Turn Down The Hustle: Empowering Online T-Shirt Sellers

35 | The Big Game Do's & Don'ts - Football Tee Party Planner

• Episode 35

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This episode focuses on the potential for small businesses to capitalize on the excitement of the big game by hosting engaging online events designed to attract and retain customers. We discuss essential themes such as effective marketing strategies, legal considerations, and creating a buzz through social media, emphasizing the importance of planning to ensure success.

• Exploring the impact of social media engagement during the big game 
• Outlining the benefits of hosting a themed online event 
• Discussing the importance of legal compliance in marketing efforts 
• Tips for structuring the event to maximize participation and sales 
• Strategies for promoting the event through various platforms 
• Encouraging post-event engagement and follow-up with customers 
• Highlighting the opportunity for inventory clearance and introducing new products 

Check out our resources and tools for your game day planning at sunkissva.com!

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Speaker 1:

Hey friends, welcome back to the podcast. Today we are gearing up for one of the biggest events of the year the big game on February 9th 2025. If you know, you know, the big game isn't just about football. It is a huge opportunity for small businesses like yours to bring excitement to your customers.

Speaker 2:

You're listening to Tear Down the Hustle, the podcast dedicated to transforming how you run your creative online t-shirt business by working smarter, not harder, so you can spend more time with your why, people and passions that matter most in your life. So throw on your favorite graphic tee and turn up the heat press because it's time to turn down the hustle. Here's your host digital marketer. Cold brew lover, t-shirt maker, freckled hype girl and owner of Sunkist Virtual Assistant Amy.

Speaker 1:

In this episode, I'm going to walk you through step-by-step how to host a special game day event that will wow your customers and keep them coming back for more. Plus, we're also going to dive a little bit into the legal side of things and why you can't use certain words surrounding the big game and your marketing. But don't worry, I've got tips to keep you compliant and creative. Let's dive in. Let's talk about why a game day event works for your business. First things first. I want to cover with you things that were discovered by PRNewsWirecom and regarding people that were on their phones, specifically, even the ones that attended the big game. They used an AI technology called Missing the Big Game and it helped them share real-time data of how many fans in the stadium were actually looking at their phones instead of the field. Imagine how much money people attended this game and still were looking at your phones. So here are the field. Imagine how much money people attended this game and still were looking at your phones. So here are the numbers Over 16,000 fans missed touchdowns throughout the game because they were looking at their phone. During halftime, 6,100 fans were watching their phones instead of the show and in the final stretch, 4,300 fans were looking at their phones instead of a winning field goal. How crazy is that? That was for the 2023 Super Bowl Insane, right. So if we know people are going to be looking at their phones, that doesn't even include the people that are at home. Why not give them something to look at? And that's what we're going to do through our event.

Speaker 1:

This big game. There's so much excitement surrounding it. People are excited and having a party is a great way to drive engagement and sales. Game day is about community, so some of them are getting together Fun and excitement, and it's perfect for a one-day flash sale or party. Versus just saying, hey, flash sale, come buy my stuff. We're actually going to give them an event that's housed online through your VIP group. It's a great way to sell themed items. We'll go over that, clear out the inventory and create some hype. This is where I'm bringing you the one-day party script. Shout out to Queen Bee Graphics and Designs for providing these football graphics. You can check out her website and buy tons more of engagement graphics and party graphics. And then I have created the structure. Put all of these graphics together in a plan with captions and placeholders for up to 40 tees or any other handmade items you want to sell. So for the breakdown for the first half of the game you're going to showcase 20 products. For the second half of the game, you're going to showcase another 20 products. I recommend you theme up these 20 so you have two different themes.

Speaker 1:

Maybe think about maybe people who are watching these games like, what kind of things do they like? They might really like sports, so that could be a good theme to run. It doesn't have to necessarily be football related, it could be any sports during the game. It could be funny, like spouse shirts. You know, probably a lot of the wives are maybe not interested in football, I don't know. So you can play that up too, because I'm sure they might be able to get their spouse to hand over a credit card without looking during the game. Just get them to be quiet. I can attest to that one time. Actually, yes, it's happened a couple of times, but I am a college football fan, I'm not an NFL football fan. That's just how I grew up and when I got married to my husband I did not realize like NFL is on Thursday and then it's back on Sunday and then it's back on Monday, like it never ends. It felt like in one weekend my husband gave me like $200 and was like just go to Target, go wherever, and he actually paid me off to just leave the house so he could watch football in peace.

Speaker 1:

So, moving on to the legal side of throwing a party for the big game, so avoiding trademark violations, I do want to caveat. I am not an attorney, we're a trademark authority official, we're specialists. I recommend you go check out the website yourself to figure out which is actually trademarked or not, to verify the information I'm providing you. But I'm just giving you kind of a wave top idea. So you cannot use the word Super Bowl in your marketing or advertising. You can't use even Super Sunday that is also trademarked or any other NFL related trademarks like team names or logos, in your marketing materials, product descriptions or graphics. If you're going to do this, you are doing that at your own risk and I think you might find that it's not really worth it.

