Waddell and Zips marketing win big
Posted June 28th, 2006 by mrasor
Miscellaneous
Akron won two national awards for its athletics advertising the past year.
You know, the marketing that basically made people care.
I’m talkin’ Fear the Roo, baby!
Congrats to former UA marketing genius Mike Waddell and his staff. This stuff is almost as important as what goes on between the lines.
Here is the moment I realized Fear the Roo hit it big: At a poker tournament, my friend — an Ohio State student — yelled "Fear the Roo, m—– f—–!" after staying alive on an all-in.
Men’s basketball
Tonight is always one of my favorite nights of the year — the NBA Draft.
Although no team will select a Zips player, it always interests me to see how superstar college players do not translate to the NBA because they lack size, speed, etc.
This may sound idiotic, but looking at the Zips roster, an NBA executive might say Quade Milum is Akron’s best chance for a future NBA player. His athleticism and length give him potential, as we witnessed during the NIT game against Temple.
That said, I haven’t seen Jimmy Conyers play against college players. (Although, he did help beat the tar out of my rec league team last winter.) Romeo Travis and Dru Joyce can play professionally, overseas perhaps, but don’t appear to have a chance of being drafted.
In case you care, I hope the Cavaliers draft Spanish point guard Sergio Rodriguez. If one of the top-tier point guards fall, then I’d rather have him. My fellow Ohio.com blogger Brian Windhorst thinks it could be Texas point guard Daniel Gibson.
June 29th, 2006 at 10:28 am
Fear the roo is great, however would it not have been nice if the Akron Athletic Department came up with something original. The last two years have been copycats. Two years ago it was the Akron Zoo, a copy of the University of Pittsburgh’s Oakland Zoo. This year it was “Fear the Roo.” Which is an obvious knockoff of the University of Maryland’s “Fear the Turtle” campaign. You can not go five feet without Fear the Turtle gear in College Park. While Detroit Roo City was brilliant, I think this award has more to do with the success of the athletic program as a whole then the ability of people to copycat. Would you award the Cleveland Browns if they launched a wildly succesful campaign of having orange towels people could waive, no because it would be a pathetic copy of the terrible towel. Originality should be awarded not the mere adaptation and copying of someone elses idea.
June 30th, 2006 at 8:22 am
Quit hating baby. What was the AKRON ZOO? Never heard of that one. Invest in spellcheck as well baby, it only makes you look bad when your hate is out of spellwhack.