Day 8: ESPN & Team Epic

By Jonathan Marsh and Wenqian Zhu

Our final day on the New England Immersion trip began by checking out of our hotel in Boston and driving to the famous ESPN campus in Bristol, Connecticut. Our group split in half and were given tours by Stephani Foster and Chris Murphy around some of the most important and exciting parts of ESPN. The environment was great, and we were are all very excited to be there. We also got a sense from our guides and everyone else we conversed with that ESPN genuinely cares about their employees. They hold many sports tournament for the employees, hold exclusive concerts, and have two gyms in which they provide work out and nutrition plans. In addition, since most of the employees have children, ESPN also has a kid’s center so their employees can focus solely on their work and don’t have to worry about their kids.

Chris' group was lucky enough to stand in the back of a live control room take of Tedy Bruschi and Will Arnett discussing his new Teenage Mutant Turtles movie and some football. Being able to watch a segment happen live was very exciting and changed the way we'll now watch the show. In addition, we were able to go upstairs and take pictures in an empty NFL Live Studio. The cameraman even explained how the jib-camera operates and how he uses it to shoot different shows. 

We were also lucky to meet with John Wildhack, the EVP, Programming and Production of ESPN - basically the NO. 2 guy. He is a very friendly man who greeted every single employee when they walked by during his talk. John was also very patient and honest to us when we asked him questions. He said he won’t be too concerned about their competitors like Fox because he believes in ESPN can provide better content about sports and they also collaborate with Fox in some way. It is more important to focus on making more creative content. When I asked why there is no ESPN in China although it has many branches in over 65 countries, he said it would be a huge investment to put on a new ESPN in China. Therefore, ESPN would rather work with a partner who is already there. Furthermore, ESPN provides content to sell to Chinese networks, such as providing international rights of NCAA Men’s Basketball. John Wildhack is very busy so we really appreciated that he gave us his valuable time. 

The final destination of our New England Immersion trip ended with a visit to the Sports Business Journal’s #1 ranked Agency of the Year in 2010 and 2014, Team Epic. Founded in 1999, Team Epic is a young company with a young staff dedicated to leading the industry in sponsorships and marketing specialization. Team Epic recently moved into their new office in Westport, CT where they were able to design a space suited to meet their “work hard, play hard mentality.” The office includes multiple conference rooms named after iconic sports venues, a recreational center which with a Ping-Pong table and arcade basketball hoop, and open spaces inundated with sports memorabilia.  Everyone who we spoke to in the office agreed that a component which makes their agency so special to work for are the people, coincidentally there are at least 9 Syracuse Alumnus who currently work in the office. Outside of the office, employees partake in sports teams, happy hours, and dinners. Another aspect of the industry which I found unique is that roughly 50% of Team Epic’s 150 employees worked their way up from the company’s 6-month training program.

The first member of the team we met with was Michelle Berg, Executive VP. Michelle gave a brief overview of her background as well as the company’s structure and its different divisions. These divisions include: Sponsorship Strategy/Consulting; Experiential, Events & Hospitality; Measurement and Evaluation; Program Development & Activation; Digital/Social Support; and Creative. Like many of the other organizations we met with, Team Epic essentially has a company working within the company focusing specifically on the analytics of the measurement and evaluation division. Michelle also touched on some of their biggest clients such as FedEx and AT&T, setting the stage for PowerPoints about their biggest activations.

One example of an activation Team Epic executed for AT&T was the Pulse Point station at the NCAA Men’s Final Four this past year in Houston. The implementation was basically an opportunity for fans to put themselves into a high pressure, technology-filled environment in which they were only allotted a small amount of time to make a shot. Fans waited in line for hours just to get a shot at experiencing a final four game-like situation. Other examples of activations Team Epic created for FedEx is the NFL Ground and Air Player of the Week as well as a pre-release of the best-selling video game, Madden, to socially influential gamers. A common theme that Michelle emphasized on these activations were how important technology has become. This is because traditional signage sponsorships are boring and ineffective for the most part. Another aspect discussed about the FedEx sponsorship was the budget that Team Epic was given in order to create different events during Super Bowl weekend. These events included a conference, golf outing, winery tour, party, and brunch.

