Sponsorship in Sport

By Genevieve Collette

On Monday, October 28, 2019, KMG and DePaul Sports Business Network jointly hosted Partnership in Sports: A discussion. Students, sports and marketing enthusiasts had the chance to get inspired by industry leaders and hear about the spirit, the emotions and passion that drives sports marketers. Our panelists Katie Foglia (4Front), Tim Weaver (Chicago Wolves) and Diego Chahda (Chicago Cubs) opened the conversation by describing their respective career path, growth trajectory and motivators. Tim emphasized the importance of seizing opportunities in an industry such as sports, which is driven by passion. He encouraged the participants to put all their energy and enthusiasm into it, because you never know when it can lead to your dream job. The conversation moved on to how sports marketers are not only creators of the most innovative and interactive marketing content, but how they are active creators of moments that will be cherished and remembered by fans through time. This idea was emphasized by the panelists as they discussed the importance of involving the fans when building teams’ partners and sponsors, where fans should be interested in interacting with companies and brands they like and look up to. Diego agreed, mentioning the strategic direction teams are taking to reduce their number of sponsorship partners, where each of them are bigger, more visible, more involved and create greater meaningful and quality interactions with the fans.

Sport is all about building communities and having a story to share, for generations. It was insightful to hear Katie talking about the importance of storytelling. Stories should go beyond teams’ and players performance and should be the foundation of a relationship with the fans that goes beyond the playground. At the end of the panel discussion, students ask what trends to lookout for in the sports partnership and final comments were shared about the rise of sports betting and E-Games.  

For those who attended, we thank you for making this event a success! We hope you appreciated the passion and openness brought by the panelist’s dialogue. 

For those who could not be there, we are excited for you to join our next events that will be filled with as much insights, enthusiasm and conversations!