Sponsorship Essentials Part 6: Q&A with Sree Varma, Founder & CEO at iSportconnect, the largest global private network of Sports Business Executives

By: Claire Lingley 

In an industry where communication, networking, and knowledge of the latest trends and practices is essential to success, iSportconnect gives its members exactly that. Today, we chat to the man behind it all: Sree Varma, Founder and CEO of the largest global private network of Sports Business Executives.  If there's one man that may have the inside scoop into where this industry is headed, it's him. 

Q.  How did you get into this industry?

A:  I’ve had 19 years of marketing and sales experience ranging from pharmaceutical and retail to the sports industry. My first step into the sports world was when I worked as publisher at Business F1 & SportsPro and as a consultant for Sport + Markt. I launched iSportconnect in 2010 to bring together the movers and shakers in the sports industry. It’s gone from strength to strength and is now the largest global private network of sports business executives. Last year, iSportconnect Capital got off the ground. It’s a new investor network providing investment opportunities for its members within the sport and leisure sector.

Q:  What are your goals for this platform in the coming years?

A:  We’re expanding steadily. I’d like to increase the number of offerings... the portfolio of the iSportconnect ecosystem. At the moment we have an online platform, events and member services. We’re going to launch the 24/7 OTT platform and are looking to introduce more member services. Meeting the needs of the sports business professional is at the heart of our philosophy. Everything we do has that focus to deliver a good service to all of our members. We’ll also try to increase the summits and masterclasses and to expand into new territories where sport is going to play a major role. Also, we’re looking at creating a private members club... a physical venue or meeting place for the sports industry from 2020. There’s plenty in the pipeline, which is very exciting.

“Learn from others and don’t be afraid to change if something doesn’t work out.”

Q:  What do you believe are the three most valuable skills to have in this industry?

A:  Obviously networking, because sport is such a private network. If you’re not a good networker, I don’t think you can go far. Persistence pays off, too. And a thirst to learn from other industries means you can readily adapt and change.

Q:  What is the one piece of advice you’d give to someone looking to enter this business?  

A:  Learn from others and don’t be afraid to change if something doesn’t work out

Q:  You interact regularly with the leading business executives within the sports industry around the globe.  Can you speak towards three attributes that you see most commonly shared by the top executives?

A:  Again, I would emphasize networking purely because I speak to a lot of top guys in the sport industry on a daily basis – and the most successful are those who have good people skills. They have a desire to learn from others and a willingness to share their experiences. Determination and perseverance are also key if you want to go places in the sports world.

Q:  How has technology transformed your ability to connect people? With the advent of social media and the ability to connect seemingly at your fingertips, has that brought any challenges?

A:  It’s definitely helped our business. In fact, it’s been absolutely vital in a number of areas: to increase our membership and to get more members coming to our events as well as to expand and deliver our services for the sports industry. Social media platforms are huge for us as a way of staying connected with the industry leaders who are part of the iSportconnect family.

“It’s imperative for sponsors to better understand who their customers are, what they are doing, and how they are doing it. ”

Q:  What is the greatest piece of advice you have ever received?

A:  Be prepared to listen if you want to get ahead in business

Q:  Can you give us any inside scoops into where you see the sports industry headed, specifically in terms of sponsorship?  What is the next ‘big thing’ that we will start seeing within sports?

A:  Activated sponsorship through digital and fan engagement platforms. I think AI will play a huge role in that. Sponsors can put their logos on cars, football jerseys and in stadiums but then they need improved analysis. It’s imperative for sponsors to better understand who their customers are, what they are doing, how they are doing it, and other aspects of their behaviour. Sports have to deliver that and move towards that kind of sponsorship offering, including AI. It’s already starting but that’s the way forward. For example, localized content in stadiums with the support of different platforms is where all sports entities are heading. Sponsors have to step up and modernize the offering to keep pace with the times.

 

5 Quick Q’s

Morning or night person?

