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had Biggs, Philadelphia 76ers senior vice president of corporate development and activation, had heard it so many times during his six years working at the NBA’s New York City headquarters that it became a mantra: “Big Ideas Find Money.”
Still, in an industry preoccupied with sales and moving inventory when it comes to suites, signage or digital ads, the process of brainstorming and fostering creativity is often ignored. The search for the big idea loses out to the quest to sell the big inventory, even if “big ideas find money.”
The problem every sports property faces is how to catalyze ideas powerful enough that sales will accompany them as naturally as groupies follow rock stars. Enter the Innovation Forum, a brainchild of sponsorship industry veteran Tim McGhee.
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Tim McGhee leads a session at the 76ers Innovation Forum.
Photo by: TERRY LEFTON / STAFF
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“Groups working together will always generate better ideas than individuals working independently, so it’s designed as a way to bring them together and facilitate creative thinking,” said McGhee, the former AT&T executive director of sponsorships, who now heads consultancy
MSP Sports.
At a recent 76ers Innovation Forum one morning at the team’s south Philadelphia offices, McGhee split 18 of the team’s marketers into two teams and asked them to develop and present ideas for a summer marketing program. Ideas included a citywide scavenger hunt, a basketball convention, designating July 6 as “Sixers Day” and a pub crawl that could include a pop-up bar from a Sixers sponsor.
The groups gravitated toward events, including music and some of the Sixers’ new draftees. Then they faced the problem everyone in event marketing encounters: take over a smaller town, aka Bud Light’s “Whatever, USA,” or take over a city, where foot traffic is more dependable. No conclusions, but some lively debate.
The same was true when the group designed programs to better include the team’s alumni into the Sixers’ marketing — lively debate about time of day, locations, size of footprint and whether to charge or not. But no conclusive ideas.
Some weeks after, McGhee put the best ideas into a report. Nothing concrete yet, but this is a case where process is as important as results.
“Even if the particular platforms we developed don’t go anywhere, it gets the team thinking about ‘thinking,’” Biggs said. “The idea is that we’ll be out selling ideas and concepts instead of what a potential partner might think are just the same assets they might get anywhere else.”
The New York Red Bulls incorporated an Innovation Forum into their first partner summit. “It’s an exercise in brainstorming,” said Melissa Brennan, the Red Bulls’ senior director of marketing partnerships. “Just getting our partners talking and working together was so productive.” As a bonus, two prospective sponsors on-site, SportCare Physical Therapy and Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield, ended up signing on as sponsors.
“We’d definitely do it again,” Brennan said.
In addition to the Red Bulls and the more recent 76ers program, McGhee has hosted Innovation Forums for the Miami Heat, USA Luge, the PBR and the Atlanta Tipoff Club for its annual Naismith Trophy for college basketball’s top player. The last forum resulted in the club deciding to offer title sponsorship for the first time for an award that dates to 1969.
“It can really generate new thinking, but you have to bring in people from different parts of an organization if it’s within a property,” said McGhee, who didn’t disclose what he charges for a forum but would like to expand into sessions within brand marketing teams. “As part of a sponsor summit, you have to be sure they know it’s about adding value, not a means of getting them to write additional checks.”
And with big enough ideas, the money should find them anyway, right?
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
