34. What Does the Sponsor Need in a Sports Partnership? Talk with Bill Smith, Sponsorship Director, UCHealth
Summary
Episode 35 - In this episode of the Farrell Sports Business podcast, the host Matt Farrell talks with Bill Smith, sponsorship director at UCHealth. He shares his unique career journey through various roles in sports and now in healthcare partnerships at UCHealth. He discusses the importance of community engagement through sports partnerships, the innovative Ready Set CO initiative aimed at promoting health in Colorado, and the impact of high-profile figures like Coach Prime - Deion Sanders. Bill emphasizes the significance of trust and understanding in partnerships, the evolving nature of ROI, and his commitment to mentorship and giving back to the community.
About the Farrell Sports Business Podcast
Interviews with news makers from sports business to talk leadership, entrepreneurship, industry news and their unique career paths. Hosted by Matt Farrell, President of Farrell Sports and former Golf Channel, USOPC, USA Swimming and Warner Bros.
Watch it on YouTube - www.youtube.com/@farrellsportsww
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Matt Farrell (00:00)
Welcome to the Farrell Sports Business Podcast, where we talk to leaders in the sports industry, the topics of the day that all impact sports business.
This week's episode really goes into sponsorship and what a brand looks for in a partnership with a team or an athlete, how they evaluate it, how they measure return on investment on it, how they select partners. And it's a really fascinating conversation of coming from the brand side of what they look for. The guest has phenomenal experience and it's a Colorado example.
of a health system called UCHealth Health, but they have partnerships with the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rockies, the Colorado Rapids, CU Buffs, and we talk about Coach Prime, CSU Rams, and even Team USA. So it's such a well-rounded experience and perspective of how to look at a partnership from the brand perspective and what makes it successful.
and what a partner looks for to the brand in return.
This week's guest is the sponsorship director for UCHealth, Bill Smith.
Matt Farrell (01:29)
Bill, so great to see you, and thanks for joining. I appreciate it.
Bill (01:33)
Yeah. Good to see you Matt, just a little bit up the road from you where you're at right now. So sorry we have to meet virtually, but it's still good to see you.
Matt Farrell (01:41)
You're in Denver. I'm in Colorado Springs. we see each other occasionally, but, this, this, this is great. I'm glad you're glad you're joining. I'd love to talk about your career and things you're doing with UC health. So.
Bill (01:52)
Yeah,
we'd love it. Fire away.
Matt Farrell (01:55)
Well, I mean, we'll start with kind of broad strokes about your career and have you explain a little bit of what your job is now. But your background of agency side with Paragon team side with the Seahawks and the Cowboys and the fire and other things, it's just such a really unique blend of
property side, brand side, agency side. I'd love for you to talk about what got you to your role now and maybe a little bit what the role is.
Bill (02:35)
Yeah, I mean, I bounce around a lot. That's very true. mean, I don't even think on my resume still isn't my internship with the Detroit Lions when I was in college. So you can add another city in there, but yeah, I'm one of those guys that bounce around. I've lived in every time zone and, I've settled down here. I've been in Colorado for almost nine years now, and this is kind of where we landed. But yeah, I think sometimes when you work in sports, some people are able to climb the ladder at an organization or two and other ones bounce around.
I had the opportunity to bounce around. think that every stop I made, I learned something about myself, whether it's something I'm not good at or something I am good at and I want to pursue a little bit more. So I do think that the diversity in my career has really helped me really understand maybe a few different aspects of this industry and where people are coming from perspectives. I learned a lot of lessons along the way, some easier or harder than others, but
Yeah, I mean, after school, was an internship with the Cowboys and they were trying to sell what's now AT &T Stadium. And it was a lot of phone calls. It was pure sales, right? And it's great because it was essentially the beginning of what ultimately became Legends was selling that stadium. So it was a really amazing experience, learned a lot. I was able to hop up to work for the Chicago Fire MLS team. I'd wanted to move to Chicago. I did sales there.
I'll be honest, I wasn't great at it. I made some great friends. I learned a lot. But my biggest lesson is I learned I was not good at sales. So it was a really formative time. Yeah, you know, it was a formative time. Some of my best friends are still there. I had an amazing manager and mentor there when I was very young in my career. So there's a lot of things I'm extremely thankful for. Then I got an opportunity to head to Paragon and dip my toe in a few different
Matt Farrell (04:04)
you
But you have to do it, you know, it's part of the.
