Thu, Nov 26 2009
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MU offers slide show to promote QB for Heisman “We addressed envelopes with our mailing list and the girls stuck the leaf in there and mailed it out,” he said by phone from Pullman.
That was it. No explanation, just a leaf in an envelope with the university’s return address. “It got instant publicity,” Commons said. “People started talking about what this leaf was and where it came from.” And it cost a lot less than, say, putting a picture of a player on 10-story billboard in the heart of New York City. That’s what Oregon did in 2001 to promote its quarterback, Harrington. It helps to have Nike founder Phil Knight as an alum and athletic booster to your school. Despite, or maybe with the help of, the ‘Joey Heisman’ campaign, Harrington finished fourth in the balloting. Leaf finished third in 1997, so Washington State definitely got more bang for its Heisman buck. Memphis was the last school to grab some headlines with its Heisman promotion. In 2005, trying to drum up some buzz for the talented tailback Williams, sports information director Jennifer Rodrigues was inspired by NASCAR. She decided Williams would race for the Heisman with the help of a die-cast model car, painted in Memphis blue with Williams’ name and number 20 on it. The school sent out about 2,500 model cars to voters and media members. Rodrigues said the cars cost about $8 to produce. Add the shipping cost, and the project would have been too much for Memphis’ to afford. But to fund the promotion, an additional 1,500 or so cars were sold to the public for about $30 each, she said. The cars raced off the school’s Web site and by the time to project was complete, Rodrigues said, they made enough to pay for Williams’ Heisman campaign and put about $20,000 in the school’s general scholarship fund. Williams finished seventh in the voting (not terrible for a guy playing for Memphis) and the school received some good publicity, so everybody came away happy. Moller said he had $50,000 in his promotional budget this season. The slide viewer project’s initial cost was $25,000, he said. He plans to send out more slides (they cost about $1) of Daniel and other players such as Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman, who will be promoted for various awards and honors. Moller said the response he’s received on the slide viewer has been all positive, especially among those with young children. “I wish they could vote,” he said. 
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