THE JUMP TO COLLEGIATE SALES
With such an extensive pedigree, clearly, Mullin has experienced much success with the pro- fessional world of sports, and in 2008, he made the jump to collegiate management at the Georgia Tech after establishing Te Aspire Group (TAG). Shortly thereafter, Georgia Tech
approached TAG about increasing season and group ticket sales for football and men’s basket- ball. It was here that the first “Fan Relationship Management Center” in college athletics was created. TAG hired a dedicated Sales Manager and 12 Sales Consultants to help sell tickets, as well as the necessary training and systems necessary to support these sales. Te result? $4.5 million in new sales revenue in the first three years of operation. While Georgia Tech was the first, it certainly hasn’t been the last. TAG has since worked with Arizona State University, New Mexico State University and Florida Atlantic University, among others.
inbound calls and in some cases operating the box office. In many of our partnerships we also handle season ticket renewals. In all cases we sell a full menu of season ticket plans, group sales and individual game tick- et promotions. In several schools we have conducted statistically significant market research that has helped us to laser-target the university’s athletic marketing mass media advertising budget and develop and execute intelligent digital and social media campaigns for our partners at Army, Arizona State University, Rutgers, the NCAA, NASCAR and the University of Memphis.
WHAT IS YOUR MODEL FOR HIGHER-ED TO IN- CREASE REVENUES? Generally we come in and fulfill specific high priority needs. Tere are situations where we handle all of the university’s athletic ticket sales and renewals such as Arizona State University and Rutgers. Tere are situations where we are tasked solely with making outbound phone calls to sell new ticket accounts such as Georgia Tech, Maryland, Memphis and several MAC, Conference USA and WAC schools. We typically fulfill whatever the athletic department’s biggest need is. Our compensation and service model depends on the size
of the school and their specific needs, and can be a flat percentage or a cost plus model. At BCS schools we are generally able to generate three dollars in revenue for every one dollar in expense (including our management fee) in the first year of operation. Given that we generally take no resid- ual fees for these new fans renewing in future years, the Lifetime Asset Value is at least three to four times that amount of new revenue actu- ally being generated, not including parking, concessions and merchan- dise revenues. At non-BCS schools our revenue return on investment is usually 2:1, but the ROI depends on how low the ticket prices are and how good the lead lists are. But as I said earlier, we help with developing those contacts.
HOW DO YOU LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL MEDIA WITHIN YOUR PROCESS? Te Aspire Group uses every ticket and fan engagement technology avail- able. We work from a database that is overwhelmingly existing or past ticket buyers or users. Obviously this increases the probability of a sale by driving more frequent purchase. We work using the ticket service vendor software that the school has chosen and then we operate out of their
database (Paciolan CRM, WBST or Archtics etc. and even using Excel spreadsheets when necessary). We significantly support the university’s direct marketing efforts via email, digital and social media campaigns. We can augment the existing staff or provide our own staff locally on campus or support from our national marketing and sales center. All ticket fulfillment and payment processing is handled by the university’s box office, so there is complete security and compliance.
DO YOU HAVE ANY COLLEGE SUCCESS STORIES THAT WE CAN SHARE WITH OUR READERS? Yes, we have several of them; at Florida Atlantic University we have generated almost $500,000 in new ticket revenue in the first five months. At Georgia Tech we have generated over $13 Million in new ticket sales in just over three years on a Lifetime Asset Value basis. Our cost of sales is just over 30 percent including all commissions and management fees. Te numbers at Arizona State University and Rutgers where we are responsible for all renew- als and new sales are equally impressive as we have improved retention rates by at least 4 or 5 percent per annum with our patented “Next-Practices” systems.
SEPT/OCT 2012 •
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