Advertising Week XII: The Power of Sports Content
Brian Mortensen Conference Summary - Advertising Week XII, 2015 The first session I attended at New York’s Advertising Week XII was titled “The Power of Sports: The How and Why of Fan Passion” , hosted by Octagon. First up on stage was John Shaw, Octagon’s President of Marketing, Americas, and Ryan Eckel, Dick’s Sporting Goods VP of Brand Marketing. After showing a video extolling the impressions and publicity gained by Dick’s new non-profit campaign, Sports Matter , Shaw and Eckel opened a discussion on the power of sports at the community and individual level. Eckel explained how schools across the country continue to lose funding for sports programs, giving Sports Matter the opportunity to step in and offer ancillary financial support or donations of sports equipment for all different types of teams. The program raised approximately $4 million dollars for 184 youth teams in 2014. For 2015-16, Dick’s has partnered with donorschoose.org , which Eckel believes will aid in sp...