Winning a competitive sport requires three elements: determination, dedication and desire.
This year’s football team has joined forces with some of Dallas’ leading businessmen in an effort to sell out Ford Stadium for the first time since 2004.
“[Ford Stadium] is going to be the place to be over the next three or four years,” said head coach Junes Jones. “To be part of this in this city is going to be ridiculous because of the influential people. It’s going to be very exciting.”
After announcing their Sellout 2009 initiative, the athletic department has teamed up with Professor Erin Patton of the Cox School of Business to implement a marketing plan that will work towards increasing student attendance at the football game this weekend.
A plan including a viral e-mail, SMU anthem, prizes and a “Mustang Stampede” are all ideas of Patton’s, a former marketing employee who worked on Michael Jordan’s Nike campaign.
“This is a campaign,” Patton said. “It’s each one reach one. Everyone reach out to people to get them excited and make sure they do turn out on Saturday.”
Starting with a viral e-mail, students will receive a personalized e-mail acknowledging them as the fan who made a difference in the sell-out crowd at Ford Stadium. E-mails are expected to be sent over the course of the next few days leading to the game. Patton hopes that by directly targeting individuals, students are more likely to feel a part of the SMU football community.
Accompanying the e-mail is a five-minute music video to the song “I Put On” by Young Jeezy, but customized with SMU lyrics. The rapper performing, whose mother graduated from SMU, will perform the team’s anthem on the Boulevard.
With a similar feel to the black and white Under Armour commercials, the five-minute video shows images of past plays, players running out of the helmet and other clips of the team training and running drills.
Patton encourages all students to report to Dallas Hall at 6:30 p.m. Saturday for the stampede into Ford Stadium. Preceding the march will be the musical performance and other live entertainment. Free T-shirts with the slogan “all grit, no quit” will also be distributed to students throughout the Boulevard.
“We want to bring the energy from the Boulevard into Ford Stadium,” Patton said.
As an incentive to get students to stay for the entirety of the game, footballs signed by Jones will be raffled off, as well as other larger prizes awarded to organizations that record the highest attendance numbers.Saturday’s game against Stephen F. Austin will kick off a 7 p.m. at Ford Stadium.
