Hospitality,Marketing,Sales,Fu marketing Hospitality - A Marketing or Sales Function?

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The changing climate of hospitality at the marquee sports events in North America (The Masters, Super Bowl and Final Four) will soon change the lack of focus that hospitality has received by marketers.  Traditionally most of the damage was done due to the confusion of hospitality as a marketing function or a sales function.  Sales people grew too accustomed to sports tickets and often hosted friends or long term and stable clients for which they already shared a strong relationship.  Marketers would stand at a distance and encourage high opportunity clients as guests, but would do little to help in the selection of guests or in the post event reporting of sales lift.This era is quickly coming to an end.  Today, hospitality offers marketers a rare opportunity to accurately measure sales lift and in turn a marketing ROI.  For sales people, the market for hospitality is maturing.  Easy access to big sporting events is a thing of the past.  Ticket allocation is monitored closely and access is limited.If you haven’t already heard about the Mike Tice incident (former coach of the Minnesota Vikings), he was heavily fined and reprimanded by the NFL for scalping his Super Bowl tickets which were provided by the league.  The NFL was the first to launch an official program, unable to resist the secondary market pricing of their tickets for the Super Bowl.  This level of regulation and surveillance is not limited to the NFL.  The Masters, U.S. Open and now the NCAA have all followed suit by denying third party vendors the ability to profit from their product.In 2006, when the NCAA launched their own official hospitality program, dubbed “The Tournament Club”, they hired rEvolution to not only run the program, but to aid in their efforts to regulate third party vendors.  The result is that significantly fewer tickets find their way to the public.  This means more than increased prices for Joe Fan who wants to see his team in the big game.  It means an increased risk in dealing with ticket brokers and third party vendors.  In turn the hospitality component of a sponsorship has become that much more valuable.In this new hospitality climate if your sales organization wants to entertain at the most exclusive and premier events in the U.S., they have two reliable alternatives.  One is a massive investment in an official sponsorship with the governing body of the sport (anywhere from $5 - $100 million per year) and the second is the purchase of official hospitality directly from the governing body (prices range from $3,000 - $8,000 per attendee).  One option requires a Fortune 500 marketing budget and offers no solution for a B2B marketer.  The second option, although not cheap, is fast becoming the reliable and cost effective alternative.So the question remains, is hospitality a sales or marketing function.  If it’s not clear already, the answer is both.  To satisfy the return on investment and accomplish your firm’s goals, marketing has to work in conjunction with sales to provide access to premier events.  In turn, the sales organization must think and act like marketers conducting one on one brand building and in turn increasing sales.  The necessary budget is large and the access has become increasingly scarce.  If you are going to take the plunge, it would be wise to do your homework and start with the official governing body.  If a sponsorship doesn’t make sense and you can’t gain access through an existing media buy, call the official vendor.  And finally, make sure your marketing organization is communicating with the sales team.About rEvolutionrEvolution is the only independent and fully-integrated sports marketing and media services agency in the industry.  rEvolution utilizes a global array of sporting events, leagues, teams and athletes to enhance the growth of its clients’ consumer and business-to-business brands.  Chicago-based with an international vision and reputation, rEvolution's unique integrated capabilities model includes strategic consulting for program design, program activation and program measurement across a comprehensive list of services (including corporate hospitality, event management, media buying/selling/planning, mobile marketing, promotions, research, software solutions, and sponsorships ) and specialties (such as action/youth sports, collegiate sports, international sports, lifestyle sports, motorsports, Olympics, and professional sports).  Unencumbered by a network of holding company interests to consider, rEvolution joins forces with clients in creating and implementing innovative business-building ideas.  An unprecedented team of industry experts, collectively possessing more than 100 years of global sports-related, consulting and platform development experience and relationships, lead rEvolution’s highly skilled team of professionals.  More information about rEvolution and the unique experiences they have created and executed is available at www.revolutionworld.com.