In addition to meeting with Michelle Burke, we had the pleasure of listening to Alyssa Wood, Iain McWhirter, Robert Stabenau, Michelle Bevilacqua, Denadjae Combs, Nico Amantia, Alex Tavernier and several others all talk about their experience and their responsibilities with Team Epic. It was evident that everyone was really invested in their work and took a great deal of pride in their job.

Finally, after meeting with 19 organizations and over 61 people, it was time to depart Team Epic and head back to Syracuse University.

NE Immersion Day 7: Cleveland Indians vs. Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park

NE Immersion Day 7: Cleveland Indians vs. Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park

By: Scott Slutsky and Sam Sinykin

Although the chance of rain threatened us, on our seventh day we embarked to historic Fenway Park to watch the Cleveland Indians take on the Boston Red Sox. Built in 1912 and home to the 8-time World Champion Red Sox, Fenway is the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball. Before entering the stadium, we spent about an hour of leisure time on historic Yawkey way. The Sox ingenious model of creating a "tailgate atmosphere" for ticketed fans has increased the fan experience while simultaneously improving Sox revenues on food and merchandise. The atmosphere also included live entertainment such as a band, magicians and and free balloons for kids.

Once inside the stadium, we were welcomed by a buzz of commotion lead by passionate concessioners and screaming fans. As we began our trek to our seats, we absorbed the excitement of Fenway, and could not be more exciting for the start of the game. While heading to our seats, we continued to see the updated marketing and entertainment options that have become available to fans of all ages, including virtual reality, a kids zone and opportunities to take photos with mascots.

We then headed to our seats in the center field bleachers, only a few rows behind where Ted Williams hit his historic 502 foot home run in 1946. We got to our seats, listened to player introductions and the national anthem, and the game was ready to begin. As baseball enthusiasts, we decided to score the game using the scorecard provided in the game program.

Although there was a chance of rain, the game time temperature was 59 degrees with cloudy skies. Throughout the game, the skies cleared up and the temperature rose, and it ended up being a perfect day for a ballgame. One highlight of the game included seeing David Ortiz in his last season go 4-4, only a triple away from the cycle. Another highlight was seeing the hottest player in baseball, Jackie Bradley Jr., continue his hitting streak to 27 games. Finally there was nothing better than seeing the Sox pull out the 5-2 win on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. 

With a comfortable 5-2 lead heading in to the 7th inning, we could not help but notice the vast corporate sponsorships evident at Fenway Park. With companies like Infiniti, New Balance, Coca Cola, Scottrade and The Boston Globe, the Red Sox have successfully covered numerous markets. The sponsorships ranged from being on the historic Green Monster, to being seen on security and usher's jackets. With a thorough view of Fenway, our group had a great opportunity to see where the Sox and their sponsors placed advertisements. As evident with some companies being on the Green Monster and some being in smaller spots, the Sox have various levels of sponsorship deals with these companies. 

Add in a wonderful rendition of God Bless America in the 7th and Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline in the 8th, and the ball game was surely one to remember. After experiencing the business success of Yawkey Way, the bustling crowds inside the stadium, and the sites and sounds of the game performance, our experience at Fenway Park was one that we will cherish forever. 

NE Immersion Day 6: Herreshoff Museum and International Tennis Hall of Fame

NE Immersion Day 6: Herreshoff Museum and Lunch 

By: Matt Potolski & Nick DiPaola

On our sixth day of the New England Immersion trip, we visited the state of Rhode Island. Our two major destinations for the day were the Herreshoff Marine Museum and the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Upon waking up and making full use of the hotel’s continental breakfast, the group was all filed into the bus when 7:30 AM came around to get on the road to Rhode Island. The Herreshoff Museum, located in Bristol, was around an hour and a half trip. When we arrived, most of us couldn’t help but notice the boats located right outside of the museum, jump starting our interest for what would lay inside. Our tour guide Dan started by discussing the history of the Herreshoff family and their relationship to yachting and the America’s Cup. The brother’s strengths meshed perfectly with each other; John having the savvy business mind and Nathanael having the intellect to design boats resulting in an unprecedented yacht building company.

