It’s finally here! Yesterday, I hauled myself out of bed at 3:30 a.m., took two separate flights, and spent the evening greeting arrivals to the Montreal airport for one thing – the 2011 Canadian Sponsorship Forum!
The Forum has played a large role in my life for the last few months. I’ve written a lot of the session summaries, which got me excited for the many amazing and varied presentations that will be taking place this weekend. I’ve gathered information for speaker bios, and was wowed by the high calibre of presenters that will be gracing the stage this year. In weekly Forum meetings, I watched as the dedicated and hard-working team put all the pieces together and made sure that no detail went unnoticed.
As I mentioned, I spent most of yesterday (well, the part of it that I wasn’t sitting on a plane) at the Montreal airport greeting the Forum delegates that arrived early. It was great to be the first face greeting many of these people as they landed. I spoke with groups and individuals from Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and probably a few other cities that I didn’t catch. Others arrived on the TrojanOne Express train from Toronto, and even more will be making their way to the Delta Centre-Ville tomorrow.
Last night, I got my first introduction to the Forum and Montreal during Formula 1. How crazy! Friendly, smiling people everywhere. Streets filled with energy and excitement. I’m looking forward to things ramping up even more as the city roars towards the big event on Sunday: the Formula 1 race.
Tomorrow, I’ll be greeting delegates again and making sure they’re in the right place. Then, I’ll be watching the opening ceremonies and keynote presentation from our own Mark Harrison before volunteering at a couple of different sessions. So stay tuned tomorrow for updates – and don’t forget to tune in to the conversation on Twitter by following our hashtag #CSF2011.
Hearing those words from the leading TOP (The Olympic Partner) sponsor may send shivers down the throats of sponsorship-thirsty properties, but McCune wasn’t suggesting for a second that Big Red was getting out of the sports or entertainment marketing games. In fact, quite the opposite.
Within minutes of announcing the bank teller window was closed, McCune made it clear to the audience that they have plenty of money for great ideas. However, how that money is going to be spent is changing dramatically.
If you think of Coke as a sponsor, you think ubiquity. Their products are consumed by 1/4 of the world’s population and they do business in more countries than the U.N. Sponsorship helped fuel that global expansion. For the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, Coke shipped over 1,000 cases on a ship for the U.S. team members. They also set up refreshment shacks, which witnessed the first sale of Coca-Cola on foreign soil.
By 1934, Coke signed Johnny Weissmuller as their first Olympic spokesperson. “Tarzan,” as Weissmuller became known in his post-Olympic acting career, was a swimming gold medalist, and the rest is history.
Over time, as Coke became more and more involved with sponsorship, McCune characterized their approach quite bluntly: “If it MOVED, we would sponsor it, and if it STOOD STILL, we would paint it red!” At a minimum, this is a company that understands itself.
Fast forward to 2011 and Coca-Cola has a very clear picture of what they want.
YOUTH. CREATIVITY. FLAIR.
Yes, McCune talked to more strategic principles such as shared vision, innovation and common values. But he was quite clear: they are open to big ideas.
As they move into the music business, they found amazing synergies with their 2010 World Cup sponsorship and integration of the anthem “Wavin’ Flag” by K’Naan. Recently they conducted the world’s first live, consumer-driven song creation featuring Maroon 5 in a studio in London. The band took input from consumers around the world for a crowdsourced song they created on the fly in 24 hours. The outcome, “Is Anybody Out There,” is now available on the Coca-Cola website.
Big ideas indeed. Not necessarily fueled by big rights fees. As McCune made clear, they have the most powerful marketing machinery in the world. They have the resources to make stuff happen. What they need is a steady of diet of better and better ideas.
Coke has also recognized the incredible power of doing good with their marketing dollars. He showed a video of their 2010 torch participant selection process, which was largely driven by Sogo Active (full disclosure: this was in partnership with our clients at ParticipACTION and we were the agency behind it). Sogo Active rewarded 1,500 youth who became more physically active with a chance to carry the torch.
