Spending doubles for football ad blitz

"Coach Hep wants you," and the IU Athletics Department has nearly doubled its football marketing budget to make sure he gets what he wants. \nThe athletics department spent about $300,000 on football marketing this year by introducing a new campaign, up from between $150,000 to $200,000 in 2004, said Chad Giddens, athletics marketing director. The new marketing scheme includes billboard, TV, radio and newspaper advertisements throughout the state.\nGiddens said he couldn't provide an exact figure for 2004 because there were many cross-promotions between football and other sports.\nTo end an eight-year streak of deficits, IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan said the University needed to increase football revenue and has used the marketing campaign as a springboard. \n"We felt we needed to exploit the positive attributes of our coach," Greenspan said after an Oct. 18 Bloomington Faculty Council meeting.\nAnd it has worked. \nStudent season ticket sales have increased 106 percent from last year. That increase totaled more than $165,000 at $55 per ticket package.\nTotal season ticket sales have increased 39 percent, according to a statement released by the athletics department Oct. 11.\nBut even with the increased sales, Greenspan said the football revenue is short of its $4.3 million goal. Last year's revenue goal was $3.2 million. Greenspan declined to disclose until the end of the season how close the department was to reaching its football objective.\n"While we are pleased with the progress in football marketing, particularly the impressive increase in student season ticket sales, we are just scratching the surface of what we can do," Tim Fitzpatrick, associate athletics director for external operations, said in a statement. \nThe mass campaign was the brainchild of the athletics department, but Greenspan said the first-year coach has been a "very, very willing partner." \nFootball coach Terry Hoeppner has been the focus of the media campaign, appearing in Uncle Sam-esque "Coach Hep wants you" posters, as well as billboard and TV ads saying, "Crowds help win games." The department bought billboard space throughout the state, even including one in West Lafayette, home to rival Purdue University. \nHoeppner has also implemented "The Walk," where he leads the football team from Assembly Hall into Memorial Stadium two hours before the start of the game. IU has also dubbed Memorial Stadium "The Rock" and has placed a giant limestone rock on the north end of the field, both in an attempt to create a more fan-friendly atmosphere. \nAdditionally, Hoeppner, a native of Woodburn, Ind., has made more than 50 official visits throughout the state since his hiring.\n"I tell students all the time that Indiana University is not a good school -- it's a great school -- and part of their undergraduate experience should be Saturday afternoons at Memorial Stadium with their friends," Hoeppner said in a statement.\nHoeppner said IU President Adam Herbert and Greenspan deserve a lot of credit for the campaign's success. But Greenspan suggests the campaign is effective because of its honest message.\n"One of the things I was trying to do was make sure you don't make promises you can't keep," Greenspan said. "As you look at the campaign, we don't think there were any false promises. We weren't selling things we didn't know if we could deliver, and that was an important part of it."\nAfter its first sellout of the year Saturday against Ohio State on Oct. 22, the athletics department has two home games remaining to match their revenue goal.