Bill (04:29)
rosters with their clients, including Gatorade, NRG, or Reliant Energy as it's known in Texas. Now, Cuties, the wonderful company, so wonderful pistachios and Cuties, so very diverse client portfolio. Then hopped over and worked for the Sounders and Seahawks when they were still the same front office. And we kind of split off into just Seahawks and Sounders after that. So I stuck with the football side and then had an opportunity to work for a client of mine.
actually two clients. So I now work for a client of mine from Paragon and a client of mine from the Seahawks and we all work at UCHealth now in Colorado. So you just never know full circle what's going to happen in this industry.
Matt Farrell (05:13)
I mean, it's just such a wealth of experience. You know, when people think work in sports, I think you intuitively go to probably what you did earlier in your career, the team side, the sales side. But you've carved out a really interesting niche on the brand side where you work for, you know, health care corporation, but a real sports and entertainment focused role.
Bill (05:42)
Yeah, we view, I never thought I'd work for a healthcare system in my career. And I don't know if I'll work for another one outside of UC health. It's a really special place to be. I think our vision and mission in the community is very clearly defined. We have amazing leadership and we have leadership that values the power of these types of partnerships and how we can reach the community, how we can offer experiences with our patients and employees.
through these partnerships and teams here. And I just feel really lucky. I still feel like I'm in the sports industry, but I get to have one foot in a completely different one. And so it's been by far the most challenging career stop that I've made, but one that I felt I've grown the most in by far out of any place, any stops in my career.
Matt Farrell (06:33)
You know, it, I'll probably, you know, maybe I might miss a few, but you have relationships and you manage relationships with the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, the CU Buffs, the Colorado Rockies, CSU Rams, the Rapids. What, what does a healthcare company look for in a sports partnership? Cause those are some, whether you live in Colorado or nationally, they're amazing national brands.
Bill (07:04)
Yeah, I mean, I think if you asked my counterpart at other healthcare systems around the country, you might get different answers, right? That's how it works. The same conversation you're having with me could look completely different with somebody else like my counterpart in Atlanta working for Emory or at UPMC in Pittsburgh. For us, I think it's really important that they have similar values as UCHealth. They are active in the community.
And in general, they're good partners. They understand what our objectives are, the stories we want to tell, and we're able to tell them. think, you know, exclusivity is important. Whenever we enter into relationship, we like to be the exclusive healthcare partner. That category is really shifting and changing right now, but it's something we value and something we really hold on to. There's a connection that people make with sports, with music that I think is really rare nowadays. Our attention.
is focused in so many different places. Your local sports team, and it doesn't even have to be local anymore, right? Because all these leagues and teams are so accessible, that holds a special personal place in people's homes and their families. And healthcare is something that is really important to people's families and their lives too. And for us to utilize partnerships to kind of bridge that gap, to educate, to inform, and to engage the community.
It really helps us out. It serves as a megaphone. So I always like to say like nobody wants to hear a hospital talk about being healthy. But if you're able to work through the nuggets or the broncos or the Rockies to do that, people's ears might perk up a little bit. They serve as a megaphone for our message and our mission. And we're super thankful to be in that position. I'm thankful to be where I'm at right now in an organization that really sees the good that these types of partnerships can do.
Matt Farrell (08:58)
So you've got probably multiple initiatives, but one I would almost call it like the hub of all of these partnerships is I think a really interesting kind of anchor program called Ready Set Co. And I know you do other things, but all these partnerships really have to be grounded in one key message or initiative. So what is that program?
Bill (09:29)
Well, I think going back your question, it's a little bit of both. We have unique platforms, plans and strategy for activation and how we bring these partnerships to life per team. how we, how we come to life with our Avalanche partnership looks very different than how we come to life with our nuggets partnership. And they're owned by the same organization, play in the same building, have the same seasons, but we have different plans for them. But to your point, Ready Set Co is a platform that could bring
all of our partnerships together on varying levels to support an initiative of UC health. We have a few of those. call it like an owned a platform. So that's something that we have ownership in that we utilize our partners to amplify. And so it really, what it is, it's, it's a challenge. It started two years ago and it launched with our kids sponsorship with the Colorado rapids. And it's really a call to action. It's an altruistic call, call to action to get Colorado back to being the healthiest state in the country. the state.
overall has slipped in rankings. There's a lot of different rankings out there that measure different things. you know, going from top five to 10 to 15, you know, a healthy lifestyle is a pride point in this state. And this initiative that we have that we're looking to lead is let's get back to being the healthiest state. Let's be number one. And in a state like Colorado, people hear that message and have a reaction to it. I don't know if
something like this could work in a lot of other states, several for sure, but the lifestyle, the outdoor rec, healthy living is a really big part of where we're at. And so we utilize different partnerships and relationships to help amplify that messaging and get it out. And can you see health and Ready Set Co. move Colorado 10 spots up in any given health ranking? Probably not. I mean, there's a lot of factors like we have, we can't help incarceration rate.
education, graduation, things like that. But there's certain areas we can, and I think if people are aware of Ready, Set, Co and what it stands for, we're hoping to give them information and knowledge so that they can make healthier decisions in their lives and whatever that means to them. It might not be running a marathon. It might just be going for a walk, walking your dog, drinking a little bit more water, going to see the doctor and just staying on top of your health. Those are actionable items that we want to see.
