UT NEWS & Updates

Rick Pitino’s Online Activation

Posted by Team UT on June 30th, 2010   Interactive, Sports Marketing

Caught an article yesterday on ESPN,”Rick Pitino Fights Back”, that focuses on the competition vs. Coach Calipari at Kentucky. In this post we look at one thing Coach Pitino could really use – a better online activation.

Despite both programs having a long successful tradition, neither has a dedicated program website (ie www.DukeBluePlanet.com), so right off the bat Coach Pitino and Louisville could easily gain a huge advantage on Kentucky with respect to targeting fans, alumni, corp partners, and RECRUITS. As it is, they have pretty much the same templated sections on their respective AD websites (Kentucky  | Louisville) providing neither program with an advantage, so that leads us to turn our attention to the Coach’s official website.

RickPitino.com Analysis:
1. The majority of the content is static (ie Coaches Favs thru Foundation sections), and much hasn’t been updated (many pages have a 12/01/09 stamp, and only 6 “Latest News” updates in going on 7 months for 2010). The result is no repeat traffic drivers on the site.

2. Many pages have a broken ad placement box near the bottom.

3. The “Schedule” hasn’t been updated since the Dec. 16th game vs. Oral Roberts.

4. The site is built as a template layout so every page looks basically the same. Coach Cal’s is the same way so you have an opportunity to capture the imagination of recruits through a graphically stimulating experience.

5. Missing an “In the News” type feed on the program and Coach Pitino.

6. No featured content on the Louisville program – tradition – history, or even the current team.

7. No information on Coach – his style/philosophy, career highlights.

8. No focus or features for Fans on the site.

9. No promotions from sponsors run through the site.

10. The site includes three videos, but they are thumbnail size, don’t have a setup (ie Date or Description), and don’t include a share feature.

11. No information on Team Camps or Coaching Clinics on the site.

12. No social media integration (ie: links and feed for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Lexy, etc.) these don’t necessarily need to be specifically for Coach Pitino, but would include them for the program – overall should have a strategy to take advantage of these channels.

Social Media Extra:
From the results below, it’s easy to see Coach Pitino has some catching up to do, and is missing a channel that is very popular with today’s generation of recruits.

Twitter Followers:
-Calipari @ 1,111,014 vs. Pitino @ NA (No verified acct, no listing on the Louisville AD site, RickPitino.com, or Follow from the official AD Twitter acct)

Facebook Likes:
-Calipari @ 160,282 vs. Pitino @ NA (Searching for Rick Pitino led to two accts, neither were official)

Recommendation:
Coach Cal’s site (CoachCal.com) has gotten more attention, primarily because of his use of Lexy, and it does include more depth of content (Coach & Program), and several interactive features – but nothing that makes it best in class.

To gain a true competitive advantage Coach Pitino & Louisville should develop a dedicated program site, and then on CoachPitino.com include a video message and call-to-action to visit the main program website. Short of that it’s time to overhaul CoachPitino.com:
-a new content plan
-a new design with unique sections
-activation & integration of social media channels

Coach Pitino is a one of a very few college coaches in any sport that has a true brand, has a distinctive style & personality, and an overall presence that resonates with recruits – and that needs to be showcased properly in a new official site activation. When it does Coach Pitino will gain an edge in the online battle with Coach Cal.

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