JAMarketerSports

Unlimited Upside Potential

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:43:00 +0000

On January 26, Full Sail University was fortunate to host the Founder's Dinner for the National Sports Forum, the largest sports marketing conference in the country. Several of my colleagues and team members were then able to attend the conference itself over the following three days. The Forum itself is an interesting convergence of sports businesses -- teams, marketers, agencies, college, technology companies and more -- all vying to create business for the business of sports. One of my students, attending such a conference for the first time, met up with me at lunch. "Josh," he said, with his eyes opened wide, like one of Willy Wonka's children visiting the chocolate factory for the first time. "I never knew there were so many different kinds of businesses connected to sports."

I was thrilled to see that he got it.

The business of sports has never been more interesting. The world used to be simply about the games -- how many people could you get into the stadium, and at what price per ticket? Teams would play for three hours, add up the score, and tally the gate receipts. The math ended there. Front offices were filled with ex-players who had never been to college or studied much finance or business. Businesses operated on salesmanship, charisma and intuition.

Now, the geeks run the show. Big data rules the day. Athletic performance is measurable by biofeedback rather than mythology. Consumer behavior is trackable through RFID chips and GPS technology. Businesses can operate towards maximum efficiency because they know when to push certain initiatives towards whom, as well as when to do it, and to what specific point inside the ballpark or stadium.

Franchises and agencies have the ability, and maybe the necessity, to be their own media companies. To be relevant, they need to engage their fans 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They need to create relevant content by converting old agate type box scores into modern visual infographics. They connect by creating e-cards for posting on over 130 different media streams. They make films, run events and productions, and create a variety of different kinds of engageable media that allows them to produce their own message, rather than run it through the filter of conventional electronic media. The good ones see the interconnectivity between music, video, content, storytelling and the ultimate product on the field of play. They understand how it drives business.

Because of these developments, sponsors have more opportunities to connect with properties than ever before, if the properties can figure out how to manage and sell them, and if potential sponsors, particularly those business that have never been in sponsorship before, can see the light shining on potential new clients.

Even at the Forum, supposedly a gathering of the elite of the business, it is clear that there are those who bask in the glow of these new opportunities, and those who are blinded by the brightness of the light. It is obvious who truly understands the concept, and who is just selling something. It is a time for the true standard bearers to rise and lead the industry into this brand new world.

I plan to be one of them.

Resources
Bradley, M. (2012, April 03). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/professional-sports-teams-becoming-their-own-media-entities/
Fischer-Baum, R. (2013, January 02). The best sports infographics of 2012. Retrieved from deadspin.com
Laird, S. (2011, December 02). How microchipped jerseys are changing hockey fans' experience. Retrieved from Mashable.com
Seaver, R. (2013, January 31). Retrieved from sports-forum.com
Tom, C. & Fienlieb, D. (2012, October 5). Big sports: Powered by big data. Forbes, DOI: Forbes.com

Live Strong or Die

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 02:53:00 +0000

The conventional wisdom is that Lance Armstrong has wrecked his once-sterling brand and reputation in the kind of crash that he used to avoid in his sport. But how sterling was that reputation, really, before his Oprah confessional? In the seven-plus years since he retired from the Tour de France and most of his competitive racing, Armstrong suffered through accusations, personal attacks and formal investigations, enough that any casual sports fan certainly would cast a jaundiced eye at any of Armstrong's significant accomplishments. In other words, the brand had already taken a hit.

The argument is about what happens next to Armstrong's legacy, and it's a more difficult question than would seem on the surface, because despite the cheating, so much of Armstrong's story remains inspirational on its own, and because so much good has come from his now-tainted accomplishments.

The sport portion of the argument is somewhat easily dismissed. Sure, Armstrong cheated, but he did so in a sport rife with cheating. Cycling was -- and probably still is -- so filthy, that once the Tour de France stripped Armstrong of his titles, they couldn't award them to the 2nd or 3rd place finishers in ANY OF THE YEARS in which Armstrong one, because all of them have been found guilty of cheating, admitted to cheating, or are under serious suspicion of cheating. In the eyes of many competitive cyclists, the moral decision isn't "to cheat or not to cheat", but rather how many people they are willing to hurt in order to avoid getting caught. In a world full of cheaters, Armstrong was simply the best at it. But now his name is no longer associated with the best of the sport.

The more poignant question is how Armstrong's admission cuts into the enormous success of the Livestrong foundation, the fighting cancer support and service group that Armstrong originally launched in his own name in 1997. In sixteen years, the Livestrong Foundation has raised more than $470 million dollars, of which nearly 80 percent has gone directly to survivor support groups and programs. And of course, Livestrong initiated the ubiquitous support wristbands, which have launched a zillion imitators from the serious to the sublime. There's been a lot of good-doing here. Does the end justify the means?

The answer, unfortunately, has to be no, and this is really the big swinging hammer that shatters the glass of Armstrong's image. Armstrong simply hurt way too many people, encouraging some to make reckless moral decisions, and tarnishing the images of other noble champions. Armstrong made other people look small and petty, when in fact they should have had the towering might of truth and justice on their side. He made tons of money, and dated some of the world's most beautiful and talented women, entirely on the premise of a lie. As a society, we simply have to be against this on principle.

The good news is that Livestrong should live on. It has done so much good, and having replaced Armstrong's name on the letterhead a decade ago, it is such a brand name of its own that it should be insulated from Armstrong's demise. It has even lent its name to a soccer stadium, nicely placed in the center of the country, perhaps geographically representing our national focus on curing cancer.

The shame is that it didn't need to be this way. Armstrong's recovering from cancer just to be able to compete in the Tour de France should have been inspirational enough. Admittedly, his winning the Tour de France multiple times in dominating fashion called more attention to his accomplishments, and thus to the causes, but he gave up a good story and a good family in pursuit of legend. He was Icarus on a bicycle, pedaling too close to the sun.

And in that way, we see the entirety of the value of Armstrong's brand. It has been erased from the past, replaced in the present, and despite Armstrong's recent contrition, God only knows who would embrace it in the future.

Additional Resources

http://www.livestrong.org
http://examiner.com

Down the Rabbit Hole

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 02:29:00 +0000

Three weeks ago, we first visited the topic of how different CEO’s and potential investors may choose to focus on separate aspects of a business plan as a matter of individual style. Having now completed the bulk of a first draft of my own business plan, I have a better understanding of how, why and under what circumstances some of these focuses are best applied, and why and under what conditions investors or analysts will choose to focus on certain areas of a business plan.

We first looked at ethnographer and motivational speaker Simon Shinek, who in his book, “Start With Why”, discusses the importance of a company and a leader being able to identify its core value. The notion is that by defining its core values, the company can operate from the inside out and thus create loyal customers.

Having now written a business plan, it is easy to see how and why the person who leads the company and implements the plan is every bit as important as the numbers and the strategy behind the plan itself. Even if the numbers add up, even if the plan seems flawless, it means nothing if the proposed leaders of the plan don’t have the ability to excite investors to help fund the initiative. It means nothing if the leaders don’t have the ability to create a company culture that allows people within the company to complete plans at the granular level. It means nothing if the leaders of the company don’t have the ability to execute the entire strategy of the company.

As I wrote my plan, I took care to identify and emphasize the strengths of the two principals, with special attention towards how our two skill sets work together. Additionally, I have incorporated our professional values into descriptions about our various strategies. For example, as we describe our competitive position within our industry analysis, it is clear that the values and skills of the principals reflect the core competencies of the company. In short, the leaders’ strengths become the company strengths. This is outlined at the beginning, repeated ad infinitum, and thus ingrained into the daily operations of the company.

My first blog also profiled Paul Ferris, founder and General Partner of the highly selective technology venture capital fund, Azure Capital. Azure Capital is focused far less on the spiritual than the analytical. On the front end, Ferris looks for data and research. On the back end, Ferris wants to fund companies that acknowledge an exit strategy within the very beginnings of their business plan.

The above paragraph feels like the kind of philosophy we can all appreciate on its surface because it makes such simple, logical sense. Obviously, we want some evidence that the plan is feasible. We want statistics. We want others in the industry to back what we believe. And we want to have some sense of where the business is going to end up.

