What Brands Actually Buy in a Sports Sponsorship

What We Need to Grow, Episode 059: A Sign in the Stadium. A Founder Talk conversation with Scott Gwartz, Vice President, New Partnerships for UCLA x Rose Bowl Properties at JMI Sports. Cleaned for readability; the words are the speakers' own.

Caleb Pedosiuk: All right, Scott, so you have, from what I understand, you lead partnerships for UCLA Athletics and Rose Bowl Stadium properties at JMI Sports. And you've sold partnerships in the past for the Lakers, the Clippers, Dodgers, Fox Sports, UCLA, and the Rose Bowl. So first of all, you are right at the hub of some wild stuff going on. Quite often, depending on what's going on in the league or at the championship level, all eyes of a good portion of the population is there. And so, what a valuable place for brands, for companies, to be able to place a message. Essentially, you are the one who's saying, hey, do you want your message, your product, your service, to be in this spot. Certainly introduce yourself, but I would love for you to elaborate on that.

Scott Gwartz: Well, thanks for having me again, and I feel super fortunate to be here with you, but also just in my seat in general. I've had 20-plus years of experience in this marketing partnership sponsorship world that I am actively engaging in on a daily basis, and been able to really work with some amazing brands, all rooted in LA. My family's here, so we're kind of tied to the area.

But there's a lot going on and it's changed a lot. When I first started in this space, I was working in the tennis world for Billie Jean King. She had an event in Newport Beach that I was helping run. This was early 2000s. There wasn't a ton of competition in this market.

And now, fast forward 25 years or so, there's 2 of everything. There's 2 professional teams from almost every league. 2 big-time college entities. And so much to compete with from a marketing dollars budget and how marketeers spend their dollars.

So I've seen it all. I think I've seen it all, and then I see something different or new the next day. I've worked on some really great brands in both the college and the professional space. Every property has been a little different in some shape or form, different strategies, different ways they attack their business and their operation. But I've had success along the way, I've had some failures along the way. It's been somewhat of a roller coaster, but I wouldn't want it any other way. And I'm certainly happy to be in this seat where I am. I've been, for the past year, running all sponsorships and marketing partnerships for both UCLA and the Rose Bowl.

Caleb: So maybe take us through a little bit of that path for a brand. Do you find you're going into a fresh season, you're picking up maybe a conversation, you have a dozen, half a dozen brands that are saying, hey Scott, we'd love to chat about the year ahead? Are you dealing with a head of marketing, head of sponsorships for some of these big multinational brands who already have something in mind when they're coming to you? Or are you essentially letting them all know, hey guys, here is what's on the menu for this year?

Scott: It's a mix. But I'd say most of the time it's on us and the team to reach out to brands. And there's definitely a strategy to which brands we look to connect with, and go through a discovery process with them.

And that's kind of what separated me throughout my career, is taking a solutions-based approach to these sort of conversations to start, and the opportunities in general. Understanding what their goals are, what their objectives are, what's important to them, what their KPIs are. And every brand and sponsor is a little bit different.

And from there, after you do that structured process, it's coming up with creative ideas and concepts that hit their goals. And you don't always want to force it. Sometimes you have a call with somebody, or a meeting, and you determine, actually this is not a great fit, our demos don't match, or what you're looking for just doesn't make sense. And then you kind of agree to move in different directions. But a lot of times there is a fit, and it's coming up with those creative ideas and concepts to make it work.

Because over my career, I've seen a little bit of a full cycle approach, where at the start of it, when sponsorship and partnerships were a little less mature, everybody wanted to see their sign in the stadium. And while they still like that, and to your point a few minutes ago, you go to a game, you see who's advertising, what brands are there, that's a big component of what we do. And those assets are sexy and they get good TV exposure and visibility.

The conversations more recently are about, what kind of impact can my investment make? And when you're just putting a sign in the stadium, it's really hard to judge that. And I can't really give you a great ROI calculation on that. I can tell you it's going to deliver this amount of impressions, this amount of media value. But if you're a brand that spends X amount and hoping to get Y in response, a sign in the arena is probably not the best asset. They want it, it's just not the best asset to deliver an ROI. So it's then digging deeper, coming up with those ideas to help drive return, drive exposure, drive revenue for the company that you're talking to.

