Category: Sports

A #BetterSaturday

Posted on by Joshua Schlag

Yes, I was down in Tucson for what’s now been dubbed the (Austin) Hill Mary, where the Arizona Wildcats defeated the Cal Golden Bears on the last play of the game. It was an unbelievable fourth quarter, where Arizona scored over 30 points to come back from a pretty miserable effort in the first half of the game.

You’d think that would be plenty to make me call last Saturday a “better Saturday” than most… But wait, there’s more!

We got to campus hours before the game to set up our tailgate out on The Mall in front of McKale Center, and I tweeted out this picture of the new grilled chicken wing experiment I was trying out:


I figured my friends who missed out on the tailgate would salivate with jealousy, and maybe I could convince them to come out to a later game when the weather cools down. Someone else took notice, though…

Apparently, AT&T is spending time on Twitter this fall looking for college football fans in need of tickets or those who could use an upgrade to their tailgating experience… and regardless of how baller one’s tailgate is, who couldn’t use an upgrade?

I’m assuming they found me through my usage of the #BearDown hashtag, and within moments of following their account and sending a Direct Message, I was on the phone with their on site marketing rep, who told me he’d be on his way over with some swag for my tailgate. A little bit later, I was greeted with a ton of stuff in tow:

  • Two UofA tailgate chairs
  • A UofA can koozy
  • A UofA polo shirt
  • A UofA hat
  • A set of UofA cornhole boards
  • …and the grand prize, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4!

The whole marketing campaign is a touch of brilliance, in finding folks like me (who presumably have a bit of social media Klout) to give AT&T a nice shout out and help them spread the word that they are doing some cool stuff.

November 2020 Update – Klout is looooooong gone at this point. If you’re looking for a tool that does similar tracking (and much more) you might want to give Brand Tracker from BrandMentions a look!

I do think they could do it all a bit better, though… I imagine they have to do a bit of due diligence to make sure the people they are reaching out to won’t find it creepy that AT&T is reaching out to them in an unsolicited manner. To that end, why not promote the campaign through their website, or a special marketing specific website, to encourage people to “Enter to win” prizes and opt in on their own? Why not collect a bit of information in the process that helps them reach out to consumers with special offers? Just a bit of constructive criticism from a guy who loves when technology and marketing come together…

In the end, yes… It was a #BetterSaturday – but I think they could make it the #BestSaturday for people like me and themselves!