It's for you
Sports teams enlist new technology and big name players to encourage fans to buy tickets

March 10, 2008
Boston Globe

Don Therrien, Boston College class of 1970, found an unusual message on his answering machine last November, two weeks before the BC football team headed to its first appearance in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.
It was from Matt Ryan, the Eagles' star quarterback.

"On behalf of the entire BC football team, I would like to ask you to join us as we travel down to Jacksonville on Saturday, December 1st, to compete for the ACC championship," Ryan said, as the school's fight song, "For Boston," blared in the background.

Ryan then gave out ticket information, and Therrien did just what Boston College hoped when it sent out the message to more than 100,000 BC alumni and fans: He booked a trip to Jacksonville with some buddies the next day.

The Ryan message campaign, made possi ble by Internet phone technology powered by Vontoo Inc., an Indianapolis company, is part of an approach local teams are using to pump up sales and reach fans more effectively. For about $10,000, Ryan's phone message helped the team sell more than 4,000 tickets in just two weeks, earning $200,000 and beating sales for some of the Eagles' previous bowl appearances, according to Jamie DiLoreto, Boston College's associate athletics director for external operations.

The calls are cheap - they cost about 10 cents each - and the technology can track how many people pick up the messages, which ones go to voice mail, and how many transfer immediately to a ticket agent. It's a far more cost-efficient tactic to reach fans than snail mail. And while e-mail has grown in popularity as a way to communicate with supporters, teams are increasingly finding their messages get lost in spam filters.

Even before the Boston Celtics added all-stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen and got off to their torrid start in the 2007-2008 season, the team got some off-the-court help last spring from players like center Kendrick Perkins, who left messages asking thousands of past season ticket holders to renew their purchases. On the day the team ran its phone message campaign, the Celtics nearly doubled the number of season ticket renewals purchased in the same day the previous year.

The Celtics are planning to use Vontoo again later this month, to send out playoff information and to get an early start on season tickets (which should be an easier sell, given the team's current success). The team is also looking to use the technology to make money in other ways, such as allowing fans to listen to game-day messages from coaches or players, for a fee.

"We don't have the issue selling tickets like we did last year, but we really think people actually enjoy getting a message from a player," said Paul Cacciatore, director of ticket services and operations for the Celtics. "There's a uniqueness we can capture, and Vontoo allows us to get out a message very quickly, you don't have to wait for thousands of pieces of mail to be printed."

Vontoo's system allows the Celtics or any other group to send voice transmissions cheaply over the Internet and broadcast the message to thousands of fans who have agreed to receive communication from the team. Vontoo says its service is not glorified telemarketing, and every call it sends out offers people the opportunity to opt out of future messages, according to Vontoo cofounder Bob Compton. For example, political candidates looking to blast out messages to every registered voter are not allowed to use Vontoo's system, however, they could send calls to pledged supporters. Vontoo's rivals include companies such as PhoneTree and OneCall Now, but they offer Internet message services that are not always permission-based.

For sports teams, the payoff is obvious. The 10-cent phone message can fill a seat that, if it remained empty, would cost hundreds of dollars, between lost admission, concessions, and merchandise, said Christopher Cakebread, a Boston University professor who teaches sports marketing and advertising. And getting a message from a player is particularly appealing to rabid sports fans who want as much access as possible to their favorite team, Cakebread said.

"The call from Matt Ryan was really exciting and made you feel included," said Therrien of Andover. "Where a lot of my friends may have been on the fence, the call says BC really wants us there to support the team."

Already, about half of the National Basketball Association teams have used Vontoo, and other organizations are trying out the technology for their marketing efforts. In August, trendy Houston locals received a call from American Idol finalist LaKisha Jones, who, in her sultry voice, testified to the praises of a weekly nightclub gathering, Plan B Sundays at Belvedere, as a way to drum up interest in the club. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation last year sent messages to thousands of its advocates as part of a campaign to increase funding for diabetes research. Vontoo was able to immediately transfer listeners to their congressional representatives' offices, and the campaign resulted in 65 senators and 262 representatives adding their names to the funding letter.

The Pawtucket Red Sox, meanwhile, are planning to use Vontoo this spring after a successful campaign last year. The minor league baseball team, which sometimes struggles to get weekday audiences for its early spring games, drew its biggest crowd for the last week in May after a message from outfielder Brandon Moss urging fans to buy tickets was phoned to everyone living in a 25-mile radius who had purchased tickets for a single game within the past two years, according to Cookie Rojas, general sales manager for the team.

"We're always looking to find unique ways to reach fans and offer them a nonthreatening invitation to the games to say, 'Hey, don't forget about us,' " Rojas said. "It's good family fun after all, but it sounds cooler to have a player say it."

Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.