Watch out, Patriots — New England has a new football team in town.
While you may not have heard of the Hartford Colonials, the United Football League is ramping up its advertising campaign to increase awareness of this up-and-coming professional football league.
In its second season, the UFL features five teams — the Colonials, Florida Tuskers, Las Vegas Locos, Omaha Nighthawks and Sacramento Mountain Lions. Several former NFL and college standouts play in the league, including Daunte Culpepper, Jeff Garcia and Ahman Green.
The new marketing strategy will focus on the theme “Get closer to the action.” The ads also will feature two comical fans who go to extreme lengths to watch the games. The league prides itself on allowing unprecedented access for fans, such as locker room broadcasts during pregame and halftime, as well as in-game interviews with players and coaches on the sidelines.
Fans also can get closer to the game through Twitter and Facebook, and they will help decide the venue for the 2010 Championship Game.
The UFL’s advertising outlets include TV, radio newspaper, magazine, in-stadium signage and social media.
This season, Versus, HDNet and NESN will broadcast UFL games nationally, and all games will be streamed live on the league’s website. All the ads can be watched at anytime here.
The UFL season kicks off Saturday, Sept. 18, with a game between the Colonials and Mountain Lions at 2:30 p.m. NESN will air the contest live from Rentschler Field in Hartford, Conn., and NESN.com will live blog all the action.
