat. It was perfect football weather.

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

Sit down, stop yelling and just enjoy the game1!!! This is a football, not a beauty pageant!!!11!!

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

Definitely seems so. Maybe they don't know how bad it is

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

This is the EXACT THREAD for this. That's what the entire thread is about.

 

[olblue]

I dont really notice much difference over the last decade
or so. And no one in this thread has really pointed anything out.

Correct. No one has mentioned the best marketing program in MSU history - winning the CWS in 2021.

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

Just looked at Hail State again, still doesn't have colors. That's not really the point.

Don't have to look hard to still see the pattern of our University marketing.

I think you saw OM and went blind haha

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

Same same. "We Ring True" ties into the brand. It's almost like they tried to retread "Maron is All That Matters". Which tied into the first AA HC in SEC history

 

[paindonthurt]

It may not be on our website but we’ve officially released a schedule showing what colors to wear and when.

I don’t give a **** what ole miss does but apparently tou do.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Correct. No one has mentioned the best marketing program in MSU history - winning the CWS in 2021.

Too bad our softball team didn’t make the WCWS. I bet they would have drawn more viewers than Ole Miss winning the MCWS.

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

Thank you for your thoughts.

I agree with your points to the merch and stagnation around 2015/16. I rarely see stuff nowadays that I find appealing. A subtle little logo (of any kind) is a small change, but makes a world of difference.

I personally think the production was so good in the early Mullen years was because of the Ninja. That dude knows what he's doing. Grasshopper learned from him and tried to execute at the same level, but Greg is on another planet.

 

[The Peeper]

Dawgs1 was telling me above about a game on Oct 28 there that was hot like a mid Sept day in MS or some crap like that

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

A decade ago it was beginning to decline from Byrne's direction. They were putting out some wimpy hype videos in 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dO1Cs_Yu1w

I didn't see any hype videos on Youtube for this past season. There are just highlights of the games and press conferences. Which are great. Keep that part up.

Essentially, I want more high quality MSU propaganda. When they're bad, put lipstick and a stilettos on the pig and sell it. When they're good, it is awesome to have lil 2min hype videos. Just of the calls from plays from the season and big moments of years past w some music interspersed, some locker room speech snippets.

I know we have that, sometimes they are good. I'd like more good ones. I don't know what kind of actual A/V production or marketing team we employ though. 2/wk might be asking too much.

ETA: I discovered Twitter and there are quality videos that my diet of Youtube/IG didn't satisfy.

Definitely would like to see more emphasis on getting more of the alumni regularly coming back (especially NFL guys) and gettin them engaged somehow. I don't have an idea for this one yet but it's always awesome when they do show up to a game.

I haven't been to a game in a while but I see a lot of complaints about the gameday experience. I can't comment on that but I'm sure others could elaborate as they feel inclined

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

Those September Day games can be brutal

 

[Hail State]

We hired our own baseball coach as AD. What do you expect? That’s what single A private schools in the Delta do