Sport and health science courses at Brighton news

The Football Ticket Sales Challenge

Final year Sport Business Management students spent a day with Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club (BHAFC) as part of their marketing module.

The day provided an opportunity for students to develop their employability skills as they were required to be both creative and practical, whilst under pressure due to the time constraints of the challenge. The objective was to apply the theory taught in the class to a real marketing problem.

The day was kicked off by Marc Dring, BHAFC’s Marketing Manager, who outlined his role with the club, the marketing challenges of a professional football team and the implications of sponsorship on promotion opportunities. Following his talk he set the scenario and challenge for the day which was for students to take the role of a marketing agency and come up with ideas to improve ticket sales for mid-week games and then pitch their ideas to a panel of judges at the end of the day.

The brief gave students two options to work on; to either improve attendance of under 16s or to ensure that all the specified games had overall attendance of more than 29,000. The brief included information about the club, its attendance figures and an outline of data and marketing mediums the students could use, including costs.

After the briefing the students were taken on a tour of the award winning American Express Community Stadium by Rob Josephs, curriculum development officer at Albion in the Community.

The judges deliberate…

The students split into groups and spent the rest of their time working on their ideas and pitches breaking only for lunch. They were kept on track by Marc and Rob and also Senior Lecturer Adam Jones from the university.

At 3pm the time was up and the student teams had 10 minutes each to pitch to the panel of judges which included Marc, Rob and a representative from the university’s marketing team. Considering the short time they had had to prepare all the teams came up with some interesting ideas and did a great job with their pitches.

It was a tough call to choose a winner but the crown was given to Natalie Brown, Grace Butcher and Nic Amade as it was felt their ideas were not only usable but that they had most answered the brief.

The winners with Rob (left) and Marc (right)

Marc said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the day and listening to the ideas that came from the students.”

This was also echoed by Rob: “It was really interesting to see how the students engaged with the real life marketing exercise set by the football club. I was impressed with the collaboration between students and staff and the range of creative ideas that the different teams put together.

“The task created many challenges for the teams, least of all the amount of time they were given to research, plan and deliver the brief set. We hope to link further with the university in the future to help engage and inspire students through real world scenarios.”

Student Callum Churchill said: “The day helped further develop my presentation skills, building on from other units this year that have involved presenting. It also provided me with an opportunity to develop a marketing strategy with in a short turnaround time – similar to something I may be asked to do in the future at work.”

Another student, Joe Osborn, commented: “It was another opportunity to present an idea and is encouraging us to think about ideas with a marketing twist.”

Kerry Burnett • 03/03/2017


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