Guest Lectures at Long Beach State

This week, I had the honor of speaking with multiple marketing classes at CSULB.  Taking over the week for Professor Tomlin, I set about to engage the students with real-life case studies and examples of successful marketing activations.  Deploying the same philosophy I utilize in other speaking engagements and in the The Surfer's Guide To Marketing book, I strongly believe that my objective should be to educate, motivate, and entertain the next generation of marketing minds.

Lecturing to the class with video and even some POP show-and-tell

Focusing on some of my favorite cases throughout my career and discussing award-winning marketing efforts with brands like FX, NFL, ESPN, ABC and others, I showcased the promotional spots, POP, and collateral materials to allow the students to better comprehend the strategy, activation, and ROI each of these campaign bring.

The last element of the class was to have the students break into smaller groups and create a strategy for ESPN's Monday Night Football campaign and follow it up with brief presentations of their concepts.  Following their presentations, we showed our version of the Legends of Monday sweepstakes with four Hall of Famers including Ronnie Lott, Marcus Allen, Lawrence Taylor and Tony Dorsett, and the fully engaged class was more than enthused to see our version of their assignment come to fruition.

Working with breakout groups on their ESPN case assignment

In all, the students of CSULB were engaging, eager, and more than up for the challenge of becoming the next wave of marketing greats.  And it was my privilege to hopefully enlighten the classes and motivate them to pursue the world of sports and entertainment marketing as a career opportunity.

MORE RECENT SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

I am always excited to speak with various groups about my marketing experience and creative approach.  I demonstrate real-world successes versus theories and I've had the great fortune of addressing everyone from industry executives to colleges to high schools.

Speaking at the recent CTAM Think event for television marketing and millennials at FOX.

I find it works well to bring a combination of expertise as well as levity to group settings to be able to entertain while informing the audience.  If you've read The Surfer's Guide To Marketing you know by now that humor is a great vehicle to communicate the principles and strategies of dynamic marketing efforts.  And it makes for a fun afternoon!

In Miami on a panel hosted by on-air personality Dave Holmes

If you haven't had the amazing pleasure of hearing me speak (and who WOULDN'T want to experience that?!) then please follow me on social media and lets connect.  Who knows, perhaps I can bring some of my great strategies and (not so great) jokes to your group!

CTAM Think Event

It's never been a more exciting time to be in the world of entertainment marketing.  Along with the creative forces that develop desirable content, the world of technology has landed front and center in the platforms with which consumers get their content.

I preach about passion brands.  Those brands like Apple, NFL, ESPN, and others that evoke instant response.  They drive enthusiasm for their users and elevate their status over their competition.  And with the advances with technology, the debate about providing those hungry viewers with the best vehicle to consume the content they crave  has become significant in the industry.  Terms like TVE, OTT, VOD, and other acronyms that describe how you will "watch TV" in the future make for an exciting time.

I am proud to be discussing the marketing approach for the next wave of technology and how, in particular, millennials will consume content in the future.  The CTAM Think panel held at the FOX studios lot this week will be a great dialog for the future.  Both content providers and operators (the cable and telco folks who currently supply you with your networks) will discuss how we, as marketers, communicate the future of how consumers view their favorite show.