The NCAA Women’s Final Four in Tampa this year will have all the usual buzz, hype, sold out crowds and pageantry that would be expected from an elite celebration of elite teams. There will be the FanFests, the memorabilia, the sponsor events and a host of community projects designed to give back to the area, including things like: Feeding America Tampa Bay, NCAA Women’s Final Four Legacy Restoration Program, Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful – Coastal Clean-Up, Women’s Final Four Community Champions Celebration, Coca-Cola® NCAA Youth Clinics and sustainability efforts that will impact the Tampa Bay community. All will make the event worthwhile for fans, the teams and the community that goes out of its way to build ROI around such events and keeps bringing others back to grow the local economy.
However many times it’s the little initiatives that resonate, especially in the social space. Those simple projects hatched out of a few cocktails or a creative session that can have a pretty long tail should they go well. One that hit social media Monday via Executive Director, Tampa Bay Sports Commission Rob Higgins will take place on March 16. It will be called “Dribble 2 Work Day” and will call on the good citizens of the region to bring a ball along to work and dribble in and around as an unofficial start of March Madness and the road to the Women’s Final Four. It’s a pretty simple idea replete with hashtag #WFFDribble and a call to action to use all social platforms to capture images and video of anyone and everyone showing their support by dribbling to work, even for a few seconds. Creativity is encouraged, media will partake to promote, and prizes and fun will be assured for the most productive of all ages.
Now the program isn’t sponsored…yet…but if it takes off it can certainly have a nice upside for a brand or two in and around the game of basketball. The videos can be done in short, snackable and shareable bites, and even a platform like SnapChat can be used to capture some quick dribble shots that can be shared via the “My Story” function as well. Given all the celebrity athletes around Tampa for spring training, as well as the celebrity power of the NCAA, the project has the potential to go viral as well and create a pretty unique tent pole idea which can be replicated easily time and again. No ball is too small, no participant too obscure.
Simple idea, easily executable and conveyed with some solid potential to grow. With all the glitz and glamor and dollars thrown at big time sports, it is sometimes the ones that are easily replicated that succeed the best. Score one for Tampa.