That said, one has a much more tactile understanding of this concept on the other side of finishing a business plan. One can see the gears all mesh together, and how things one writes in a certain section of the plan get reinforced in another written section of the plan and then reinforced again within the financial data.

Three weeks ago, I wrote,”Sinek and Ferris stress different aspects of business plans, though both are important to the successful outcome. Writers of business plans should heed the advice of both, and keep both elements in mind when self-evaluating their proposals.” Though I have only written a first complete draft of the business plan, I think I have at least incorporated some of these values, and I will continue to do so in future drafts of the plan as I refine it towards something even more executable.

REFERENCES

1. CAA speakers: Simon Sinek, author of "Start with Why". (2009). Retrieved from www.caaspeakers.com/simon-sinek/bio

2. Ferris, P. (2012). Azure capital :: Paul ferris. Retrieved from http://www.azurecap.com/team/team-member/Paul_Ferris

3. Lester, C. (2009, July 27). Another view: A golden age for dcs. New York Times. Retrieved from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/another-view-a-golden-age-for-venture-capital/

4. Locke, L. (2011, September 29). Twitter video-sharing service nabs $6.5 million. CNet News, DOI: news.cnet.com

5. Simon Sinek. (2009, September). [Video Tape Recording]. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action., Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Business Plan Expert Advice

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 04:10:00 +0000

Different CEO’s will focus on different aspects of a business plan. Simon Sinek is all about passion and leadership. Sinek is a trained ethnographer and motivational business speaker who studies why people and organizations behave the way that they do. From his studies, Sinek consults with leaders and their companies about how to make their businesses better by understanding both consumer and managerial behaviors and by creating inspiration. He is active in arts and not-for-profit organizations, and his book “Start With Why” was published by Penguin Books in 2009.

In a “Ted Talk” delivered in support of his book, Shinek discusses the importance of identifying a core value for a leader and a company. The notion is that most companies operate outside in. That is, they define themselves first by what they produce, then by how they produce it and then by why they are producing it in the first place. That approach touches the customer first, and can (and often does) produce loyalty to an individual product. But if the company can define itself first by its core value – by the why it operates – then it operates from the inside out, and creates not just consumers, but loyal consumers that will follow the company or the leaders just about wherever it goes.

Sinek talks about instilling this in every aspect of a business plan, as well as in business operation and workflow. The primary notion: if a company can convey its sense of mission to itself, then it can convey that sense of mission to its investors in its business plan, which will secure funding and approval. Eventually, it will secure followers as consumers. This is a creative take on business plan writing, and it emphasizes the importance of establishing trust and confidence in those leading the project.

Paul Ferris is the co-founder and General Partner of Azure Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage technology companies that operate in sectors from cloud services to healthcare technology to gaming platforms to financial services. His background is in investment banking.

Azure Capital is a highly selective firm. The company receives thousands of pitches for angel investment funding every year. The company will interview dozens of early stage businesspersons, but will only invest in four to six projects every year.

Ferris and his partners have a strategy within Azure that is essentially two-fold (with many subtopics), but unlike Sinek their strategy is far less emotional than it is analytical. Ferris and his partners are looking for data to formulate a plan from the beginning of a journey to its very last step. Up front, the primary focus is on research. The research in technology subsectors helps Azure create its investment roadmap, increase their knowledge of any particular tech area, and identify whether or not a company has a real opportunity worth pursuing.

On the back end, Azure operates with an understanding that the business plan needs an exit strategy. In their industry, they attempt to fund little fish that they believe will become medium-sized fish that in turn pose a creative and market share threat to the biggest fish. Thus, the strategy for most of their investments is that they will eventually sell to strategic competitors or partners. As such, Ferris likes to see plans that acknowledge this outcome and that incorporate that as a strategy in the very early stages of company planning. In short, under Ferris’ direction, Azure needs plans that will be clinical in their execution.

Sinek and Ferris stress different aspects of business plans, though both are important to the successful outcome. Writers of business plans should heed the advice of both, and keep both elements in mind when self-evaluating their proposals.

REFERENCES

1. CAA speakers: Simon Sinek, author of "Start with Why". (2009). Retrieved from www.caaspeakers.com/simon-sinek/bio
2. Ferris, P. (2012). Azure capital :: Paul ferris. Retrieved from http://www.azurecap.com/team/team-member/Paul_Ferris
3. Lester, C. (2009, July 27). Another view: A golden age for dcs. New York Times. Retrieved from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/another-view-a-golden-age-for-venture-capital/
4. Locke, L. (2011, September 29). Twitter video-sharing service nabs $6.5 million. CNet News, DOI: news.cnet.com
5. Simon Sinek. (2009, September). [Video Tape Recording]. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action., Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Who Makes Connections in Sports Team Sponsorships?

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:19:00 +0000

The world of sports team sponsorships is growing ever more complex. In the old business model, going back 30 and 40 years, companies simply bought advertising time on television and radio stations that broadcast games and sent one message through one or two distribution channels in order to align their company and product with the team, or the sport, and its' customers. Today, there are more and more opportunities for companies to reach potential customers, because there are more products available with which to associate through sports team sponsorships, and more opportunities to be able to reach to targeted audiences. This offers companies the chance to be more efficient in their sponsorships, but it becomes increasingly difficult and labor-intensive for the companies and the teams to negotiate this new minefield themselves.

So with more and more frequency, both sides of these types of transactions are reaching out to middlemen for assistance. From the team side, this is in part because they are working hard to create new revenue streams through products, merchandise, ticket sales, new media rights and more. As an example, the NBA is in the process of becoming the first major American Professional sports league to allow jersey sponsorships (following in the path of MLS Soccer teams and European leagues of all sports). The teams and the league have yet to figure out who controls the inventory, the potential value of the sponsorships or what kinds of companies and products would be interested in the sponsorships (Lombardo and Lefton, 2012). This kind of uncertainty causes confusion, even though it is borne of opportunity.

Similarly, companies that wish to advertise through sports also have difficulty understanding all of the possibilities that are now available for them within sports team sponsorships, even as the technology to track the data can give them complete analytics about fan behavior and how fans interact with various parts of the sports viewing experience both in stadiums and at home. Companies that are big spenders in title sponsorships, traditional and digital media strategy and more, such as Met Life for example, as well as smaller spenders like AAA Automobile Club that are slightly more selective about which properties they sponsor, all have vested interest in working these sponsorships efficiently, where they can get the best value for their money by targeting their audiences in areas and through products where they know those audiences are going to congregate (Ourand, 2012).

With more and more options available, and with more and more data available, the technology and opportunity is there to decrease the waste in the system, and to make all sides increase their winning percentages in these kinds of deals. So it is little surprise that there is a business opportunity for agencies that can align companies not only with properties but also individual strategies within properties that can deliver business to them. These agencies may be small, relatively new companies that employ no more than a dozen people and concentrate on a handful of clients on each side. They may be design firms which have now incorporated their own brand activation departments, because stadium activation has become such an important revenue stream that it needs to be built into the design process. Or they may be established marketing and media agencies that have simply recognized the opportunity and increased resources in this area.

Though a handful of metaphorical predators have entered this ocean, it is still very much a blue ocean because so much of it is unexplored and undiscovered. In the next few years, those who follow sports business and sports team sponsorships are going to hear a lot from the big fish who spout their triumphs, but they should know there will be plenty of other fish under the surface getting fat on all the opportunities that exist.

Other References

Lombardo, J. & Lefton, T. (2012, September 24). NBA clubs hire firms to help sell patches. Sports Business Journal, DOI: sportsbusinessdaily.com

Ourand, J. (2012, May 28). What's worked. Sports Business Journal, DOI: sportsbusinessdaily.com

Photos:
1. From Sportsnetworker.com
2. From Freshnessmag.com

The Great Wide Open: A Primer on the Sports Digital Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:56:00 +0000

In February of 2010, I was recruited by Full Sail University to create a program for educating prospective graduates to have success in the sports industry. We had to determine whether that degree program would involve sports management, sports business, sports production or something else. We conducted a four month marketing campaign in which we talked to hundreds of people from the industry, who with near unanimity indicated that they were having all kinds of difficulty negotiating the digital landscape. Similarly, they reported that they were having difficulty connecting their Generation X sales and sponsorship teams with the need to engage both their Millennial-aged fan base and their clients who want to engage that fan base. Those businesses obviously include sports franchises, but also merchandisers, networks, agencies and their brethren.

