NSU unveils #SharkCounty brand

By Isabella Fernandez de Cueto and Bella Giaquinto •

This season, NSU Athletics is introducing #SharkCounty, a new brand campaign aimed at uniting the university with the local community.

“We are the only NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] sports program in Broward County, so we wanted to take this opportunity and engage our local audience,” said John Sung, interim director of athletics.

To mark the beginning of #SharkCounty, all adult tickets for NSU athletic events will cost $9.54, and season tickets and sports passes will also end in 954, as an ode to the Broward County area code.

“Similar to how universities in Miami-Dade County, like FIU, use the 305-area code, 954 is a main area code in Broward County and it’s our university area code as well, so this way people in Broward can associate NSU as Broward’s team,” Sung said.

This ticketing concept sparked the creation of the brand campaign

“A few of us in the athletic department were thinking about how to approach this new year and how to increase attendance, and we had the idea of using 954 on our tickets,” said Kacie John, coordinator for Revenue Generation and Business Development in Athletics. “As more people got to talking about this idea, it blew up and became more than just a ticketing campaign, but instead a full brand campaign to work alongside our current branding #HungryForMore.”

The #HungryForMore branding has been in effect for two years. NSU Athletics has grown since then, winning five national championships and competing at the highest levels, thus prompting a shift in the overall program’s branding.

“Looking over the past two years since #HungryForMore was established, our teams have been doing better than ever. Now, even though we still want more, we’ve set that standard within all our sports and it’s a perfect time to start something new to build off the success over the past few years,” Sung said.

The goal of this brand campaign is to increase ticket sales and game attendance.

“We had a big drop in ticket sales last year, so our goal with this campaign is to increase our ticket sales, viewership and social media exposure. If we can get a lot of fans at our games, it will make the environment fun and special for both students and members of the community,” Sung said.

#SharkCounty will be promoted in various ways throughout the year.

“We’re going to be doing a lot of #SharkCounty T-shirt giveaways at different NSU sporting events, and they’ll become like a collector’s item because the shirts will be sport specific,” Sung said. “#SharkCounty will also be on all graphics and media day pictures, and we are also working on having #SharkCounty specialty events that will help bring in the local community.”