SDSU Marketing Push Story 1

Wonder what head football coach John Stiegelmeier though of the game on Saturday? Who is the funniest member of the woman’s soccer team? What does the SDSU mascot do in his spare time? You can get answers to these questions and many more by watching the half-hour Jackrabbit Insider every Sunday night on KSFY after the 10 p.m. news.

The show has interviews with coaches, feature pieces on student athletes, along with information on select places throughout the campus.

“It’s an opportunity for us to promote both South Dakota State University as a school and also the athletic department,” said the show’s host Tyler Merriam. “It’s a chance to expose the university and the athletic department to an audience that perhaps has not been aware of some of the things that are available to them.”

Part of the brains behind the show was new athletic director Justin Sell who brought the concept with him from his previous job at Northern Iowa.

“It’s an opportunity to gain exposure for our entire athletic program,” Sell said. “To have the opportunity to get a half-hour time slot on a major TV station out of Sioux Falls was too good to pass up and it is a great chance to market and promote our university.”

Beyond promoting the university and the athletic department, the Jackrabbit Insider will give casual fans an introduction to what SDSU has to offer, while diehards get the chance to be more informed.

“We know that the hardcore SDSU fans will watch the show and they will get more out of it,” said Merriam. “At the same time, we know that there are people who may not be aware of some things. That why you want to be on a station like KSFY, because you find people who are not die hards and hopefully we can make them fans. We want to reach out an expose our product to a lot of people.”

“For the diehard fan it gives them an extra reason to know why they support it so passionately,” said Sell. “It’s not all about wins and losses with our die-hard fans and I love that. For that person who hasn’t been exposed to SDSU athletics or to our campus or may be new to the state, the show gives them an opportunity to see what a great, quality athletic program we have. If you want to come see a high level of sports being played, South Dakota State University, to me, is the thing in the entire state of South Dakota.”

A major focus of the show is the profiles on the student-athletes and getting to know what they are like outside of the field of play. Merriam, who will return this fall for his second year of radio play-by-play for the woman’s basketball team as well adding color commentary for football, says that’s his favorite part of the show.

“To me, that is such a huge part of the show because I think that it’s easier for people to be more intense and dedicated fans when they know the personal stories behind athletes. It’s easier for people to identify with these athletes and see them as more than just a person shooting a basketball or swinging a bat or throwing a football. That enriches not only the student athlete experience, but I think fans get a better idea as well. Just being able to showcase our student athletes and personalize them is what we are striving for and what I enjoy about it.”

In the past, SDSU has had coaches shows for individual sports like football, men’s and woman’s basketball and volleyball. The Jackrabbit Insider, which is archived and can be watch on GoJacks.com, will allow some of the less covered sports to get in on the act.

“I think that is the real big part of this is that it enables us not to just focus on specific sport, but to get everybody some exposure,” Merriam said. “With the ability to do that, we think that it enriches our athletic department as a whole.”

With the show only being a month old, fans can expect the content to change and evolve over time.

“We are going to try and add a little humor to it,” said Sell. “We have been talking about doing some ESPN-like ads with the Jackrabbit. The beauty is that we control that content so we have an opportunity as the year goes on to explore new and interesting ideas every week.”

“I think it is going to be one of those things that has the potential to continue to grow. We are finding right now that they amount of time allotted is almost not enough, because we have so much content. How we refined that and utilize that to provide maximum exposure for all of our program is going to be the biggest challenge, but I think what you will find is a more refined product.”

In only a handful of episodes, viewers have had the chance to see a wide variety of stories such as a feature on the game day experience at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium, the woman’s basketball team help paint a house and the Jackrabbit campaign for votes for the Capital One Mascot Challenge.

“When people get to see our student-athletes and coaches and see what quality people they are, they fall in love with our program.” Sell said. “That’s the part I like the best.“


The print story that I wrote gave a little different view on the marketing aspect compared to the video story. The print story is about the TV show, another aspect that wasn't covered in the video. I think that this all has to do with the Division I transition, the larger budgets, more coverage, etc. Everything is bigger and better than it was five years ago, for the most part, when the transition started. Getting to see what goes on day-to-day, first hand is a great experience that I hope to continue in the future.