The move into the digital arena, for nebulous topics like branding and engagement, as well as for specific initiatives like sales, is at once a thrilling opportunity and an enormous undertaking which is both inconvenient and expensive. In the most broad definition of digital marketing, the topic covers an incredibly wide swath of areas for any sports businesses. For businesses like a franchise, this is an intimidating gamut of possibilities to entertain. It is problematic because the very idea of digital marketing runs counter to how their most experienced sales people have been trained. And it is additionally problematic because any dollar wasted on a failed marketing campaign is one dollar less than that franchise can spend on improving the quality of its on-field organization. It is more so when we think beyond the front line of major professional sports teams and start looking into minor league teams and less popular circuits that often operate with even tighter margins.

These kinds of businesses need counseling both for strategy and for specific activations, which is why some larger agencies have developed divisions exclusively dedicated to digital marketing and why other smaller agencies have popped up to fill different niches within the larger topic. That said, there should be openings for new businesses to consult and connect sports properties with products -- and vice versa -- to help create strategies specifically designed to maximize exposure and revenue generation. Those revenue generation opportunities could include traditional marketing options and modern online marketing techniques including "social media, blogging, SEO, PPC, branding, content marketing, video marketing and app creation." (Perrin, 2012).

Larger companies have faced similar quandaries, but have had better success entering the digital arena, in part because they have larger margins of error. It is interesting, because so often when there are technological evolutions and revolutions, innovation comes from the ground up. In the digital media landscape, market leaders like ESPN and Nike are leading the way, from different parts of the business. Nike has reduced its famous television ad campaigns to reach customers through a variety of digital products that track analytics and communicate directly with users. (Image from Cendrowski, 2012).

ESPN is trying to lead the way in digital application of technology, and finding new ways to connect with fans through advances in production and collaboration, many of which give fans opportunities to have direct P2P feedback with the network. (Videos from Lynch, 2012)

These ESPN innovations may not be digital marketing, per se, in that we aren't creating quantifiable metrics based on clicks and generated leads, but if we are considering digital marketing for sports in its broadest possible terms -- all of the ways in which sports businesses interact with fans and clients -- than we absolutely need to understand the importance of connecting with those consumers in this way.

What this tells us, as observers of the industry, is that there is little limit to what may lie ahead concerning the role of digital application for sports and sports marketing. As the creator of a program which proposes to graduate future members of the labor force for this industry, my job is to continue to monitor and receive feedback from the industry, to make sure that the students who leave this program understand -- in the academic sense -- what matters in the industry and what skill sets are going to matter in the future of the industry. Today's students need exposure to as many of these areas as possible, with the hope that they will discover their own particular passions and niches in which they can be successful.

REFERENCES

Cendrowski, S. (2012, February 13). Nike's new marketing mojo. Fortune, Retrieved from http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/13/nike-digital-marketing/

Lynch, C. (2012, June 11). Learn how ESPN tackles tech problems, fosters innovation. Retrieved from http://frontrow.espn.go.com/tag/espn-emerging-technology/

Perrin, J. (2012, July 23). How digital marketing is changing the sports industry. Retrieved from http://www.koozai.com/blog/branding/how-digital-marketing-is-changing-the-sports-industry/

The Perils of New Media: Who counts?

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 17:04:00 +0000

Issuing season-long credentials for sporting events used to be a relatively simple task. Public Relations managers passed out press box, locker room and/or limited access badges for a handful of regular beat writers, reporters, television stations and radio stations. Occasionally, they would hand out one-time passes to smaller publications from outlying communities, student magazines and newspapers and national outlets. Without going into excess detail as to how this worked, the news outlets would submit written requests to the team or organization, which, if completed correctly and with the authority of station and newsroom management, would be rubber-stamped by the team.

That has changed over the last five to ten years, with the mainstreaming of blogs, internet columnists, and various other types of self-publishers who write, comment and consider themselves to be experts about a broad range of individual topics, including sports. This has presented a dilemma for sports franchises and organizations. On the one hand, the dilemma is philosophical: what is now considered to be an acceptable news organization? Is a new blogger with a large following any less legitimate than a small suburban newspaper that may be long established but has a diminishing and older readership? If the team considers the blogger to be simply an uninformed commentator taking cheap shots from the laptop in his basement, aren’t they doing their team a disservice by NOT granting access so that blogger can be MORE informed?

The dilemma is also practical: press boxes and locker rooms have limited space, and especially when teams garner lots of attention, such as in the playoffs, how do the teams decide who has access and who does not? There is then a third question, which is about the ethics of credential distribution: does a team that issues credentials have the right to bar members of the press, especially those that communicate through new and social media, if they write or report items unfavorable to the team?

There are several instances that involved this kind of ethical questions between organizations and journalists, including a highly publicized incident between a team and a mainstream traditional media outlet that occurred in the 2004 MLB playoffs. But two even more recent examples highlight the difficulty inherent in these kinds of conflicts, and an industry that has been slow to respond effectively and efficiently to a new media world.

The first such example started promisingly. The National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings have been among the most creative and aggressive early adopters of new and social media. On their way to the Stanley Cup Championship this past June, the Kings’ often outrageous and snarky twitter feed gained rave reviews for its personality and its willingness to challenge the voice and tone of typical in-house communication mechanisms. They mix that tone with a more traditional offering of game updates, collateral offerings and more. In 2009, recognizing that that they had the ability to create their own messaging through their team-owned portals, they hired the former Kings’ beat reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Rich Hammond, to provide written content for their team website, essentially creating their own beat reporter. Hammond told the regional webzine insidesocal.com that he was not pressured to follow a party line, and that the Kings had always told him “to report and write as normal”.

This past summer, however, Hammond felt he needed to part ways with his role. Hammond wrote critically about the ongoing NHL lockout in a Q and A with Kings’ forward Kevin Westgarth that has since been removed from the Kings’ website. The league itself said the post needed to be removed because as a team employee, he had to abide by the league’s rules of not discussing the lockout publicly. Hammond stressed to insidesocal.com that the Kings did not pressure him at all. Still, Hammond felt he needed to resign because he couldn’t do the job the way he felt was necessary. The Kings, to their credit, thanked Hammond in a statement and said his performance "a partner in building a new platform for LAKings.com epitomized integrity, work ethic and vision, and at no time did he waver from his goals and commitment to his readership." (Hoffarth, 2012). The team also put up a video tribute to Hammond on their website.

Contrast that with what happened a few months after the Kings hired Hammond. In 2008, the New York Islanders and their Public Relations manager Chris Botta parted ways after he had served the team for 15 years. With the Islanders blessing and financing, Botta started up a blog called NYIpointblank.com. The team, which had been in dire competitive straits, benefitted from the additional attention and from the media void filled by Botta’s blog. In 2009, the team stopped financing the blog, but Botta kept writing. In November of 2010, the Islanders revoked Botta’s media credentials, for reasons that remain unclear. Botta believes he lost his credentials because he had criticized General Manager Garth Snow. He quoted the Islanders’ new Communications Manager, Kimber Auerbach, telling Botta that the team was concerned that Botta had gone from “publicizing the news, to making the news.” (Sandomir, 2010). The league declined to investigate or intervene, incurring the wrath of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Botta’s media brethren that follow the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils joined the Islanders’ beat reporting crew in boycotting the league’s 2011 Awards Ceremony and in refusing to vote for the league’s awards.

What’s interesting in both cases is that the NHL, far more than the other major professional leagues in the United States, has been at the forefront of exploring new media and in trying to find different streams to engage their partners and fans. But their policies regarding media and how they operate in this stream is particularly draconian. Award-winning writer and historian Terry Frei, columnist for the Denver Post and Vice-President of the PHWA, articulately wrote in a blog post (Frei, 2011):

Our concern is that this decision, if allowed to stand and become precedent, signals an end to the league’s agreement that independent and objective coverage not only benefits its fan base, but the NHL itself.

