Chivers, K., Week 4

Welcome Back!

This week was extremely exciting and the excursions and experiential learning trips were both educational and exciting. First, the class took a trip to Key Bank Center in Buffalo, New York to meet with members from Pegula Sports and Entertainment. This experience was unforgettable because I have a passion for the sport of hockey, and we were able to tour and learn more about the marketing efforts and jobs for an NHL hockey team, the Buffalo Sabres! Another experiential learning was to WETM-TV.



Pegula Sports and Entertainment




































First, we toured the arena from the private suites and media boxes high in the stadium, to the interview room and players locker rooms. This was extremely interesting because the the locker room for a professional sports team is one of the most wanted things to see by fans. It was additionally intriguing to tour the building not from a sports point of view, but from a business point of view. The venue was different from others that I have personally seen, but it had its own assets that give Buffalo a name for itself. For instance, the marketing campaign "One Buffalo" is seen heavily throughout the entire arena. This trip made me realize that the sports industry is one that I would like to be in the future because of the feeling that I received from being in that arena and spending time in it.

Watkins Glen International

Our next adventure of the week was to Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York. Not only was this excursion in close proximity to school, but I didn't know that such a large sporting venue was so close to Elmira College. In a nutshell, I learned that Watkins Glen International is a large and one of the oldest car racing tracks, and races every kind of well-known cars, including one NASCAR race. Car racing is a marketers dream because everything from the cars to the edge of the track can be labeled with sponsorships. One humorous aspect that we learned was that even trash cans can be sponsored and slapped with a brand logo or label. Practically anything in the car racing industry can help a company get "hits", or name recognition. The many different demographics of car racing was also mentioned and was interesting to me the difficulty of marketing such events to the several demographics of viewers. Finally, the cap on the entertaining trip was driving the bus around the race track, which was an unforgettable experience. 

WETM-TV
 



The class visited WETM-TV on Wednesday, May 17th, located in Elmira, New York. The television station is an affiliate of the NBC Network, therefore show both local news as well as national programming. We learned about the controls and how each program and live show is put on air, and how each program can be adjusted through the control room (pictured right). We were even given the chance to sit-in on the live news at noon, which was extremely interesting to hear such fabulous speakers perform in their profession. It became clear to me that people are very invested in the news in this day in age, even though there is a rise in digital and obtaining news from that medium. Personally, I enjoy watching the local news and it was very interesting to see the process as a whole, and the how different television stations establish their competitive advantage.

Tune in next week to learn about next weeks experiential learning adventures!