I just returned from spending a few days in Phoenix. Actually, I was right outside of Phoenix in Goodyear, Arizona. It was about a 25 minute drive down I10 East into downtown.
Along the route, we saw plenty of billboards. The Rafi Law Group, 72 Sold, Courtesy Chevrolet. They all advertised their services, and all of their billboards included the same message: “Go Suns!”
The city is nuts for this team. I took my son to the team store at the arena. They are sold out of all jerseys, all hats, and any hoodie that isn’t on the discount rack until next season. It makes sense that every business wants to somehow tie themselves into this passion and a run that very well could end in a championship.
One billboard message stood out to me above all others. You won’t find any ads for Arizona Sports 98.7’s coverage of the team on old school, paper billboards. Instead, the Bonneville-owned station is utilizing digital billboards that not only stand out more, but also allow it to customize what drivers see based on the time of day.
“Our goal is to make sure that everyone – longtime fans and those jumping on the bandwagon – knows exactly where to go to find the best, most insightful coverage of this incredible Suns run,” Ryan Hatch, Bonneville Phoenix’s Vice President of Programming, told me.
Depending on when you are driving past the billboard, you will see one of three messages. If you are on the road from 6 am until 7 pm, the sign will read “Talking Suns Now”. The message is clear. This is the biggest story in town, and if you put your radio on 98.7 FM right now, this is what you will hear.
Hatch loves the message so much that he told me that he wishes he didn’t have to go to commercial, for fear of someone tuning in being able to point out that they aren’t hearing Suns talk.
“We have a clear competitive advantage being the only fulltime local sports radio station in the market and we want to make sure we are capitalizing on this moment on all of the Arizona Sports channels – radio, website and app – where we are seeing record breaking audiences,” he says.
Can’t be inside Phoenix Suns Arena or in front of a TV when the game tips off? If you see one of these billboards while the Suns are in action, drivers are told immediately where they can hear the legendary Al McCoy’s call.
Finally, there is a billboard for people on the road on the weekends and late at night. Hatch cannot promise listeners that there will be Suns talk on air when 98.7 is carrying national programming. That is why the third billboard is a positioning statement.
Everything about the campaign is brilliant. There’s no Suns logo. The billboards, which are also running on social media and digital sites, use the color scheme of the teams’ “The Valley” jerseys. Any fan immediately knows what is being referenced.
To see the billboards in person, particularly next to a billboard featuring some lawyer’s gigantic face underneath the words “Go Suns” or the basketball sunburst logo, it really hammers home the idea that Arizona Sports 98.7 is a part of this. They aren’t just another business looking to capitalize on the sense of community this team is creating with its success.
Since making Phoenix home, Hatch has seen the Diamondbacks make countless playoff appearances and the Cardinals make it to a Super Bowl. The market is largely made up of transplants though. He says that when it comes to the Suns, that is when success will unite the city and make lifelong Arizonans pound their chests.
“The Suns were the original professional sports franchise in Phoenix and have the deepest roots, so when they are winning at a high level there’s no doubt the Valley bleeds orange and purple.”
That is what makes this campaign so great. It zeroes in on everything the market wants right now. It isn’t just effective because the Suns are in the NBA Finals. 1010XL in Jacksonville could do the same thing with Trevor Lawrence. 97.1 the Ticket in Detroit could do this with the first pick of the NBA Draft. Any time the market has a reason to be optimistic about a local team and rallies together to make that team one of the biggest stories in town, stations need to think about how to get out the message that this is where you come to talk about that!
What Arizona Sports 98.7 deserves a lot of credit for is taking that message and finding a way to make it idiot proof. Where are the Suns on? Who is talking about tomorrow night’s game? Thanks to this ad campaign, wherever you may be in Phoenix, the answer is going to be right there in front of you.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