24/7! Probably morning

Last book you read? 

Business Adventures by John Brooks

What’s the one thing you can’t live without? 

My mobile phone for sure

Scroll through Twitter, or browse the newspaper? 

I scan Twitter for the latest breaking news and top sports business headlines

If you could switch lives with a person for one day, who would it be?

No doubt, Steve Jobs. I’m a massive fan. He’s the man of innovation... He creates wants and converts them into needs. 

Sponsorship Essentials: March Madness Edition!

By: Claire Lingley 

It’s March and that means one thing: March Madness baby!  Not only is this an exciting time for the 64 teams vying for their spot as champion, but corporations and companies are also vying for the top spot in sponsorship.  Given that the 2017 NCAA March Madness tournament was the most watched in 24 years, paired with record-setting digital consumption, this competition for sponsorship means more than ever.  It may be only the beginning, but here are our Final Four predictions for the 2018 NCAA’s March Madness Tournament: Sponsorship Edition.

Capital One, AT&T, and Coca-Cola:  As the three top tier corporate sponsors, aptly named the “Champion” sponsors, March Madness viewers will see hundreds upon hundreds of their commercials throughout this tournament (my personal favourite featured here, can't go wrong with Samuel L Jackson crooning on your TV), paired with their name and logo branded throughout week.  From “Capital One’s NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge”  to Coca Cola’s  “Sip. Scan. Score. Your way to March Madness” it is no question that these corporations will stand at the forefront of March Madness sponsorships. 

Nike:  This year, 44 of the 64 teams will be decked out in head-to-toe Nike branded uniforms. If my calculations are correct, the chances that the actual Final Four and furthermore, the crowning champ themselves, will be showing off that swoosh is looking pretty good!

Google Cloud:  Now known as “The Official Cloud of the NCAA”.  The end of last year saw the formation of an exciting new multi-year partnership between Google Cloud and the NCAA; NCAA’s 80+ years of historical and play-by-play-data, from 90 championships and 24 sports, is now being held and run on the Google Cloud Platform.  This is a big deal for colleges and universities, athletic teams, and fan bases alike, as they now have access to this data in ways unlike ever before. With an estimated 40 million Americans filling out brackets, and probably most* of them doing so using some sort of data and analytics, it is no surprise that this year’s March Madness will serve as the perfect platform to show off this new partnership.

Buick:  As a long time partner of the NCAA for quite some time now, Buick is stepping up its game when it comes to this year’s March Madness tournament. Not only will it offer it’s vehicle owners a free month of its AT&T-provided embedded 4G LTE data, allowing fans to access both the men’s and women’s championship games throughout the tournament, but it is also showcasing a new special NCAA Tournament app where Buick owners can listen to live audio feeds from various games playing throughout the month. 

With sponsorship spending on college athletics excepted to reach a total of $1.24 billion in the 2017-2018 season, a 4.5% increase over 2017, and the overall sports sponsor spend in 2018 expected to rise 4.9% versus last year, the sponsorship industry shows no sign of slowing down.  And while we seem to be seeing the same companies and corporations over and over dominating sponsorships in the big tournaments, just as every one knows in March Madness, you can never rule out the underdogs: case in point, UMBC defeating number one seed Virginia this weekend.

Hope everyone enjoys this year’s March Madness! I’ll be joining what I’m sure are the hundreds of thousands of people who saw their chances of winning their own office’s March Madness Bracket Challenge going down the drain with Virginia’s loss. Here's looking at next year to clench that win! 

Sponsorship Essentials Part 4: Q&A With Donna Wittmann, Leading Technology Executive

By: Claire Lingley

With over 25 years of global experience, Donna Wittmann is one of the leading technology executives within the industry.  In this week’s edition of “Sponsorship Essentials,” she speaks towards how technology is transforming the ways in which the sports industry operates, and the challenges that come with that. We also touch on how she got to where she is today, an accomplishment we could pick up tips from!