McCune noted that they now have a global mandate to get MORE YOUTH INVOLVED IN SPORTS. Wow. Read that over carefully.
It has become crystal clear that social marketing can generate profits for corporations. The cliché providers will tell you it has to be genuine. Oh thanks, why don’t you tell me to breathe while you are at it?
What I will tell you is this. If it “feels good” to you as a human being, it will feel good to a consumer. And if it feels good to a consumer, it is going to generate sales for you.
The Big Red Bank is closed.
But the Big Red Social Marketer, Music Label, Sports Advocate, Idea Kitchen, Promotional Innovator, Environmental Leader is ready and waiting 24/7.
Spotlights making his large shadow larger, “Lombardi” emerged from the darkness, slowly striding to centre stage.
My ticket told me that I was sitting in The Circle in the Square Theatre. The calendar told me it was December 29, 2010. My body told me I was 45 years old.
But as I saw the “Lombardi” character emerge onstage to open the play bearing his name, I was emotionally transported.
Not just back to a time when Vince Lombardi patrolled the sidelines in Green Bay. But to a time when I was forming my passion for the greatest sport in the world. Lombardi was dead at this point, but I worshiped what he had done. Even though my favourite NFL team was (and is) the Steelers; even though my favourite player was (and still is) Gale Sayers – I loved what Lombardi stood for and what he achieved.
Paul Brown went to 10 straight championship games (four in the old AAFC and six in the NFL), coaching the team he owned and christened. He did it with innovation and tactics. Chuck Knoll has won more Super Bowls than any other coach. He did it by massaging fragile psyches, balancing egos and embracing odd personalities. In different generations, George Halas and Don Shula are the only coaches to notch 300 victories.
But only Lombardi has won five NFL championships (I think, correct me if I am wrong) and he did it in just nine seasons with the Packers. He did it by taking the worst team in football in 1959 and, with the same core players, had them in the finals in two seasons and atop the podium in three. For me, it has always been about how he did it as much as what he did. There is a reason the Super Bowl trophy my Steelers are going to win (yet again) this year is named after him.
Lombardi understood people more than any coach who ever coached the game. He motivated them by making the “relentless pursuit of perfection” their goal. He fortified them by having them train harder than any pro coach would ever suggest. He convinced them by developing a single, powerful identity clothed in one offensive play – the PACKER SWEEP – that nobody could stop.
These three principles: never-ending pursuit of a goal, outworking others and creating overwhelming confidence – can work in any walk of life. Relationships. Friendships. Sports. Business.
For that, we owe Lombardi.
But as a youngster reading about Lombardi, I am doubtful (and hopeful) my reflections weren’t that deep. But, in some ways, they were. When I read Run to Daylight, I came to the realization that if I wanted something, all I had to do was work for it. I was incredibly insecure as a kid. This book gave me hope. It actually made me feel that it wasn’t about what you were born with. As an adult, I read When Pride Still Mattered by Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss. This isn’t a football book. It’s a book about what drives greatness in a reader.
If you want to understand yourself better, if you want to understand how to overcome your own demons… read it. If you want to understand why every family in the world is a mess… read it.
The current Lombardi play on Broadway is based on this book. My wife was generous enough to sit through it with me. For her, it was Broadway – great acting by the Marie Lombardi character… and, I suspect, perhaps a curiosity to understand me better.
For me, it was time travel. Seeing that play took me from my present day love of the game back to
the years when I would watch Condredge Holloway, Tommy Clements and later J.C. Watts guide my beloved (Ottawa) Rough Riders to Grey Cup titles and injustice (see offensive pass interference penalty on Tony Gabriel, circa 1981, I believe). It took me back to Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier. It took me back to Herschel (which is my nickname) Walker at Georgia and to the (almost) Toronto Northmen of the WFL. It took me to Johnnie Walton and the Boston Breakers of the USFL.