The PHWA’s position is absolute. The splitting of hairs about the circumstances of the Islanders’ decision is an irrelevant waste of time. We ask that the NHL disavow the Islanders’ capricious decision in this specific instance, but even more important, reaffirm that -– barring egregious actions that would cause the PHWA to expel a member, anyway -- PHWA members will be granted access to cover its teams.

Admittedly, the media world has become far more complicated. We can only hope that the NHL and others who control media access can learn quickly from their mistakes.

RESOURCES

1. Cohen, D. (2009, September 28). Los Angeles Kings hire former beat writer to cover team. Social Times, DOI: socialtimes.com

2. Frei, T. (2011, April 4). New twist in Islanders' decision to revoke credential from reporter. Retrieved from thepostgame.com

3.Hoffarth, T. (2012, October 11). Was the NHL about to compromise the integrity of Kings' "insider" Hammond. Inside Socal, DOI: insidesocal.com

4.Sandomir, R. (2010, November 18). Struggling Islanders revoke blogger's credentials. New York Times. Retrieved from nytimes.com

LINKS

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/daily-take/201104/new-twist-islanders-decision-revoke-credential-reporter

http://socialtimes.com/los-angeles-kings-hire-former-beat-writer-to-cover-team_b50694

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/archives/2012/10/more-on-why-the.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/sports/hockey/19botta.html?_r=0

They Fought the Law

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 21:07:00 +0000

As a sports fan, I’m interested in the pure motivation of sport and sport stories – and I’m talking here about the victorious struggle of athletes as they overcome external obstacles and internal limitations. I love the big games and the big moments, and when athletes rise to their greatest level of performance on their sport’s biggest stage. There is beauty that lies within.

There is similar beauty that appeals to my sports business sense, and that beauty lies in the well-executed deal, which includes really well articulated legal constructs that give protections and benefits to all sides in a contract. The public often doesn’t hear that much about these kinds of structures because those conflicts don’t become news unless one party or another oversteps their bounds without relief.

On the flip side, there are all kinds of legal issues that do make it into the public consciousness, whether those are criminal issues, or issues of fraud or breach of contract, or other tortuous issues. Those issues underscore how freakishly large the business of sports has become, and in one recent instance it shows how an individual case can shake an organization down to its core – even it that organization is the biggest, and seemingly most bulletproof organization in sports.

Over this past summer, an NFL investigation uncovered that the New Orleans Saints conducted a bounty system in which the team gave financial rewards to roughly two dozen players for hard hits and hits that caused injuries to opposing players. That investigation led to unparalleled suspensions for coaches and players who organized and carried out these bounties over the course of three years. (Holder, 2012). Goodell’s justification for the suspensions is that he would be putting the league at risk if he didn’t punish a team for running a bounty program, particularly at a time when the league is facing a barrage of lawsuits from former players regarding concussion injuries.

That’s just the opening hint of how numerous the legal issues could be, and we could break down a lot of those legal aspects on an individual basis. But the overriding issue is that of the fairness of the NFL’s judicial process, and whether or not NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has overstepped his bounds, even if he believes he is acting in the best interest of both the league and all of the players.

According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players and the league, the players have given permission for Goodell to act as investigator, judge and jury in these kinds of cases. That means that the players do have rights to appeal findings in cases like these, but the appeal is to Goodell himself.

(In actuality, the way this played out was that the players were first suspended in May. An arbitration panel then overturned the suspensions, but allowed Goodell to reinstate them if he could prove that the Saints had created a culture where there was an intent to injure. This past week, Goodell did just that, though he reduced the length of two of the suspensions. The players have now appealed the suspensions, which allows them to play, or at least to get paid, while they await a final verdict).

Though they agreed to the process, the NFLPA continues to gripe that the content and context of the evidence is insufficient, which it may very well be for a court of law. But it is worth pointing out that this is not a court of law, but rather a court of the Commissioner. (Brandt, 2012)

Here is where it gets really interesting – the player facing the longest and most harsh suspension, Jonathan Vilma, has asked Commissioner Goodell to recuse himself of the NFL’s appeal process. It’s a fascinating gambit with no real legal basis other than in the court of public opinion. In the meantime, all four players have sued the league in federal court. (Brandt, 2009). U.S. District Court Judge Ginger Berrigan has said that she believes that the NFL’s judiciary structure does not allow due process, though she adds that she wants the sides to work through that structure before she hears the case in its entirety. (N.D., 2012).

So now that the players have appealed, the NFL has said it will respond within ten days. If those appeals are denied, as is expected, the process will continue in the courtroom. At that point, not too many good things can happen, but the most likely is that the process continues with no resolution all the way to the league’s biggest showpiece, the Super Bowl, which won’t be pretty for the league.

That’s especially true this year, because the Super Bowl is in New Orleans.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

1. Brandt, A. (2012, October 9). Is bounty scandal far from finished?. Retrieved from ESPN.com

2. Chadiha, J. (2012, October 5). Saints were snared by their own words. Retrieved from ESPN.com

3. Cherry, G. (2012, October 12). NFL-bounty scandal players appeal latest suspensions. Retrieved from Chicagotribune.com

4. Holder, L. (2012, October 12). 4 suspended players connected to Saints bounty scandal to file appeals, source says. Retrieved from NOLA.com

5. N.D., Appeal seeks roger goodell recusal. (2012, October 12). Retrieved from ESPN.com

6. Yaskinsas, P. (2012, October 9. Saints players should take punishment, move on. Retrieved from ESPN.com

When the Rules Get in the Way

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 02:46:00 +0000

In 2009, the Chicago Blackhawks emerged from a long slumber, advancing to the NHL’s Western Conference Finals and filling their home at the United Center. Only a year before, the United Center had often been more than half-empty – the ‘Hawks had announced crowds of as little as 8,000, with the actual headcount of fans in seats totaling a much smaller number. In 2009, as they simultaneously returned to competitiveness and changed ownership, a long sellout streak that remains active. But at that point, their fan base was still mostly their hard-core loyalists returning after a long time wandering in the metaphorical desert.

In the off-season, the Blackhawks came up with an ingenious way to reach other fans. They would market themselves by creating initiatives through some of Chicago’s other sports teams. They started a “Blackhawks Day” with the Cubs at Wrigley Field, and a yearlong partnership with the American League’s White Sox.

But the big move was to try to partner with the NFL’s Bears. The Blackhawks’ then-Vice President of Business Operations said the idea was borne from a meeting of NHL executives in May, when someone noted that 92% of NHL fans are also fans of the NHL. “I remember writing the word ‘Bears’ and circling it,” Blunk told the Chicago Tribune in October of 2009. “The Blackhawks are an up and coming brand on the move. But the Chicago Bears are an iconic international brand. So when it came to attaching our brand to something with great credibility and great reach, there was no bigger fish than the Chicago Bears.” (Rosenthal, 2009).

The Blackhawks paid to make the ads and buy ad time. The Bears arranged for some of that ad time to be made available at no cost through programs that they owned, both on line and over the air. The Bears also loaned their star athletes to shoot promos with Blackhawks stars, so linebacker Lance Briggs teamed with defenseman Brent Seabrook to compare how hard hits cause turnovers. Hawks’ sniper Patrick Sharp helped Bears’ kicker Robbie Gould take target practice at a net strung from between the NFL goalposts. The spots were more clever than funny, but it gave the Blackhawks additional credibility to be seen with the more established brand in town.

Except, the spots were never seen at all. The National Football League stepped in and put the campaign on ice. The NFL requires a three-fourths vote of approval from the league’s 32 teams to allow the use of its’ teams’ marks to promote another sport. The Bears believed their support of the Blackhawks was “within the framework of the spirit of what the rule was,” according to Bears’ senior director of corporate communications Scott Hagel. “They felt differently, and we have to respect their decision.” (Rosenthal, 2009).

The result here is, on the surface, somewhat disappointing. Clearly, there was no malice aforethought here. The Blackhawks needed to expand their fan base into the reach of more general sports fans and casual hockey fans (they would accomplish this the next summer, when they won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 49 years, and drew some two million fans to their parade). The Bears sought to be supportive of a like brand with which they didn’t really compete head-to-head, to jump onto the rising bandwagon of the Blackhawks’ popularity, and to promote Chicago sports in general.

