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.