This issue will look at a third group of event marketers--those who work for sponsoring companies. Relatively few companies have in-house event marketing or sports marketing departments. Generally such departments are created only when a company finds itself spending considerable money on sports or special events. Often those chosen to head up the departments have learned on the job, moving into event marketing from other marketing or marketing communication jobs.
Their primary responsibility is to find events which will help the company reach predetermined marketing and marketing communication goals (more on this in the next issue). Therefore they are expected to understand, and possibly help develop, corporate marketing strategy. Three examples of corporate event/sports marketers:
In 1967 he went over to Manufacturers Hanover. He became head of marketing in 1976 and executive vice president for corporate marketing and communications in 1986.
McCabe made his mark in sports marketing when, in 1977, he created a running race for corporate employees. (His goal was to bring more corporate accounts into the bank.) The race grew into the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Corporate Challenge.
In 1991, Manufacturers Hanover was bought by Chemical Bank. McCabe became Chemical's head of corporate marketing and communications. And his running event became the Chemical Bank Corporate Challenge.
Paddock graduated from Good Counsel College (later a part of Pace University) in 1971 with a degree in English. She joined Manufacturers Hanover's sales training program in 1976. She joined the special events department in 1978 and became its director in 1981.
Both McCabe and Paddock came to Chase when it merged with Chemical Bank. Chase expanded its event marketing department to include the employees from both banks. To handle sports, Paddock brought 14 employees from Chemical and added two from Chase. Alice Sach Zimet, director of cultural affairs at the old Chase, retained her position and has five employees.
Two sports events Chase is currently sponsoring are college basketball's Pre-Season National Invitation Tournament and the women's singles competition at the U. S. Open tennis tournament. In addition, Chase has taken over Chemical's old sports sponsorships: the Corporate Challenge (now in 16 cities, involving 6,500 companies and 160,542 participants), college basketball's ECAC Holiday Festival, track and field's Millrose Games, the New York City Marathon, and the Baseball Hall of Fame's Induction Weekend.
Chase spends between $4 million to $5 million a year on sports marketing. Said McCabe, "There are two things that are important in getting Chase's name out in front of people, research and relationships. If our target market is mothers, we'll pick out all the events we know there'll be mothers watching." (2)
And if these events generate widespread publicity for Chase, that's even better. If, for example, a tennis star playing in the Open is photographed in front of a Chase banner and the photo lands on the cover of Sports Illustrated, that's worth a lot. "That creates excitement. That's what you wish for, you hope for, you pray for, for that international pickup." (3)
D'Alessandro then spent ten years at Control Data Corporation, eventually becoming its general manager. In 1984 he moved to Boston to become vice president of corporate communications at John Hancock Life Insurance. D'Alessandro took the plunge into corporate sponsorship when John Hancock stepped forward with $1 million to bail out the Boston Marathon, which was in trouble financially. The company has been the major sponsor of the race ever since and is under contract until 2005.
In order to insure the success of the race, D'Alessandro began paying top racers to compete. He signed the best racers to personal service contracts, giving five and six-figure annual incentives to prize winners. He was also able to use his runners for leverage when signing sponsorships with the New York and Los Angeles marathons.
Currently Hancock spends about $2 million a year on the Boston Marathon, with $600,000 of that going to pay 30 to 40 elite runners to participate. (An interesting aside: in 1996 Hancock chose not to buy advertising time during the local TV coverage of the marathon. Instead it provided $450,000 for additional medical facilities. The company anticipated more injuries because an increased number of inexperienced runners had signed up.)
Hancock has also sponsored the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the Junior World Baseball Championships, the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic Trials, and a college football bowl game (the company had title sponsorship of the Sun Bowl for six years). D'Alessandro was so effective at marketing, he became a member of Hancock's Management Committee in 1988, a member of its board of directors in 1990, and head of its retail sector in 1991. Then, in 1996, he was designated Hancock's future president and chief operations officer, a position he will assume in 1998.
Currently the Hancock sports marketing unit employs six executives and is headed by Tod Rosenweig, former marketing director for the Celtics. The company spends about $10 million a year on sports sponsorships and another $300,000 a year to measure their effectiveness. According to D'Alessandro, "We are not a big spender. We are a relatively big player for small money. And that's because we have to be. I'm sure if we had $80 million, we wouldn't be efficient. We'd do things like Budweiser and buy the ring aprons on a boxing match." (4)
The Sporting News has named D'Alessandro one of sport's 100 most powerful people.
In 1982 Ponturo joined Anheuser-Busch as director of media services. In 1991 he became A-B's vice-president/director of corporate media and sports marketing. The position opened up when his boss and mentor, Chuck Fruit, left to become director of global media for Coca-Cola. In 1994 Ponturo also became chairman and chief executive of Busch Media Group (he had been its president).
Ponturo oversees a $511 million marketing budget. He is in charge of media planning and advertising purchasing for all of A-B's beer brands. He also negotiates A-B's sponsorship contracts and supervises production of Busch Media Group's televised events, such as the St. Louis Cardinals baseball games (the company owns the team).
- The Sporting News has named Ponturo one of sport's 100 most powerful people.