Caleb: So maybe can you share a little bit about what might be on that list now compared to when you started? I'm thinking not only do you have digital playing this whole different world, you have digital on-premises that is actually being played on location. You have digital in terms of social media. There's merchandise, partnership merchandise, whose logo gets put where, showcased, probably limited edition options for things, probably exclusive packages. I don't know if it's meet and greet or certain privileges that have a certain exclusivity to them that you put in the hand of a brand that might want to give to a prized client. What is that repertoire like that you have?

Scott: Well, from an elementary standpoint, it's anything that goes on-site, on-air, and online related to the property.

So if you think about on-site, you think about the signs, the video board, Jumbotron. Any sort of fan fest or tabling opportunity, promotional giveaways during the games. That's the on-site piece. On-air is the media behind or surrounding the event, whether that's TV, radio, streaming. Anything that runs on air and we have the ability to sell into that, to the broadcast. And then the third piece is online. So you mentioned anything digital, social, whether that's social media features, a web banner campaign, email blasts.

And we typically package in social because brands like social. Sometimes they don't know exactly what they want, but it's kind of a hot button to have it. And we sit down with each brand to determine what their social and digital strategy is.

That's the elementary side of it. There's way more to it. As you mentioned, every team's most valuable, but probably their biggest intangible asset, is their IP, their intellectual property, their marks and logos.

So we really dig in deep there and sell that from an activation standpoint, but also an association standpoint. If you're a brand and you want to put your logo next to the UCLA or Rose Bowl brand, and say you're an official partner, you're the official airline, you're the official bank, official auto sponsor of UCLA or the Rose Bowl, that inner matching or interconnecting of IP tells a big story. And obviously you've got to plan and strategize around that, and how you storytell around it, but just the association goes a long way. So that's a big part of what we do, and any sort of exclusivities within the category we offer.

And then I guess the final point is kind of what you mentioned, the experiential side of it. The tickets, the hospitality, the hosting, the money can't buy type experiences that brands love to offer to their clients or their employees. The ability to go on the team charter for a road game, or go on the field to escort the captains during the coin toss. Stuff like that that you don't really think about, we package into deals, and brands eat that stuff up.

Caleb: I'm curious, does food and beverage factor into it? Like if someone is saying, hey look, a Pepsi, Coke kind of situation.

Scott: It certainly does. And the ability to integrate depends on the property and what you own and what you represent.

At the Lakers, the Lakers don't own their own stadium, their own arena, so they did not have the ability to integrate brands into the concessions. They lease the venue. The owner, AEG, who runs a venue and operates a venue, they sign their own sponsors for that. So that was one challenge we had there. If we did a big deal with Anheuser-Busch or Coke or Pepsi or whoever, we couldn't through that deal leverage the concessions.

Here at UCLA, we have a big opportunity across campus to do it. It's not the easiest thing to do. We've done it before. Coke is a great example, where they signed a whole university-wide relationship with campus, athletics, alumni and more, where they are the official beverage across multiple portfolio properties and brands within their portfolio.

And so the opportunity is there here at UCLA. And the Rose Bowl, while we don't own it, we have a great relationship with the stadium's operating company through our partnership with them. And they work with Levy, who's a concessionaire. We can bring opportunities to them, whether that's an alcohol brand who wants to get their products sold in concessions or in the clubs, or a brand that wants to take over a concession build-out, a pizza brand or a taco brand or something like that. So yeah, the answer is, could be yes, could be no.

Caleb: So where do you see some of this headed? I had a really interesting conversation this week with a startup that's working in the VR space, with headsets, training fire departments, their teams, and search and rescue, with these immersive experiences where you do spatial recording, you can map whatever location, throw it in. These technologies are getting so advanced that it won't be long before you can be bringing in different characters to interact with. I'm curious to know where some of that might live with sponsorship, as it relates to gaming, virtual reality, entering into digital spaces.