It took me back to being four-foot-nothing in grade nine. Struggling with being short. Struggling with not being a great football player, wrestler, or clarinet player. It took me back to wearing velour and living in the shadow of my dad – the hero teacher at my school – and older sister who I thought was perfect… as did the rest of my freaking hometown!
Football and my heroes like Lombardi let a little boy escape. It gave me confidence. It gave me pride.
That’s why I coach. Because of what the game can do to help little men become young men.
That’s why I melted when Dan Lauria as Lombardi strolled across the stage and the rest of the crowd applauded. My throat closed, my eyes followed. The tears came flowing out at an embarrassing pace. I wanted to go up onstage and hug him. This ghost. This myth. This guardian angle. This hero. My secret friend. My made-up pal.
Lombardi. He is football.
I have a poster that adorns my office wall with a portrait of Lombardi in his stoic pose. Half-smile, half-grimace on his face. Neat black suit, hands folded gently behind his back. The text of the poster is Lombardi’s famous speech – What It Takes to Be Number One. The poster stands next to my door and I am sure that many an intern has wondered what I am staring at. My eyes lost in Lombardi’s. My lips mouthing every word. My right hand clenched in the tense fist I make when I’m absorbed by something.
This speech is an invincible spirit raiser for any occasion. I have copied it here for you. Read it. Keep it. Read it again in a week. And the week after, and…
What It Takes to Be Number One
Vince Lombardi
Winning is not a sometimes thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that’s first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don’t ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.
Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he’s got to play from the ground up – from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That’s O.K. you’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.
Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization – an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win – to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don’t think it is.
It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That’s why they are there – to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules – but to win.
And in truth, I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.
I don’t say these things because I believe in the “brute” nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour – his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear – is that moment when he has to work his heart out in a good cause and he’s exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.
Lucas Spata, just 35 years old, of the Vancouver Canucks marketing team is losing his three-year battle with micro cell cancer. He is presently in a hospice in Vancouver and soon he will leave behind a young widow and a three-year-old son.
His family faces an emotional battle and a financial one. But many people have stepped forward, including the Canucks organization, to help.
Lucas is a good friend of a good friend of mine, which is why I decided to help spread the appeal for more help. He is a valuable contributor to our industry. Most of you don’t know him. Personally, I’ve only met him once, but his story is a tragic reminder of how fortunate many of us are.
Take a moment to read his story and send some support. It doesn’t have to be money. While donations are needed, so is support, including just telling others and sharing his story.
Read on about Lucas — I’m sure you will touched by his unbelievable concern for others, despite knowing his own fate is sealed.
I’m a stickler for typos, so it took me a few minutes to realize that when one of my MojanOne “Movember” teammates sent me the one sentence email, “How is it Moing?” that they weren’t being sloppy! Or MOppy! They were having mo’ fun!
Sensing there was some MOmentum building in our office for this MOvember thing, I wanted to check out how the rest of our team was doing.
Our Calgary team, who are sporting the IDA moniker for Integrated Duster Activations, struck a pose on Day One that has them off and facing to some big fundraising goals. One of our interns has already raised two hundred and ten MOllars! Meow!
That would put her in second place the Toronto office, where one of our mo’s is already at $300 mones.
So, at the risk of being left behind in the must, I realized I had to seize the day and start MOwing some lawns. So here MOes.
Let’s start with the basics. We all know that 1 in 6 Canadian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes. Last year, one of those was my father.
Unlike his son, my dad isn’t keen on publicity. (Guess the rumours of my being adopted are true!). But I have to brag a little.
My dad is the greatest man on earth.
He taught high school for a hundred years in Orillia, and was the most popular teacher in school. His class was machine shop, but his lessons were about life. He took kids to our cottage, took them on canoe trips, and took them to personal heights they would never have reached without him. He loved his students like they were his children, and as an immature youth, I was actually jealous of that.