But one can also see the other side. Just because the Blackhawks have friendly relations with the other sports teams in Chicago, doesn’t mean that similar relationships exist in other cities. Sometimes teams in the same cities become enemies because they are competing for limited public dollars to finance projects, or consumer spending dollars to buy tickets and merchandise. Sometimes ownership groups in the same cities simply don’t like each other. Were the NFL to allow this kind of agreement, it could open a Pandora’s box of issues which could lead to misuse or misrepresentation of their marks.

Ultimately, leagues and teams need to be vigilant about protecting their brands and safeguarding their reputations. The overall long-term credibility and integrity of any league, franchise or governing body is larger than any single issue. In a league as powerful as the NFL, they are better off erring on the side of caution.

RESOURCES

1. Brennan, E. (2009, October 15). Bears, Blackhawks team up for ad campaign. Retrieved from nbcchicago.com

2. Fisher, E. (2008, April 7). White Sox, Blackhawks form far reaching marketing sponsorship. Retrieved from sportsbusinessdaily.com

3. Ourand, J. (2009, October 14). Bears, Blackhawks partnering on rare joint ad campaign. Retrieved from sportsbusinessdaily.com

4. Rosenthal, P. (2009, December 04). NFL intercepts Bears-Blackhawks ad. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from www.chicagotribune.com

What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 20:06:00 +0000

2011 was a transformative year for sports. The big three of the four major professional sports leagues all signed new Collective Bargaining Agreements. One of them went smoothly, one went poorly, and the biggest, baddest one of all got done just in the nick of time. In 2012, the NHL appears headed to a similar brink with its players' union (again), but as of this writing those two sides appeared to be progressing in the direction of a settlement. Fans of all sports are hopeful that they may be entering a new era where long-term labor peace reigns over the teams, sports and stars they love.

But the biggest two sports stories in 2011 came from college football and both, to different degrees and in different directions, concerned power in sports -- the abuse of power in one case, and the consolidation of power in the other.

In the latter, the power football conferences finally cracked and scrambled like so many eggs at a tailgate brunch. Missouri and Texas A and M bolted the Big 12 for the SEC. Pittsburgh and Syracuse, a founding member of the Big East, both ditched that stalwart conference for the ACC. Colorado and Utah left their homes to turn the Pac-10 into the Pac-12. And other teams left lesser conferences to fill in the gaps.

These transitions, of course, were all about media rights, networks and bowl games, and how all of those factors blaze a trail to new revenue streams. Following in the lead of conference networks like the Big-10 Network, and of school specific networks such as ESPN's Longhorn Network, which supports sports at the University of Texas, conferences and individual schools sought new ways to maximize revenues. Ultimately, this would lead in 2012 to the biggest game-changer of all, the dismantling of the Bowl Championship Series after 15 years, and the commitment to a 4-team playoff from 2013-2025.

That story will ultimately be more important for business, but the shocking story of Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse revelations at Penn State, and how they dismantled a legendary coach and the storied program he led, was certainly more salacious. Ultimately, given the sanctions leveled at the University, this story too will have a shelf-life beyond its headlines, and will have a lasting impact on college sports. In this case, the NCAA found ways to extend its authority beyond its previous borders, and took a proactive stance both in making a statement about the current case (in that it was all about the abuse of power, and the de facto dictatorship that existed in that State College culture), and in making certain that all schools understand the lengths the NCAA is willing to go to make sure no other case like it can ever happen again.

The effect of these two stories combined is that at the dawn of the college football season in 2012, the sport's landscape is unlike anything we have ever seen before. When the season kicks off in full, new rivalries will be borne at the expense of historic ones. Traditional powers will have been rendered impotent. The governing body of the sport has used right to make might. And the cool flow of money will eventually rinse everything clean.

Negotiations

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 14:15:00 +0000

In sports, there is little left unclear. There is a final score. There are winners and there are losers. There is the thrill of victory, and there is the agony of defeat.

In the business of sports the latest evolution, at least at the corporate level, is to find win-win partnerships that are about mutual gain, as opposed to the older models of spending to purchase assets. There are ways to create partnerships where everyone benefits from the associations and initiatives.

Ideally, the contract negotiations between athletes and the teams the play for would find similar common ground, but according to Ian Greengross, NFL Player Agent and Partner at Ultimate Sports Agency, that’s not always the case. When it comes to applying the notion of principled negotiations to contract negotiations, Greengross says that “even those negotiations that are principled are still about leverage. In the National Football League, teams almost always have the ability to force certain restrictions, like a franchise tag, so our negotiations are always about position and much less about principle.”

One of the primary issues that hampers principled negotiations in sports projects is that it is very difficulty to find objective criteria that can help create common ground. Some positions, like offensive line, have few statistics. Other positions can create players who are statistically poor but who provide other important pieces to victory. In other words, objective stats don’t always provide the whole picture. That said, the general spread of a contract is principled almost by definition. As Greengross says, “It’s rare that we have a 7-million dollar difference between what a team thinks my player is worth, and what we think he’s worth. Principle will set the range, but it’s the leverage that ultimately determines the final number.

Another big difference in athlete conference negotiations is there is a limited amount of supply and demand, and there is always a deadline. There are various mechanisms in place that create a kind of artificial clock. These instruments are designed to help players get under contract to the teams that first held their rights. A player ultimately has a limited number of places in which he can sell his abilities. This leads to difficulty for both sides as they attempt to create a BATNA. Greengross says, “We HAVE to get to a resolution. There’s only two choices if we can’t agree – either I take their position or they take mine.”

All this being said, the way these deals get discussed in the media, fans might assume that player contracts are always contentious, difficult and full of dirty tricks. Greengross says that’s not really the case. He says most teams are “just trying to achieve their objectives. They always want the player at the lowest reasonable price the team can accept. My job is the converse, because it’s the highest dollar the team will reasonably accept. Somewhere in between the competing forces we get a deal done.”

In the end, there’s simply too much at stake for men to behave badly. If a team lies about giving a player an opportunity, or if a team rescinds an offer without giving a player and his agent fair warning, that bad acting will have residual effects. To the agent, that indicates that the team, or that particular representative of the team, is untrustworthy going forward. Ultimately, Greengross says, “In a limited supply pool, I control some of the supply, and it not only affects future negotiations with this particular player, but of all of my future players because I can’t trust them.”

So in the cutthroat world of professional sports contract negotiations, the point is that the theory of principled negotiation can be effective, but only to a point. The structure of the system ensures that principled negotiations will set the parameters of almost all contract discussions. There’s too much at stake to do otherwise. But when it comes down to the final completion of the deal, outside forces often cause sides to take up hard positions. Ultimately, the leverage inherent in the market will determine which side wins out.