Scott: Well, it's a great question. Throughout my career, the most impactful partnerships are the ones that have improved the fan experience.

And whether that's the fan experience on actual game days, making it easier for them to get to the game, or have a better relationship or experience while they're there at the game, or outside of the game. How do you bring your favorite team closer to you through different content or storytelling or engagement that you don't get by going to the game?

And look, there's millions of fans of teams around the world, and only a small portion, maybe in the teen percent, actually are able to go to a game. So the Lakers are a good example, where they have millions and millions of fans across the world, and only, what, 900,000 go to a game every year?

So how do you develop content through marketing partnerships where they can engage with fans throughout the world and provide them with a cool experience that they wouldn't have if the sponsor wasn't there? And a lot of that is leaning into cutting-edge and emerging technologies, to develop that content and build it out and share it.

Caleb: So do you work closely with, I don't know who it would be on these, maybe a large agency team, like a director, creative director? Do they come to you with ideas and then work with you? And are there ever situations where the value that flows your direction is like a consideration? Meaning they might say, hey, we actually want this fit. I don't know if this would be a case, but this film is going to be in this many theaters, it's got this star power, it's going to be seen everywhere, and we would like UCLA to be the team in it, or the brand that appears. Is there something where in the negotiation you look at those and say, hey look, there's a lot in it for us?

Scott: Yeah, for sure. Something like that likely wouldn't fall through my group. It would be passed on to somebody at the university level. Or let's say it's a baseball movie and they want to use the Dodgers IP and team in a movie like that, that would fall through a different group than the sponsorship group. And there's ways you can kind of get creative in how you package it in together, so everybody touches a little bit of it.

But here at UCLA, we're definitely looking for more of that opportunity to be showcased, especially with Hollywood and LA being in our backyard. But if somebody was shooting a TV spot or show or movie and reached out to us and said they want to use UCLA IP for that, that would be outside of our group.

Caleb: So do you find, in your role or your office, a fair amount of what is happening is at some annual or seasonal cycle that you're responding to, like larger tenders, or procurement that Pepsi would put out?

Scott: It's a great question. The core part of our business is not that. It's us kind of scanning the market, the community, who's advertising, who's spending their marketing dollars, and then us reaching out to them, to determine if UCLA and the Rose Bowl are the right fit for what they're looking to do.

There are occasions when brands reach out to us and call in, and we obviously love those, because it's a lot harder to get somebody on the phone. But when somebody calls us, you're already past that, the door's already open.

Now, UCLA is a $14 billion economic engine. That could be its own city. And we are looking at ways to leverage the procurement strategy and operations here, to better storytell what brands and partners are engaged and interacting with UCLA. And so we do talk to the procurement office quite often.

And look to find triple-win opportunities, where a brand is being sold or integrated into UCLA, UCLA is doing business with them, and then they can storytell how or why they're involved with UCLA through a sponsorship, marketing partnership of the athletic department.

At a public university, and even private universities, those conversations are tricky to navigate. But with the current state of college athletics, and the need for ways to uncover different revenue buckets and opportunities, these opportunities and conversations are becoming a little bit more normal than they were maybe 5 or even, I would say 10 years, but even 5 years ago.

Caleb: I'm thinking about similarities in a parallel track with what we do. AI visibility, how you show up. AI search specifically, for the machine layer, has become a primary focus. This was actually a paradigm shift in my thinking, mid-spring this year. Of all the things an agency can be doing, using GenAI tools to create incredible commercials and do things you could never do before, or teams that are leveraging the tools to produce a ton of content, the machine layer is optimizing your content for what these AI systems are, how they're viewing UCLA or how they're viewing Pepsi.

And the reason why I say that is, if you are scanning brands that are active in market, it might be interesting to see what tools are available to see what the footprint is. Where is the residue, the brand trail from last year's sponsorship? And basically create some protocols that you run across all platforms and gather, give me every instance, every lasting piece of information that the machine layer can easily, within reach, can get. Because your impression, reverse it, just doing your analysis from that would probably arguably be a more accurate lasting representation of the lasting impact that you could actually look at, evaluate, and then pick up the discussion with that brand to say, hey, we saw that you guys were doing this, we saw some of the impact here, and we're curious if you're interested in doing XYZ, or considering ABC with us.

