Q&A by Carson Reider '15
This week's Marketing Monday features has a Q&A with Kyle Daugherty '10, Senior Corporate Marketing Manager for the Oklahoma City RedHawks. Kyle discusses the unique ways they sell tickets and market the team, some of his marketing challenges, recent projects, and the benefits of the Ohio Sports Admin alumni network.
What is your day-to-day role as a Senior Corporate Marketing Manager for the Oklahoma City RedHawks?
My primary responsibility is reaching out and developing relationships with businesses in the OKC Metro area. I spend the majority of my time trying to get in front of local business executives and introduce them to the way that the OKC RedHawks can be utilized within their business. Long story short, I am out selling our organization on a daily basis.
How do you aim to differentiate your marketing efforts from other minor league baseball teams?
We (Mandalay Baseball Properties) have a very unique way of selling tickets and marketing our teams. Much of our strategy and decision making is still based on Jon Spoelstra’s ticket selling methods. One of his methods that we strictly adhere to is called the Sell-Out Mentality. A number of Minor League organizations will feature promotions each day of the week to get fans out. For instance, Dollar Dog Tuesday. But Spoelstra’s and Mandalay’s focus is to increase the number of sold out games rather than increase your average nightly attendance. The main way we do this is by Peak on Peak marketing. We plan all of our Season Ticket packages around our best dates, Fridays and Saturdays. Next, we direct all of our group and single-game promotions towards these dates. Finally, if we have any outside entertainment or giveaways we will put them on our targeted sell-out dates. In our 3 seasons with the OKC RedHawks we have gone from 8 sell-outs in 2011 to 15 in 2013.
What would you say is the biggest marketing challenge you face today?
The main objection we face on a daily basis is the perception of being a Minor League team. We can’t control the level of talent on the field or whether the RedHawks win, but we can control everything off the field.
What have you and your team thought about to fix it?
We focus all of our attention on the fan experience from the time they enter our facility to the time they leave. We focus our energy on creating a customer centered staff; from the ushers, ticket takers, and concession workers to our full-time staff. In our 3 seasons we have created an environment and attitude that no venue will be able to surpass the level of customer service that our fans experience when they attend a RedHawks game.
What was the importance of the Ohio Sports Administration program in your career and personal development?
The Ohio Sports Administration program has meant everything to my career. Like many college graduates entering the sports industry I thought I was going to be the next great GM of a Major League sports team. Ohio gave me direction and a path to be successful in the sports industry. Most importantly, I wouldn’t have my job without Matt Kittle, my mentor in the Ohio Sports Ad program. Matt was there for me throughout my job search and happened to see an opening in OKC the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 2010. I was in OKC the next Monday starting my career in the Sports Industry.
What is the biggest piece of advice that you could offer someone trying to find a career in Sales/marketing?
Network, network, and when you get tired of networking, network some more. The alumni base that we have access to and their collective willingness to help is the greatest strength of the Ohio Sports Ad program. I didn’t take advantage of this as much as I should have while in the program; so please do not repeat my mistake. If there is a certain area within the sports industry that you want to learn about or just get an opinion take out the “Directory” and call somebody. And if the person you call can’t help they will more than likely point you in the direction of someone that can help.
What is the coolest thing you've seen lately in marketing in minor league baseball or elsewhere?
The coolest thing I have seen lately isn’t tied directly to a certain promotion or a creative marketing idea, but an initiative the MiLB began earlier this year called Project Brand. Project Brand is an initiative that is meant to allow brands to buy into all 160 minor league markets and create a national message rather than the traditional way of buying into certain markets. Project Brand has the potential to see previously untapped revenue in some of the smaller markets. Darren Heitner of Forbes has a pretty good description of the program here.
Do you have any recent or upcoming projects you could share with us?
The most recent project we undertook for the 2013 season was improving the usage of our Club Level season tickets. For the 2011 and 2012 seasons we had sold out of all of our Club Seats, but our usage was miserable. We averaged about 30% usage for each of those seasons. We needed to quickly improve this percentage because the lack of usage was making it more and more difficult to renew these season ticket holders. We devised a solution to improve the product. We turned our Club Seats into an All-Inclusive area. All of our club members would have access to All-You-Can-Eat Food and All-You-Can-Drink beverages through the 7th inning with in-seat service. This improved product led to another sold out season on our club level, but our usage more than doubled to 65% usage throughout the 2013 season.