Sis-Boom-Barbie

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 20:53:00 +0000

Just because an idea or an initiative doesn’t work doesn’t necessarily mean that the idea itself is a bad idea. This week, Mattel and Wal-Mart announced they have a partnership to sell four “University Barbies” exclusively at Wal-Mart stores in the markets of four Southeastern Conference Schools. This isn’t a new idea for the toy company. Mattel tried to market University Barbies 16 years ago, in an ill-fated promotion that lasted barely a year.
So why does Mattel think this initiative will work now, fifteen years removed from its initial, spectacular failure? Well first, let’s look at why the initiative failed in the first place. The initial problem was one of distribution – Mattel didn’t distribute much of its product on a regional basis in the 1990’s. The product line consisted mostly of dolls clad in the gear of schools in the Southeast and on the East Coast. But because the products were distributed nationally, Barbies affiliated with those schools ended up scattered about the country.
While there may have been some interest for girls playing with a cheerleader Barbie, they seemed less inclined to do so with a generic outfit than one branded with a specific school thousands of miles away. In retrospect, it seems obvious that Mattel should have realized this would be a problem.
But perhaps the idea was just ahead of its time. One reason that Mattel is optimistic about this newest incarnation of University Barbie is that they now have the ability to distribute their products regionally and in a cost effective way. Now, Arkansas-branded Barbies aren’t likely to end up in Ohio or worse, gasp, in Texas. Mattel is on record saying that if this program is successful, they plan to launch at other schools in 2013.
If we go outside of the Mattel example, we can expand this discussion to the notion of market research versus intuition. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs once said, “It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want…we figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too.” (Sara, 2011). Jobs gets a lot of credit for this statement and this philosophy because this line of thinking led to the creation of the IIe, the Mac and the ipad among others. It also led to a lot of business disasters and internal business conflict. Such is the roller coaster companies experience when their executives rely on intuition – the hits can be bigger, but the misses can be more frequent.
My own thought is that there has to be a balance between intuition and market research. Market research can tell you what has happened in the past. Market research and financial analysis can tell you the fundamentals of what is happening to a company or a business in the moment that you conduct that analysis. It can’t tell you what is going to happen in the future. It can’t tell a decision-maker what is coming next. If the decision-maker can divorce himself from ego, trust what he sees and feels, and then is able to place those feelings into the business at hand, then that decision-maker can combine the best skills of intuition with the hard numbers of market research to create a successful activation.
Perhaps, fifteen years ago, the executive at Mattel was ahead of his time as well. Perhaps the idea simply outpaced Mattel’s ability to execute it. Perhaps the real genius comes from the executive who was willing to revisit the idea because he or she believed in the guts of it and recognized some of the issues that derailed it the first time around. Perhaps Mattel will have a big hit with University Barbie in the second half of the game.
Go Team Go!

Additional Resources:

Sara. (2011, November 1). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blog.lab42.com

A Platinum Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 16:52:00 +0000

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is every bit as arrogant and even more smug than he appears. He is one of those people who smirks at his own jokes even as they fall horribly flat, and he always thinks he is the smartest person in the room. But the little secret is that Bettman might just actually be the smartest person in the room, and he’s got a nearly 20 year record to prove it.

That’s right. Difficult as it is to believe, Bettman will celebrate his 20^th anniversary is the NHL’s commissioner in the coming season, and it’s hard to argue that the league has ever been in better financial position, at least not if we measure it in a modern way.

(As an aside, I know the man. We had several interactions when I was on the media side of the business, the most unpleasant of which was when I broke a story that contradicted the NHL’s public relations stance. He publicly scolded me, by name even, and fairly trashed me in official statements. Two days later, when my story turned out to be 100% right, he apologized in a private phone call and admitted that he knew I was right, but I had information before the league was ready to release it. He never apologized publicly).

First, there’s the league’s position regarding media. They spurned – or depending on your point of view, were spurned by – ESPN, and that allowed them to take an aggressive strategy. The NHL wanted to be the feature product on a network and so branched out to low-rated, hard-to-find Versus, a network that was best known for airing bicycle races. While they had some stumbling blocks in the early years of that deal, the NHL has been perhaps the single biggest beneficiary of the NBC/Comcast merger because they are the primary tenant of that air space, with every single playoff game now airing on that family of sports networks. Similarly, they have done the best job of activating in digital spaces. Of the major professional American leagues, they have been the best at creating two-way conversations through their website, mobile pages, exclusive TV packages, Facebook pages and twitter accounts on both a league and individual team level.

Yes, TV ratings were down for the playoffs (and way down for the Stanley Cup Finals), but the positioning is strong, especially when you consider one of Bettman’s other accomplishments, which is the creation of tent pole items around which the league can build sponsorships, such as the Winter Classic, the Premiere Games, the All-Star Weekend and the Playoffs. Big brands want to associate with the NHL, in part because its audience is young, affluent and media-adept in ways in which the fans of other leagues maybe are not. The league has locked up its broadcast partner for 10 years, and other sponsors like Pepsi, MillerCoors and Geico to long-term deals as well. Smaller business and brands are getting involved in NHL activation as well, at a national and market level, enthralled by the alternative positioning of the league.

Most importantly, revenues are up. WAY up. In the first year after the lost season of the NHL lockout, the NHL brought in 2.2 billion dollars in revenue. Last year, even amidst the recession, the league had increased that by half, bringing in 3.3 billion dollars. More than one-third of that comes from straight ticket sales, and the growth occurred in a recession.

It’s not all wine and roses. The league is a distant fourth among the American power sports. There are still too many unstable franchises. And the CBA expires in September, raising the specter that there could be a third work stoppage under Bettman’s tenure. But the health of the league has put a positive tone on the early negotiations. It’s taken 20 years, but almost all of the indicators are pointing in the right direction.

I may end up having to like the guy.

Fascinate!

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:00:00 +0000

When I first changed career paths from being a member of the sports media to focusing on marketing, one of the first authors I read was Sally Hogshead, and I was thrilled to discover that she completed a Ted Talk at a Ted.com conference in Atlanta in March of 2011. The main thrust of her focus revolves around the importance of standing out from the crowd in promoting our companies and ourselves as individuals and leaders. Her book is appropriately titled, "Fascinate".

Miss Hogshead lures us in with an anecdote about online dating, using an example of match.com to illustrate the importance of being able to stand out and get noticed. She starts by asking how many of the audience members have tried online dating, which builds a "we're-all-in-this-together" circle of trust. Shen then offers some typical opening statements from men, which are of course hysterically inappropriate or gauche. And then Miss Hogshead talks about the problem of being safe and neutral, because neutral can equate to boring. In the end, she highlights a profile that works because it is confident, funny, and self-aware. Miss Hogshead ultimately reveals that this profile, which fascinated her immediately, is the profile of the man who is about to become her husband. It is funny, touching and it absolutely nails the primary point.

From there, Miss Hogshead reveals the science that supports her theories -- science that indicates that over the course of just 2-3 generations, we have evolved to the point that the average 20-year-old has the attention span of a goldfish. Literally. This revelation indicates that not only does a brand or individual have to be concerned with direct competition, but also with general distraction. That's an extremely important concept for anyone in marketing or branding, and a huge part of the reason why the fundamentals of sports marketing have flipped on their heads with the recent revolution in communication technologies.

As marketers of sports, we have always relied on the concept of engagement, but that concept is now more important than ever. To get fans in stadiums, sports teams are competing more than ever with the in-home viewing experience, which offers fans crystal-clear screens, 3-D technology and the ability to watch several games from several different camera angles -- in short, the ability to multi-task. Corporate sponsors need to be creative in how they catch and hold the attention of their potential consumers. Marketing, like dating, is casting a net into a sea of possibility, but to make the possibility become reality we have just a few seconds to lure the fish, and then we must fight like heck to land them.

The National Sports Forum

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:31:00 +0000

There are few real "trade associations" in sports marketing the way we know they exist in other industries. The National Sports Forum is a group which exists as a loose association for much of the year, but which comes together annually at rotating sties for a cross-gathering of executives from a variety of different aspects of sports business, including agencies, marketers, promoters, salesmen and event/entertainment hosts. Once a year for the last 17 years, the Forum has met for three days of what the industry calls "best practices" -- sharing the best and most successful ideas from a variety of different sports, teams, venues and events through guest speakers, panels, breakout sessions and social time. The idea behind the Forum is that great ideas come from other great ideas. That is, people in the sports business and sports marketing industry need to hear ideas that have worked for other organizations and then alter them based on what they know about their own organizations to make them work for their own organizations. The Forum also hosts a Case Cup each year. Prior to the start of the conference, teams of Sports Business Master's degree students compete in a competition to resolve a marketing problem in a case study. Last year, the Cup was won by a team from Ohio University.

I like to joke that what in many other industries, including academia, is considered to be plagiarism, we in sports marketing like to call "best practices". At the Forum, however, these practices are not winked at but embraced. That's significant, because from a business perspective sports makes for odd bedfellows. At one level, a basketball team from Chicago competes with a basketball team from Detroit, but their mutual business success is good for the health of their league, the NBA. At a similar level, a hockey team in Boston competes for the sports entertainment dollar with the baseball team from Boston, but they help each other celebrate their championships. And in the NFL, because of revenue sharing, everybody both competes with everybody on and off the field and embraces everybody on and off the field as partners. And the bedfellows don't just share beds across cities and sports, but across aspects of the industry as well. At the Forum, you'll see marketers and corporate sponsors and team executives, people who often find themselves on opposite sides of the negotiating table from each other, sharing ideas, experience and wisdom.

