In October I had the chance to visit the Minor League Promotion Seminar in Austin.  While there a couple teams talked about using the huge on-field American flags for their anthem presentation…which was just the nudge I needed.

Last May I bought a 30 by 60 foot flag that I intended to offer as a rental for teams who wanted to use the flag for their game presentation.  Over the next couple months I struggled with the realities of rental:  the cleaning, insurance, shipping, repairs.  In the end, renting the flag might not be the best solution.

Buying a flag allows teams to adequately sort out how to use, store and present these larger flags….and it keeps us out of the business of trying to sort out all the intricacies of rental.  So I went back and found a way to offer these for sale (not rental) on The Store on Gameops.com.

The executive summary here: We were going to rent, now we sell those huge American Flags.  The Store on Gameops.com has 3 sizes, along with details for display, flag code issues, video and news links.

Read more in this month’s Promotion Spotlight or see the available options at The Store on Gameops.com.

Let me know if I should just start blogging my executive summaries.

–Cudo

I am excited to announce the 2008 Best of Gameops.com Awards.  As I noted yesterday, it’s always an interesting process and a chance to really dig into who is doing what and who is doing it best.

What you might like best from this year’s Best of Awards is the added video.  Every winner (except one) has attached video.

Sincere thanks to the panelists who took the time to share their wisdom and insight.  It’s always a group effort and as our pool of insightful panelists grow the awards are getting more accurate, more inclusive and more fun.  Thank you.

See the Best of 2008 on Gameops.com

–Cudo

Please join us Tuesday Dec 2nd for the 8th Annual Best of Gameops.com Award announcement.  Our panel has spoken, decisions have been made and we are putting the final touches on the Best of 2008 page.

The Best of Awards are a lot of fun to put together and it’s always a treat to review all the nominations and hear all the opinions from our panelists.  As has been the norm there is always a nugget or two from the panelist on a promotion that we didn’t hear about initially or contest that someone is doing in a creative way.  November always goes too fast and I feel like I learn more in November than any other month.

Our December Update is partially up now, and it’s beefy.  We have another installment from Pat Walker, a connected premium and promotion spotlight on US Flags, and we take a look at one of hockey’s most popular intermission contests Human Hockey Puck.

On a personal note, thanks to everyone’s support as I had a difficult month personally.  Everything is fine now and life has added perspective, so that’s good.  Apologies for a slow blog month….I will be doing my best to get back to our regular twice a week shot.

–Cudo

I got a few videos from the Panthers (NHL) mascot this week (all have been added to the YouTube Index).  While looking over some of the related videos on YouTube I found this one:

This is a fantastic example of a team building on a grassroots fan element.  This is a fan who takes on a leadership role in the crowd and in his section.  He also has lead a group tailgaiting which has been growing over time.  The team has a nice sit-down video with the fan and really makes him seem important, innovative, and it encourages his type of fan engagement in the product.

I think a lot of teams would be hesitant to so openly promote an element they didn’t create or control,  but I think the Panthers do a great job showcasing him and highlighting the elements of being a fan they want others to emulate.  Just a great piece of video from the Panthers.

–Cudo

On Election Day I thought this was a funny look at the dirty politcal mascot underbelly of Pittsburgh, PA.

Actually, I don’t think these were actually used by the teams…but the concept is strong.

–Cudo

The new November content is up on Gameops.com.
I am excited to have the Promotional Pills back on the site.  This was a series I started a couple years ago, that proved to be a little more difficult to write about than I expected.  The initial idea was to pair a live game review with some tools to help teams improve their promotions.  While trying to do both, I think the tools ended up getting very messy.  When we re-formated the site it was clear that the Pills were more of a mess than they were helpful.

Last month I spoke at the MILB Promotional Seminar covering the Promotional Pills.  It gave me a great opportunity to dig back into that content and tidy it up.  So in the next few months I will be posting four Promotional Pills, including this first one called “Creating Movement”.  Take a look, and as always I welcome feedback on our content.

We also have the last push for the 2008 Best of Awards, including a new page on the site that centralizes the information.  Catch up on all the categories, past winners and nomination links on the Best of Awards page.

Check out the new Mini Plinko game and an old favorite Money Balls, also featured on the home page.

Hope you enjoy the new content, and please send us nominations for this year’s awards.  We close nominations and start to discuss the options with panelists in late November.

….oh, and GO VOTE.

–Cudo