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I apologize for the light posting recently. I’ve been traveling for work and am going down to Atlanta tomorrow for the Georgia Tech-UNC football game. While on the plane today, I was inspired by reading Fun is Good and I started brainstorming some crazy, off-the wall promotion ideas that sports teams could try. Here’s the best of the worst:

Barry Bonds Honesty Day - Inspired by Barry’s repeated denials of knowingly using PEDs, fans can talk/write about a time they  got caught for something and kept denying it, even when all evidence pointed the opposite way. The best denial wins free seat upgrades and a lie-detector test in between innings to see if he/she was really telling the truth or not.

Scott Boras Exaggeration Day – The man obviously way over-valued A-Rod and exaggerated his worth. On this special night, select fans give interviews about their wife/husband and the best exaggerator wins…

Rain Dance Night – We had a big drought in the Southeast this summer. While this was a serious issue and water restrictions had to be put in place, why not add a little humor to the situation and stage rain dance contests in between innings. The winner gets a year’s supply of bottled water from whoever the water/beverage sponsor is.

That’s all for now. Trust me when I say the rest of my ideas should never see the light of day. Peanut Butter and Jelly Night anyone??

The mobile payments industry is going to get huge in the next few years. In 2006 Jupiter Research predicted that there would be $10 billion in mobile payments transactions by 2010. Already well established in Asia and parts of Europe, mobile commerce is only beginning to make its way to the US. While cellphone makers such as Samsung and Nokia make phones that utilize NFC (system for wireless data exchange) that lets consumers make purchases with their phones, the technology hasn’t been adopted quickly due to the fact that:

• Retailers don’t want to accept it until the mainstream crowd does, and majority of people won’t use it until it’s accepted by mainstream retailers
• Trust issues–Consumers need to be convinced that it’s safe

Despite some of these challenges, I think mobile payments will have huge applications in sports settings. Instead of waiting in long concession lines at games, you could text your order and pay for it with your phone, then receive a text when it is ready to be picked up. Instead of waiting in box office lines to buy tickets, you could buy tickets directly from your phone, have the ticket sent to your phone and then have it scanned immediately (similar to what some MLB teams are doing with paperless ticketing). This technology could also allow teams could run promotions where “cash” is transfered directly to fans’ cellphones. There are many more opportunities here, as the surface has really yet to be scratched.

There are a few companies in this space so far. GoMobo and Obopay are the two main contenders in the USA. Obopay is interesting in that anyone can use it; it works on any carrier or phone in the US. You can send money via text messaging, pay through a WAP site or download the Obopay application to your phone. This is a legit service — their partners include Citi, Verizon Wireless, Helio and AIM.

Currently Obopay’s mobile payment product is positioned as more of a “peer to peer” payment system like Paypal was when it was first launched. A good fit for Obopay that I can see myself using is for splitting up the dinner bill between a few people without the hassle of getting separate checks, tip, etc. It would also be convenient for college roommates to use for splitting rent and utilities.

On another note:
Don’t forget that the next edition of the Sports Business Blog Carnival will be live on October 8. You can submit a post at our blog carnival homepage.

Stumbled upon this story from MediaPost about a TNS Retail study called “Men in Grocery Stores.” The Reuters story is here. According to the story, and I agree, there are very few happy male grocery shoppers. Things are hard to find, layouts are different in every store, and sometimes you can’t get good cellphone reception if you need to call your wife/mom/girlfriend to see EXACTLY what she wants.

For many guys, going to the grocery store is like getting a haircut–complete waste of time, but something you have to do. You’d have to pay me to look like the guy below when I’m in a grocery store (unless I’m getting something to grill out, and I can get out fast)

I agree with this part of the article in particular: “there are just too many choices. More is not really more–it’s just overwhelming. Supermarkets that can do a better job of editing will be more engaging to men.”

I’m all about having choices but sometimes when you want pasta you don’t want to examine 10 different brands to find the best one. Pasta is pasta.

If grocery stores wanted to really appeal to guys with some choices they care about (and make it easy for them to find), they should have a guys-only section and stock it with peanuts, snacks, meat, microwaveable entres and beer–and lots of samples, of course. Samples and TV would get me to stay longer, and probably buy more, too.

It could also be cool if brands could tie themselves into the grocery store experience. What if Geico had a section called “Caveman Essentials” in every Harris Teeter. The section would have groceries their “sophisticated” brand mascots purchase, such as roast duck and mango salsa. The Caveman picks could change weekly. This would help both Geico and the food brands as it would get them additional exposure and conversation. Something like this could reenergize the grocery store experience and make it more interesting for guys, in addition to making us stay longer and buy more.