Q:  You have had extensive experience throughout the marketing world, working with companies Xerox, Dell, Cisco, Tennis Canada, etc., how did you get into this business?

A:  Truthfully, in a bit of a round-about way.  I spent most of my early career in the technology sector, in sales and marketing roles, and a lot of partnership and alliance roles as well.  When I was at Cisco, I did a sponsorship deal with Tennis Canada and the Rogers Cup to bring technology in to enhance the fan experience within the Rogers Cup.  While making that connection, I heard that they had a Chief Marketing Officer Role available at Tennis Canada. Having been a Division I tennis player and a passionate player and fan my whole life, I rang up the CEO and said, “I think that’s my dream job”.  After a lengthy interview process, I convinced them that my passion for tennis and my skills that I had as a VP of sales and marketing within the technology sector could easily be transferred to sports, and marrying up the two would be a perfect combination.  Luckily, they agreed!

Q:  What tips do you have for someone trying to enter this business, specifically as a woman?

“If you’re passionate about the industry that you’re working in, you’re going to be a lot more effective.”

A:  One of my tips would be that you don’t necessarily have to have gotten into sports right out of school, that skill sets from other industries can be transferrable into sports, so don’t necessarily rule yourself out because you didn’t start in the industry. I’m a big believer that you should follow your passion. So if you’re passionate about the industry that you’re working in, you’re going to be a lot more effective and it’s not going to seem like work to you.  So that’s the ultimate thing you should be striving for in your life.

Q:  What skills do you value most, and have made you the most valuable to a company?

A:  I think that one of the things that has made me the most valuable is that I had the opportunity early on in my career to be in a lot of different functional areas. I had roles in sales, in marketing, in finance, in pricing, in partnerships, in different geographical areas and in different countries, I had roles in the US and Canada, Western Europe. I think that having a broad spectrum of what you have had experienced in your career just lets you look at any situation and be able to have experiences to bring to bear and be able to problem solve more effectively.  In terms of advice, especially early in your career, the more breadth of experience you can get, the more different types of experiences you can get, the better off you will be later on in your career.

Q:  Where do you see technology going, specifically in the marketing world, any inside scoops on the next way you see technology transforming the marketing world?

“ I think every sport venue is asking the question, “How do I increase revenues via sponsorship? How do I enhance the fan experience?” And technology plays a huge role in answering that.”

A:  Digital transformation is happening in every industry, especially from a sports perspective, which is an area I’m passionate about.  You can see it happening particularly in digital signage, you can make instant purchases from your phones, all types of things.  I think every sport venue is asking the question, “How do I increase revenues via sponsorship? How do I enhance the fan experience?” And technology plays a huge role in answering that. Everybody wants to be more engaged from their phones.  While I was at Aussie Open this year, for example, I put up a hashtag one minute with a picture we took of ourselves, and two minutes later it was up on the big board in Rod Laver Arena.  It’s just amazing.  That obviously enhanced our fan experience.  All the people working in sports are trying to leverage technology to make an impact, and technology literally is playing a big role within every business today in terms of companies reinventing themselves to be more competitive, and in figuring out how to reach their customers more intimately.  Ultimately, companies want and need to leverage technology for good within their industry.

Q:  What sort of challenges do you see coming with that now that it’s a part of every single person’s life so much?

A:  Obviously there are privacy concerns and security concerns, and companies are addressing them as they embrace the technology to give their customers a better experience and increase revenue, but those companies don’t necessarily have a choice. It is inevitable.  It’s coming whether we like it or not, but there is so much more positive that can come from technology if we embrace it. I think one of the challenges is that people are intimidated by it.  They think, “I’m not a technology person, so I don’t understand it” and so they shy away from it, versus, just understanding from a real practical and business sense what it can do for them. And that’s why I am in that business.  I want to help people understand what technology is in their own terms for their own industry and what it means for them and what the positive benefits are.  You don’t have to understand how it works to understand what it does.

