Sponsor Talk

Konstantin Dieterle, Head of Business Development for Beyond Sports, discusses his experience in the tech world with stops at Google and AppLift before landing at Beyond Sports. He outlines their partnership with the NFL and Nickelodeon to create the idea around making NFL football players into block characters and streaming the game (in blocky form) on Twitch. Konstantin gives examples of how the Beyond Sports technology can enhance sponsorship activation, and believes there are more innovative ways to use technology for branding.

In today's episode, we have a conversation with Roger Jones (Director of Corporate Partnerships at the Cleveland Browns). After going to Ohio University to study sports management, Roger's career has come full circle when he started his new role at the hometown Browns. With a huge emotional attachment to the city of Cleveland and a passion for improving DE&I in the sports industry, Roger has been focused on working with partners and the brand team internally to create change within the community. He has supported the team's new Cleveland Huddle campaign that supports Black-owned restaurants and the battle against food insecurity around the city, as well as the Build The Bridge program which tackles social inequality and race relations within local high schools.

Jason Smith connects with a few industry experts during the BYU Sports Business Summit to talk about sponsorships with over 200 students in attendance. John Kimball (Real Salt Lake), Mike Berry (Arizona Coyotes), Greg Tanner (Utah Jazz), and Casey Stauffer (BYU Athletics) share insights and stories about how they conduct business, working with partners, and how they compete with each other for sponsorship dollars.

Brett Wallerstedt, General Manager of Sun Devil Athletics Corporate Partnerships, dives into his career path from the NFL to making three separate stops with the Arizona State Athletics Department. He shares his thoughts on multi-media rights companies, and how the Pac-12 has dipped its toes into that business. He outlines how he dealt with partners receiving limited exposure with one home football game in the fall due to the pandemic, and how he separates their sponsorship program with all the other sports teams in the market.

On today's episode, we chat with Tom Barbitta (CMO, Sauer Brands) to find out how his team is positioning Duke's Mayo as a staple in the South, thanks to a bit of help from college football. Tom gives some incredible insight on why their mayonnaise brand sponsored a college football bowl game, how the condiment made waves on international media thanks to a broken trophy and how they launched their biggest partnership in the middle of a pandemic with help from former Carolina Panthers' linebacker Luke Kuechly.

Ryan Holloway, President & Founder of Peak Sports Management shares his amazing story of taking a leap of faith to start his company assisting athletic departments across the country managing their sponsorship programs. He makes some bold moves in his career that you’ll want to hear. He also talks about how COVID has affected his business in many ways, but has maintained a positive attitude.

For today’s episode, we’re taking a look at what goes behind the scenes of putting together one of the largest sporting events in the world – the Super Bowl. Nicki Ewell, Director of events at the NFL, and Tony Diaz, Vice President of Operations at the Tampa Super Bowl Host Committee, join us to share details on what it’s like to plan for an event of this size during a pandemic, how they are getting the City of Tampa excited and what goes on behind the scenes on the lead-up to the big game.

For today’s episode, we’re going behind the scenes with two of the leaders behind the National Football League’s partnership with Rocket Mortgage: Casey Hurbis and Nana-Yaw Asamoah. The deal was the first mortgage sponsorship for the NFL in over a decade and its centerpiece is their squares promotion, which is the largest official game of Super Bowl squares in history. Casey is the Chief Marketing Officer of Quicken Loans and Rocket Mortgage, one of the nation’s most trusted mortgage lenders. In his role, he leads a marketing group of more than 300 employees and has been a major contributor to negotiating the brand’s partnership deals with the PGA Tour, Churchill Downs and most recently the National Football League. Alongside him, we chat with Nana-Yaw Asamoah, the Vice President of Sponsorship and Business Development for the National Football League. Nana-Yaw leads the team responsible for all new business efforts on NFL marketing partnerships and has been with the organization for 12 seasons. In addition to negotiating over $500M in contracted revenue, Nana-Yaw has successfully changed the landscape of partnerships at the NFL by elevating categories like sleep technology and bringing on partners in new categories like Oakley and Rocket Mortgage. In the conversation, we find out how they built the partnership in a time space of in 5 weeks and how they are defining success as they head into season two.

Today’s episode is with Ahron Cohen (Former President & CEO of the Arizona Coyotes). Ahron received a law degree from Arizona State University and worked for the Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, and Snell & Wilmer, before working his way up the ranks of the Arizona Coyotes. Ahron discusses the legal challenges COVID has put on sponsorships, and how brands and properties should legally work together through the pandemic. He also gives his thoughts on pandemic insurance, and if properties should utilize this resource for the future.

Today’s episode is with Natalie Bowman (Managing Director, Marketing & Advertising for Alaska Airlines). Natalie has worked in marketing across a whole range of industries on brands like Land Rover, Nissan, Neiman Marcus, Microsoft, and now Alaska Airlines. Natalie talked to us about the changing landscape of the airline industry due to the pandemic, how her team approaches regional sponsorship deals, their newest marketing campaign built around safety and what she has learned working on multiple categories throughout her career including airline, fashion, automotive and technology.