Much like in football, the ultimate team sport, coordinating and executing a major event can only be done successfully when everyone is working in unison toward the same goal. Every position has a responsibility. If one person doesn’t do their job (a missed blocked, a blown assignment, a fumble in the red zone, or kicking it to career return touchdown leader, Devin Hester) can have serious implications on the outcome of a game.
The same goes for the Arizona Super Bowl XLIX Host Committee. The people in charge of generating awareness and engagement for #SuperBowl49 and the 2015 Pro Bowl, are working as one cohesive unit to make this “one of the best experiences in the history of the sport,” according to host committee President and Chief Executive Officer, Jay Parry.
Alongside Parry on the committee are Chief Financial Officer, Tina DeNicole, and Vice President, Joe Hickey. Not to be overlooked, as linemen often are, Senior Directors, Nan Ater, Christine Gonzales, Lyn Music, Devney Preuss, and Mandi Wimmer are handling hotel arrangements, volunteers, partnerships with local businesses, events, and logistics.
The main goal of the host committee, says Parry, is to “utilize powerful communication channels” and their “Social Media Communication Center to promote the state of Arizona to a global audience” and answer any #SBquestions. They will be sharing content related to the NFL, interesting facts about Arizona, and beautiful scenic photos through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, YouTube, and their website, azsuperbowl.com, “to really educate NFL fans and media members about all that Arizona has to offer.”
Staying consistent with the #AZpride campaign for Super Bowl XLIX, this is the first committee to utilize separate Spanish accounts to target and engage a passionate bilingual audience.
Daily activity throughout the 2014 football season, on all platforms, will build excitement leading up to the week of events prior to the big game known as #SBcentral.
Last years Super Bowl was very forgettable, and in 2105, faithful NFL fans merit an all-inclusive Super Bowl experience. What is Parry and the host committee doing to make sure the Super Bowl event is as entertaining as we deserve? What type of strategy are they using? How will they attempt to reach a broader audience? What challenges do they face? The team here at SportTechie was able to ask Jay Parry and really find out what plans the Super Bowl host committee had for Super Bowl XLIX.
What is your main goal when sharing content on your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram platforms? Surely, it’s to engage football fans, but what is the reason for engaging? To make more people aware that the 2015 Super Bowl will be in Arizona?
As the host committee for Super Bowl XLIX, as well as the 2015 NFL Pro Bowl, our primary goals are to promote the state of Arizona to a global audience, and to help make this one of the best overall experiences in the history of the sport. We want the weeks leading up to these two big games to be both enjoyable and memorable for the NFL, its fans, its partners, our partners, the media, and the residents of our great state.
So the goals for our social media strategy really align with the overarching goals of our committee. We want to use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, YouTube and, of course, our website (azsuperbowl.com), to share the news and the excitement of what’s to come with the people who live here. We want to use our platforms to make sports fans around the world aware that we are hosting these games, and that Arizona is an incredible place to vacation, an attractive place to live, and a thriving economic environment for businesses. And we want to utilize these powerful communication channels to put a spotlight on our sponsors, and interact with the thousands of reporters and media outlets that will be traveling to Arizona next January to cover all of the events that will be taking place.
Speaking of events, we are also using social media to recruit volunteers. We currently have more than 6,000 Arizona residents registered, and we will recruit a total of 10,000 to help us with all of our community service projects over the next several months, and to cover all of the different events surrounding the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl. One of our biggest events will be Super Bowl Central (#SBcentral), which will be a free, public event covering a 12-block “campus” in downtown Phoenix the week leading up to the big game, so that in itself will require an army of volunteers.
I should also mention that we will be responsible for operating a Social Media Communication Center, which will be used for customer service, helping visitors with any and all #SBquestions to make their experience a more enjoyable one.
So, as you can see, we are using social media in many different ways, which is exciting. You know, when we last held a Super Bowl in Arizona in 2008, social media was really in its infancy, so it is amazing to see how far we have come and how we can reach so many more people now through all of these different channels.
We have a Social Media QB, who is really calling the plays for us as we march down the field; and he is doing a fantastic job. Entering the season, we have more than 42,000 combined social media followers, which just broke the record for the largest social audience of any host committee ever. But our ultimate goal is to have more social media followers than we have fans in the seats of University of Phoenix Stadium at kick-off on Feb. 1, 2015. So, tell all of your readers to tweet out this interview and follow @AZSuperBowl!
