Tag: Philadelphia Eagles

The Expansive Role of Marketing Part II

Posted on by Drew Neisser

This is part 2 of my interview with Tim McDermott, CMO of the Philadelphia Eagles.  In this portion, Tim discusses youth marketing, social media, fan passion, social responsibility and the expansive role of marketing within the Eagles organization.  Again, even if you’re not an Eagles fan or a sports fan for that matter, I think you’ll find it most enlightening.  Also, click here for my article on FastCompany.com related to this.

Neisser:  You mentioned your target is very broad.  Are you doing any more targeted efforts?
McDermott: There are two areas that we feel that we can grow more significantly. The youth market being one and the woman’s market being the other. We launched a three-prong youth strategy back in 2004. We had a kids TV show. We had a kid’s website, and a kid’s club. And we had the largest kids club membership of any sports team in the world. And this year we are reshaping that to continue to grow our impact amongst the youth market.

 

Neisser: Your fan base is famously enthusiastic to put it nicely. Talk to me the role the fans play in building your brands.
McDermott:  If you are a sports executive or even if you’re an owner of a sports team, I think you are really a steward of a brand. It’s really a public trust. And that’s the way you really need to look at it. And I’ve been fortunate enough to work with owners both on the football side, and in the hockey world who always made that their statements, that they are responsible for a public trust. And I think if you take that approach and you think of it as the fans are the true owners of the team. Then you’ll always do the right thing.  You simply do what is right for the fans. And it takes a lot of the complexity out of it.

Neisser: How are you handling social media and community management?
McDermott: When I returned here in January 2010, we reorganized a bit, and part of that was to set up a digital department. And the department is fully devoted to all things digital (i.e. apps, mobile apps, websites, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest– whatever the latest platform is that’s coming down the pike.) So that’s the way that we’ve decided to structure ourselves, because we felt that the world had shifted. And we needed people who were 100% dedicated to evaluating, understanding, and determining how to create, how to use some of the different new media technologies that they’re coming out there. So we do have dedicated social media coordinators, who do evaluate all of the different “what’s next?” and making suggestions on how we can use it.

 

Neisser: Can you articulate what the Eagles brand is about?
McDermott:  Sure. In fact, a couple years ago we went through an exercise with Landor, to put together a brand book and style guide. So we do have that in a very refined piece that we can then share with both the internal as well as with corporate partners. Our brand has some unique brand attributes. We’re well known for our tough as nails, passionate fan base. And it’s a unique sort of passion–I know a lot of teams would say that their fans are passionate, but our fans are passionate. I really don’t think most teams have the breadth and depth of passion, and exemplify it in the way that we do. At the same time we’re a very community oriented brand. Social responsibility is very important to our organization. So those are some of the key hallmarks.

Neisser: And I notice that there is a lot of social responsibility on your website. I imagine that’s handled separately from marketing, is there a group that is dedicated to that?
McDermott: Sure. In fact, a couple years ago we went through an exercise with Landor, to put together a brand book and style guide. So we do have that in a very refined piece that we can then share with both the internal as well as with corporate partners. Our brand has some unique brand attributes. We’re well known for our tough as nails, passionate fan base. And it’s a unique sort of passion–I know a lot of teams would say that their fans are passionate, but our fans are passionate. I really don’t think most teams have the breadth and depth of passion, and exemplify it in the way that we do. At the same time we’re a very community oriented brand. Social responsibility is very important to our organization. So those are some of the key hallmarks.

Neisser: What else do you have going in this area?
McDermott:  So back in 2004 we created a tackle, called Tackling Breast Cancer campaign. And in 2004 the first year of it, we sold pink hats with the Eagles logo. And in a period of 30 days during October, which is breast cancer awareness month, we sold 32,000 pink hats. That’s probably more hats than most professional sports teams will sell in an entire year.  That was all around raising money for breast cancer awareness. And that became a platform that we have now run for the past eight years. We’ve dedicated over — are getting close to two million dollars in donations from that.  And we’ve made it an ongoing platform since 2004. In fact, we were recently named the global sports team of the year for all of our various off the field activities.

