Media Department Question

[doc longhorn]

It was Whisenant who said they were ahead of us, not me. I said our media group was inept, ineffective and badly in need of a complete house cleaning, starting at the top and starting today.

Honey, I love you....however. 

The University of Texas makes more money than any other college in the country.  No small part of that money comes from the buying of all that Longhorn swag we see so much of - all of the time.  The ags are so jealous they even call it "Tee shirt fans" purchases.  (We have to love this, they think they are insulting us - God, they are stupid).

My point is, not including the LHN and potential world wide marketing, no one is selling brand like UT - and I mean NO ONE!

EDIT:  Sigh!  Forgive me Randolph, my post was really directed at Whisanant and not you.

 

[Lord Vader]

There is a big difference in selling a bunch of merch to a 40 year old guy and his family and what I am talking about. 

 

[Lord Vader]

Here is what made me wonder. This came from TOS but the OP there got it from where he says he did. 
 
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
I had to steal this post from a poster Chuckie Finster on 247 and see what the OB guys think. Personally, I agree with every word. I spent 10 minutes on http://aggiefblife.com/ and learned more about their players than I know about any current day Longhorn. 
----------------
 
 
 
So I touched on this on the Angelo Clinic thread, but I think this really needs to be fleshed out and the general public needs to know about a man stealing money from our University. (I know this is a long post, but I think it needs to be said. Also, offseason.)
 
Nick Voinis was hired on January 15, 2005. Here's his job description from the press release that day.
 
Voinis, 49, will manage staff members in men's and women's sports media relations, web site management, graphics/publications production, and digital photography. He also will manage strategic communications for men's and women's athletics and assist in areas related to branding and marketing of men's and women's athletics. He will report to DeLoss Dodds, director of men's athletics, and Chris Plonsky, director of women's athletics.
 
Now let's discuss his nearly decade tenure:
 
There have been nine Heisman winners awarded since January 2005. Seven times, the winner has been the best quarterback in the country. Twice, Voinis's department has been gifted the best quarterback in the country to market, and twice they allowed a RB to swoop in and win the award. The only two non QB winners this millennium have come in the years that UT has had the best QB in the country.
 
Do you know how many times I read a tweet in 2011 with something like "According to the Baylor athletic Department, Robert Griffin III baptized six blind puppies this morning in the Brazos River" or heard a story on SportsCenter in 2012 saying "According to this release from Texas A&M, Johnny Manziel just climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro while balancing an infant on his head." Everyone knows this is a hype award and there's an art to marketing your player to win. Voinis and his department have failed miserably twice now.
 
Quick tangent: Do you know how many hits Jose Altuve has? I do. 118. Do you know how I know? Because the Astros' social media department has been bashing me over the head with it in an attempt to get him into the All-Star game. I haven't opened a stat page once, yet I can tell you that Jose leads the AL in batting average, steals, and all of MLB in hits. This is the world we live in now. One where shameless marketing is not only allowed, it's almost expected. One where people expect news to be delivered to them, they won't go searching for it. Now for UT: there should already be a Malcolm Brown Heisman campaign plan under way right now. The kid has a chance to put up monster numbers in a Watson offense and there's a good chance he'll be at the tip top of RB stats this year. Voinis and his department can almost single-handedly put a player in New York with marketing efforts (Andre Williams, anyone?), yet thanks to Voinis's inability to realize the importance of social media, 95% of the country has no idea who Malcolm Brown is.
 
Remember 45-35? You know, the most effective marketing campaign the school has witnessed in the past decade. The one that got thousands of signs passed out throughout the stadium. The one that got discussed ad nauseam during a nationally televised football game on Thanksgiving. It was started by a student with access to Facebook and pulled together within a week. UT had absolutely nothing to do with it. Glad you're earning that $200k, Nick.
 
However, the real crime is this: Texas A&M is blowing us away in the marketing department. A school with Agricultural and Mechanical in its name is better at controlling its image than the one in tech-savvy Austin, TX. The school surrounded by farmland understands the internet better than the school with a GD ESPN studio on its campus. Don't believe me? 
 
@Longhorn_FB (Official twitter of UT Football) ? 4,677 tweets, 53K followers 
@AggieFootball (Official twitter of A&M Football) - 7,974 tweets, 100.7k followers 
@TexasFB (recruiting twitter) ? 333 tweets, 5.8k followers 
@AggieFBLife (recruiting twitter) ? 2,355 tweets, 17.7k followers
 
And we wonder why high school kids can't get to College Station fast enough these days.
 
Backtrack exactly one year. A&M was expected to contend for a national championship led by their golden boy Heisman winner. Since then: their Heisman winner is busted for an autograph scandal, they are doing their damndest to cast the next Longest Yard sequel purely with A&M players, and they had 4 (FOUR!!) losses in a season they were expecting to be playing for a championship. And yet they are STILL viewed as the team on the rise! That is all marketing, and Nick should be furiously taking notes on how to do his job based on what is happening in College Station.
 
