Andy Boyer

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Category: Personal (Page 39 of 48)

If the University of Washington Was a Corporation

December 13, 2007 /

I hesitate to write this article because I am pressed for time and really want to do a good job on this one.  But the topic is starting to get stale, so I really need to bang it out.

uw2.jpgYou probably heard that the University of Washington fired Athletic Director Todd Turner this week.  It was a mutual decision, but one in which the school will pay him close to half a million dollars a year to NOT come to work anymore, before his contract runs out sometime in 2009. (Someone please tell me how I can get one of these gigs.)

I’m not a rabid Dawg fan or anything, but I do find the scenario fascinating.  Because two weeks ago, this same University made a somewhat controversial non-decision by not firing the football coach they already had.  Then a week later, out of the blue, his boss got the axe instead.  So I want to look at this from a pure business perspective, and analyze this as if the UW was a public corporation.

So, let’s call UW President Mark Emmert the corporation’s CEO. Let’s say the corporation has 3 major divisions – Athletics, Academics and Research.  Todd Turner is the Exec VP of Athletics.  Turner has a bunch of product groups under him, tasked with a number of brand categories.  The Director of Football is Tyrone Willingham.  Willingham has a bunch of Product Managers (his coaches) developing features (the players) for his overall product (the Football team).

Now for a few years now, the product has stunk.  And the main reason the overall product has stunk is that the features have not been all that great.  Willingham was brought in 3 years ago to improve the features and get a better product to market.

Now the shareholders (the alumni) have been getting restless.  They are tired of Oregon and WSU developing better products than them.  They are tired of their grandchildren wanting to buy WSU and Oregon products.  And a few key shareholders have been hinting at investing their money somewhere else.

So the CEO does what every CEO should do.  He asks his Exec VP – "What’s going wrong?"  Turner replies, "The current features are already built so you can’t change them.   The product managers are working hard, so they should keep their job.  And the Director of Football is a great guy who’s really trying hard, so we need to keep him as well." 

 Now the CEO has a problem.   His shareholders are revolting, and his Exec VP has just told him, "Hey man, everything is cool here. Everyone is really trying hard."

The CEO retreats into his office and thinks.  "Well, if this is them trying HARD, what happens if they stop trying?  And why doesn’t my Exec VP seem to care that we never hit our numbers?  Our biggest product in his department is continuing to underachieve, and he’s not mad – in fact he his proud of his guys for trying hard!"

uw1.jpgIn this scenario, the firing of Todd Turner makes perfect sense.  Really, CEO Emmert had no choice.  Underperforming product, no punishment of the low levels of management and no promises of improvement.  The axe had to fall at the top.

Now, college football has different timing than a corporation, but if you follow this analogy, I think it’s easy to imagine that the whole division is going to be "reorganized" sometime after the new boss gets in.

 

Why the MLS Will Be HUGE in Seattle

December 5, 2007 /

Ok, this post has been percolating in my head for weeks, and I’m finally getting it posted.  But when the announcement was made about the MLS coming to Seattle, my first reaction was, "What a perfect city for pro soccer."  Apparently, they already have 9,000 deposits for season tickets, so that instinct was right.  Here is why I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

1) The Superstar Factor – I’ll bet you the stack of yellow cards I’ve collected in the last 12 months that the next huge European Footballer to cross the pond will end up here in the Emerald City.  The reason – Paul Allen.  A man who loves to surround himself with mega celebrities will not miss the opportunity to bring one of them to his own private playground, Qwest Field.  Add to this the fact that co-owner Adrian Hanauer really knows soccer and has been able to draw some pretty major European teams over here in the last 5 years. (Don’t quote me, but I believe he was responsible for the Man United v Celtic, Chelsea v Celtic and RealMadrid v DC United games.) Plus, you have a celebrity co-owner in Drew Carry who has a few connections himself.  I don’t know who it will be, but the next version of David Beckham moves to Seattle.

