Imagine sitting down for your first day of class. It’s Strategic Marketing Management and you are ready to continue your academic career. Your professor, Dr. John Drea, tells the class that you will be doing a project that isn’t for an imaginary client. You, and the entire class, are thrown into the dynamic realm of professional sports marketing, tasked with satisfying the expectations of a high-profile client: the St. Louis Cardinals. This was the real project for students in Strategic Marketing Management (MKT338).
Dr. John Drea, an assistant professor at ISU, has a 20-plus-year-long history working with professional sports teams. Bringing his connections to the classroom, he was able to work with the St. Louis Cardinals as he helped his students as they formed a marketing campaign to aid ticket sales. Drea led the class throughout this project as students attempted to create ideas that would satisfy the St. Louis Cardinals. They were to take everything they learned from earlier marketing classes and shift the focus to strategy and the application of concepts.
For the students, this was a brand-new endeavor, but for Drea, this was a project a long time in the making. He began working with the St. Louis Cardinals around 2016-17. Although Drea stressed the intensity and dedication it takes to continue a project like this with an entire class, especially with a high-profile client such as the St. Louis Cardinal, to him it is worth it. The real-life experiences that marketers deal with can be difficult to replicate in the classroom, but it is increasingly important to bring real-life situations into the classroom to best prepare students for life post-graduation. According to Drea, he strives to, “Always do real-world clients because projects tend to be big and messy in real life.” Additionally, the students have a unique opportunity they can talk about as they interview for future roles, which Drea thinks is invaluable.
As for the project itself, students were split into one of three different groups based on types of ticket sales, all with plans to market the St. Louis Cardinals games to Gen Z. The groups were individual ticket sales, mini-ticket packages tickets for four to five games, same seat, and group sales tickets (10-plus tickets to a single game sold to one buyer). The groups were about three to four people each and they worked in stages to complete the project. A unique aspect of this project that Drea implemented was to review all stages each time a new stage was due. For example, if stage two of the project was due, Drea would review both stage two and a corrected stage one. He claims that this was the most efficient way to create the best possible outcome at the end. At the end of the project, Drea chose the two best projects from each category of ticket options to then merge and create a final project on individual, mini-ticket, and group ticket sales.
The students’ ideas were nothing short of unique and seemingly on point with the Gen Z market. A few notable ideas were the implementation of a “ticket sales website specific to Gen Z that provides discounts for college students and access to special packages. Students would opt-in, allowing the St. Louis Cardinals to better interact with them.” Additionally, students came up with the idea to harness the power of influencers to promote the St. Louis Cardinals to their audience and create excitement leading up to and after the baseball games. Students presented these ideas to the Director of Promotions and Events for the St. Louis Cardinals Megan Eberhart through Zoom.
Reflecting on this project, Drea was impressed with the students’ writing abilities and dedication to the project. He emphasized the importance of pre-graduate experiences and always seizing opportunities, just like the students in Strategic Marketing 338 did last fall. Working with a diverse group of people for a high-profile client provided students with an opportunity to showcase what they have learned thus far and build an array of skills they can reflect on for years to come.
As for advice to the students once their time at ISU has come to an end, Drea expressed that even if where you end up isn’t exactly where you want to be, it is okay to take the leap and prove yourself. That advice applies to the students in MKT338 who did not expect to find themselves conducting sports marketing, yet there they were. It is safe to say real-life client-based projects are worth the effort, and students are all the better for it.