In addition to the expected Super Bowl updates, your social media accounts have a lot of content that is not necessarily about the NFL or the Super Bowl but more focused on the local Arizona community. As the Host Committee, why do you expand the scope of your content to cover events and developments not solely about the Super Bowl?
Good observation! At this point in our timeline, less that five months away from the Pro Bowl, which will really kick off our big week leading up to Super Bowl XLIX, we are primarily talking to Arizona residents. That’s not to suggest that we do not have a healthy amount of followers from outside of AZ, because we do, but we know that a majority of them do live in our state.
I think we can also safely assume that the majority of our followers are sports fans. So, we do post a lot of content about activities in our community and about the local sports teams here, whether that is the Cardinals, Suns, Mercury, Diamondbacks, Coyotes or even the local universities. For us, that content is really about showing our #AZpride, and is also an opportunity for us to join the ongoing discussions about sports in Arizona.
You might notice that we also post a lot of content related to the NFL, in general. Again, that is just a way for us to jump into the conversation that is going on throughout the year about football, which allows us to increase that awareness that Arizona will be the focus of the entire sports world come late January of 2015.
Likewise, we regularly tweet out interesting facts about Arizona or repost beautiful scenic photos on Instagram. While our followers here in the state always enjoy those, we primarily include that content for the out-of-market followers, in order to really educate NFL fans and media members about all that Arizona has to offer.
We noticed that you also have separate Twitter and Facebook accounts in Spanish. Why is that?
Yes, we are very proud to be the first Super Bowl host committee to utilize foreign language social media accounts (Twitter.com/azsuperbowl_es, Facebook.com/azsuperbowles). But this was not about becoming the first, it was about reaching a large segment of our community. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau report, more than 30 percent of Arizona residents identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino. And we know that the sport of football is very popular among Hispanics as well. So, we really want to actively engage that passionate fan base, and communicate with them in their preferred language.
Your site has a prominently displayed timer counting down to the kickoff of the 2015 Super Bowl and all of your engagement strategies seem to be geared towards that day. What direction will your host committee go once the Super Bowl is over?
Most of the committee members will go their separate ways after the Super Bowl is over, and we have completed all of the final reports and recaps. But, hopefully, we can bring everyone back together for another Super Bowl bid in the not-too-distant future! Our efforts to “be the best” are ultimately to position Arizona and the Valley of the Sun to be in the regular rotation for the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, and other mega events.
Unfortunately, it is not a permanent position, but it has been an honor to work with all of our talented and dedicated community and committee members; and I know we will all cherish the memories we have made, and will make putting all of these incredible events on.
What are the challenges of marketing a game where you don’t know who is participating until two weeks before it occurs?
That really isn’t as big a challenge as it might seem. The Super Bowl is such a huge event that there is significant interest in it no matter who is playing. The most recent Super Bowl in New York/New Jersey is a great example of that. The game was one of the most lop-sided the NFL has ever seen, almost from the opening kick-off, yet it drew the largest television audience in Super Bowl history and was the most-watched TV program ever. So, everybody wants to be a part of the Super Bowl and the activities that lead up to game day.
How do you work together with the NFL on a joint strategy for the game and engaging people throughout the season?
As you can imagine, we are working very closely with the NFL and have been for quite some time. Although our host committee members are on the ground here in Arizona, working hard every day, it is a truly collaborative effort. The league has sent a contingency of employees out to meet with us on several occasions already — we had more than 200 out for production meetings earlier this summer — and we have regular conference calls to discuss every detail.
In terms of engagement throughout the 2014 football season, we will be active on all of our platforms on a daily basis, again, building excitement as we look ahead to our games. And we have been discussing a number of digital, social, and mobile initiatives with the NFL that we hope to introduce in the weeks before #SB49!
Are there any joint collaborations with other Phoenix teams/events?
Well, the Arizona Cardinals are co-hosts of the 2015 NFL Pro Bowl, and are important partners in our Super Bowl efforts as well. Cardinals’ President, Michael Bidwill, has been incredibly supportive and involved throughout the entire process. He was very proud to be there on stage in New York on Times Square with myself, our Chairman, David Rousseau, and Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, when we received the ceremonial passing of the Super Bowl helmet from New York/New Jersey in January. And, of course, he hopes his team will become the first in NFL history to play in a Super Bowl in its own stadium. Seeing the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIX would be exciting for all of us in Arizona and a fantastic first!