Neisser: How big is your marketing department?
McDermott: About 35 to 40 people, about 40 people. That includes all of the merchandising staff. So we oversee our own retail shops and our own pro shops at the stadium. We oversee our outlet store. We oversee our online e-commerce. We oversee the game day sales.  We have a television production group–we call it Eagles Television Network, where we produce, or co-produce or partner on, eight different weekly TV and radio shows. So it depends upon how you define marketing. If you want to define marketing in the more myopic approach instead, it’s relatively small. It’s probably seven people that are just in the so called “marketing department.” If you want to define marketing in the more myopic approach instead, it’s relatively small. It’s probably seven people that are just in the so called “marketing department.”

Neisser: When you look at ahead at the Eagles brand building activity, what’s on your sort of wish list?
McDermott: Well I keep looking at all the possibilities coming through digital media and what’s next. I’m fascinated by some of the augmented reality concepts that are coming out there. And really excited about what might be and just how quickly some of these augmented reality concepts have come to fruition. You can have a print ad in a newspaper, and all of a sudden you can have that ad be the full 30-second TV commercial through augmented reality. So every year we send out tickets to people with an image on those tickets. Now through augmented reality you could actually bring that ticket to life.

Neisser: How do you rationalize this kind of experimentation from a strategic point-of-view?
McDermott: Strategically, I think sport teams are really media companies. We aggregate millions and millions and millions of impressions.: where the people who look at us at games, come to our games, watch us on TV shows, websites, Facebook, Twitter all the different vehicles that are out there. And at the end of the day, we can aggregate communities of people through all these channels. And as a result of that I think you’ll see us acting, and executing in ways that more of a media company. And again, just the way we produce content, the way we distribute content is just one example of that.

Neisser: Do you have any words of wisdom for other marketers?
McDermott:Any time I tell somebody outside of my area of expertise, on what they can do I want to give that a little extra thought. I know that there are very bright very smart marketers out there, and quite honestly I think that often times, we in the sports world are borrowing and stealing the ideas that we see from other people so.

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The Expansive Role of Marketing Part I

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Tim McDermott, CMO of the Philadelphia Eagles makes a compelling case that marketing a sports team is not all that different from marketing other products like consumer packaged goods.  After spending over an hour with him on the phone, I not only came to see his point but also realized that he’s a marketer who really understands how to build a successful brand.  (By the way, I met Tim through The CMO Club.)

Having spent a number of years marketing sports teams (both hockey & football) Tim also did a stint at Comcast and earned an MBA from Harvard along the way.  Here are the highlights of my conversation with Tim broken into two parts that I think you’ll find most enlightening even if you aren’t an Eagles fan!

Neisser: is there anything keeping you up at night?
McDermott: Insuring that we are providing value for season ticket holders. We need to continue to find ways to add value to being a season ticket holder. Find ways to invest with our fan base, and continue to market why it’s a great experience. Why it’s fun to come to the games. Why it’s great to watch us on TV or to be part of purchasing our merchandise…

Neisser: And that’s an interesting place to start, in that there are things that you can control as the marketer and then there’s what happens on the field.
McDermott:  I think there are a lot of similarities between marketing sports property and marketing for other companies. Whether it be the jean companies or the entertainment companies. The reality is we’re probably doing the same things that the marketers are of other retail oriented companies. We’ve got “widgets” to sell in the form of tickets. And we go through the exercise of segmentation, targeting, and positioning our products and our brand the same way that other marketers do. We build brands. We engage in all the different forms of marketing, and advertising as other companies do. So we’re doing everything from market research to CRM implementations, to automated emails; to managing social digital campaigns to direct marketing, to direct response. You name it and I think we do it.

Neisser: So what are the key differences in marketing a sports team?
McDermott: Everyday my product can fluctuate–it can change. And as much as I want to or want our fans to have an undefeated Super Bowl season, I can’t control that. Whereas when you walk in to the McDonald’s or when you purchase Tide, it can be consistent. And that is certainly a challenge to the sports marketer is that you have to able to accept the fact that it is inconsistent. You have to accept the fact that at the end of the day, you can’t control your product. And yet still be able to create demand for your product and create engagement, and create interest in your product.

