Ads at a College Football Games

In the past, I've always gone to MSU football games solely as a fan. I would be aware of the ads around me, but never realized how many there were, or didn't even think that some would be classified as ads. This year, I'm working as an intern in the MSU Athletics Marketing department. I've become so much more aware of the advertising that surrounds us at these type of events. There is a whole production put on in addition to the game itself. Below are some of the advertising that I was "blind" to before working for the department. 

Tailgates

Tailgates are an amazing way for people to promote their businesses. While some people tailgate with their families and friends, others put on tailgates for community members to enjoy. They have their own tents and trucks with their logos on them. Walking through the tailgate parties, you easily see 10-20 of these types of tailgates!

Media Timeouts

Media timeouts are filled with advertisements. From messages on the video board to PA reads, each media timeout has around 4-6 ads, and there are about 3 media timeouts for each of the four quarters. Companies will pay money to place their name on the PA announcement and on the jumbo screen during these breaks. During the game, the side bars of the jumbo screen are usually filled with ads as well. 

Fan Giveaways

T-Shirt tosses. Fan of the game. Free Papa Murphy's pizza for touchdowns. Rally towels. Fan giveaways are a great way for businesses in the surrounding area to advertise for themselves to college students. There is nothing a college student loves more than something that is 100% free to them. And when a student wears the free t-shirt around campus with that business's logo on it, it has 100+ more opportunities to be seen. 

Clothing Apparel

When you think about it, every person who is wearing an article of clothing where the logo of the company or team is visible, they are helping the company with advertising. There are between 16,000 and 18,000 people in the football stadium each game, and the majority of them are wearing an article of clothing with some sort of logo on it. Subconsciously, we see these logos every time one of these people comes into our vision. The official clothing apparel sponsor of MSU is Under Armour. They have placed their logo on all of the jerseys, as well as most of the clothing apparel including jackets and hats that are worn by coaches and staff down on the field. 

Other Sponsorships

Any type of fan contest or game has a company name associated with it. Some of these include the TireRama/Cooper Tire Tailgater of the Game, Hays Dental Guess That Smile, Q Casino Helmet Shuffle, Roseau's Kick for Dough, and the Napa Name that Song. Over the course of the game, there are probably 15 or so contests or games that are put on for fan entertainment. 

By the time the game is over, I would feel confident saying that all attendees have seen and heard over 1,000 ads in 4 or so hours. And that is only 1/6 of the day! The average American sees around 5,000 ads per day. Before working for the marketing department, I had a hard time understanding this statistic. Now, I am able to better comprehend why this number is so high. We become "numb" to the majority of these and don't even realize we are seeing or hearing them. 

Maximizer and Satisfier....Which are you?

I recently read Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. This book discusses how our everyday decisions have become overly complex due to the abundance of choices that are available to us. Schwartz puts people into two categories when it comes to making these choices: a satisficer and a maximizer.

A satisficer is someone who stops looking for what they want once they find something that meets their needs. They will settle for mediocrity. This is not always a bad thing. Satisfiers are happy with the choices they make simply because their choice is one that satisfied their need.

Maximizers are looking for the optimal solution. They might find what they're looking for, but they're always on the search for the possibility of there being something better out there. Maximizers have to be careful that they don't get too wrapped up in always making the "best" decision. This can cause unrealistic wants and needs, which can cause a maximizer to never fee truly satisfied.

This was on my mind last weekend when I went home to visit my family for the weekend. I started to think about it I was more of a maximizer or a satisficer, and wondered what the rest of my family was as well. I go home on Friday night. Before Saturday morning was over, I already had multiple situations that I could relate back to these two different perspectives.

My mom took me with her to go shopping for a birthday present for my older sister. Driving to the mall, my mom and I battled for who got to play DJ with the radio. When it comes to listening to the radio in the car, I am a maximizer. It drives my mom insane. I will seek through every station available once before I will decide which one I want to listen to. My mom on the other hand finds a station with something she likes and doesn't look any further, which drives me crazy. I always wonder about the possibility of what is playing on the other stations that might be better than the music we are listening to in that moment.

When we got to the mall, our roles reversed dramatically. Right off the bat, I had found a necklace
that I knew my sister would love. I was ready to purchase it right then and there and head home. However my mom wanted to see what else was out there. Before I knew it, 3 hours had passed by. We walked around the mall close to 3 times looking at different options. I became frustrated with my mom because I knew my sister would love the necklace, but instead we were wasting our time looking at things that would not be as good as a gift as it. Finally, my mom and I went back to the jewelry store to purchase the necklace. In my mind, I was thinking "all of that work for an option that she would have been satisfied with in the beginning". The picture to the left is how I felt after this excursion. I was exhausted.

After observing my family for the weekend and watching them switch between maximizing is satisficing, I concluded that everyone is both a maximizer and satisficer, depending on the situation. However, I think a person can be more of one type than the other. For example, I believe my mom tends to fall more under the maximizer category, however she is not a maximizer in every aspect of her life. I follow in my mom's footsteps and tend to be more of a maximizer too. Now that I'm aware of this, I want to work on not focusing on picking the "best" option, but rather picking an option that satisfies my needs and being happy with it. I believe this will be better on my emotional health. It will also help me save time that can be spent on things that actually matter, such as spending time with my family and friends. I'd never realized how much we focus on the abundance of choices that are presented to us on a daily basis. From here on out, I'm challenging myself to recognize this and not let it consume my life.

Perspectives on the Year After Graduation

The ZMET test was created by Dr. Gerald Zaltman in the early 1990s at Harvard University. This test is a patented marketing tool that helps researchers understand the underlying reason why people are attracted to certain things, and what are their underlying wants and desires. Here's a quote from Gerald Zaltman himself:

"A lot goes on in our minds that we're not aware of. Most of what influences what we say and do occurs below the level of awareness. That's why we need new techniques: to get at hidden knowledge-to get at what people don't know they know."

-Dr. Gerald Zaltman

For our consumer behavior class, we were asked to browse through magazines and clip out 10-15 pictures that described our vision of "The Year After Graduation". Some of the images that i clipped out are to the right. When we came to class, we conducted mini ZMET tests with a partner. We asked each other questions based on our photos, and grouped them in random ways in an attempt to get the interviewee to describe the underlying connections. As I was discussing with my partner, I was able to find underlying metaphors with the images that I had selected. The majority of my images included something to do with adventure and spending time with the people I love. When I was flipping through magazines, this was not specifically what I was looking for. However, these are the images that stuck out to me and that I connected with. It was interesting to see what my partner had chosen too. Hers were very different from mine. She had a lot of pictures of more schooling, making dinner at home, and stress with finances. We both agreed that it was interesting how different images affected us in different ways. Once we finished up our individual interviews, we split the class into two groups to work on created one graphic together that describes "The Year After Graduation". While all of us had a wide variety of images, we were still able to come together and create a graphic that all of us felt was justifiable. While each of us had a different idea of what our year after graduation will look like, we were still able to come together and agree on a large scale model. I believe that we all had different visions, but shared the same roller coaster of emotions. These emotions included both excitement and nervousness. Even though we were working in different groups, the other group had a very similar visual to ours. 

The ZMET test is very helpful in understanding the underlying meaning of why people like what they like. This helps marketing researchers create the most appealing ads possible in the eyes of their target audience. I would love to observe an actual ZMET test being conducted. I find it very interesting observing people uncover that "hidden" knowledge they didn't even know they had about a product or service.