The other great thing about Ready SoCo, it's not just sports partners involved. We have huge brands that have signed on to support the initiative. we're talking Dick's Sporting Goods, REI, Planet Fitness, Kadoba, Outside Magazine, Be a Good Person, Garmin, Sweet Green. So it's a really, really robust, yeah, it's a very, very cool, and in two years, right? Like a pretty short runway. So yeah, it's exciting. And we've got quite the character leading the charge for us on that initiative too.
Matt Farrell (12:08)
wow, I didn't know that.
well, I don't know if you're talking about yourself leading that initiative or if that's the perfect segue to talk national brand of Coach Prime. You and I are in Colorado. We're in the the eye of the of the storm. But you want to just talk about a national international personality with Deion Sanders being involved. How did that come about? You're starting to see more ads around it.
Bill (12:24)
You
Matt Farrell (12:48)
I just find him one of the absolute most fascinating characters in life, let alone sports.
Bill (12:55)
I think you hit on it. There's nobody like him. Right. And just around the time that we were launching Ready, Set, Co. he landed in Boulder, right? That was two years ago, November, really. And we immediately said, we should talk to this guy because if anybody can serve as the biggest megaphone, the biggest motivator for getting people to be healthier, we think it's going to be coach prime here in Colorado. No, was that a bit of a bet? Sure.
But there's one thing about Dion, wherever he goes and whatever he does, he will find success. And we believed in that. It's turned out to be true. The guy has just outperformed every expectation that people have had of him. And for him to be that face for us on an initiative to get people to be healthier, what a great fit. I think we're one of his only local partners. so...
using UC health as a vehicle for him to really reach out to the Colorado community specifically and for us to be able to leverage our relationship with him to help improve lives, which is at the end of the day, what our mission is. Man, it's been really fun. It's been really exciting. We're also partners with CU and their athletics department. So merging everybody together has really helped out a lot. think it's been a win, win, win in a lot of different ways, that relationship.
Matt Farrell (14:19)
it's a fun one. mean, there's no getting around the guy's a needle mover in, in, in many ways. I want to shift gears a little bit and we're going to talk, you know, generically of use. You sit on the, you know, you're managing partners, you're signing partners, you're evaluating partners. and I just want to get your brand perspective of what you look for.
in a partner and we're probably going to break that down in a few different ways, not seeking anything confidential from you, Bill, but how do you look at a return on investment when you look at partners specifically in the sports space?
Bill (15:04)
Yeah, that's a good question. mean, ROI can mean different things for different partners. What success means for a minor league baseball team in Colorado Springs, for instance, might not be the same way that we measure success with the Denver Nuggets. And that's okay. And I think that we recognize that we take a variety of factors into account when we measure ROI data from the teams.
Working with our agency partner Paragon and their expertise, we do fan surveys for our major league teams and help measure recall preference and a myriad of other factors that go into a tool that we use to basically score out ROI on each partnership. We weight things differently depending on what's important to us and where we find the most value. And I think the most important thing about ROI is we're
we're always evolving. Every year we take a look at it and say, do we need to tweak this here? Do we need to tweak that there? What was valuable to UC health in 2017? About a year after I started, it's just not the same several years later, right? So at that point in 2017, we had rebranded and brought all of our hospitals under one brand and awareness was a big part of what our goals were at that point. That shifted a little bit over the coming years.
We're now back to a little bit more of a preference standpoint. So I think that the malleability of ROI as the world changes, as partnerships change, as our industry changes, is one of the most important factors that we take into account.
Matt Farrell (16:46)
not necessarily looking for an exact percentage by any means, but how do you look at the objective side, which you talked about? There's a tool, there's measurement, there's numbers versus the subjective side of a partnership.
Bill (17:02)
Yeah, I mean, as much as possible needs to be measured. We definitely don't want to get in habit of evaluating partnerships based on what Bill thinks. That's not, that's a dangerous place for us to be in, right? So it needs to be quantitative. But I'd say a really good metaphor for that is like an athlete. You're not going to, likely not going to recruit an athlete or scout an athlete based on a stat sheet.