Neisser: What about your fans?
McDermott: Then the one thing that we do have going for us, which some of those other types of companies don’t, is the tremendous amount of passion that our consumer has for our product. And you see that displayed in a lot of different ways. You should see the letters that we get and the emails that we get. People write stories, poems, music about our product, and they’re willing to sit down and spend time with you, for free of course, to tell you all about how they feel about your product. And to wear your logo on merchandise and they’re walking around with your product. When I step back I know I’m very fortunate because we have such a passionate consumer base. There are many companies out there who would love to be able to have consumers who are as passionate as ours.

Neisser:  A losing season must be a sort of torture test of brand loyalty.
McDermott: There’s obviously some level of correlation between winning and off the field success. How much that correlation is, and how much the causation is between the two, is probably open for debate. And probably depends on a lot of different variables, from the city that you’re in to the kind of the winning tradition or how much success your team has had over an extended period time. To the sort of marketing and brand engagements that you do, all the way up to how people perceive your ownership group. I think if you look at the best sports brands though, all of the ones that have crossed that threshold, where independent of wins and losses, they create a brand that fans want to be associated with. And even in times that aren’t so good on the field, or on the ice or on the court, fans are still showing up. And they’ve created a connection with that fan base. They’ve made being a fan of that team something that does cross the threshold of just wins and losses. So that is something that all sports marketers are trying to do, is build that equity so that when the rainy day occurs people don’t leave. The fans don’t depart.

Neisser: What can the team do off the field to build loyalty?
McDermott: One of the biggest things we can do as team marketers is to create transparency and real trust with our consumer base. I think you can create trust through creating that transparency; and so having ways and methods on processes in place to listen to your fan base, to engage your fan base; to talk with them, but also provide them an avenue to share what’s on their minds. That’s something that we’ve been very successful with.

Neisser: Can you give me a specific example?
McDermott: We’ve created a season ticket holder advisory board. We’ve got a 35-person board that we started a year ago. The board membership runs two years. And it’s not just a glorified focus group. The people that have signed up to be part of this board, signed up to be solutions providers. They are very passionate about the Eagles. At the same time they would tell us what we’re doing right. They will tell us what we’re doing wrong. And they provide or I should say the quid pro quo is, they as being part of a sports membership they also have to provide us or help us come up with solutions to the problem.  Don’t just tell us what we’re doing wrong, but be an extension of our marketing department, and help us create the solution. So we’ve been very successful with doing that. And I think it’s truly a concept of listening, and engaging, and developing trust with them.

Neisser: What measures do you have in place from a brand health standpoint?
McDermott:  We look at TV ratings, website traffic, overall traffic on Facebook and Twitter accounts among other metrics. Merchandise sales is generally another sign of brand health. And of course, season tickets and how well you’re doing with ticket sales. If you’re sold out as in our case, then it’s a matter of monitoring your wait list and seeing if your wait list is growing. And then there are more scientific research based brand tracking studies. We do our own brand tracking study every year to see how we’re performing. And then are third party brand trackers, ESPN Sports Poll is an annual brand tracking study. And some others that are out there as well.

Neisser: And how is your brand doing?
McDermott: Our brand is doing well. Going back to early 2006, we were the fastest growing brand in sports according to a poll by Forbes. You can see some correlation there between how we were performing on the field as well. We had gone to a Super Bowl in January 2005. We lost in the Super Bowl to the Patriots in 2004-5 season. So there was some correlation obviously between on field success and off the field success. Overall today if you look at our website traffic, if you look at merchandise sales, if you look at the TV ratings, all of them are doing extremely well. In the 2010 season, we set TV ratings records. We set website merchandise sales records. 2010 was a very strong season for us. Last year, we saw a little bit of a dip. Again we were an eight and eight football team last year. We didn’t live up to some of the expectations. But when you look at most of the metrics, we performed well. We’re an extremely a strong brand, and you can see that even in a not so great on the field year, that our brand has been built in such a way that it can withstand a not so great year.

Be sure to read part 2 of this interview.