It shouldn't be up to guys like Howe and Suchomel to go out on their own to set the story straight when our head coach is attacked. It shouldn't be up to bored fans to make Youtube hype videos when there's an ESPN production studio within the Tower's shadow. It shouldn't be up to one random student to make a Facebook group explaining why we deserve to be in the MNC over a team we beat. But that's where we are at, and it's a shame.
 
But hey, great job with this Nick. Stellar work. 

 

[streettopeschel]

some valid points in that piece. but blaming this voinis guy on vy not winning the heisman over bush is a helluva stretch. the vote was a rout.

 

[Lord Vader]

some valid points in that piece. but blaming this voinis guy on vy not winning the heisman over bush is a helluva stretch. the vote was a rout.

Agree. It was the solid points that made me wonder. 

 

[doc longhorn]

Agree. It was the solid points that made me wonder. 

As per my above post, aggy has a helluva long way to go to match us - marketing wise.  Their main marketing support structure is the SEC.

However, I DO agree about Vionis - he is inept and, I suspect, a target for Patterson.

 

[Orangebred]

A few interesting points.

• PR and social media departments do have metrics they use to measure the success of virtually every tweet, webpage story, blog, etc that is put out.  And they tweak their messages/posts based on those metrics results.  So whether the results are good or not, UT at least has a way of determining results in much more detail than the average reader.  It would be interesting to see those results...and Patterson does see them.  Maybe they aren't as bad as we think. Who knows?
• It was just a few short years ago that most, including those "in the know", thought that anm had one of the worst and most embarrassing marketing/PR/Social media depts. around.  Not sure what has changed other than an upswing in general presence and the move to SEC giving anm...well, the upswing in general presence.
• UT College of Communications has recently created a sports media degree (or actually maybe just a minor or certificate program, not sure)  Some of the professors involved have a very good and impressive background.  One for example worked for the PGA for years and developed most of the campaigns over the last few years that we all recognize (for example the "These Guys Are Good" campaign off the top of my head)  Another worked for the Sacramento Kings and created some award winning campaigns there.  Point being, we have people on campus right now that are very good and very experienced at this stuff and we are now in the process of teaching these same skills to our students.
• On the lines of the last point, there has recently been a major "shift" in the relationship between Marketing/PR/Advertising/Social Media/ and even journalism.  Although some things remain the same, many aspects of these elements have changed and this whole field is kind of "new" again.  I'm not so sure our athletic dept is as up to date on these changes as they should be...particularly at a school that has the #1 Advertising and #2 PR depts among all US Universities.  Hopefully Patterson sees that.

 

[Randolph Duke]

<p>

A few interesting points.

• PR and social media departments do have metrics they use to measure the success of virtually every tweet, webpage story, blog, etc that is put out. And they tweak their messages/posts based on those metrics results. So whether the results are good or not, UT at least has a way of determining results in much more detail than the average reader. It would be interesting to see those results...and Patterson does see them. Maybe they aren't as bad as we think. Who knows?
• It was just a few short years ago that most, including those "in the know", thought that anm had one of the worst and most embarrassing marketing/PR/Social media depts. around. Not sure what has changed other than an upswing in general presence and the move to SEC giving anm...well, the upswing in general presence.
• UT College of Communications has recently created a sports media degree (or actually maybe just a minor or certificate program, not sure) Some of the professors involved have a very good and impressive background. One for example worked for the PGA for years and developed most of the campaigns over the last few years that we all recognize (for example the "These Guys Are Good" campaign off the top of my head) Another worked for the Sacramento Kings and created some award winning campaigns there. Point being, we have people on campus right now that are very good and very experienced at this stuff and we are now in the process of teaching these same skills to our students.
• On the lines of the last point, there has recently been a major "shift" in the relationship between Marketing/PR/Advertising/Social Media/ and even journalism. Although some things remain the same, many aspects of these elements have changed and this whole field is kind of "new" again. I'm not so sure our athletic dept is as up to date on these changes as they should be...particularly at a school that has the #1 Advertising and #2 PR depts among all US Universities. Hopefully Patterson sees that.

Aggy still is their own worst enemy when it comes to using the media to promote their program, which is why it is so frustrating that Bellmont is allowing UT to be seen as a second rate program.
Remember that cringeworthy video they released when they were officially a member of the SEC? Just this month they decided to sue a double amputee cancer survivor? They are being helped massively by CBS and the SEC office in Birmingham. All that being said, Nick and his multimillion dollar budget hasnt a clue what to do about the situation. Nothing creative, nothing innovative, nothing positive. Just scratching their heads over this confusing interweb thingy, repeating whatever they did last year and trying to figure how other schools actually talk on the phone from time to time with sportswriters and broadcasters.

 

[echeese]