Thursday, February 11, 2010

Bobbleheads - JMU Athletics Marketing Win

The Athletics Department a couple years ago, headed by Alyssa Gerlando (Director of Athletics Marketing), stumbled upon a great promotion...bobbleheads. The first year, they started with Duke Dog and James Madison. Last year, they moved on to the basketball coaches, Matt Brady and Kenny Brooks. Once they finished up basketball, they moved on to the iconic Mickey Matthews (still waiting for the action figure with patent-pending visor throwing action!) and the Duke Dog statue in front of the APC.

These bobbleheads quickly became one of the most popular giveaways I've ever seen. Usually giving away just 500 of these items, the coupons to get these are usually given out within minutes of the doors opening (one hour before game time). The week before and after the giveaways, the message boards are usually buzzing with people asking how they can get one and bargaining with those in the area. Some have even shown up on eBay (how I got the Brady after getting to the game only half hour before gametime last year).

While some suggest that the bobbleheads should be sold at the bookstore, I think it would cut down on the demand for these at basketball games (and at this point we need all the help we can get). Maybe down the road once we've cycled through all the JMU icons and we start cycling back through we can put them in stores also.

If you want your very own Duke Dog statue bobblehead, they will be given away at the game against VCU this Saturday. The game starts at 6pm and the doors are set to open at 5pm.