CyberRays marketing effort connects with fans `born to play'

March 31, 2003 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)
San Jose CyberRays News Release


SAN JOSE (March 31, 2003) – The San Jose CyberRays are more than professional athletes. They are players whom fans identify with because of why they do what they do.

``I was born to play'' is the catch line of the team's first integrated marketing campaign, which uses graphics and poetry to pinpoint the common ground between the CyberRays and their fans – we all were born to do something, and we all want to follow that dream.

``What makes our players so likeable is that fans know they play for the love of soccer, not to get rich from sports,'' said CyberRays general manager Marlene Bjornsrud. ``This campaign comes from the hearts and souls of these athletes, and it portrays the CyberRays' purpose of creating opportunities for future generations of girls in sports.''

The campaign's distinctive graphic and poetic devices will be used in a wide range of materials including posters, schedule cards, other marketing collateral and advertising to highlight a different player for each home game. For example, team captain Brandi Chastain is the featured player for the April 5 season opener against the Philadelphia Charge, and all marketing materials feature an action photo of her and a baby girl –representing the next generation of athletes – kicking a soccer ball.

The poem for each player highlights attributes unique to her, but ends with the theme that is common to all CyberRays players and fans. The poem for Chastain is:

I am a woman

I am a wife

I am a friend

I am a daughter

I am a professional athlete

and I am strong.

I was born to play.

I am a CyberRay.

``Born to play is not just a theme,'' said Courtney Smith, a co-founder and chief creative officer of PureMatter Marketing & Brand Strategy, the San Jose firm that designed the campaign. ``It's a call to action: Do what you love, follow your dream.''

The challenge in designing the campaign, Smith said, was to devise a message for the CyberRays audience – the only pro sports audience in the Bay Area that is predominantly female – yet speak to the traditional male sports audience at the same time.

``Marketing women's sports is an area that hasn't been widely explored,'' she said. ``You can't talk to women the same way as men, yet we have to reach both with one message about strength, sports and being born to play. We all connect at the point where we are born to play.''



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