ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603110080
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-19 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on Mar. 12 in Current
Half of a sentence was omitted in Sunday's New River Current article
about marketing Virginia Tech. The full section, in context, should have
read:
Sutton hired two salespeople who worked for the athletic department's
previous contractor - including Steven Braine, son of Athletic Director
Dave Braine.
The younger Braine is one of two salespeople posted in Blacksburg,
and his boss says he's "hit a few home runs for us." Dave Braine says
he'd hire his son himself, if he could. But he distanced himself from
contract negotiations, and university officials say the arrangement
passes legal muster.
T-shirts and logos aren't the only hot properties marketed by Virginia Tech as its teams climb into the Top 20.
Selling the advertising that accompanies Tech's sporting events is big business for the university's athletic department.
Tech signed with International Sports Properties last summer to split profits for advertising and business opportunities just months after a second consecutive football bowl game was followed by the NIT basketball championship.
"Yes, I feel like a genius now," jokes Ben Sutton, founder of the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based company whose contract preceded the Sugar Bowl by just months.
"It's been pretty evident that the programs have been on the move upward in the past few years. We were sort of betting ... that it would go this way," he says.
International handles all radio, TV, print and other advertising surrounding sports, including signs next to the scoreboard and ads in the programs. Tech's athletic department is guaranteed $1.1 million for each of three years, starting next fall, and an additional $800,000 per year if a two-year option is exercised from 1999-2001. Plus, Tech and International will split net profits, 50-50, starting next fall, for sales over a set amount, which starts at $1.3 million and climbs gradually each year to $1.4 million in 2001.
Sutton hired two salespeople who worked for the athletic department's previous contractor - including Steven Braine, son of Athletic Director Dave Braine.
The younger Braine is one of two salespeople posted in Blacksburg, and his boss says he's "hit a few home runs for us." Dave Braine says he'd hire his son himself, if he could. But he distanced himself from contract negotiations, and university officials say the arrangement passes legal muster.
Sure of Tech's appeal throughout the state, Sutton also posted two salespeople in Richmond to market athletic advertising. By summer, he says, he may spread the Tech gospel into Tidewater by opening an office there.
"It's extraordinary when you're a salesperson and you get calls more than you have time" to answer, says Steve Angelucci, another Blacksburg sales representative.
More national advertisers are interested in Tech, says Sutton. Among recent signees: State Farm Insurance and Gatorade.
"Both of these deals were cut in Chicago, Illinois - not Blacksburg, Virginia," Sutton says.
Businesses see colleges as good target audiences because they naturally produce a more affluent group. And Tech, with 165,000 living alumni, has "a pretty large following," Sutton says.
Pulaski car dealer Bob Hudson has been watching the university's alumni base and fan interest grow for years. He has endowed a sports scholarship at Tech, where his son played football.
He helped start a booster club out Pulaski way. He'll tell you he's not a "bandwagon" person, but he can see a payoff coming from his years of support.
"Really, now I think the sky's the limit in terms of what can happen down the road," Hudson says.
It was Hudson who helped put 6,000 orange pompoms in fans' televised hands during last month's basketball game between Virginia Tech and the University of Massachusetts. He had earlier persuaded the same group, the Southwest Virginia Toyota Dealers, to buy 30,000 to give out to fans at the Sugar Bowl.
"You know you're not in enemy territory," Hudson explains.
Those little pompoms cost 30 cents each.
"It looked great on TV," says Peg Morse, Tech's sports marketing director. "It's a signal to anyone who's watching - we support our fans, too. It's a funny thing that a plastic pompom can do all that, but it does."
And on top of that, it may sell a few Toyotas. Scribed on the handle of each orange pompom was "Southwest Virginia Toyota Dealers." One of the network commentators noticed during the Sugar Bowl. A national TV audience heard the plug.
"People like a winner," Hudson says. "Bottom line."
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: |GENE DALTON/Staff. Fans wave some of the 6,000 pompomsby CNBprovided by Pulaski car dealer Bob Hudson during the Tech-UMass
basketball game. color.