Q:  What is the accomplishment you are most proud of to date?

A:  Throughout my life, there are three accomplishments that stand out.  First, making the Penn State tennis team as a walk-on, second, becoming the youngest female Vice-President at Xerox, and third, making the leap to work in sports as the Chief Marketing Officer at Tennis Canada.  All three accomplishments reinforced that I could overcome the odds by taking risks and going after something I really wanted.  

Q:  What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

“It is the people that push beyond one or two “No’s” to get a “Yes” for what they want to do that are the ones that are successful.

”

A:  I think the best piece of advice is to not take no for an answer when you are going for something that you really want. There are always people that are going to tell you no and stand in your way.  It is the people that push beyond one or two "No’s" to get a "Yes" for what they want to do that are the ones that are successful.

If you could have dinner with 1 person, dead or alive, who would it be?

I would have dinner with Oprah Winfrey. I think what she has done throughout her life is just remarkable and exceptional, and she always seems to take an “I can do anything” approach to life.  She has a super positive attitude and has a way of inspiring others to take that same approach.

Sponsorship Essentials Part 2: Q&A with Dan Dillon, CMO of Arizona State University

By: Claire Lingley

Dan Dillon is the CMO of Arizona State University with an extensive marketing background in the restaurant and consumer world. In Part 2 of “Sponsorship Essentials”, he speaks towards how he got his start, his experience in this industry, and how ASU is changing the way collegiate properties look at branding and sponsorship. With ASU, it’s not merely a transaction, but a deeper partnership.  Looking at the way ASU’s branding and marketing is going, other universities may want to follow suit.

Q: I understand you got your start in the restaurant/consumer side of the industry.  What drew you to the academic world?

A:  The opportunity at ASU was a unique opportunity. I don’t know if I was as intrigued by the industry as I was intrigued by what’s going on here at ASU, the role that marketing could play, and the role that brand management needed to play in terms of the overall mission of what is trying to be accomplished here. I was persuaded by President Crow (ASU President), that marketing could be a difference maker for the university, that it could add value, and that what he wanted to build was the capacity to do brand management, which is something that wasn’t currently here and available for the university, and quite frankly isn’t prevalent in a lot of universities.

It was the opportunity to do something different, to build something that didn’t exist, and to try and add value to a university that felt like it needed marketing to help it get where it wanted to be.

Q:  What is it about your experience in the restaurant and consumer industry that made President Crow approach you, and has helped you in your position at ASU? 

A:  The principles of marketing apply regardless of sector.  In the case of what my background has that was interesting to President Crow was a lot of variety, so with that variety, there was a belief that I could draw on that experience to solve unique problems at the university, despite not having higher-ed experience.  Quite frankly, the problems that we were trying to solve, or the main issues and opportunities that existed at the university, were getting awareness of, and credit for, a lot of what was going on here in a way that defined the brand, the reputation of the brand, and the quality of the brand.  That’s marketing.  That’s generally trying to impact people’s perceptions of a brand in order to have some favourable outcome.

Enrolling, applying, donating, buying tickets or advocating for the brand or participating in events; those are all outcomes that are impacted by marketing and branding. I think President Crow just looked at my background, and because of the number of categories and sectors I had been in, felt that I had enough of experience to drive those types of favourable outcomes here at the university.

Q:  Speaking towards that, you led the creation of the ASU Enterprise Marketing Hub. Can you speak a little bit towards that? What are your goals with it heading into the New Year and beyond?

A:  I arrived at ASU in 2013.  There wasn’t an enterprise marketing hub function; there wasn’t a centralized marketing department.  There were over 400 people with marketing or communications in their title not reporting into one area, not taking direction from one area, but if we were going to operate as we decided we were, as a branded house, not a house of brands, then it was necessary for somebody to manage the branded house, and that’s ASU.

We quickly came to the conclusion that trying to centralize the marketing intake and getting everybody to listen to one leader or report into one area was culturally going to be difficult to implement.  Rather than to go down that path of a command and control approach, we went with a more consulting approach.

