WVU Coliseum Ethnography

Ethnography
The date of the ethnography was Saturday February 18 between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. The weather was unseasonably warm for February at around 60 degrees and sunny.
The setting is the WVU Coliseum for the basketball game against Texas Tech. According to WVU Sports, “After 47 years the WVU Coliseum still remains one of the nation's supreme showcases for college basketball. Whether it is during the day with the sun shining down on the massive structure, or at night when its golden lights make it an evening showcase, the Coliseum stands as one of the most striking facilities on the WVU campus and played a major role in the expansion of West Virginia's growing Evansdale Campus,” (WVU Coliseum, n.d.). The Coliseum is home to WVU basketball

Generally, the overall atmosphere of the Coliseum is upbeat and energetic but the atmosphere can change depending on how well the team is playing and the types of calls made by the referees. I chose the Coliseum as a location because there are mass amounts of people, generally a positive atmosphere and it is an excellent way to observe people acting naturally amongst their family and friends. However, this was an incredibly close game that went into double overtime so emotions were on high as fans anxiously awaited a Mountaineer victory. When I attend games at the Coliseum, I’m seated in the upper student section that is filled with both Gen Z and Gen Y students and an occasional Gen X fan. At this week’s game I was seated near a Gen X father (45 years old) and his son (10 years old), a group of 6 millennial friends (22+ drinking beer) and a toddler (About 18 months), a small group of Gen Z friends (19 years

This group was much quieter than either their Gen Y or Gen X counterparts because they were seemingly engrossed in their phones. Before observing Gen Z, I thought I would see a younger, tech-savvy, cooler version of myself (a millennial). While the group of Generation Z was most definitely tech-savvy they seemed tied to their devices and hardly interacted with the people they came to the game with. After observing the Gen Z group, I realized how their devices are like a lifeline and they spend arguably most of their time looking at screens. Marketing recommendations for Generation Z would be to appeal to their tech savvy lifestyle through non-traditional ads on mobile, social and responsive website and give them a reason to tune into your ad and look up from their screens. Marketers can successfully reach Gen Z on their devices and will likely be remembered more than a traditional ad they may see in passing. Also, Gen Z needs some motivation to view your ad so give them a reason to look off the screen by appealing to their digital lifestyle but don’t overdo it and sound cheesy. Ad copy such as “The most Instagram-worthy brunch in town” may cause them to watch a restaurants television ad or “Snapchat in your radio song requests” may get them to interact with traditional