Sponsorship Proposal

Executive Summary In an effort to promote the h. h. gregg brand, we are becoming the official sponsors of two minor league baseball leagues. The two leagues are the Eastern League and the South Atlantic league. In becoming the sponsors of these two leagues, we will be able to raise awareness, expand our customer database, drive customers into our retail stores, and increase sales. Our wide range of promotions will ensure the success of this marketing partnership. These promotions include h. h. regg fireworks night, scoreboard signage, raffles for TV giveaway, and advertising on social media networks as well as on the team and league websites. There will also be in-game promotions that will include a free t-shirt giveaway, an h. h. gregg kiosk located at every stadium, in-game announcements on the PA system, and our â€Å"h. h. says† game. With powerhouse competitors such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart, this partnership will increase exposure of our brand over a large geographic loca tion. Partnership Description Minor Leagues General Information Baseball is known as â€Å"America’s Favorite Pastime. However, there is a vast difference between Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball. As a result of inconsistent product quality at the Minor League level, minor league franchises are forced to explore other strategies to attract spectators to the game. Minor league games are known to be a â€Å"Family Friendly† environment, which is suitable for our â€Å"target market. † The season starts in the beginning of April and runs to the middle of September with a 4-team playoff following the regular season. The South Atlantic League and Eastern League brought in a combined attendance of over 7 million spectators in 2012.There are 26 teams between the two leagues and each has a total of 68 home games. With the promise of lengthy brand exposure over a wide array of cities, partnering with these respective minor leagues will prove to be a valua ble marketing decision and help achieve our objectives. Eastern League The Eastern League is a Double-A minor league affiliate that was founded in 1923. There are a total of 12 teams that are all located along the east coast. Their attendance throughout the whole season totaled 3. 8 million people in 2012. South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League is a Single-A minor league affiliate that was founded in 1980.There are a total of 14 teams that are located in the Southeast region. Their attendance throughout the whole season was 3. 2 million people in 2012. Proposal Objective There are several objectives that we believe can be achieved through this sponsorship and will greatly benefit our organization. The primary objectives that we want to focus on are raising awareness of h. h. gregg, expanding our customer database, driving customers into our retail stores, and increasing sales. We believe these objectives can be fulfilled through the promotions we have developed. Most people have heard of our competitors such as Best Buy and Sears.Not everyone has the same knowledge about h. h. gregg, which is why one of our main goals is to increase brand awareness. H. h. gregg fireworks night is one of our promotions that will increase awareness of our brand and also bring people into the stadiums where we will have other in-game promotions. We will also have advertisements on social media networks such as â€Å"Facebook† and the league and team websites. Another promotion in our sponsorship is scoreboard signage. This will ensure exposure of our brand to anyone who attends a game. Expanding our customer database is another objective we can accomplish through this sponsorship.With our h. h. gregg kiosk that will be located in each of the 26 stadiums, it will give our employees a chance to interact 1-on-1 with adults in the stadium and give them the opportunity to sign up for coupons and giveaways by providing their personal information. Driving customers to th e store and increasing sales go hand in hand. Our free t-shirt giveaway is one of our promotions that will get customers to the store and buying our products. With a gift card to h. h. gregg found in some of the t-shirts given to the fans, this will encourage customers to buy a product using their gift card.Also, with our 60’ TV raffle, it will get customers into our retail stores knowing they will have a chance to win a 60’ television. Who influences parents more than their children? With our â€Å"H. H. says† game, it will give the children a chance to compete for a coupon that will give them $10 off any video game. If a child wins the coupon, they will push for their parents to take them to the store and possibly buy a product. Perfect Match We feel the sponsorship of the Eastern League and South Atlantic League are great matches for h. h. gregg and will successfully help to achieve our most important objective, which is to increase sales.The main reason why we feel this sponsorship is appealing to h. h. gregg is because of the geographic location of the leagues. H. h. gregg retail stores are mainly located along the east coast