Earlier this year, the leaders of building-materials company USG Corporation were devising how best to roll out a top-to-bottom brand relaunch that they had been planning for months. The fall off in construction after the 2008 financial crisis had decimated the Chicago-based company's business, forcing layoffs of half its staff, and it had only just recently stabilized enough to start once again thinking about the future.
CEO James Metcalf challenged the leadership of the 111-year-old company to devise a way to make a powerful statement about the brand getting back on its feet, dusting itself off, and coming back stronger than ever. It didn't take long for the executive team to realize that the perseverance necessary to succeed in sports, as personified by the 2014 Winter Olympics, would provide an excellent context for the company to deliver a comeback message to its employees.
"The Winter Olympics is a great opportunity," says Linda McGovern, vice president of marketing for USG. "For one thing, Team USA is a nonprofit — 85 percent goes back to the athletes — but sports and competition also embodied the themes we were talking about as a company: overcoming adversity and challenges, teamwork, and winning."
USG announced a major sponsorship of the U.S. and Canadian Olympic teams, which will compete in the Games in February in Sochi, Russia. The company's efforts include a redesign of the company logo and a widespread marketing push to reconnect with customers. It even included the provision of donating drywall and other building materials to Team USA's high-performance training center in Colorado Springs, CO.
As Olympics and Super Bowl fever heat up, it's a good time for organizations to take a closer look at how using sporting events can take their marketing messages — both internal and external — to the next level. Sporting events are big business when it comes to meetings. According to corporate sports ticketing service Spotlight TMS, companies spend $20 billion annually on tickets to sporting events and luxury box rentals.
And for good reason. There are few activities that offer as high a level of built-in engagement and entertainment, while also touching on themes most relevant to a company's success — dedication, improvement, competition, and collaboration. Sports are also flexible enough to be incorporated into a wide range of programs, whether a sales event aimed at attracting high-level clients, or a conference tapping an athlete to offer their own experience and advice.
"Corporations can look to an athlete for a personality who can help improve individual performance and help inspire the organization," says Tiki Barber.
He should know. The former running back for the New York Giants has had an impressive track record both on the field and on the speaker circuit. Combining these backgrounds, he recently co-founded Thuzio, an online marketplace for booking athletes for corporate speaking gigs and appearances.
In many ways, Barber is a walking example of how the lessons of sports can be applied to business.
"I believe that entrepreneurship — owning an idea within a company — and constant innovation are necessary to success," he says. "Just like in the NFL, finding a new way to scheme and execute a play is often the small difference between wins and loses for a company"
With the World Series still a fresh memory, the Super Bowl around the corner, and the Winter Olympics a few weeks after that, Barber's points seem more relevant than ever. Whether wooing prospects, rewarding top employees, or helping deliver a company agenda, planners can score by incorporating sports into their agendas.
Start With the Tickets
"It's a good investment — tickets for attendees might cost just $30 each, but it makes a much bigger impact than that dollar amount would lead you to believe," says Tony Knopp, co-founder and CEO of Spotlight TMS. "It's a situation where both sides — employee and manager or client and service provider — feel like they're receiving something of value."
Spotlight TMS creates and manages what Knopp calls "company box offices" that allow individual organizations to offer a range of sports tickets for use in meetings or incentives. It provides for clear cost controls and tracking return on investment by requiring departments that request the tickets to explain the purpose for which they are using the tickets.
"It could be that the organization buys 100 tickets for a basketball game next Saturday, and depending on the value those tickets can provide to the different departments, you might give 25 to marketing, 20 to business development, 15 to customer service, and 40 to the meetings person," says Knopp. "Any sales rep, manager, or executive can pull up Spotlight and say, 'This employee is killing it right now, we want to send them to the game.'"
For the most in-demand tickets (think Super Bowl or Wimbledon), companies can place specific restrictions depending on the event or the quality of the tickets, such as only sales people in the top 5 percent get luxury seats, or when wooing potential customers, only prospective clients who are senior vice presidents or above can get Super Bowl tickets. These high-level tickets aren't cheap, and this allows the organization to keep a control on how they are being used.
Having done business with myriad companies, from Fortune 500s to mom-and-pop operations, since launching its software in 2008, Spotlight can generate reports on just how much business taking a client to a particular event is likely to bring in and make predictions about what value a certain game can offer to the company. According to the data Spotlight has compiled for its clients, when a businessperson brings a guest to a game, that individual represents an average of $161,544 in revenue to the company. Also, a luxury suite rental costs a company an average of $3,080 — but the event hosted there offers the potential of generating $2.58 million in incremental revenue.
