UW Has a Huge Branding Problem

Topic

Top flight recruits don’t want to play for a weak brand.

The AD has done nothing to rebuild the brand since it collapsed in the mid 2000s.

When Petersen hired himself, the brand was naturally elevated. But once he quit, recruiting plummeted and our brand fell through the floor.

Yes, winning is important and the rosters we’ll have for the next two years give us a shot to play ourselves into better recruiting and branding.

But the AD needs to do a lot more.

Start locally. Other than Softy no local sports person has UW anywhere near the top of the local pecking order.

It doesn’t cost anything to engage these people.

Replies

There is no commitment to be an elite program. That commitment has to come from the very top and it’s simply not there. Beating your head against the wall to think otherwise. Only solution is to start withholding athletic department donations.

I agree with you 1000% Chest but we’ve been beating this dead horse for years now and nothing has changed. Jen Cohen is not doing her job but she’s not getting fired. Our lesbian president is not firing our lesbian AD. It’s the worst kind of “us girls gotta stick together” bullshit that has us here. She just doesn’t get it. Our only hope is Jimmy Lake and the talent we already have taking the program to the next level in terms of winning on the field which will then allow UW to recruit at a legit top-10 level year in and year out.

Here’s an example of how bad and far behind UW is in terms of marketing and branding. This 20 minute long video on YouTube about Ole Miss football was produced FIVE fucking years ago in 2015! A shit tier SEC team is light years ahead of UW at this shit:

That video has 138,000 views on YouTube. UW football’s YouTube channel has been dead since 2016 and the few short football related videos they put out on the UW athletics YouTube channel are lucky if they get 1,000 views because nobody even knows they exist. They don’t even post most of them on UW football’s Twitter account. The athletic department above the coaching level, simply does not give a fuck about branding. They don’t want to spend money on it. The worst SEC, BIG10, and BIG12 teams give way more of a fuck than UW does.

Gee, I wonder if putting out a shit load of video content following the team through this pandemic struggle and showing off how hard they’re working and the fun they’re still having could have helped UW with recruiting during a recruiting cycle when kids can’t take official visits and really get to know the coaches and players in person. Maybe shit like that is important and helps other programs recruit elite recruits. Just thought.

I was really hopeful we’d see major changes in this regard with jimmy taking over. But so far, nothing. Why is it that this shit is clear as fucking day to us fans but so hard for our coach / AD to comprehend? So frustrating

I don’t disagree with the premise, but the video content on Twitter and IG is MUCH better this year. But, the likes and retweets are low relative to other programs. Engagement definitely needs to improve.

I grew up in PDX in the 80s and the Huskies were my favorite team (my older sister went there). It is not an exaggeration to say it factored in my college decision. I graduated from UW and work for UW. I remember Napolean Kaufman and the black socks. Emtman. Corey Dillon. Chorak. The Huskies were badass, stone cold killers back then and we need to get back there so kids don’t feel they need to leave. I may be an optimist, but I know Cohen feels the same way and I hope we see improvements.

That’s a great post Ballz.

CorazonDawg wrote:

I don’t disagree with the premise, but the video content on Twitter and IG is MUCH better this year. But, the likes and retweets are low relative to other programs. Engagement definitely needs to improve.

I grew up in PDX in the 80s and the Huskies were my favorite team (my older sister went there). It is not an exaggeration to say it factored in my college decision. I graduated from UW and work for UW. I remember Napolean Kaufman and the black socks. Emtman. Corey Dillon. Chorak. The Huskies were badass, stone cold killers back then and we need to get back there so kids don’t feel they need to leave. I may be an optimist, but I know Cohen feels the same way and I hope we see improvements.

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That’s true, the video content is better. They should promote their YouTube Channel more.