and the Mideast region. The reason why we chose these particular leagues is due to the fact that every team is located near an h. h. gregg retail store. With h. h. gregg retail stores being located nearby, it will encourage the fans that attend the games and receive coupons and giveaways through our promotions to come to our retail store and buy our products.Also, with the sponsorship of 26 teams in 26 different cities, it helps increase awareness and exposure all throughout the east coast and Mideast region. Promotions Throughout h. h. gregg’s promotional campaign with the Southern and Atlantic league, we will have multiple promotions which optimize the chance of creating awareness for our appliances and electronics. Our goal is to have the maximum impact on a large sample size of people. Our promotions w ill be spread out across 26 different stadiums with a $2 million budget. Fireworks In order to draw customers to the stadium, we had to look at the motivation from an h. . gregg consumer point-of-view, which are families. So to accommodate the likability of children we decided to sponsor a fireworks night for all teams within the league on Friday night home games. There should be approximately 12 home Friday night games per team within the league. This means that with 26 teams amongst two leagues, our fireworks will attract families to the stadium 288 times more per season. With an average stadium attendance of 1,300 people, the purpose of our fireworks night is mainly to have an element of the baseball game to market to families who are most likely susceptible to buying h. . gregg products. Once we have families visiting the game, they will be introduced to other promotions inside the stadium to make them more familiar with h. h. gregg. T-shirt toss during Fireworks On firework nig hts, employees of the stadium will be throwing 30 t-shirts into the crowd during the fireworks. These T-shirts will have a variable amount of gift cards in the center. Some t-shirts will possess a gift card in the middle of the folded shirt, while others will not, but the total amount of money given out in the form of gift cards will be $200 per firework night.The $200 total gift card giveaway amount will be divided up in increments of $5-$25. The design of the T-shirts themselves will include the specific team’s logo of which the stadium belongs to (home team). Also, on the back of the T-shirt, we will include the classic h. h. gregg logo which will be proportionate in size to the team’s logo on the front. The main purpose of this promotion is to increase awareness of h. h. gregg by encouraging patrons to seek out the kiosk for more details and inevitably stop at the h. h. gregg stores to spend the gift card as a fraction of a larger sum to be spent. Scoreboard signag eSignage on the scoreboard at each stadium is a key component to raising awareness. Since the scoreboard is often looked at during the game, having our 8Ãâ€"30† sign, which will be the largest sign in the stadium, will distinguish itself from other ads and show our scale of contribution to the spectators. Given that everyone who attends the game glances at the scoreboard, this promotion will ensure brand awareness to the spectators. Kiosk Within 30 ft of the turnstiles entering the minor league stadiums, we plan to set up a technology and appliance sampling center for families to observe and become familiar with the unique pricing h. . gregg has to offer. This appliance and technology kiosk will be backed with game consoles for children to sample with the newest games and software available. This will allow time for our associates of h. h. gregg to fully educate the parents on the deals and value they can expect from h. h. gregg. Social networking Minor league baseball games have a following from families looking to maximize their experience for the average â€Å"Friday night out† with the kids. To embrace the already strong following of the minor league teams, we plan to parallel h. h. gregg with the minor league baseball experience.To do this, h. h. gregg will advertise all schedules for teams within the South Atlantic League and Eastern League on their Facebook page. â€Å"Liking† a particular team or league will keep people up-to-date with their team’s wins and losses and allow h. hgregg to target advertising efforts directly towards fans. Most importantly, the â€Å"likes† generated from fans liking their favorite team will ultimately go toward the h. h. gregg corporation to help advertising exposure on Facebook. The Facebook algorithm allows for businesses that have a high number of likes to be more easily searchable and have a higher presence onFacebook as well. The most important concept of posting team schedules and activities on h. h. gregg’s Facebook pages is to create traffic to the page, as well as â€Å"likes,† promote further promotions like fireworks and tech sampling, and lastly, make h. h. gregg in these regions synonymous with minor league baseball to create awareness. Website Advertisement & Commercials H. h. gregg will have advertisements and commercials on the Eastern League and South Atlantic Leagues Websites as well