People talk about the importance of networking as career enhancement -- for the individual win. At the National Sports Forum, networking is done not for the win, but for the win-win, to find paths for sponsors, franchises, manufacturers to all get the most out of their mutual partnerships and for agencies to help show them the way.

References:

(n.d.). Retrieved from sports-forum.com
(n.d.). Retrieved from vimeo.com
Louisville to host 2011 national sports forum. (2009, November 21). Retrieved from bizjournals.com/louisville

New Year, Brand New Ballgame

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Thu, 17 May 2012 01:40:00 +0000

Once upon a time, New Year's Day and college football lived in perfect harmony. You would rise slowly in the late morning, ingest the parades to soak up the hangover, serve up a little Hoppin' John for you and the neighbors, and then watch hour upon hour of the biggest games in the sport -- the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the Rose Bowl -- often with the National Championship at stake.

But then in 1998, the NCAA created the Bowl Championship Series, which made tons of money for certain schools and conferences, but ruined the magic of New Year's Day, which retreated from its full-blossom glory to became a wasteland of lesser bowl games and a magical gold mine for a National Hockey League enterprise. Two recent developments, however, are promising to allow college football to kickoff a brand new era as it kicks off the year.

The first is the obvious and inevitable development of a playoff system, warts and all. The 21st Century sports world simply demands a clear result, and after years of debate and typical Midwestern stubbornness, the Big Ten has finally agreed to allow a playoff. This should help consolidate the bowl schedule, which currently spreads out well beyond New Year's Day through a week-long minefield of games between mid-major type conferences (and in more than one country!) to get to a National Championship game played a month after the regular season. That's a good thing.

The other development is more interesting, because it comes from the marketing side of the event. The Football Bowl Association has joined up with Fishbait Marketing to sell corporate sponsorships across 33 of the 35 bowl games. The two parties will target 30 different sponsorship categories, from auto parts to insurance to credit cards to home improvement stores, to market through all of the bowls in-game, stadium and non-broadcast media assets.

What this means is that now a corporate sponsor can easily create a national strategy for its brand. Previously, a corporate sponsor had to reach out to each individual bowl to make its investment. That was time-consuming and all but impossible to assemble. Now a sponsor can purchase assets and reach a national audience on a consistent basis with one purchase. That development means that previously unsold assets in second and third-tier bowl games will be an added injection of revenue to the process. It's a model that has been tried and proven in tour golf and racing.

How does this help the audience build on New Year's Day? It means that there is more money in the Bowl system, which means that the last conferences holding out for the riches of the old system have had their revenues replaced and then some. That in turn means that they can re-engineer the schedule to create one final championship game, and one other day -- New Year's Day -- that the sport can again completely own.

It's a fairy tale ending a long time coming, that will allow college football and its fans to live happily ever after.

Assessing Sports Business Opportunities

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:45:00 +0000

Trying to understand the concept of a generic sports business opportunity through a traditional PEST business analysis raises inherent problems. Much of the success of any particular sports business is dependent upon decidedly local and specific factors. Without specificity as a filter, it becomes difficult to illustrate the PEST concept for the factors which affect sports businesses in any kind of consistent presentation.

What we can do is assess the factors involved in a PEST analysis more broadly. For example, any sports business has to consider political factors. Those factors can include issues such as tax referendums for stadium issues, watchdog groups that have anti-sports biases, or feuding politicians who may agree or disagree about the merits of an issue but more importantly let their disputes prevent compromise or clear decisions. There probably isn't one great gold standard source that we can identify which would serve as a guide, because as the saying goes, politics is local, and sports politics even more so. The sources that would support this theory are local as well.

Economic factors in the marketplace aren't always as strong a predictor for the success of a franchise as are how well the organization is run and whether or not it succeeds in its field of play. Plenty of franchises have started well with glitzy roll outs in dicey economic times, only to fold or move because their fan base wouldn't support a losing team. Other franchises have continued to persevere to record levels even in the most affected cities of one of the worst recessions in recent history. Indeed, it's hard to see how a franchise can win Stanley Cup championships and sell out a 19,000 seat hockey arena when so much of the city looks like this:

But Detroit has done it, so any source taking a wide look at economic factors would suggest that a franchise would have a difficult time in Detroit, but the Red Wings have proved to be a local exception.

Generic socio-cultural factors are probably a little more easy to assess on a broad basis. We can probably speculate that a hockey team, for example, is going to have a harder time in a region where a franchise in the sport has failed previously, regardless of the cause. Even when franchises have been well-run and invested in growing the sport at the youth level in an attempt to create an organic fan base, that fan base has not always responded at the primary level of business. We can also determine whether cities and markets have failed to enthusiastically support franchises even when the franchises win or have historic ties. But these factors are still local rather than global, and thus the sourcing for these factors is local as well.

When it comes to technology in sports, there are all kinds of sources that can review different offerings such as advancements for distribution channels for sports, investments in venues or devices that can be used to enhance the in-stadium experience. But ultimately the operators of any individual franchise have to understand how the devices work for their particular organization. Though there is a standard of best practices in the industry, not all practices work equally in every sport or for every team.

So in the end, the point here is that there are plenty of sources that can help people looking to create an opportunity in sports understand the qualities, possibilities and limitations of that opportunity, but there aren't many one-stop shops, and there certainly aren't any one-stop applications of the counsel. Ultimately, to do a proper PEST analysis for a sports-based project, those in charge of the project are going to have to understand a lot about themselves and what they offer first.

Photo Reference:

Marchand, Y., & Meffre, R. (2011). The ruins of detroit. London: Steidl Publishing.

An All-American Opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:32:00 +0000

This is going to be an interesting year for the Houston Astros. Not because of what they are likely to do on the field. Far from it. Coming off their worst-ever season in 2011, with 106 losses, the Astros are unlikely to offer much competition to their divisional rivals. But they are going through major changes -- perhaps the largest changes they have experienced in their 50-year franchise history -- that will change the way the team behaves off the field.

The most significant of these changes is that the Astros have new ownership, led by Jim Crane, who has brought in new business leadership and new front office management to the franchise. Additionally, this will be the last season that the Astros play in the National League. In 2013, they will move to the American League to help balance baseball with 15 teams in each league and 5 in each of three divisions per league. (Currently, there are 16 teams in the National League, with 6 in the NL Central. The Astros will move from the Central to the 4-team AL West).

While this is undeniably a challenge, especially considering the team's on-field shortcomings, the Astros are instead choosing to look at this as an opportunity to upgrade their branding and operations. That upgrade could include the cosmetic, such as new uniforms, as well as policies and procedures that affect the game day experience inside Minute Maid Park and how the team interacts with customers outside the ball park. The only thing that seems to be off the table is that the team is going to keep "Astros" as its nickname.

The Astros realized that they couldn't do this alone, and so they have organized an interactive research campaign with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), to help them interact with a variety of different consumers of the Astros product. The benefits of such an undertaking are both direct and indirect. Directly, the franchise will improve on several subjects that fans and consumers have found lacking. Indirectly, the use of fan-based research helps create better engagement with fans and, hopefully, more satisfaction because the fans believe that the franchise is open to hearing their issues and suggestions.

Opportunities to create these kinds of major reorganizations are extremely rare. They can only exist at times of major change -- change in ownership, change in location or arena, change in function (such as switching to another league), and so on. For the Astros, several of these are occurring at once, and considering that they are joining a division with the Rangers and Angels and leaving one that has the Pirates and Cubs, the climb to once again becoming a healthy franchise off-the-field seems a lot less daunting than that of becoming a winning team on the field.

Saving the Franchise

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:17:00 +0000

There was a big signing around here a couple of weeks ago. Like 6 foot 11 big. Dwight Howard decided to stay with the Orlando Magic and, in talking about it afterwards, seemed genuinely humble, contrite and sincere in talking about his love for the City Beautiful. While a spat with his coach has since become public, and Howard is taking the heat for that, he nevertheless postponed the opportunity to take more money more quickly to stay in a situation and a city which has made him happy. Superman, perhaps. Unique, no question.