Exterior of the Herreshoff Museum

The beginning of the brother’s brilliance on display was in 1891 when they built a racing sailboat for E.D. Morgan. This boat, named “GLORIANA”, went on to win all eight races that it competed in.

America's Cup Trophy

When it comes to the history of the America’s Cup, the competition began back in 1851, making it the oldest contested competition in the world. The name comes from the fact that the yacht “America” beat the British that year and was where Queen Victoria asked who was in second place and was answered with “your Majesty, there is no second”. Following this victory, there was 132 straight years of Americans winning the Cup over any competitors or challengers. Because of the ships nature of needing 64 crew members, they didn’t have many uses after the races and only three winning ships since the 1930’s are still intact today. At this time of the sport, much like tennis, it was very much a leisure activity and its participants were mainly rich men.

One of the most interesting notes regarding the Cup dealt with Sir Thomas Lipton. While he never won the Cup, he was the first to introduce the idea of sports sponsorship and promotion on the participating yachts and having his company’s name constantly showing up in the news. Nowadays, advertising can be seen all over the yachts as this sponsorship is key for contemporary funding.  

The Hall of Boats

Aerial View of the Hall of the Boats

The most interactive and interesting section of the Museum was the Hall of Boats. Here visitors are exposed to over 60 restored yachts, many of which look to be in pristine condition. Something that only added to the neat experience was being able to go and walk on a couple yachts seeing their interior first-hand. What I found most impressive about the yachts that we could go on, such as the “CLARA” and “TORCH”, was the almost seamless ability to keep the tradition of the hundred plus year old yachts with modern-day renovations that appeal to today’s visitor. Our last doing at the Museum was taking a group photo in front of the 1992 America’s Cup Contender “Defiant”, which was able to successfully defend the Cup and was an extraordinary yacht that looked to be in terrific shape.  

The Defiant Yacht 

Today, on the 6th day of our New England Immersion experience, we visited the historic venue of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  The Hall of fame, which has 229 inducted members, was purchased out of bankruptcy by James van Allen, who had the great idea of actually making the tennis venue into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1880.  From Arthur Ashe to Stephi Graff, the Hall of Fame recognizes the greatest Men and women's tennis -players from around the globe.  What varies this Hall of fame from other hall of fames, such as the Naismith Hall of fame, is that it is still an active venue that holds tournaments and matches for tennis on grass, clay, and hard court, as well as Court tennis, which only has 11 courts left in the world.  Court tennis is a game that was played by royalty in the monasteries, so it has the look of a courtyard.  It is played by using a curved racket, and a home-made tennis ball that does not bounce. During the day we were visiting the Hall of Fame, there was a court tennis match featuring the #1 and #2 player in the world, who happens to be the tennis pro at the hall of fame.  Our tourguide made us all laugh when she assumed that we all knew about Jon McEnroe’s on court antics, and when she went on a seemingly endless rant about the Stop n’ Shop that was killing the view from the best seats at the center court.  Also, a group of us have decided to 

Following the International Tennis Hall of Fame, we took the short drive to Tickets Bar and Grill where we ate lunch and watched the Syracuse vs. Maryland quarterfinal matchup in the NCAA Lacrosse Tournament. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out with the victory but we did get to enjoy a good lunch in a very cool environment. Lastly, we finished off the day by driving down Bellevue Avenue to sightsee and take in some Newport mansions before returning to the hotel for the night.

Something that I certainly took away from both Herreshoff Museum and the International Tennis Hall of Fame was that both respect the traditions and history of the great sports that they represent but both have continued to evolve and progress with the times.

Day 5: BAA, FleishmanHillard, Boston Redsox

By: Tim Borza & Darren Barnowitz

New England Immersion Trip: Day 5

Boston Marathon Trophy

Day five of the trip started with a visit to the Boston Athletic Association. In my sales class with Professor Ryan, my group chose the Boston Athletic Association as our company for a group project. I had a lot of background knowledge on the association and was excited to meet Executive Director, Thomas Grilk. Grilk never imagined becoming the executive of the B.A.A. He actually got his start when the marathon finish line announcer decided he wanted to run in the marathon and Grilk took charge of announcing. He eventually worked his way up the ranks and became Executive Director.