as on all 26 team websites. The advertisements will allow consumers who are interested in h. . gregg's products click directly to there web site, which is www. hhgregg. com. The purpose of these advertisements is to increase awareness of h. h. gregg's products. Having direct links to h. h. gregg's website will also help increase the number of times the site is viewed. This should get more potential customers interested in h. h. gregg's products and increase online sales. As h. h. gregg's Marketing Team, we want to create a commercial for the Eastern Leag ue and a separate commercial for the South Atlantic League.This will allow the fans visiting the website recognize the players from there local leagues and teams. We will not show our commercial on TV because minor league baseball games are typically not shown on television. Instead, we are choosing to show our commercial over the Internet where the minor league teams are advertised. This is also a cheaper rout and allows us to reach more Eastern League and South Atlantic League Fans. h. h. Says h. h. Says is an in-game promotion that is similar to the kids game â€Å"Simon Says†. The marketing team will select 5 kids out of the crowd to play â€Å"h. . Says† on the field near the home teams dugout after the 5th inning is complete. The winner will receive a $10. 00 gift certificate toward any video game. The winner can use gift certificate at any h. h. gregg store. The gift certificate will expire in 14 days which will give kids and parents enough time to get to there local h. h. gregg store. The purpose of this promotion is for fans to become more aware of h. h. gregg. The winner of â€Å"h. h. Says† will be excited about their gift certificate and urging parents to take them to a store so they can use there gift certificate.This will help get more potential buyers into the stores, as well as buying our products, even if it is partially paid with a gift certificate. 60† TV Raffle Two 60-inch TVs will be raffled off per team. Since there are 26 teams total, we will be raffling off a total of 52 60-inch TVs. Any fan who attends a minor league game in the Eastern League or the South Atlantic League can enter to win. On the back of there ticket stub will be a information sheet asking the fans name, address, email, and phone number. The first TV per team will be given out on July 1st, 2013 which is about the midseason point.The second TV per team will be given out on September 20th, 2013 which is at the end of the season. Everyone who en ters the raffle will be put in our customer database to receive coupons and sale papers. The purpose of the 60-inch TV raffle promotion is to get potential customers to h. h. gregg stores. Once they are in the store, there is a possibility they might stay, look around, and purchase items. This promotion also helps us expand and build our customer database so we can keep more people informed about our products as well as offer them special coupons.Announcements Announcements about h. h. greggs products and promotions in the stadium will be made before and various times throughout the game. Information about our h. h. gregg Kiosk will be announced before each game and after the 1st inning. Information about h. h. gregg fireworks night will be announced before each game and after the 2nd inning is complete. This is one of our most heavily advertised promotions; therefore, we want to announce it early so that we can make sure the fans who are late hear it as well as the fans who want to leave early.Information about the 60-inch TV raffle will be announced before the game and again after the 3rd inning. The â€Å"h. h. Says† game will be announced as it is being performed on the field after the 5th inning. Information about how to get to the teams social media page and website will also be announced. We want people to visit these websites because this is where our commercial will be located. The purpose of these advertisements is to build awareness of h. h. gregg’s promotions with the Eastern League and the South Atlantic League. Measuring Return on Investment: Fireworks NightFriday Night Fireworks’ success as a promotion will be measured in terms of the number of fans that are exposed to our brand through its association with the event. More specifically, the number of tickets sold for a given fireworks night represents the number of fans made aware of h. h. gregg, increasing brand exposure. Comparisons drawn between attendance numbers on Frid ay night games that do not feature fireworks and those that do will help determine how many fans are more likely to attend games featuring the post-game show, and as a result are exposed to our brand. Free T-ShirtThe lucky fans that catch one of our free T-shirts with attached gift certificates will be more inclined to come to one of our stores than if they had not received such giveaways. Therefore, the total redeemed coupons will tell us how many customers were brought into h. h. gregg as a result of this specific promotional activity. Furthermore, the number of sales garnered as a result of the promotion can also be quantified by the amount of redeemed coupons. Scoreboard