Scott: This business has become very data-driven, in many different ways. And now teams have different solutions or strategy analysts that we work with, and college is a little bit behind the pro side, just based on the resources that we have. But most pro teams have analysts, data solutions teams that are helping them observe this data, and consume it, and then determine how to use it.

And I think anybody in my seat would tell you that we're not using AI the right way. And how do we use it? How do we better use it to improve our efficiencies and effectiveness?

Caleb: Well, what is it that they say, defining the problem is like 80% of being able to solve it. So it sounds like you're probably already potentially making significant headways, the fact that you're actually looking at things from that lens and asking the question.

One thing that might be encouraging is it occurred to me recently that if you looked at January with all the buzz about Claude bots, all the stuff about people buying Mac Minis and running independent agents, and then you see at late August, early September, GrokBot rolling out GrokBots, which are out of the box, simple plug and play. It's less like AI in this case is a runaway train to run after, and more like a merry-go-round. And each time it comes back around, it says, hey Scott, do you want to do an agentic workflow? Not this time. Okay. Comes back around. You took a sabbatical for 6 months and come back, and now this time it's coming at you from X or from SpaceX or whatever.

And that was so refreshing to me, because it made me feel less like this frantic, you're falling behind if you're not just frantically running after things, and more like thoughtful consideration of what your goals are is probably the approach to take. And then make decisions.

Scott: Yeah, look, I love that description. And for us in the higher ed space, we are fully open.

And it's a bridge I'd have to make, because it's kind of outside my scope, but working with AI companies on the athletic side of it to improve our efficiencies and operations, but also at the university level. And that could look like case studies, or even a class in the School of Engineering or the business school on how the whatever brand is, insert AI brand, their capabilities are improving workflow and how they're scaling.

Caleb: So last question I'd like to ask is, if you had to pick one thing, what would you say you need most to grow right now? For some startups, it's they're raising funds. For others, they're launching a product. What would you say that you would need most right now to grow?

Scott: Football wins certainly help, right? And our football team has had a great turnaround, where we won 3 games last year total, and now, in 1 month, we were 4-0. And there's a saying in sports, winning cures all problems. Brands want to be associated with winners, so that obviously helps.

To answer the question more seriously, I think it's resources here. And this is more of an internal thing, where on the college side of it, and I've seen both worlds, I've seen pro and I've seen college, colleges are still a little bit behind in terms of the resources that they prepare to put their revenue team and operation in a spot to deliver.

And part of that's just because you're working in a whole different environment. University level, there's so many silos, there's a lot of red tape, it's tough to navigate. That's probably the one thing. And then going back to what we talked about a few minutes ago about the procurement side of it, if we had full ability and access to leverage that, without a university that requires a lot of hoops to go through, it would make the job a lot easier. But it's the nature of the beast right now.

I have a good idea of what it takes to be successful here, and we're starting to head that direction. But a big part of what we do, and I know we're almost at the end, is we want bigger partners. And more partners, or sorry, more revenue with less partners. So a lot of times that means saying no to deals that don't make sense. And at least here there's been a need to say yes to everything. So I'm trying to change that strategy a little bit.

Caleb: I think that self-awareness, almost like visualizing as an athlete, or beginning with the end in mind and setting goals to know, hey, this is what the gold standard looks like. I don't know what it would be, like 5 A-tier sponsors across these categories is our target. Anything beyond that is fine, but that's the core, that's what you're going after. And then, what do they need from us? What is it that right now they're on the flip side looking, saying, hey, what would be the fit for us? Who is a fit to sponsor?

Very cool. Well, Scott, thank you so much for sharing. You're right at the helm of so many exciting things, and I look forward to seeing how UCLA does this year in football as well. It sounds like you guys are off to a great start.

Scott: Come to a game if you can get to the Rose Bowl. Let me know, we'd love to host you.

Caleb: Awesome. Scott, thank you so much.