Public Relation Final Project

PRAD 255

10/12/16

Outline

Situation: The Chicago Fire is one of twenty teams in the Major League Soccer in the United States. The team was founded on October 8, 1997. Since then, the Chicago Fire has been on a roll ercoaster ride of highs and lows. In 1998 they won their first and only MLS cup, and in 2003 they successfully secured the Supporters' Shield. Since then, however, the team has declined significantly to the extent that they were at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. In 2009 they were also last place in terms of tickets sold. The team has been trying to boost ticket sales by individually calling regular ticket holders to talk about soccer and to try and lure them to come back to matches by providing free tickets. It is difficult to get fans to come for many reasons, in part because of the location of the Chicago Fires Stadium in Toyota Park, the fact that the team is has been performing so poorly, and because soccer is simply not a big sport in the U.S. Good start, good choice. What will your plan do to help?

Objectives:

1. Increase awareness of the Chicago Fire team in Chicago. By how much?

2. Increase ticket sales. Ditto

3. Increase season tickets sales: same, make quantifiable

4. Drive promotions that will attract sports fans. Tactic

5. Create sporting activities for sport fans of all ages. Tactic

Target audience(s): The target audience for the Chicago Fire are residents of Chicago, whether children, teens or adults; any sports fans that are particularly enthusiastic about Chicago-based teams; and any international university students or immigrants who have watched soccer as their main sport their entire lives. Profile the city; research info on sports fans. It’s out there.

Strategies: go back to strategy statement exercise and use that as a template

1. Create advertisements about upcoming matches. Tactic; not ads in PR plan

2. Develop promotions and sales around games, including offering full or partial travel expense coverage to away games. Tactic

3. Offer free fan days in order to motivate sport fans to come and watch a game. tactic

Tactics: Where’s the “big idea”

1. Intensive Facebook coverage of matches and attractive Venus. Using Facebook’s location application to identify Chicago users and creating targeted advertisements for them. FB fine; ads not so much Comment by Jill Stewart: Nope

2. Using Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat to build excitement about the upcoming game, engage with fans, and to interact with those in attendance at the game.

3. Reach out to the audience by email or telephone after the game to talk about soccer, specifically the Chicago Fire. When buying a ticket, fans will need to register using a phone number or email in order to get their tickets electronically.

Calendar/Timetable: The MLS season starts on March 6 and ends on October 23. Preparation will start after this season is over (in November) and will be concluded by the end of February, which will be the start of the next MLS season. The goal of the campaign will be to start the new season with at least 20 percent more fans. As soon as the current season ends, all press releases and social media campaigns will be scheduled. The team's General Manager, Nelson Rodriguez, will conduct an end-of-season meeting with the team's biggest supporters to get their input and to share the plans to secure more fans when the season ends. See samples in D2L. include planning/implementation/evaluation

Budget: Four months of preparation, match day revenue and yearly monetary prizes given by the MLS based on team performance over the season will be distributed to the team. Half will go towards new player recruitment and salaries, and the other half will support growing a larger fan base for the team. Not seeing the cost of your campaign here. Be more specific.

Evaluation:

1. Check the social media and conduct surveys to determine whether online activities were useful and/or attractive. This is do-able.

2. Increased number of followers and "likes" on social media. 500 more followers build this into your objectives

3. Increased numbers of season ticket holders. 200 more season ticket holders ditto

4. 15% Increased revenue in merchandise sales first time merchandise has been mentioned

5. 30% Increased numbers in attendance at specific games and in the season overall.

you need a big idea, and you need to differentiate strategy from tactics. Use textbook, class discussions and clarifying questions to do so.

Just for the sake of this exercise, we are avoiding paid advertising, so please do not include in your list of activities/tactics.

6/10

Work Cited

Kuper, Simon, and Stefan Szymanski. Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why.

Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey and Even

India Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport. New York: Nation, 2009. Print

McCauley, Kevin. "No, MLS Is Not on the Verge of Financial Ruin."SBNation.com.

N.p., 23 Apr. 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.

Martin, Denz. "For Major League Soccer It Is All about the Numbers, TV, Attendance,

Season Tickets." RSL Soapbox. N.p., 18 May 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.

"History." Chicago Fire. N.p., 08 Sept. 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.