404 and ATL signage and logos

jojatk

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,506
Let’s win a lot of football games first and “the brand” will take care of itself.
Win and they will come has not been accurate for GT for a while. Why should that work now?

It’s possible to both market the program AND win football games. Collins was bad at the really important one of those two. The head coach does not need to be a great marketer. He needs to be a great HC and I believe Key has a better chance of being that than his predecessor.

If I was to say some words I thought were part of GTs “brand” (not just our athletics, I mean the school in general) some would be (I’m sure there are tons more great ones):

- innovation
- determination
- science
- technology
- perseverance (you have to have this to get through GT)
- hard work
- service

If I was a marketer for our programs I’d start with those kinds of things as building blocks. They are genuine. They represent the school. I would use that in conjunction with some of the history of the program (everyone in college football knows who John Heisman was, not everyone knows he coached at GT… maybe there’s something useful there - just an example of something that even todays kids would know about, and again there’s plenty more).
 

Vespidae

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,305
Location
Auburn, AL
Win and they will come has not been accurate for GT for a while. Why should that work now?

It’s possible to both market the program AND win football games. Collins was bad at the really important one of those two. The head coach does not need to be a great marketer. He needs to be a great HC and I believe Key has a better chance of being that than his predecessor.

If I was to say some words I thought were part of GTs “brand” (not just our athletics, I mean the school in general) some would be (I’m sure there are tons more great ones):

- innovation
- determination
- science
- technology
- perseverance (you have to have this to get through GT)
- hard work
- service

If I was a marketer for our programs I’d start with those kinds of things as building blocks. They are genuine. They represent the school. I would use that in conjunction with some of the history of the program (everyone in college football knows who John Heisman was, not everyone knows he coached at GT… maybe there’s something useful there - just an example of something that even todays kids would know about, and again there’s plenty more).
SA's today want a path to the League. That was the whole premise of Collins and Stansbury's NFL-Lite strategy. While "some" branding will help market an identity, I think any of it NOW is for naught as there is too much uncertainty in NIL and the continuing changes in CFB. And Tech still has not figured out how to deliver a path to the League.

Also, there is a difference between marketing athletics and the school itself. Alabama's brand identify for the school is "the oldest and largest of the public universities in Alabama" and the "professional" school (compared to Auburn, which is the Ag and Mechanical school). But, the athletics program is all about "winning championships".

I suppose the core question is ... what does one expect as an outcome to any Marketing Plan for GTAA? That would lead to a brief with expected milestone and deliverables.
 

jojatk

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,506
SA's today want a path to the League. That was the whole premise of Collins and Stansbury's NFL-Lite strategy. While "some" branding will help market an identity, I think any of it NOW is for naught as there is too much uncertainty in NIL and the continuing changes in CFB. And Tech still has not figured out how to deliver a path to the League.

Also, there is a difference between marketing athletics and the school itself. Alabama's brand identify for the school is "the oldest and largest of the public universities in Alabama" and the "professional" school (compared to Auburn, which is the Ag and Mechanical school). But, the athletics program is all about "winning championships".

I suppose the core question is ... what does one expect as an outcome to any Marketing Plan for GTAA? That would lead to a brief with expected milestone and deliverables.
The job of marketing is to get someone interested enough to at least hear the sales pitch. Attribution in marketing is pretty difficult even in digital marketing. With as much of the marketing being organic social where the conversions are not based on specific calls to action it becomes even more difficult to figure out. Any marketing plan needs to define both the target audience and the goals. For example, am I targeting athletes? If so, which athletes am I targeting and what is the campaign messaging for that target group. Is it coaches? If so that's a very different demographic and part of my marketing efforts are going to be coaching clinics and perhaps other types of events. I'm not sure if I'd count an assistant coach or the head coach visiting a HS coach as a marketing event. To me that's more of a "sales meeting" vs some way of pulling together multiple coaches.

Those are just examples, of course. They may or may not work. I'm not in sports marketing though I do work in digital marketing in a consumer industry. So I have some peripheral knowledge but I think some of what we do would not be applicable in these cases.
 

JacketOff

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,949
I love the ATL and 404 connections. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. Good ideas are good ideas, regardless of who had them.
I could take or leave the ATL branding on the helmet/uniform, but we definitely shouldn’t abandon the ATL branding entirely IMO. Also, the most successful baseball program in the country over the last decade+ pays tribute to their large city home on their uniforms. I think having “ATL” on the front bumper of the helmets is fine, and subtle enough to not distract from the overall Georgia Tech brand.
4C51C9CB-4BEA-49E5-95BA-BB527039F61D.jpeg

80BD6323-2297-43BB-9137-D2F3345F379B.jpeg
 

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,711
To me the marketing of Tech has to communicate success. I think that it is objectively clear that any athlete who attends Tech is going to be far more successful in life and have far more opportunities on average than if they had attended typical State U Football factory.

Sure, if you are a can’t miss, five star, Heisman level player, you will be successful regardless of where you go but anybody who makes the team at Tech and graduates is going to be head and shoulders above their counterparts at 95% of other schools.