"We are working with our customers and saying, 'Here's exactly what you get out of your tickets,'" says Knopp.
That's not to say corporate sports outings have to break the bank. When devising an event for a client attending a large conference in the transit solutions industry, it occurred to planners at Bravo Productions that instead of a pricey and forgettable three-hour cocktail reception requiring a full bar, ballroom, and buffet stations, "How about ice-cold canned beer, Sprite or Coke, and a comedian or singer on a motorcoach?" says Greg Jenkins, partner at Bravo Productions.
Jenkins took the group of 110 attendees to a two-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, paying just $35 per ticket, $400 for the motorcoach, and $300 for the en-route entertainment. But what the event lacked in the size of its price tag, it made up for with a more personal touch. During the trip to the stadium, executives took a few minutes to thank attendees and outline their vision for the company, even connecting the themes of their discussion to the game itself.
"This outing is one that guests remembered, an event that also set their company apart from the typical receptions hosted by their competitors participating in the conference," says Jenkins.
Brian Learst, CEO of engagement and incentive firm QuintLoyalty, agrees that sports events are a reliable way to make a business impact that far exceeds the dollar amount spent. His company is a formal partner with the NFL for the Super Bowl and the NBA for All-Star Game Weekend, among others, and recently launched QuintEvents.com, which focuses exclusively on setting up corporate groups with customized sports packages.
"Something like a trip to the Super Bowl is not an inexpensive item, but it can grant the organization access to the C-level people it needs to reach," says Learst. "If they invite the CEO or COO to a nice Hawaii trip, there is a good chance that they've been offered trips like that before and have gotten jaded about them, whereas the Super Bowl is something they won't want to miss."
Due to the high demand it has seen for sporting events, QuintLoyalty is now in the process of moving its hundreds of sports packages onto its points-based merchandise incentive program to more fully integrate it as an employee-motivation offering. It expects them to be available by first quarter of 2014.
Leverage the Event Strategically
In pursuing its Winter Olympics tie-in, USG Corp. found it was important to first connect the Games to the brand in the minds of its own employees.
"We knew that it couldn't be a CEO-only initiative," says McGovern. "While we had top-down support from the executives, we also needed to get bottom-up support."
That bottom-up initiative began by working with department managers to handpick 40 employees from the plant, sales, corporate office, and elsewhere who had done outstanding work and were well-respected by colleagues. Coming from a range of backgrounds, these 40 individuals were flown out to Colorado Springs, the location of the Team USA high-performance Olympic training facility that USG was helping build.
There, they discussed the company's long-term business strategy before the new company logo and details of the Winter Olympics sponsorship were unveiled — giving those few dozen employees a sneak peek before anyone else had seen it. They spent the next day in workshops and activities where elements of the company relaunch were connected to various winter sports — such as shooting (keeping a laser-focus on goals) and judo (perceptively sizing up the competition).
They were then all sent out to seven cities (Toronto, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Dallas, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Chicago) where a total of more than 1,200 USG employees had gathered at a range of local venues (such as the UIC Theatre in Chicago and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto). There, they became part of an all-day program that helped relaunch the brand company-wide, helping to tell their gathered colleagues about the new sponsorship.
To help tell the story, USG incorporated a video simulcast in which sports broadcaster Greg Gumble interviewed CEO Metcalf and other executives. After that, individual Olympic hopefuls in sports ranging from women's hockey to skiing told their stories of training for the Games and pursuing their goals.
"We used sports analogies throughout the simulcast that helped to keep engagement high — it really had the feel of a sports news program," says McGovern. "After that we had a big celebration."
With the success of the launch, McGovern is now focused on keeping the momentum going up to the Winter Olympics in February. That includes launching a series of sports-themed news videos, as well as edited content from the Colorado Springs retreat and all-employee events. Each ambassador will be working on their own goals for their group, from brainstorming sessions at the plant about how to leverage the sponsorship to developing customer presentations.
"We're looking to provide viewing parties of the Olympics at our plants as a way to engage people around our athletes," says McGovern. "We'll also hopefully be hosting some of our customers at the Olympic trials where our athletes are qualifying to get into the Olympics."
USG demonstrates how sports can help inspire and accomplish an organization's goals, from the highest level all the way down to the end user. While the games are a lot of fun to watch, the players themselves can give an engaging voice to a company's mission as keynote speakers or participants in a meeting's agenda.
"The lessons that a professional athlete learned about overcoming adversity, dealing with change, and working within a team all translate well into the office," says Barber. "That's why bringing a group to a game or having an athlete speak or attend a meeting is an effective context for shaping an event."