We created the Enterprise Marketing Hub as an internal marketing agency that would provide a select set of services and consulting advice on how to manage and build brands at the school level, and the same time, with the belief that in doing that, we could start to manage and control a little bit more of the look and feel and projection of the ASU brand.  If you were a unit and wanted access to that in the form of research or financial resources, or creative resources, or tools that were being used at the enterprise level, then you had to agree to follow some governance and follow some guidance, and that’s a franchised model.  You’ve got the benefit of being a part of a larger organization, but in return, you have to follow and adhere to some guidelines and principles that we were trying to put into place.

The Enterprise Marketing hub has continued to evolve into a stronger unit because of this franchised model approach. 

Q:  Have you experienced difficulty in convincing outside brands joining in to invest in the University outside of the traditional Athletics-focused sponsorship? 

“Later in your career, you’re going to be as successful as your experiences that got you there.”

A:  We’ve changed the model to more of a partnership model.  Sponsors, yes, they get the ability to brand physical assets or put signs up in our stadiums, but we’ve also made ourselves more accessible from other areas of interest other than just building brand awareness through signage. 

So in talking to Adidas, or Coke, or Starbucks, or Mayo, or all these different brands that we are partnering with, what we’re offering is a deeper relationship than just a transaction, whereby you give us a sponsorship check and we give you a certain amount of signage in our athletics venues.  Instead, we are co-founding research and giving these brands access to either our alumni or our students in ways that are beneficial for them in that they drive their revenue, or drive their brand perceptions, or drive their brand awareness. 

We’ve got ways and assets that are not just about logos on billboards or logos on signs, they are much more sophisticated marketing tools and tactics that we are making available.  And that’s a change in the way that we are approaching sponsorships and partnerships, in that we are trying to build a deeper relationship that isn’t just a transactional one or isn’t just about the more traditional, “Name this building; Name this stadium; Put your name on this sign up here” type stuff, because what we’re finding is that the need of these bigger brands that have large budgets is not necessarily brand awareness. 

You know, Coke putting their logo up all over the stadium doesn’t really help them that much.  What helps them is the ability to create experiences that drive affinity.  Allowing them to create events, and to sponsor events, and to participate with our students and alumni in a unique, memorable, engaging way, provides much more benefit to Coke, both in brand affinity and ultimately revenue, than just putting their logo up on our scoreboard.

Q:  Speaking of that, the ASU-Starbucks partnership, that seems like a really unique relationship, can you give me a short history of how that came to be?

A:  It’s pretty simple and I think it goes to the university and the leadership’s propensity to be innovative and creative and solve problems.  Really simply, President Michael Crow and Howard Schultz were at a foundation gathering that they both are board members on.  In the course of conversation, Howard explained that Starbucks had 150,000+ baristas and over half had started post secondary education but not completed it.  Howard and President Crow both agreed that completing a college degree would not only help the individual but also Starbucks.

President Crow gathered a group of us at the university and said, “Okay, how are we going to design a program that enables Starbucks to be able to offer this?”

His desire was to offer the opportunity to get a college degree for free, as long as you’re an employee at Starbucks working more than 20 hours a week, and so we designed a program in such a way that Starbucks could afford to offer that benefit to their employees, and their employees could get high quality degree options available online and be able to complete their degree.  In the beginning, it was complete their degree, and we since have evolved to actually obtain a degree.  Even if you haven’t started, even if you’re a first-time freshman, you still can take advantage of that benefit: as long as you are working 20 hours a week at Starbucks, you can take an ASU-Online program, enter your degree and obtain it.

Q:  Going to switch gears just a little bit here, what is the best piece of advice that you’ve ever received?