Speaker 1:

Why these terms are trademarked by the NFL and using them without their permission could run into a legal situation with cease and desist letters or worse, referencing motherhoodcom. The word Super bowl was actually trademarked back in 1969, so this year, whenever you're watching the commercials, notice that they'll have a football theme to all of their commercials. But even the commercials that are airing during the super bowl aren't even super bowl related or they don't mention the super bowl unless they have express permission. The nfl takes these trademarks very seriously and they do enforce them. I also recommend that you do not use football players' names either, just to be safe. And if you try to throw out there I'm not an official sponsor of the Super Bowl or trying to give a caveat that's not going to fly. That does not give you permission to use the terms.

Speaker 1:

So what can you say? You can say things like the big game or big game. Stick to just generic football terms, but based on your party. Given the day that the event is occurring, people can kind of put two and two together. I recommend you stick to generic football shapes and themes. Even just using the city alone with the football, without referencing the actual team name, is a good way to go. So just please be cautious with the wording you use.

Speaker 1:

If you're going to have some kind of event online, let's move on to how to host your big party event online, the first thing you're going to need to do, like we talked about earlier, is you need to plan out your inventory. I want you to choose 40 items to split into two groups. So ideally you're running 20 items in the first half, 20 items in the second. So again, some good ideas could be some best sellers that you might have, any ready to ship items or any other theme products that tie into game day, like a sports theme or, if you wanted to do something funny of, like spouse is spending money. So we're going to need to create hype around this event.

Speaker 1:

You can use some of Queen B's graphics to create some of this excitement. There's a graphic in her collection that has, like come join my party and let them know what they can expect. You can also post a few teasers along the way as well. Don't forget to update your Facebook group cover photo, too, with all of these details, and you can also create an event so people can mark attending. It might help them get notifications for the event, but then make sure you direct them that the event is going to take place inside of your VIP group. But creating an event for your Facebook business page would be great, because that's public and you can draw attention back into your group.

Speaker 1:

So this game day structure is really broken off into four pieces. The first part is going to be like the tailgating portion of this, and so you're going to have like four to five posts where you're just going to get them excited throughout the day and tell them what's coming later on. But the bulk of the party is actually happening during the big game. What I want you to do too, if you can try to go 15 minutes live before the event to build excitement and then talk about some of the rules and give them some sneak peeks, especially if you have any ready to ship items, that would be a great time to get some of their attention. But don't let them buy on the live. Tell them that they need to join the party and be quick and ready to go all right. So at kickoff that's when you're going to start posting your party content you're going to play some games and also start to sprinkle out your 20 items. In my Tea Party Planner I've already broken this out with you based on times, so you can keep that pace lively to maintain that energy. So at halftime this is a great way to maybe pause the post for now, just because people, ideally, are tuned into the halftime show and then make sure you throw in a post saying hey, what'd you guys think of the show? That is a great conversation starter and a think of the show. That is a great conversation starter and a lot of people love giving their feedback on what they thought of the halftime show. Then, going into the second half, you're going to bring the energy back up with 20 more items and encourage them to grab their favorites before they sell out. Also, remind them that the party is closing at midnight. If you don't prefer to close it at midnight, then you can just close it 24 hours later and make sure that they get paid Once third round is posted or your third round of engagement is posted with the second half. Make sure after the event, you take a time to send emails to your participants to say thank you if they're opted into your marketing, make sure they're tracking when they can expect their order, and then also you can post a recap in your groups, highlight the top selling items of the party and things like that.

Speaker 1:

You can really do some fun things with it. The first one is social media, because that's where the party's happening. You can post lead ups on your business page stories, instagram, all that good stuff to build that hype around the party. And good news is, people are already looking forward to this event, so you're really just adding fuel to the fire. You can also use countdown timers on your stories to count down to the big game things like that. Also utilize polls on stories. Those are a fun way to engage as well.

Speaker 1:

Don't forget my favorite email marketing. Make sure you announce the event to your email subscribers. If you are in my product job organizer club, a reminder for your football event is already baked into the templates I've given you, so you can also include a special sneak peek to those that are on your email list to come back. If you have exclusive items that you haven't offered before, even better. We talked about that Facebook group event to encourage people to RSVP, and then also, if you have any teaser graphics, you can kind of blur those out as well and get the excitement going for what might be to come.

Speaker 1:

So I hope, through this episode, that I have encouraged you to get out there and plan something fun for the big game, but I also really wanted to bring awareness to you about certain items or words you should stay away from. Try to make a good thing could turn into a bad thing if you're not careful with the words that you're using. But I hope this episode has hyped you up to host your own game day event. The words that you're using? But I hope this episode has hyped you up to host your own game day event.

Speaker 1:

Whether you're clearing out your inventory and introducing new designs, or just it's a chance to get new customers too, this is a great chance for you to switch it up in your business. If you're not really sure where to go from here, don't worry, I have set aside a content plan for you. Go to sunkissvacom. That's going to bring you to the podcast show notes, or you can just take a look in the description wherever you're listening to this episode, and click there and I'll get you all these tools, a summary of this episode, and it'll redirect you to that football tea party planner. So let me know, guys, are you ready for game day? Let me know when you're hosting your event on social. I can't wait to cheer you on. Till next time, happy selling.

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Amy

Host