By Bella Michaels

Cleveland Cavaliers Assistant Coach Lindsay Gottlieb is one of six female assistant coaches in the NBA this season.

As Women’s History Month came to a close last Wednesday, Gottlieb spoke to Professor Andy Clark’s sports business students about her experiences as a woman in a role that has been predominantly for men.

“Being authentic is really important,” said Gottlieb. “I’m not trying to pretend to be just like the guys on our staff. Sometimes I don’t see another female for days at a time. We have a fourteen-person coaching staff, and it’s just me.”

 

Gottlieb initially thought she would follow in the footsteps of her parents and go to law school, or work in sports media. Instead, she is now paving a path for women all over the world to look up to working in what has been traditionally known as a man’s role.

She emphasized two important takeaways to the women in the room:

Lean into your fears

“I’m not going to lie. Twenty years of being a woman’s college basketball coach and then moving across the country to be in the NBA to be an assistant and not a head coach, to be in pro sports and not in college sports, to be coaching men and not women — there’s no question of ‘oh my goodness, can I do this? Am I going to be successful?’ And I’m out of my comfort zone at times. But I think you have to lean into those fears and do the things that feel hard in order to be your most fulfilled and most successful.”

Don’t let this notion of perfection hinder you

“I want to be great, I want to exceed expectations but I think women sometimes get the most restrained by this idea that I have to be perfect in order to try.”

Before becoming an assistant coach at the Cavs, Gottlieb was the ninth head coach of the California Golden Bears women’s team at the University of California, Berkeley.

She led the Golden Bears to their first Final Four in school history in the 2012-13 season — just her second season as the head coach. That season she also led them to their first PAC-12 Conference championship and was named PAC-12 Coach of the Year by the media.

Gottlieb noted that the biggest difference between the college game and the NBA is game prep.

“That’s been my most arduous adjustment,” said Gottlieb. “In college, in the PAC-12 in conference play we played on Fridays and Sundays, every week. Well I got to the NBA, and now we’ve got four games in a week and maybe you got two practices. And I learned in the NBA you do not talk about the opponent until game day.”

Gottlieb has set a certain standard of expectations to create a championship atmosphere. She sets certain goals in the beginning of the season and reinforces them throughout, while also establishing roles but acknowledging that they may change.

“These are lifestyle jobs,” said Gottlieb. “We are in it 24/7 and I think I just learned really quickly that in college basketball you are educators. If you are not in it for the people around you, what are we doing?”

Originally published on Bella Michaels’s blog.

By Bella Michaels

You’re sitting on your couch, munching on the chips and salsa on the table in front of you. Your friend is passing you an ice-cold beer. It’s Super Bowl Sunday and you’re waiting to see which commercial will amuse you most. But have you thought about why brands do what they do and how they do it?

For the seventh year, Andy Clark‘s Sports Sponsorship Marketing classes got down to the why and the how. Clark is the director of sports business programs at DePaul University.

Joe Lennon, the senior director at Bud Light/Anheuser-Busch, is a client of FCB — one of the world’s largest advertising, marketing and promotional agencies.

Lennon, alongside the FCB team, dove deep into both perspectives of creating a successful Super Bowl spot on Wednesday evening in Clark’s class.

“We wanted to write a love letter to our biggest fans and make them feel proud to be a Bud Light fan,” Lennon said. “So, the intention behind it was to galvanize the Bud Light loyalists, people who got Bud Light tattoos on their arm.”

So as a treat to their brand lovers and characters they love, Bud Light decided to treat their characters like superheroes in its spot in this year’s Super Bowl.

“That’s where we got this idea of Bud Light Legends,” Lennon said. “All of these characters from the past and present that a lot of our fans love and kind of treat them like the superheroes of fun that they are. That’s how we got to our spot.”

But this wouldn’t be a 2021 article if I didn’t mention that COVID-19 managed to make the production process challenging for both the Bud Light and Bud Light Seltzer spots.

“Normally, I’m used to being on set for those, but we were all via Zoom,” Lennon said. “Just the director and a small crew were on set, trying to limit as much as we can. I think production capabilities have caught up a lot. We were able to watch the camera from Zoom from my place in New York, even though the shoot was in LA. We had daily coronavirus tests for everybody who came on set.”

Creating ads like this doesn’t just happen after thinking of an idea. There’s a lot of strategic planning and data that goes into it before anyone steps foot on a production set. Lennon had to ask himself: Who is drinking light beer?

