Creating a Legacy through Sport
Part of any successful organization, franchise, team, club, and even marketable athlete is their lasting impact. This impact can come in a variety of shapes and forms, and can do anything from provide access for young athletes, or provide support to an underserved segment of the local community.
Each team, club, franchise or organization can make a positive impact in their own unique way, and in a space that is important for their ownership and/or fans.
For this project you will be challenged to create a social impact initiative for your favorite team, club, franchise, or organization in sport. Once you identify who you plan to craft this plan for, consider your own personal interest in future employment. I suggest picking an organization you would like to work for one day.
Find out what is important to their fans, community, and organization and the create a social impact initiative that leverages the power of sport to make a positive change.
Many leagues are already affiliated with impact organizations and you are free to use these established connections for your project. I challenge you to think outside of these connections and create something new that could be of interest to the team, or league that you plan to pitch to.
Feel free to write your impact initiative for a specific player, team, franchise, club, conference, or league. The choice is yours. The goal is the same. Use the support and excitement surrounding your sport and create a program that will leave a lasting impact and legacy.
Affordable housing, ending hunger, sport opportunity, small business development, park and field refurbish programs, children’s hospitals, cancer research and social justice issues can be considered among others. Research what is important to your sport community, and start there.
Then build out your program idea, and provide some high level marketing concepts for how you could launch this initiative in and around sport. This should be entirely funded by your newly awarded grant for $150, 000.00 all of which you should account for in your included budget for this legacy project.
For this assignment you must create your own impact organization (name, focus, type of impact, ect..) and then identify how you will be launching at this year’s Super Bowl / Olympic Games / World Cup Final / Champions League Final / NBA Finals / World Series
EG: Future Starts, a non profit that supports at risk youth by providing after school football and soccer camps for kids 12-16 in the Tampa area. We are launching our new Big Brother program during the Super Bowl Weekend. Hosting NFL all stars, and personalities this kick off event will raise awareness, and attract Big Brother – Mentors who we will match with our young athletes. This event will feature fun interactive games, where Registered Big Brothers partner with NFL celebs and at risk youth, and compete against each other throughout the day.
Why are these type of programs so important, and what other type of impact initiatives could take place at future sporting events?
Try not to spend much time describing how you will operate your event, or conduct your service, and spend the bulk of your time devising an effective marketing campaign; leveraging the power of the Sporting Event you selected, and the excitement that surrounds the big game.
Using the provided marketing plan template (modules) create a marketing strategy that best fits your launch. Most of the areas listed in the sample plan should apply to your project, and you are encouraged to get creative in your approach. Make sure to elaborate on each area as much as possible, so you can clearly explain your impact programming.
You will be working with a 150,000.00 dollar budget, and should price out all items to make sure you stay within your budget. When listing prices, make sure you check the market and with competitors to see what they offer, and price your product accordingly. Do the same with advertising space, and try to make your plan as applicable and realistic as possible.
You should first review the sample plan to get an understanding of what is expected, and work backwards from there. Once you have a feel for what is needed, begin thinking type of impact can make a difference being introduced using the sport’s biggest game (World Series, Super Bowl, Championship) you chose as the primary platform. Remember that now is the time to get creative and think outside of the box. How can you help the local community specific to their needs?
Your budget should be spent on activation, and not on program development. Assume that your program is up and running, and is ready to be introduced at the Final Match, or Super Bowl. Identify the typical viewer (eg. Super Bowl) Demographic, and tie your launch in with their behavioral patterns. How can you get your product in front of your target audience, and how can you activate your program using this major event? Where will you go, what will you do, why will it be successful?
