PROTOTYPES
As a team, we wanted to approach three different problems Longhorn fans saw with the current Longhorn Baseball experience. Through rounds of interviews with students and alumni, our team noticed fans struggled engaging with Texas Baseball social media channels, finding transportation across I -- 35 barrier, and staying through all nine innings of a Longhorn game. Our solution to the engagement issue sought to provide fans with out-of-stadium engagement and incentives to attend games through social media giveaways. When fans make the decision to attend games, we wanted to make it easier for fans to cross I -- 35. Through a partnership with group ride service, Fetii, we hope to give students a cheap, accessible option to get to games. When fans arrive at Disch-Falk Field this Spring, they can expect a unique digitally-immersive experience, blending social media, players, and fan involvement with Longhorn baseball to a whole new level.
What We Learned
This prototype incorporates multiple aspects that our survey covered - Twitter is the main social media platform fans use to keep up with the team, and most respondents were interested in engaging more with trivia and fun facts about the program and players. This prototype combines both of these aspects while also increasing engagement, both online and at the Disch. We presented this prototype to Drew Martin and Ryan Dede from the athletic department, as well as soliciting feedback from student fans of Texas Baseball. Student fans were interested in the idea, but noted that the transportation barriers to the baseball field might still not make this worth it (thus our other transportation-based prototype). The athletic department received this prototype positively, but noted that working on a budget in a non-revenue sport, they might not want to spend money on a giveaway every single week. Noting this, we also proposed that we could just show the fans’ tweets on the scoreboard or their photo – the main point of this prototype is to increase fan engagement both online and at the stadium, and that can be achieved with or without spending money.
This prototype was designed as a solution to the theoretical I-35 barrier that poses a threat for getting people but specifically students to the baseball games all season long.
Throughout interviews with stakeholders but specifically in our first meeting with Drew and Ryan from the Texas Athletics department, the biggest problem to fix on their priority list was finding a way to get students to the games in a low cost way. We took this feedback and brainstormed, which led us to the idea, Fetii to Falk. And as we gathered more information and researched this potential idea, we presented it to stakeholders as well, specifically students who would be the ones to use this potential service.
In the new era of baseball, teams are always looking for cheap and innovative ways to get fans involved in the game. In our case, we wanted to address the fact that fans do not want to stay through nine innings of Longhorn baseball games. We thought of two ways to do this, digitally and through chances at unique experiences. While fans are looking forward to the answers to every weeks’ trivia giveaway through social media, they can connect with the team digitally while also learning about where to stay up to date with the team online. It’s inevitable that fans will be on their phones during the game, so why not have them playing the Longhorn Kahoot game on the video board? Secondly, getting fans a unique chance to learn thing about the players and coaches builds season-long investments between the fans and players. Examples like Mic’d up interviews with coaches or dugout takeover on social media during the game could be a way to build connections.
We had administered a survey when the project initially started that provided us some insight on what problems students saw or items that needed to be addressed for the regular students to attend a game. Discovering that fans would be open to a renovated in-game experience gave our team a lot of opportunities to research different strategies used by teams around the country. Profitable NCAA baseball teams like Georgia and TCU have built a strong following through tradition while newer generation baseball teams like the Savannah Bananas built a fanbase through uniqueness and swagger. While Texas is a blue blood program and we want to stay true to that, there were some ways that we thought we could uphold the traditional values of Texas baseball with a digitally innovative experience. Through one-on-one interviews with student stakeholders we discussed what Longhorn students would want to see or dislike seeing at games. We also had frequent discussions with Texas Baseball staff in regard to our project and research.
Through our interviews with student stakeholders, we found that students wanted to get to know the players on a peer to peer level beyond the typical questions – i.e. what year are you, what’s your major, who do you know here? Students wanted to know why players decided on Texas and if it lived up to their expectations. When showing fans videos from the Bananas, they laughed but didn’t think full skits would be appropriate for Longhorn baseball. Through each round of interviews, we learned more about how cheap students are but also how cheap it is to incentivize them to come and stay. When discussing possibilities with Ryan and Drew, they told us that the budget is extremely limited but not impossible to push if fans were interested and in-game actions wouldn’t interfere with the game itself.
Next Steps
Fetii to Falk
Coordinate between Fetii, campus officials, Parking and Transportation, and Texas Athletics to designate optimal pickup and drop-off spots
Work with Texas Athletics to communicate the program via social media and emails to Big Ticket holders
Social media campaign
Work with Texas Athletics social media team to refine strategy, research optimal times to post question
Work to schedule in-game answer reveal on video board and strategize what day of the week/when in the game would make the most sense
Work with Texas Athletics to budget for potential giveaways, or work on an alternate low- to no-cost solution to reward fans who participate.
In Game Experience
Coordinate with old and new players on ways to involve them at games with fans
Evaluate 2024 season calendar for promotional days and guest appearances