“It’s the loyalists. It’s the 35-year-old, 40-year-old, 45-year-old – mostly guys – that have drank a lot Bud Light over the years. For seltzer it was like ‘let’s use seltzer to talk to the 25-year-olds and people who aren’t drinking beer.’”

This is where an ad agency would come into the picture.

The class got to hear from three key areas of FCB’s business. Howard Klein, the senior vice president and group management director at FCB, manages Anheuser-Busch business and Barilla pasta. His colleague, Chris Hibi, is in charge of strategic planning.

Hibi looks into data and insights to build a strong brief and works closely with Lisa Bright, the executive creative director, to produce a legacy-making idea.

Brand is important. Here’s why:

“Data would suggest that the portion of our brain that’s used to cognitively and deliberately think through decision making actually takes a far back seat to the back part of our brain that’s much more instantaneous,” Hibi said. “There’s data out there that suggests that part of our brain is much more powerful, and brand is a way to help instill and insert those ideas.”

While using celebrities in ads to attract consumers is helpful, it’s not the first or most important element Lennon looks at when he sets a plan. His three main goals are to have a clear intention, be true to your tone and make it more than an ad. So really know what you are trying to achieve before you brief.

Bright went on to emphasize that FCB doesn’t create finished ideas. It creates ideas that drive business short-term but builds brands over time. The goal is to create ideas that “flex to fit different cultures, different audiences and different platforms.”

Next time you watch an ad, think about everything that went into creating it and why it was created.

Originally published on Bella Michaels’s blog.

By Bella Michaels

This afternoon DePaul Athletics and The Blue Crew launched a virtual webinar series “So You Want to Work in Sports” on Zoom with a bright panel of professionals in the sports industry.

Ley is the DePaul Athletics graduate assistant for brand strategy and integrated marketing. She was instrumental in the development of this webinar series.

Many people love sports. But one of the most important questions directed to the panel was something the students should ask themselves: what can you actually do with your love for sports?

The panel reassured the students to follow their passion, but to not only focus on what they like. You’re not in the business to be a fan. You’re in the business to bring innovation, to take sports to another level.

DePaul’s Athletic Director DeWayne Peevy, Sr. Assoc. Athletics Director Jill Hollembeak and former General Manager of the LA Dodgers Dan Evans gave students insight on how loving sports can be translated to business and finding a successful career.

Evans, a DePaul alum who was cited by Forbes as a top 100 sports business account to follow on Twitter, wasn’t planning on working in the sports industry. Back when he was a student at DePaul, he sat in his advisor’s office and realized how much fun working in sports could be.

“I got great advice from my counselor,” Evans said. “She said, ‘hey, if you’re enjoying it – it’s not a job, it’s a career. Keep at it, see where it leads. I ended up working for the White Sox for 19 years.”

Now he’s 40 years into his career.

Peevy, who arrived at DePaul this past fall after a 12-year stint at the University of Kentucky, pointed out that the students should focus on their current job and figure out the things they don’t like. Doing so will give them a clearer idea of what jobs to steer away from going forward.

There are so many different positions and directions a person could go in the sports industry. Peevy grew a love for baseball at 6 years old. He would watch games with his grandfather and dreamt of becoming a major league player.

While he’s not in the major leagues, he’s working an authoritative position in sports while finishing up his MBA. He’s loving his life in what he calls “the controlled chaos of sports.”

Hollembeak is a former world-class, Hall of Fame gymnast, who earned her phD in education at DePaul. She now works more behind the scenes with coaches and student athletes.

“Sports is transformative,” Hollembeak said. “Creativity and that ability to have an open heart, mind and soul to learn – even through those hard times, even through those failures – is just imperative to any sort of success in any business – but certainly in sports.”

The panel reiterated the importance of having knowledge and skills when it comes to communication, social media and technology. Those were some things that they didn’t have to worry about when they started their careers in the sports world.

Evans emphasized the importance of listening. Don’t just hear. Be okay with changing your mind, adapting and evolving.

The first webinar of “So You Want to Work in Sports” was a great opportunity for students to get their foot in the door and build great connections with successful figures in the industry. To register for the next one, follow Blue Crew and DePaul Athletics and stay connected with exclusive insights.

Originally published on Bella Michaels‘s blog.