Signs Similar to fireworks night, measuring ROI for our on field signage will be done in terms of increased awareness, more specifically attendance numbers.The amount of paid attendants for a given game (or the average for a season) can also be used to display the amount of people that will be exposed to our bra nd through the scoreboard signage. Because of its strategic placement, the chance that the vast majority of attendants will see our sign is much greater (since the scoreboard is often an area that fans turn their attention to throughout the course of a game). Social Media Placing our advertisement on social media sites, more specifically team and league Facebook pages, gives us the opportunity to run our ad 24/7, as opposed to traditional TV run ads.To measure such exposure we can use the amount of â€Å"likes† that our ads receive on the team/league Facebook page(s). In addition, because our ad will be viewed by all those that visit the page, the number of hits a page containing our ad(s) receives is also indicative of the approximate number of views for said ad(s). These measurements also are specific to increasing awareness for our brand. Team/League Website Ads Similar to social media, the implementation of our ads on team and league websites will allow the commercial to be more likely to reach a greater amount of potential consumers.The exposure to our brand through our ads can also be measured by totaling the number of hits the websites we are advertising on receive. In addition to such info, we will also recognize the amount of people that are drawn to h. h. gregg’s website by our ads with the number of â€Å"clicks† our ad(s) receive. In-Game Kiosks The h. h. gregg informational kiosk is aimed at serving more than one objective, the first being the increase in awareness. Although a ticket sales count may tell how many people could possibly visit our kiosk, such a statistic cannot be proven or verified easily.Therefore, we decided to use the e-mail sign up sheet provided at each kiosk as an indication of how many people definitely came to our kiosk, and as a result realized an increase in awareness for h. h. gregg and our offerings. The sign up sheet will be an exact measure of the kiosk’s success in adding to our existing ma rketing database, which will be done by counting the number of e-mails collected from any given game (or season total). â€Å"h. h. says† The family-friendly â€Å"hh says† promotion serves all of our objectives in different ways that can be explained through fan attendance and recorded sales information.Just as with many of the prior promotions that increased awareness, the â€Å"h. h. Says† event’s ability to do so can be measured through the amount of tickets sold to games featuring said event. The children that are lucky enough to receive the video game discount prize will more than likely use the discounts when they make a purchase; the total sales recorded as involving the discount coupon(s) received from this promotion gives us an idea of the increase in sales resulting from this promotion.This number also gives us a rough estimate of the amount of consumers that set foot in our store because of the â€Å"h. h. Says† contest. 60’ Tele vision Giveaway The television giveaway promotion is supposed to get more people into our actual store and simultaneously contribute to our database marketing system. To explain further, each ticket representing a raffle ticket will include an area for personal information of the respective ticket buyer to be submitted with the â€Å"raffle† ticket in-store.By making it necessary for the raffle tickets to be dropped in one of our locations rather than allowing online submission will force consumers to visit our store, the total being measured by the amount of tickets that were submitted for our drawing. In-Game Announcements The announcement of our affiliation with the Eastern League, along with the promotional announcements, will serve the purpose of increasing fans’ awareness of not only our brand itself but our offerings at the stadium as well.Evaluation of success in doing-so will be on the basis of total fan attendance, and more specifically fan attendance for giv en promotions on their designated night(s). For example, if attendance is usually higher on fireworks night than a night that does not offer the post-game show, then exposure benefits will also change in accordance since we are measuring success through attendance. Pricing (See Exhibit A for a more detailed budget) Establishing h. h. gregg’s new partnership with the Eastern League and South Atlantic League is allotted a $2 million budget.The following shows the cost of each component associated with this new partnership: Budget Per Team * h. h. gregg Fireworks Night: $40,000 * Scoreboard Sign: $8,000 * h. h. gregg Kiosk: $8,800 * Social Media, Website ; Commercial: $7,000 * h. h. Says: $680 * 60† TV Raffle: $2,000 * T-Shirt Shooting: $6,000 * Announcements: $2,000 Total: $74,480 Total Portion of Budget: $1,936,480 Budget For Everyone * Social Media and Website- $8,000 * Playoff and Extra Fund- $55,520 Total Portion of Budget: $63,520 Exhibit A