A:  Early, early, early on in my career, it was get as much different experience as you can and in as many different places, brands, and companies.  Don’t ever say no to opportunities.  Fundamentally, this was unique advice at a time where people were starting at companies and staying for 30 years.  Getting a lot of experience at a lot of different places, or getting to a place that offers you a lot of experiences, doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to move companies, but it’s important to seek out those opportunities so that later in life you’ve got a wide variety of experiences to draw from to help solve problems and create opportunities.

Later in your career, you’re going to be as successful as your experiences that got you there.

Q:  If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

A:  That’s a tough one. You know it’s funny, my wife would say this, I am not star struck or enamoured by individuals per say, I find a lot of people really very interesting in very unique ways, but if I had the opportunity to have dinner with anybody, and it sounds really silly, I’d rather go out to dinner with my dad than someone I don’t know.  Primarily, because I find him to be more interesting than a lot of people who I go out to dinner with. 

Dad, if you are reading this, I’d say the same thing!

The Case for Emotional Sports Marketing

Last week, we talked about how sponsors can successfully appeal to the modern sports fan. This week, we’ll look at creative approach that has become popular amongst advertisers across the globe and how adopting it has created real results for sport marketers.

The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) recently released its warc100 list of the world’s best marketing campaigns for 2015 and within this list, they reported that close to 30% of the campaigns utilized emotion.  In fact, there has been a steady increase in the number of brands employing this approach.

A deeper investigation into the research surrounding this phenomenon gives insight into this trend. By exposing the fickle nature of world occurrences, the post-financial crisis world has fundamentally redefined what human beings want. Yes we still want to move up in life, get a bigger car and a bigger house, but we do not want it by working in a job that makes us unhappy. As human beings, we are no longer willing to sacrifice our sense of self and our values and we have become more comfortable with ourselves and are proud of our passions, which is why statements such as “geeky is the new sexy” are increasingly resonating with consumers. Thus, at the end of the day, consumers will choose brands that appeal to their value and belief systems.

This paradigm shift requires sponsors and sport marketers to rethink their approach to consumer engagement. Gone are the days that just slapping a logo onto a jersey or on the sidewalls, brands now need to go beyond to appeal to a consumer’s deeper need states. Passion for a sport or a team may not translate into passion for a brand unless there is an overlap between the consumer’s values and the brand’s values.

Some marketers have understood this better than others and have made a connection that has translated into real results and given that 2016 is an Olympic year, we’ll have a look at two campaigns that were the stars of the 2012 Olympics. A noteworthy fact is that none of these brands were directly related to the Olympics, yet the connection the reason why they were so successful was because they aligned themselves to consumer values and need states

The first is from P&G. Consumers may have known some of its brands, but they might not have known about P&G as a corporate brand. How did they do it? By connecting their brand to mothers. The campaign celebrated the fact that a mother empowering her child to participate in the Olympics is a feat that is almost as impressive as being an Olympic athlete. It did so by thanking mom.

According to Unruly Media, this particular commercial was the 7th most shared ad of all time (2013 figures). More than engagement, it also translated into $200 million in increased sales.

The second one is for a brand that was getting a fairly bad reputation amongst consumers. In fact, before the Olympics, only 1 in 5 people thought that this brand’s sponsorship of the Olympics was appropriate and the twitter brand sentiment for this brand was the lowest among all 25 sponsors of the Olympic games. Because of their sponsorship, The Children’s Food Bank nicknamed the 2012 Olympics as ‘The Obesity Games’. That brand is McDonald’s.

But that was before the games, after the debut of the ‘We All Make The Games’ campaign, showed consumers that the Olympics were an inclusive event and the extension of the campaign into the Paralympics went a long way to reduce the negative conversation about the brand. Furthermore this campaign increased brand affinity, trust and relatability. All in all this campaign went on to deliver a Return on Marketing Investment of £5.60. By utilizing emotion as a creative approach, McDonald’s was able to move from the negative to the positive.

This year will see big ticket events such as the European Football Championships and the Olympics and consumers can expect big ticket campaigns that will utilize emotion as a creative approach.