On a teacher’s salary, he was the richest man in town. He had a warmth that everyone felt and bought winter boots for kids who couldn’t afford them. He treated everyone like a king, especially the janitors because he knew a school couldn’t exist without them.
As a father, he taught me to rake every leaf on the lawn, clear every snowflake from the driveway, and capture every speck of dirt in the garage. At 45, I’m still enthusiastically trying to meet his standards. As a husband, he has made my mother’s life magical for 53 years and they will never be apart.
I’m dedicating my involvement in Movember to my dad. When we were kids, my friends called him “Sugar Ron” because he used to be a boxer. (Google Sugar Ray Leonard if you don’t get the point!). Well, he’s still a fighter! He’s knocking the crap out of PC!
Please join me in raising awareness about Prostate Cancer and support Movember. Join a team, donate to me or my team at movember.com/mospace/770320/, or support someone else’s team.
Do it for you dad, your granddad, your dad-in-law, future dads, and all the other dads that give us our Mojo!
I read the other day that a guy named “Bubbles” is running for mayor in my hometown of Orillia.
Apparently, this is quite funny. But, since I don’t watch Trailer Park Boys, I don’t quite get the Bubbles part. Locals report he is a dead ringer for the TV show character; although, in real life, he is a piano technician and apparently an SPCA volunteer. While he hasn’t put his name on the official log, the unofficial candidate is taking a stab at being a duopolous mayor as he is simultaneously running in Severn Township. Clearly, there is no shortage of ambition here.
Bubbles, the candidate, wants Rush to play a concert in Orillia (his iPod is full of Rush tunes) and for Tim Horton’s to offer free coffee on Sundays. That along with his desire to have a wet bar at town council meetings.
I like this guy.
Looking closer to home, I see that a local high school football coach is well on the way to becoming Mayor of Toronto.
Geez, if I knew that volunteer high school football coaches could become Mayor, I might have run. Okay, maybe not.
But, I am going to do a little politicking right now. Don’t worry, I have no interest in swaying how you vote. Except in the most basic way. And that is to encourage you to vote.
You see, I have been involved in a few too many political arguments lately. Not arguments but heated discussions. In all of them, one thing has become clear: I don’t really understand our municipal system and I don’t pay attention to what happens in my city.
And you know what? What happens at City Hall impacts me at work and at home.
The good news is I have an old university friend running in my riding, so I have been to a couple of her campaign events and that has whetted my appetite. But I want to take it further. I want to help Canada get out and vote.
But why? Why should we vote?
I can tell you what I want to see in Toronto. You can tell me what you want to see in Halifax or Regina or Québec City or Medicine Hat or Bellville.
I would like to see somebody run under a platform of “Activating the City of Toronto Brand.” Like all great brands, the City of Toronto brand has a promise. It is time to keep those promises.
So, what promises should the City of Toronto make to me?
• That I’m not dreaming that the Leafs are 3-0 (by the time you read this they may be 3 & 18!)
• That I can drive my bike all over the city in a safe, protected lane… go to Amsterdam if you are unsure of what I mean!
• That I can have clean streets, sidewalks, and parks.
• That I won’t get shot trying to be an anti-gang activist.
• That a shopkeeper won’t face five years in jail trying to stop someone from robbing him. Again. Like twice in the same day. (Look it up, true story. Robber got 60 days and robbed again. He got out. Shop owner is facing five years for chasing him down and forcing him back to his store to be arrested)
• That my community pool will open before August.
• That we will tear down Varsity Stadium and rebuild it the way it should be: open-air, grass-filed, seating for 25,000 crazy high school, Varsity Blues and Argos fans!
• That we will we bury the Gardiner and make an amazing waterfront featuring real parks and get rid of all the sugar plants and ugly smelters.
• That someone will grant more parking for Porter Airlines or give them a bridge or underpass to Billy Bishop Airport.
• That people across Canada stop calling us the Center of the Universe. It makes me blush!
