Bridging the Title IX Disparity with Ticket Sales

Title IX encompasses three basic parts that apply to collegiate athletics; participation, scholarships and the equal treatment of both sexes in regards to several instances like equipment, housing/dining facilities and per diem. After speaking with a Title IX lawyer based out of Miami, we learned that one of these instances includes publicity and promotions, which is where most colleges fall short since marketing efforts are mainly allocated for the more profitable sports. Less marketing for certain teams means less knowledge of the sport, less recognition of the school, a harder chance of gaining recruits and therefore weak sports teams.

Marketing efforts ultimately create strong teams, but schools are usually more inclined to promote the more profitable sports knowing it will be a safe option. For example, Football which is the most profitable sports in the collegiate realm creates a huge amount of revenue for universities therefore they promote it more to continue the cash flow. Although, this is technically a violation of Title IX since other less represented sports are not given the equal amount of publicity or media coverage. Schools that do a better job of promoting the typically underrepresented sports actually create a better atmosphere within athletics and also produces higher attendance to games making more successful sports.

At MA+A Sports, although we do work with collegiate athletic football teams we also recognize the value of promoting these underrepresented sports. Below are some results that we’ve seen throughout our digital media campaigns in 2019 to assist with increasing attendance with these underrepresented sports. We utilized two main products: Google Ads – Display, Remarketing, Gmail, Search and Facebook Ads Manager. 

For Google Ads, we have a Top, Mid and Lower Funnel Approach. For the Display Ads that are Top of Funnel, they were placed in local news digital outlets, USF related websites & college football websites (ESPN, Bleacherreport.com, cbssports.com) in order to generate awareness. Audiences who have previously searched for anything USF or college football-related on Google were also targeted. 

In regards to Remarketing and Gmail Ads, which are a Middle of Funnel approach, we utilized a data pool of past customers and people who have already visited the USF website to target these audiences and remind them of the offer. In respect to Gmail, once any words related to USF football or college football appeared in their inbox, we captured that audience. 

Google PPC Search, which is a Bottom of Funnel approach, is used by collecting data on those individuals who interacted with the display & remarketing ads. We then targeted those specific individuals with ads prompting them to purchase tickets.