Coyotes Go Guerilla Marketing: I Love It!

COYOTES LAUNCH ‘AMBASSADORS CLUB’

FOR SEASON TICKET HOLDERS

GLENDALE, Ariz. --- Want to increase ticket sales to Phoenix Coyotes hockey games? Gather your season-ticket holders around, promise them discounts, credits on future purchases, freebies, drop a puck at Center Ice in a pre-game ceremony, or enjoy a free night in a luxury suite. And all you have to do is what you've been all year: working to get butts in the seats!

Guerilla marketing at its finest best describes the Ambassador Club, launched this week by the club. Coyotes President & Chief Operating Officer Douglas Moss said the incentive-based program allows Coyotes Season Ticket Holders to offer discounted tickets to their friends and colleagues by way of a unique Coyotes Web link.

“Our Season Ticket Holders are our most passionate fans and this is a way for us to have them play an even greater role in the success of our organization,” said Moss in a team press release Tuesday.

Each Season Ticket Holder that becomes a member of the Coyotes Ambassadors Club will be given personalized business cards with a unique Coyotes Web link printed on them. The link will allow friends, family members, colleagues and acquaintances of the member to purchase tickets at a discounted rate, the release said.

Members of the Ambassadors Club will then be rewarded for each ticket “sale” they make. Rewards range from credit to be used toward Playoff tickets for the 2009-10 season or toward a ticket package for the 2010-11 season, upgraded complimentary tickets to future games, a meet-and-greet with Coyotes players, or a night in a luxury suite. The Ambassador who sells the most tickets for the season will have the honor of dropping the ceremonial first puck prior to a Coyotes game.

The Ambassadors Club will also have monthly meetings with Coyotes executives to discuss issues related to the Club.

Coyotes blogs and message boards have been filled with ideas on ways to increase ticket sales as the team fights to stay in the Valley. And it looks like the team is listening. The Ambassador Club and the recently launched Coyotes Express, offering ticket and transportation to Coyotes games from select East Valley locations, were borne out of ideas first suggested by fans.

And this STH is already planning on cracking the Top 10 sellers list and shooting for top overall honors. I hope others will get behind this effort as well in the name of friendly competition. Perhaps, we can even get some side action going -- all legal, and above board, of course -- and kick those ideas around with executives when the Club meets.

We all hope this season has a happy ending after the pile crap we've been wading through all these years, and that the Yotes will be here for years to come. And what a great way for all of us to say we had the chance to get truly vested in that effort.

So, STH, time to throw down and get dirty. Come up with some creative ideas to sell some tickets. Have friends who own a business? Have them give you some coupons to hand out to your ticket buyers. I know that's what I'll be asking for from my friends who own a strip club. :-D

Restaurants, bars, retailers, cab companies, hotels, the list is endless. The economy sucks, everyone is hurting, and any business not smart enough to make even the smallest effort to try and get new customers through the door would be foolish.

Have kids in Hockey Leagues, the Scouts, Little League, Soccer? Partner with their leagues, sit their little butts down in front of Safeway, Fry's and Albertson's and offer the discount ticket cards for a $5 donation to raise money for the kids' cause, and you get credit for the ticket sales. Not everyone will buy tickets, but some will and your kids' organization gets a cash boost.

I could go on, but I'd like to hear other ideas. Go hit Twitter, Facebook, your favorite Coyotes or Hockey message boards, and spread the word. Make this a true grassroots effort. And when the season is over, and we've assured a future in Phoenix and, hopefully, enjoyed a playoff appearance, we'll storm the Coyotes offices and demand they throw us a big frickin party! And we invite everyone!

Makeitseven? Troll elsewhere for that 7th team. You're not getting the Coyotes, and we're vesting ourselves in that effort to make sure Doan, Hanzal, Z, Yandle, OEL, Turris, Boedker and Summers stay clad in Coyotes brick-red for years to come, playing home games in Glendale.