2) Seattle Summer Nights – 15 years ago, no one went to Mariner games, even with Griffey.  But now everyone goes to Safeco Field to sit in a beautiful stadium on a 65 degree evening and watch a sport they barely understand or care about.  And soccer is even better for this than baseball, a sport in which most of the time is spent either waiting for an inning to start or hoping something will happen.  People will at least try one soccer game, if for no other reason, that it’s a nice way to spend a Tuesday night in July.

3) Soccer Has a Clock – A soccer game is over in 90 minutes plus halftime.  Say the game starts at 7:00.  You can absolutely bank on the fact that you can leave the house at 6:00, spend 30 minutes watching pre-game, 105 minutes in the stadium, and have Junior home and in bed by 9:30.  How many people do you see leaving the Mariners game in the 7th inning?  That is sub-optimal for everyone, especially a kid (who learns that you don’t have to complete things.)

4) Seattle Supports Winners – Seattle is fascinating.  There is so much to do, we won’t deal with losers.  But we have so much civic pride (or is it an inferiority complex) that we care about ANYTHING that wins.  Mariners – sold out during the golden years.  Seahawks – Adored statewide.  Even the Storm were selling out during their championship run.  Now remember that we have Paul Allen.  This team will win.  The MLS is not a hard league to build a competitor in.  This isn’t like an expansion team in baseball where you have the Yankees and Red Sox to deal with.  It’s a poor league that’s getting better, and even though there is a salary cap, I suspect Allen and his fellow owners will pour some money into top scouts, coaches and facilities to make this a place that good players want to come. 

Now with all this being said, here’s how the owners or MLS could screw it up – which I don’t think they’ll do.  But, if they make some of these easy mistakes, it will hurt their momentum.

Danger 1: Qwest concessions /Overall Costs – Football fans put up with the lousy and expensive Qwest concessions because a) it’s the Seahawks, b) They’ve already spent 3 or 4 hours getting lubed up in the parking lot or FX Mc Crory’s, and c) Tickets are already so expensive that getting jobbed for an extra couple of bucks on your beer is made relative.  So that works for a sport in which a billion people watch the Super Bowl.   And you could probably get away with that and more at a World Cup game here.  But to anyone who knows enough about soccer to buy a ticket, the MLS is a minor league, and not a high minor league at that. Sure it’s called "Major League Soccer" but if the T-Birds change the name of their league to Major League Hockey, they’re still 16 year old kids.  You can’t ding 23,000 people.  You can price aggressively to 5,000 Sounder die-hards who love soccer so much that they skip work to go to the George and Dragon for a Champions League game.  Premium pricing is a great tactic when servicing a niche.  But if you want to fill 23,000 seats a game, make sure Dad can take his kids and some friends without feeling like he’s getting the shaft.

Danger 2: Acting like Soccer people –  I have this debate with a friend of mine all the time.   People who don’t know soccer, end up hating soccer when they hang out with soccer mega-enthusiasts.  For example, when you are in Old Trafford and 65,000 Manchester United fans are all singing in unison – that’s cool.  Better than cool – awe inspiring.  When you are at a US vs Cuba friendly, and of the 20,000 people there, 25 guys from Sam’s Army are hammered and singing for 90 minutes straight, that’s annoying. We get it – we’re SUPPOSED to like soccer because the whole world does.  We’re SUPPOSED to sing.  We’re SUPPOSED to enjoy that the game will be 1-0 or 1-1.  But we don’t, necessarily.  It doesn’t make us bad people.  It just means we need to learn and evaluate.  And if I bring 3 friends to their first soccer game and have to explain why the fat guy with the drum is on his 42nd verse of "The Ref is a Wanker," while the guy next to him is on the 82nd consecutive minute of blowing his stupid horn, then I probably won’t get them back to another game.   Do all that stuff, but in small doses.  Save your uber-soccerness for US National games.