Now how do you put that on a bumper sticker?

The SEC, with its “It means more” slogan is nauseating to us non-SEC fans but it communicates clearly and effectively.
 

MWBATL

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,505
Win and they will come has not been accurate for GT for a while. Why should that work now?
I disagree. I suspect you are saying this because our attendance did not rise dramatically after a big season, like after our national championship year. That's true, and imho completely understandable. Most folks understand that GT has not won CONSISTENTLY since the 1950's. So, perhaps that phrase would be more acceptable to you if it said "Win consistently and they will come". I completely believe that if GT could have a 6 year run of high level success (say averaging 10 wins) that our fanbase would expand. But one year (or even 2) won't do it.
 

CheCha54

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
94
I love the ATL and 404 connections. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. Good ideas are good ideas, regardless of who had them.
[/QUOTE

Atlanta is not where I would hitch my wagon. Many parents would not want their kids to live there. Crime capital of the ACC is how I would recruit against Tech.
 

CheCha54

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
94
That goes away the second the parents step on campus. Crime is not an issue once parents see the campus. There's more crime on Auburn's campus than on Tech's campus.
So players/students won't go off campus? Things have changed since I was there. Buckhead is not safe today. It's not Chicago, but it's close.
 

JacketOff

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,949
So players/students won't go off campus? Things have changed since I was there. Buckhead is not safe today. It's not Chicago, but it's close.
Lol Atlanta is not dangerous. Especially not the areas that GT students will frequent. There are 23 Power 5 universities (including Cincinnati and Houston) with higher crime rates than GT. There were 85 total criminal offenses reported by GT students in 2019, almost all of them were theft. Auburn, UNC, and Duke had 83, Georgia had 77.
 

CheCha54

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
94
Lol Atlanta is not dangerous. Especially not the areas that GT students will frequent. There are 23 Power 5 universities (including Cincinnati and Houston) with higher crime rates than GT. There were 85 total criminal offenses reported by GT students in 2019, almost all of them were theft. Auburn, UNC, and Duke had 83, Georgia had 77.
Is this data for "on campus"? I don't disagree that campus is safe. Better not wander too far off.
 

forensicbuzz

21st Century Throwback Dad
Messages
8,803
Location
North Shore, Chicago
So players/students won't go off campus? Things have changed since I was there. Buckhead is not safe today. It's not Chicago, but it's close.
This is the kind of ignorance that leaves me shaking my head. Don't get sucked in by the media hype. Chicago is one of the safest cities in the US for people to visit and to live in, depending on where they live. There are 2 3-block neighborhoods that are extremely dangerous. They are far from where most people visiting Chicago would ever go. To say Chicago is a dangerous city is laughable. It is a city, so there's crime, but it's not a dangerous city. 2.697 million people in Chicago; 8.901 in Chicagoland.

The 10 most dangerous cities in Georgia for 2021 Link

1. College Park (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
2. Americus
3. Albany
4. Forest Park (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
5. Warner Robins
6. Douglasville (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
7. Morrow (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
8. Bainbridge
9. Waynesboro
10. Clarkson (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)

Here's the 2022 Update Link

1. College Park
2. Albany
3. Morrow
4. Americus
5. Forest Park
6. Douglasville
7. Bainbridge
8. Warner Robins
9. Clarkson
10. Waynesboro

Another reference Link

Top 18
  1. East Point (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
  2. College Park (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
  3. Helen
  4. Union City (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
  5. Hapeville (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
  6. Quitman
  7. Tifton
  8. Eastman
  9. Baxley
  10. Albany
  11. Griffin
  12. Rockmart
  13. Alma
  14. West Point
  15. Remerton
  16. Douglasville (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
  17. Brunswick
  18. Forest Park (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
 
Last edited:

4shotB

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
4,915
Another reference Link

Top 18
  1. East Point (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
  2. College Park (Metro Atlanta - far from Georgia Tech and an area that Tech students don't frequent)
  3. Helen
alright, I have to jump in with another thread hijack here...but Helen, Ga.???? WTH. I probably haven't been there in 40 or 50 years or so but how does this town make THIS list?????? I remember it as some sort of cheesy Alpine/Swiss tourist trap village. Or am I confusing it with somewhere else?
 

bobongo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
7,541
alright, I have to jump in with another thread hijack here...but Helen, Ga.???? WTH. I probably haven't been there in 40 or 50 years or so but how does this town make THIS list?????? I remember it as some sort of cheesy Alpine/Swiss tourist trap village. Or am I confusing it with somewhere else?
  • Helen. Helen probably shouldn’t be included in this list because of the extremely low population (just 547 residents). Any hint of crime makes the numbers soar. There were only 7 incidents of violent crime reported but as a percentage of population, its one of the highest on the list. Helen’s property crime rate was #1 for the state with 70 incidents, 12.8%.
Probably "tourists" committing crimes (against other tourists), I would hazard to guess.
 
Top