Would You Like to Bowl With Peja?

Is your organization looking to drive awareness for an upcoming charitable event? Has your organization considered using the webpages of its star athletes as messaging portals?

The New Orleans Hornets recently used some unique in-game messaging to drive awareness for "Peja's Charitabowl", an upcoming fund raiser that Peja Stojakovic is hosting at the All Star Lanes in Kenner, LA. The team featured a video board vignette featuring a picture of Stojakovic bowling and a link to his personal webpage, www.peja16.com, for fans to learn more (as demonstrated in the picture below).

It is still uncommon to see teams openly refer to the websites of players as communication portals. But in this case, it was a seamless way to help promote the event. As more sponsors utilize athlete websites as mediums for engaging with consumers, this practice should become more common.

The charity bowling event will benefit Peja's "Courts for Kids", a project of the Peja Stojakovic Children's Foundation with a mission to promote health and fitness eduation through the game of basketball. Lane sponsorships for the event start at $1,500 for one lane and $2,5000 for two lanes. Each lane includes bowling for four, one celebrity bowler, four bowling shirts, dinner, and a special gift bag.

Hornets' players, Honeybee dancers, Hugo the mascot, and other local celebrities will also be in attendance for the event. The inaugural "Charitabowl" event raised over $45,000 and Peja Stojakovic matched that amount... a great cause!