When it comes to awards for sports marketing, it doesn’t get better than a NACMA.

“NACMA is our version of the Oscars or Grammy’s in college athletics marketing,” says Danny Bugg, Assistant Director of Marketing at Illinois State Athletics. “If you get a NACMA award, you know that you did your job to serve. It’s a huge accomplishment for a department.”

Using Stacked Messenger, Danny and Jordan Ashley, former Director of Marketing & Fan Engagement at Illinois State Athletics, increased attendance and won a NACMA award for their inventive promotion.

See how a NACMA award-winning department uses Stacked Messenger to increase attendance and revenue!

Engage Students in New Ways

In 2019, Jordan and Danny used Stacked Messenger for a month of t-shirt giveaways in September, called “SHIRTEMBER.” 

Each day featured a new t-shirt design, so they used Stacked Messenger to send photo texts to students. They tailored the message to students in two different audiences—the general student population and to students who had purchased special sport passes at the beginning of the year.

SHIRTEMBER resulted in Football’s highest student attendance in the last three years and second highest of all time, Volleyball’s highest student attendance on record, and Soccer’s highest recorded attendance of the 2019 season and the 3rd largest crowd in program history.

They won the 2020 NACMA “Best of Award” Silver Winner – Student Promotion Category – Group 2 because of its success.

The ease of building lists had a huge impact on the marketing team’s ability to execute the promotion all month. 

“Once you have your lists, you know exactly who you’re talking to. Having those lists helps us because we know we’re directly targeting people who care about that topic,” says Danny. “Stacked Messenger is super easy to use. We can send out a message quickly and move on to other things.”

Capitalize on Championships

A championship win deserves something special, but how does a marketing team ensure their effort pays off—and gets the kind of attention a winning coach and team deserve for their accomplishments?

“If it’s on a Saturday, we could send a mass email, but people don’t always check their email. On weekends, social media is just flooded, especially in the sports world. You get messaging lost,” says Danny. “A billboard can be cool but isn’t immediate and isn’t trackable.”

When the Illinois State volleyball team won the conference title in 2019, Danny and Jordan tried something new. 

They used Stacked Messenger to send messages to donors and alumni about the win—and included a link to donate to the program. Their first Raise the Banner Campaign was so successful that now it’s central to the championship marketing plan for each sport.

The trackable data and results from Stacked Messenger are good for the marketing team as well. 

“When you have a successful program like that, coaches expect a lot from a marketing department and a development department,” says Jordan. “As a former director of marketing for Illinois State, I always found it extremely helpful to be able to show coaches the data on what I did and how it performed. They loved seeing those numbers.”

More Ways to Use Stacked Messenger

Marketing plans are always evolving, and the team at Illinois State Athletics continues to innovate. 

“In the upcoming season we’ll be using Stacked Messenger to highlight our athletic success, highlight our giveaways, and engage students and fans in our new tailgating experiences. We’ve spent hours conceptualizing these events and activities, so it’s important we communicate effectively,” says Danny.

“A No-Brainer” for Athletic Marketing Departments

Using Stacked Messenger to send direct messages to students, fans, and donors is a “no-brainer” for the team at Illinois State.

“With the marketing tools that we use at Illinois State Athletics, Stacked Messenger has become a staple because of how easy it is, how direct it is, and how effective,” says Danny. 

“We as a staff have to choose what our bandwidth is to promote certain things on a quick turnaround. Not all of those are as trackable and as accessible as the text message. That’s a no-brainer as something we’re going to do first. It’s effective, easy, and trackable.”

Schedule a Demo to learn more about how Stacked Messenger can help your athletic department.