By Carson Reider '15
As the start of the 2013-14 academic year approaches, our students who completed fellowships last year will be summarizing their experiences in a weekly feature. A key component for some members of the Ohio Sports Administration family, the fellowship year provides admittance into the program following a year-long fellowship working in sports (usually with an Ohio alumni). Check out Carson Reider's ('15) experience over the past year with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Being extremely grateful to be accepted into the Ohio University Sports Ad Family, I embarked on a yearlong fellowship with the Columbus Blue Jackets under the supervision of Jeff Eldersveld (’07), Director of CRM and Analytics, as the Digital Marketing Fellow. After an initial meeting with Jeff, Marc Gregory, VP of Digital Marketing & Media, and Marcus Stephenson, Director of Digital Media, I sensed I was working with a creative, spirited group and realized how daunting a task database management was.
On August 13th, 2012, my fellowship set sail. In a recently created department, our team was navigating unchartered waters, and although I was unaccustomed to the nature of the work, I was confident that I could succeed as Captain Eldersveld’s first-mate.
My first task was to clean up our Archtics ticketing database by merging duplicate accounts and correcting inaccurate customer addresses (I had a stack of “Return to Sender” mailings nearly three feet high and spent an inordinate amount of time on Google Maps). Surprisingly, I only used Archtics sparingly through the year.
When I was given the responsibility of creating our Flag Bearer newsletters, the 2012-13 NHL season was in a lockout that ultimately eliminated half of the season. This unfortunate circumstance made me hard-pressed to shape our stories and website content in gripping ways that would engage our subscribers, but it turned out to be a blessing. We restructured the design of the newsletter and the frequency that it was sent so the fan experience was not diluted and to keep communication channels open for fans to express their emotions on the lockout.
Additionally, I began shaping our CBJ Text Alerts program during this turbulent time. Two sub-programs were created under the CBJ Text Alerts umbrella: GoCBJ for scores, breaking news, and enter-to-win contests; and CBJRush, the text component of our CBJ Student Rush program, for ticket specials and exclusive student enter-to-win opportunities.
The hockey world rejoiced when the season resumed in January. We debuted the #CBJ Social Station, which was a suite designed to reward our most socially interactive fans on Facebook and Twitter. We connected our text alerts with the new, unique suite experience by tweeting and posting a picture on game days that urged fans to text a keyword to our shortcode to win a pair of tickets in the suite. Each contest was only open for three hours, and every person who texted in was subscribed to our text alerts.
Through the season and off-season, our production crew and I utilized Phizzle’s Broadcaster iX technology to run a Twitter feed on our LED boards and stream fan submitted pictures from Twitter and Instagram. Streaming pictures was a large hit during our 2013 NHL Draft Party and our Season Ticket Holder Select-a-Seat event. July 31 concluded the year of “The Fellow” (a fitting nickname bestowed upon me) with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and I am forever indebted to those that nurtured my fellowship and showed me how fun, enlightening, and enterprising a team can be.
Reider was instrumental in creating a very successful Blue Jackets Harlem Shake video as well. Check it out here:
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