But outside of Central Florida, there is an even larger story. Like 6 foot 6, 283 pounds large. Mario Williams, the best defensive free agent to hit the NFL's open market in perhaps two decades, signed with the Buffalo Bills.

I don't know Mario Williams. I've never heard him utter a soundbite that I can remember. I've never seen him appear in a video game commerical, or on a kids' tv show, or seen him take over a karaoke machine, or create a scavenger hunt for tickets to an event he is hosting, or a smile a smile as wide as the Mississippi like I have with Howard.

But I do know Buffalo. I lived there for nine years. My wife is from there. Both my kids were born there. I covered sports in Buffalo in the post-Super Bowl era when I saw Jim Kelly and Bruce Smith in their twilight, just before the darkness of the last twelve seasons without the playoffs. I know how much identity that city gets from its football team -- how regal they felt when they went to four straight Super Bowls -- and how deeply they feel the sting of the embarrassment of being not just bad, but irrelevant on the NFL scene. The city takes on a sad, stoop-shouldered that reflects one of the gloomy, deep-gray days of Western New York's mid-autumn.

To get a sense of what their relevance means, note in the article below by the excellent football writer Mark Gaughan, how Gaughan calls the signing, "a milestone in the 52-year history of the Bills."

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/article763200.ece

Or this one, from news reporter Gene Warner on Williams' impact on the franchise and the city:

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article776137.ece

Without Howard, the Magic would rebuild. It would be painful and it would take some time, but they would get other good players and they would revive. And the city would never need validation from its favorite team the way Buffalo does. Orlando without a good basketball team is still a fast-growing city with theme parks and entertainment and sunshine. Buffalo without the Bills is Slovakia without the view.

So give the Bills credit here. They gambled their entire franchise on one expensive hand, and finally, for once, they came up aces.

Effective Social Media Communication in the Sports World

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:06:00 +0000

A couple of months ago I was talking to a "Major Player" at a "Major Hollywood Entertainment Company" who is involved in sports only because his company has a tangential relationship with some sports properties. In trying to carve out his space, he was seeking my expertise by asking where there are opportunities to create new revenue streams in sports. I told him that I felt the broadest opportunities are in engagement and social media.

“Really?” he asked. “Don’t you think most people are there already?”

And I had to tell him no, because while virtually all sports businesses and sports stars understand that the marketplace of consumers has moved from the newspaper and the television to the laptop and the smart phone, very few sports businesses really understand what they are trying to accomplish in that space. The model has fundamentally shifted:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/youtube-the-future-of-entertainment-is-on-the-web/2012/01/12/gIQADpdBuP_story.html.

Unlike business in general, the landscape in sports business has the additional challenge of competition as a core element. That is, not only does a sports business compete for a dollar, but when that business is inefficient with its dollars, it directly affects its ability to win on the field of play. So when new business models begin to infiltrate the industry, the risk for established businesses to change is very high. Fortunately, so is the reward. Nonetheless, it is scary for these businesses to try to take that risk into new creative spaces, because the cost of being wrong affects the organization in so many ways.

When it comes to social media enterprises like Facebook and Pinterest and Groupon among others, many smart companies and teams have done a terrific job of accumulating followers while they begin to figure out this landscape. Their first move has been to position their fans for the next big revolution even as those companies and teams try to figure out what that revolution is attempting to accomplish. The Orlando Magic, for example, have done a masterful job of plowing into the social media space well out of proportion for the size of their media market and their lack of a national fan base http://www.adamsherk.com/social-media/most-popular-nba-teams-twitter-facebook/. The Magic got out in front of the game and have stayed there.

But other teams have done an equally good job of understanding what it means to be in that space and been very bold in creating some new ideas that complete that vision. The New Jersey Devils:

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/01/09/Franchises/Devils.aspx

and the Pittsburgh Penguins:

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2011/10/24/Franchises/Penguins.aspx

seem to understand that it isn’t enough just to be in social media or web spaces, but that the conversation has to be a two-way conversation. These businesses, and others, understand it isn’t just that the business speaks to the consumer in a new location, but that the structure of the conversation itself has changed. If the business is in position to have a conversation where there is give and take, where it listens as well as speaks to the consumer, the business is more likely to make a sale.

About Me

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:45:00 +0000

About Me

I'm Josh Mora, aka JAMarketer. My background and my current position offer me a very unique perspective on the Sports Business and Sports Marketing Industry. For the first 17 years of my professional career, I was an award-winning Sports Anchor, Reporter, Host and Journalist in some of the biggest and best sports markets in the country. I was the main anchor and managing editor for the first successful regional sports network, which launched the boom of RSN's from the mid-90's. As sports journalism adapted to technology, I was one of the first to embrace blogging, personal branding and multi-platform distribution as necessary ingredients in successful sports media coverage.

In 2009, I discovered that technology had so revolutionized the communications industry, especially in regards to journalism, that the best of my skills and passions lent themselves more towards sports business than towards sports media. By a stroke of extremely good fortune, I had the opportunity to meet with the COO of Full Sail University at a time when Full Sail was beginning to explore the possibility of creating a degree program based in sports. In the years that have followed, we have created the very first program in the country that holistically combines the teaching of content creation, traditional and advanced media, and sports business and marketing principles and threads it throughout the educational program. We have additionally created several unique partnerships with such companies as ESPN, the Orlando Magic, ESPN Wide World of Sports, as well as many others, that allow our students unique opportunities to contribute to these organizations as a part of their course of study, and to apply their learnings immediately to real-world situations.

I'm a fan of sports -- I love the NHL playoffs, Opening Day in the Major Leagues, the Masters, the Triple Crown, and NFL Sundays. I love watching great athletes perform at the top of their game, and I love watching great plays that define crucial moments. But mostly, I love those moments that put highlights in your hair. I love the drama that builds up when some sports entity emphasizes the possible, like these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKkcoL2kjG0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2w3HTcxwAo&feature=related

These are the moments when sports brands -- be they teams, sports, athletes, companies -- connect with fans, often for a lifetime of highs and lows, joys and sorrows, shared moments with parents and friends and children.

I think that's worth dedicating a life to.

Foundations

noreply@blogger.com (40yearoldnothing) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:22:00 +0000

When I sat down to create the new Sports Marketing and Media Bachelor's degree at Full Sail University, I drafted a team to figure out what the industry was saying about itself. That is, what could people working in the industry tell us about the problems and needs in the industry, particularly from a labor force that we were about to help create and invent.

What we heard back, with near unanimity, was that sports-based industries were having difficulty connecting their dynamic Gen-X sales and sponsorship people, with the communications technology used by the Millennials. It's not that the guys in their 40's couldn't use a Macbook or Twitter, but that they didn't really know how to converse with the people in the medium in them. There are few people speaking to this generational break better than Don Tapscott, who writes about it in his book "Grown Up Digital.

From this, and from my own experiences having been in the business, we also discovered that many sports businesses are so consumed by their own day-to-day operations, that they lose sight of what it really means to connect, and the importance of connecting in a world in which it is difficult to be heard above the cacophony of businesses (particularly in sports), who attempt to compete for your attention. To that end, Sally Hogshead is very much at the forefront of modern thought. Her message is mostly about personal branding, which has some resonance in sports in a very defined niche, but it can be expanded to reach into general thoughts about standing out in a crowded world.

And of course, for current thought, nothing stands out like Sports Business Journal, as an in-industry chronicle of the different ways in which sports businesses and individuals are working and thinking about different problems within the industry.

These are just a couple of the resources that provide, in different measures, some of the core ingredients that make up the recipe of our degree program. It is a living and breathing degree program and thus it moves fluidly.

My interest goes beyond just that which we create for our students. My interests are also about the business decisions and partnerships which support our degree, and the really interesting partnerships and activations I get to observe in researching the degree. I also love getting to put these kinds of deals together and to build something really interesting, new and creative, and as I develop this blog I think it will be as much about exploring the depths of great partnerships as it will be about the problems we pose for our students.

Thanks for taking a peek behind our curtain...we'll reveal more as time goes on!