Sports Marketing 2.0 | Pat Coyle

Yesterday I posted about Infield Parking, a recently launched social networking platform for NASCAR fans. I got a lot of comments and E mails from readers who expressed many opinions.

In the piece I also mentioned that Infield Parking CEO, Ed Sullivan, and I discussed the possibility of swapping profile pages inside our respective networks. So now I have an opportunity to create a Colts profile page inside the NASCAR site. And I need your help to strategize!

Why would a football team build a profile page in a NASCAR site?

I don’t have the stats at my fingertips, but the last time I looked, Indiana has more auto race tracks than any other state. Indianapolis is home to the Indy 500, Brickyard 400, and annual Forumula One race, and there are countless other open wheel tracks in the area.

My point is that many Colts fans (locally at least) are ALSO racing fans. Years ago we used to sponsor a midget racer. We even made a deal one year to sponsor a car in the Brickyard. All this we did to connect with something (racing) that was near and dear to the hearts of our local fans. We hoped that fans would like us better, and that we’d work ourselves into the fabric of the community, by sponsoring something they cared about.

So now the question is - what can we REALLY do with a profile page inside Infield Parking?

I’ve got a few ideas. For example, there are at least a few Colts employees who are big racing fans. In fact, one lady in accounting just got back from her annual vacation. Guess where she and her husband went? Daytona 500. Perhaps I can get contributions from Colts employees about their own racing experiences. Maybe they even have photos they can share.

What are my goals?

My main goal is to identify as many Colts fans as I can who are also NASCAR fans. One thing I’m always interested in learning is - beyond the Colts - what are fans interested in? I firmly believe that our brand will be strengthened to the extent we get our fans to connect with eachother. And the more points of connections we can establish, the better.

To help fans connect on multiple levels, we’re building into our social networking system a feature called “groups” which we hope people will use to organize themselves and meet new people who share things in common with eachother.

The obvious groups will be geographically based. Colts fans who live, for example, in Omaha can form group so that other local Colts fans can find them, and maybe get together to watch the games. But I also hope we see a NASCAR group form inside MyColts. I’d love to see book clubs, or pet lovers, or football widows, and many other groups form around “sub” interests that may or may not have to do with the game. Instead, groups will focus on what fans are interested in.

I’m certain that most of the conversation inside MyColts will be about football, but I also believe that unless people find ways to expand the conversation, our membership will be limited and activity in the system will be mainly during the season.

This is an experiment. I’m not looking to set the world on fire. So what do you think?

We’re seeing more and more sponsors / advertisers trying to use profile pages in social networks to connect with consumers and drive traffic to branded web sites:

Here are a few examples:

Sharpie
Burger King
Army

These early experiments seem very similar to eachother. Branded area at top. Work in a sweepstakes. Let users join as friends - essentially registering to win the sweeps. Add a little “bling”. And you’re done.

Is this the best we can do?

What else can a brand do to leverage a profile (or group) page inside a social network to drive measurable results? I would value your suggestions - and I’ll use them in this Infield Parking experiment.

Thanks in advance.