Danger 3: Too much Americanization –  I think one of the coolest things in International soccer is when the two teams march out side by side before a game.  The music, the drama , the tension.  Imagine Seahawks vs Patriots and 90 guys came walking out in 2 lines of 45, with Hasselbeck and Brady walking lockstep trying not to look at each other.  It would be fantastic.  But at a Sounders game, some poor unknown soccer guy has to run about 90 yards by himself (except he’s usually trailed by 3 munchkins) through a little smoke to the pleasant applause of 5000 people. The American created "Tunnel run" is way cooler when there are 70,000 people and 100 cheerleaders.  Americans want to see first class stuff.  Don’t give us Domino’s Pizza and call it Italian food.

Ok, my longest post ever.   Let me know if you disagree.

 

Movaya Featured on QuicklyBored

November 29, 2007 /

qBored_logo.gifQuicklyBored.com is a great place to read about mobile gaming.  As handheld devices continue to become a platform for entertainment as well as communication, this site will continue to be a leader in relaying news and reviews to a mass audience.  It already has a Google Page Rank of 6, which is testament to the amount of people starting to care about mobile games.

So it’s exciting that this industry leader covered the story of Sandlot’s deal with Movaya.  It’s a real indicator that more of the mobile games web sites may begin to pick up on the story of Movaya’s emerging technology. 

 

A Sports Story Every Marketer Should Read

November 27, 2007 /

GatoradeLogo.jpgAccording to ESPN.com, Dr. Robert Cade passed away this week.  You have probably never heard of Dr. Cade, but if you have ever played a sport or been to the gym, you have almost certainly tried Dr. Cade’s invention, Gatorade.

The story of the birth of Gatorade is one that every marketer should read, memorize and copy into their own campaigns.  I’ll leave the entire article for you to read, but the bullet points go something like this:

  1. Discover a problem that needs a solution
  2. Create, test, recreate, retest, and recreate the solution until the customer likes it
  3. Find an anchor customer with influence and size
  4. When tempted to change the brand, listen to your audience
  5. Build products because you love the project, not for the money
  6. When you get bigger than you can handle, take the money and run.

Are You a Sports Widow?

November 20, 2007 /

sportswidow_sm.JPGI’m taking a few minutes to plug a new and exciting idea from two of Seattle’s best Marketing folks. Dave Sharp and Nan Hall have launched SportsWidow.com. The site is focused on aspects of a "Sports Family" and profiled tonight on King 5’s Evening Magazine.

Some of the many features include the following: 

  • Sports Widow Journal & Features – Topical commentary, tips, ideas about coping/ surviving in a house full of sports fans.
  • Store – Sports Widow® Wear and Gear
  • www.sportswidowradio.com : Pilot Radio Show – This sample 1-hour radio show features interviews with other Sports Widows, Boxer George Foreman and relationship expert Pepper Schwartz, PhD. It includes the Sports Widow Blues theme song by composer/vocalist Chris Sharp and the C. Sharp Trio (yes, she’s Sharp’s wife). www.sportswidow.com/podcasts/theme song.mp3
  • Fan Fare – Recipes and entertaining ideas for sports events
  • Resources – Book, website and movie recommendations

The team will be looking for content soon. “We plan to connect with Sports Widows through interactive media, traditional media, special events, social network meet-ups and products specifically geared to them,” says Sharp. “To that end, we are searching for partners who share our vision and passion for this subject and market.” Plans to roll out Sports Widow Entertainment, include a radio talk show, syndicated columns, cartoons, greeting cards, books, video games/instructional videos, and a television show.

Movaya Wants to Make It Easy to Sell Mobile Games From Your Web Site

November 15, 2007 /

movaya1.jpgNew product announcement from Movaya today, as they released version 2.0 of Plug N Play, which is a technology that makes it even easier for any online merchant (or even a blog) to sell mobile games from their web site, deliver them directly to the customer’s phone, and directly charge their cell phone bill. 

While the mobile game industry is still in its early stages, all signs point to an explosion in revenues of mobile games in the coming years. The new version of Movaya’s product comes after months of research and feedback from the several hundred web sites already implementing the platform.

The entire press release is available in a Social Media form at their blog.

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