            I was very fond of how emotional Mr. Grilk got when talking about the marathon and you could tell he had serious passion for his job. The most important advice he gave to the group was when he said “not all paths are linear”. What he means by this is you are going to have some bumps in the road in life, but you need to continue to keep climbing to get where you want to go. Overall, I had a great experience visiting the Boston Athletic Association and I hope to return in the future.

Boston Marathon 2013 Medal

            Our next stop was Fleishman Hillard. I will admit that at first I was really unsure about what this company did to make money. However, after our meeting I did not only have knowledge of the company, but serious interest in public relations. Fleishman Hillard works with companies such as Visa, EA Sports, Hallmark, and Dunkin Donuts. They pretty much do all the dirty work for these companies such as making commercials, setting up events, and even helping start-up companies.

            The most important advice I got out of this meeting was to do your homework before interviewing with a company. It is necessary to know your background information on the company so they understand how interested you are in working for them. If you go into an interview without doing your homework then the results can be disastrous.

            I was very impressed with both the Boston Athletic Association and Fleishman Hillard. It made what was already an awesome trip even better. 

After meeting with FleishmanHillard we walked a few blocks to Tasty Burger to grab lunch. Tasty Burger is famous in the city of Boston as they are the official burger of the Boston Red Sox. There are only a few kids on the trip who are from the Boston area, so this was the first time that most of us had ever been to Tasty Burger. I feel that it is fair to say that it did not disappoint, and I can see why so many Bostonians are enamored with them.

Ted Williams memorable moment
from Boston Red Sox Museum

Foul Pole covering from Fenway Park

After finishing lunch, we walked down the street to the home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park. We went to Fenway Park to meet with a few managers of the Red Sox organization. As we entered the famous 104-year-old stadium the eyes of almost everyone on the trip lit up as a result of the breathtaking images of Fenway Park. We were met by Zach Markell, a special assistant to the CMO with the Red Sox; Mr. Markell was kind enough to coordinate our tour and the presentations for the day. We were brought out to the field to meet with Fred Olsen, the Fenway stadium Operations Manager. Fred Olsen talked to us about a lot of the events that Fenway Park has hosted in recent years and how the stadium has changed over the course of its long history. Fenway Park has hosted 3 hockey games, 3 football games, and numerous concerts in recent memory. We also learned that Fenway Park underwent a great amount of stadium renovations after the Red Sox current owner, John Henry bought the team in 2002. Fenway Park had renovations done which cost a total of 300 million dollars; these renovations included adding new plumbing, new concrete and new sections to the ballpark. Fenway Park has actually doubled its capacity as a result of the new sections being added in. One of the major additions to the stadium, which was necessary for the way that the world operates today, was the addition of Wi-Fi.

After our meeting with Fred Olsen, Zach Markell took us on the rest of our tour. We were shown the new kids corner located behind the first base side and we got to watch players warm up from the new seats, which were added to the top of the Green Monster. After this we were taken to see the Red Sox hall of fame located behind the suite sections, the tour wrapped up with a bang as we were taken on to the field to watch players train from behind the batter’s box.

View of Fenway Park from the Green Monster seats in left field

The final part of our trip to Fenway Park was a meeting with the Chief Marketing Officer for the Red Sox, Adam Grossman. Mr. Grossman provided us with insight into how the Red Sox run their marketing department. One of the main points that he touched upon was how the Red Sox need to evolve and push forward as an organization into modern times. He also told us that the Red Sox organization has some fundamental commitments as a team. Those commitments are to play postseason baseball each year, elevate the Fenway Park experience, to preserve and protect the historic Fenway park, to impact the lives of New Englanders through charitable endeavors and finally, to develop and nurture the next generation of Red Sox fans. These are the core elements that the Boston Red Sox team and in some regards, the marketing department, operate to achieve each year. Adam also touched upon how the Red Sox marketing strategy can vary year by year based upon each team’s roster. One of the final things that he spoke about was the giveaways that the Red Sox do each year and some different strategies that they have had over time to market their team as best as they could to fans of all ages.