A Cell Phone Plan Every AD Should Know About

Each morning begins with a perusal of the trades. Keeping up with the business of sports marketing requires a fair amount of time reading through a half dozen emails I signed up for just to stay in the know. Subscribing means my inbox is ready to go each day.

For the record, my daily emails come from the Athletic, Front Office Sports, and D1 Ticker. I get sporadic emails from all of the sports teams I follow in Phoenix and Seattle.

Buried in the D1 Ticker was a two-line mention of a relatively unique sports activation that is new to Troy University.

Admittedly, I skipped right over it because it’s Troy. Not to disparage this fine university, but it’s not exactly a high-profile school despite impressively winning the Florida men’s baseball regional in Gainesville over both Miami and Florida.

I went back to the article after my coffee kicked in because it deserved another look. It became clearer to me that the activation wasn’t as unique as I thought, but for someone in sports marketing, I didn’t realize something like this was even possible.

I was already set to crown Troy with the “Marketing Idea of the Year Award” when further digging showed that Washington, Cal, Michigan, Kentucky, Auburn, Oregon State, UAB, Boise State, and Cincinnati are already on board.

In what I think is a super interesting sports marketing concept, a company called Collegiate Mobile partners with T-Mobile to provide cellular service for fans, students, and alumni. The plans appear relatively inexpensive. I can’t speak to the details of the service associated with these plans, but a portion of your monthly bill supports your school’s athletic department.

You get cellular service, you pay your bill, and the school gets money. It can go to their general athletics fund, student scholarship fund, or their university programs fund, depending on how they set up the plan.

Being a marketer and a Sun Devil, I understand that there is probably some math involved here and that you might be able to find a better deal from another provider. The beauty of this is magnified by the fact that you are generating revenue by simply reselling cellular service flavored with the power of fandom.

With student and fan plans available, this is an easy way to achieve scale that creates RMR for your beloved school. If your sponsorship inventory is not stressed, you could promote the deal with unsold inventory. I would bet some, if not all, of these schools are doing just that.

If it were me, I’d explore other means to drive additional value to this group through special ticket access, unique deals with my other sponsors, Olympic sports BOGO’s, and maybe even contesting for ticket upgrades or unique experiences specific to this audience that I pay off socially to help promote the program. Truly, there is more to be had here by someone who sees the value in having access to a group of people who are passionate enough about their school to buy into a program like this.

Achieving scale would be the ultimate goal. Scale = money.

In case you have noticed, money seems to be king in the college space. Creative ways to generate money go a long way these days. Kudos to Collegiate Mobile, T-Mobile, and all the participating schools for a dynamic and unique sports marketing execution.

Ed has bought, sold, and consulted on sports sponsorships for over 30 years. If you’re looking to learn more about how you can make your sponsorship investment more impactful or if you’d like Ed to review your partnership efforts, contact him at ed.olsen@linedrivesportsmarketing.com or call his cell at 602.284.6722