He gives the example of collaboration which, "just like my dependence on my teammates as a football player, is also critical in the business world," and of too much "pride in ownership" which can be detrimental to the success of the organization overall.
Barber's company, Thuzio, offers more than 1,200 professional athletes who can be booked directly from the company website (www.thuzio.com). Each offers a range of services and the types of appearances they are available for, with a clear price tag (see "Sports Stars" sidebar for some of Thuzio's speakers).
"Athletes are great motivational speakers — they can talk about putting in time and hard work, whether it's for sports or business," says Michael "Red" Walsh, founder and president of Golden Platter Sports, a New York City-based sports entertainment and hospitality company that specializes in helping corporate groups connect with sporting events.
He gives the example of a recent event in which Hall of Fame football player Warren Sapp took part in a corporate dinner, giving a speech at the event about teamwork and tenacity in business. The following day, he joined some attendees on the golf course, playing a hole with them and taking a photo with each person.
"They could then bring that picture to the office, and for years it will be a conversation piece," says Walsh.
Engage With a Destination
Sports also allow an organization to connect with a meeting destination in a way that few other events can. Next month, the New Jersey-New York City area will be the center of the sports universe as the Super Bowl comes to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.
"Since the Super Bowl is being held in NYC, the media and financial capital of the U.S., it is going to be an even larger spectacle than it has been in the past," says Barber. "I believe every major American company will have some presence during this game week."
He adds that most companies will have dozens of their prospects and clients in the NYC area for the game as well, whether hosting a game viewing or an event with a Super Bowl champion to "allow a company to entertain clients and provide a lasting memory that he or she will always associate with the company." For its part, Thuzio will have more than 400 NFL players and former players in the area.
"Some are brand ambassadors, some are participating in sponsored press junkets, some are participating in cocktail parties, tailgating, game watches, and even flag football games," says Barber.
QuintLoyalty had several clients hold events connected with the 2013 Super Bowl in Indianapolis, and they used the opportunity to take part in a number of satellite events around the city ahead of the big game. This included a Super Bowl charity "bowling classic" at the nearby Woodland Bowling Center, as well as attendance to the "Leather and Laces" party, which included celebrity appearances by Carmen Electra and Jenny McCarthy. One insurance client brought 220 of its top salespeople to the game and took part in a number of associated activities.
"It was one of the best promotions they've ever done throughout their sales organization as far as supplier performance goes," says Learst.
If Learst had a client who preferred a sport other than football, he had plenty of options from which to choose, whether one of the three major races held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, or a PGA or USGA championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club. For basketball fans, he could host them at the Big Ten Basketball Championship in Indianapolis (the NCAA national headquarters are in the city) or take them to an Indiana Pacers game.
While Indianapolis may be one of the most sports-loving cities in the country, almost every city or region offers some kind of sporting event that will guarantee an entertaining and potentially inspiring addition to a meeting itinerary.
Of course, going for more affordable, or more unusual events than the Super Bowl or World Series can be a powerful and memorable option for meetings and incentives — such as catching a Spanish national team football match when in that country, or a dragon boat race in China. When holding a meeting in a foreign destination, there are few better ways to get a true local experience than attending a sporting event.
Though Olympic fans will be focusing on Sochi for February's games, the most recent host of an Olympics — England — still offers no shortage of sports events two years after hosting the most high-profile competition in the world.
"England may be known for football, rugby, and tennis, but there are many other unconventional sports on offer that can enhance the experience for the corporate market," says Emma de Vadder, regional director, North America for VisitEngland. She points to the Tour de France, Henley Royal Regatta, and Wimbledon, among other sports draws coming in 2014. "March will see the Lee Valley VeloPark open, allowing access to its four cycling disciplines — track, BMX, road, and mountain biking. So whilst England has developed a world-class sports heritage, it's also on top of its game developing fresh offerings with more unconventional sports."
Tailoring the right sporting event to the corporate gathering is arguably even more important when it comes to utilizing the event as an employee incentive. Walsh emphasizes that few rewards are as emotionally powerful for individuals as tickets to a sporting event or a one-on-one interaction with a famous player.
But to make sure the sports rewards are as meaningful as possible, they should be selected after consulting with the employees themselves, then build the incentive around the goal they want to hit.
"You want to ask the individual what their idea of a sports incentive is. It might be, 'go play golf with Tiger Woods,' or 'drive a racecar,'" says Walsh.
Whatever the sport, and at whatever the scale, he emphasizes that "if you incorporate the discipline and hard work and dedication of sports off the field into business, it's a great model for individuals and people setting their own goals."