Matt Farrell (17:14)
Yeah.
Bill (17:31)
on just numbers. There's people out there that are experts in their field that go to games, that go to practices, that evaluate talent, that have their eye on qualitative things and subjective things and characteristics. And they take that into account when they evaluate that athlete and their potential. I think that's a really rough metaphor, but I think that there is a subjective notion of evaluating partnerships too. But at the end of the day, it does need to be
really grounded in data because then you can go back to it and it could be reliable for you. If somebody, you know, if I'm gone from UC health tomorrow and somebody else comes in, they should be able to see exactly what we're doing, what we find successful, and it shouldn't be based on, you know, a personal conversation with another person. So we really try and make it very fair and very easy to understand and straightforward. I think the less gray area, the better when it comes to evaluation.
Matt Farrell (18:31)
I mean, that makes sense because I mean, the way you described it is perfect that if you weren't there tomorrow, does it stand up? Does it stand up to the, can the nurse or the doctor or the administrator somewhere else in your organization kind of understand what's behind this and why you're doing it as well? I would think that would be important just to sell it in.
Bill (18:58)
I'd say yes and no. I don't expect to know anything about brain surgery from a surgeon and I don't expect him to know anything about what I do in sports partnerships. I think, and that's funny, right? Cause like my colleagues are, but my colleagues.
Matt Farrell (19:09)
Well, I didn't mean the analytical tools part, but why are we involved with
the nuggets? Yeah.
Bill (19:22)
Exactly. And we do need to pitch that and we push that to different audiences, different ways. So our employees, our providers, our patients, and then the general public, right? Like they understand partnerships in different ways. And yes, a hundred percent. We have to be mindful of that.
Matt Farrell (19:36)
So a general question that you can kind of take as you see fit. What makes a good partner? What makes a good partner?
Bill (19:50)
I think there's a lot of things that make a good partner, right? Like I can look at it as what makes me a good partner versus what makes the teams or the venue or the property a good partner. I think a common understanding of goals and objectives on each side is really the thing that makes the best partners. If they don't understand, your counterpart doesn't understand what success means to you, what challenges you have,
Matt Farrell (19:53)
Yeah.
Bill (20:20)
and really work with you and be proactive and trying to tackle that stuff, then there might not be such a great partner. At the end of the day, some partnerships are also just transactional. Like maybe they don't have the staff to be extremely strategic. They're working with a huge set of interns, you know, like there's a lot of organizations and properties that don't have partnership strategists involved. And I think that as long as you feel like you're valued,
and that you're returning that value in kind, that's what makes a good partner. We want to be just as valuable to the Colorado Rockies, to the Colorado Rapids as they are to us. And that mutual understanding makes a great partner.
Matt Farrell (21:06)
Well, it's funny because I was going to kind of go that direction of every partnership has a business element and an economic element to it. So setting that aside, what does a partner need from you?
Bill (21:22)
They need direction. If I cannot articulate what my goals are and what we're trying to get out of the partnership, how are they supposed to help us deliver, right? They need me to be honest. They need to trust that even if we're gonna have a difficult conversation, which in business in general, there's difficult conversations, right? With partnerships, not everything is hunky dory, rose-colored glasses all the time.
But it's trusting, if we're having a conversation that's a little bit tougher than the other ones, I still have your best interests at heart and I trust that you have my best interests at heart. I think that those are a lot of factors that trust is a huge part of what makes partnership. And yeah, in my arena, the sports industry and where we work, it's important, but really anywhere, right? Like when you work with a client, when you are working with a vendor, that trust is...
is really what's going to dictate success for you.
Matt Farrell (22:25)
Well, this is one that I just, I have to ask you and I'm not asking to call out anybody, but, and I'm making up a number. So if you have 10 partners, you've probably turned down 90. What are some good, bad examples that come in your door and any examples that you just scratch your head and like say, come on, man, you, you, gotta be, you gotta be better than that.
Bill (22:55)
Yeah, mean, I think, you know, there's a, there's a lot of proposals. There's a lot of conversations that come through that are fantastic. They're great pitches. listen and there's some sort of factor, usually timing or budget that dictates we may or may not move forward with, with that specific proposal. Right. I think that what makes a good pitch is listening to what our objectives are and
asking great questions that can then be reflected ultimately in what the proposal looks like. Hey, we heard that you X, Y, and Z, here's some assets and here's some ideas we have that we think could be good thought starters for us to help you accomplish X, and Z. Laying things out like that are great. And honestly, even if they're not right on the nose, the fact that effort was put in to really understand what our needs are and for a pitch to
address that is really important. I think the not so great ones are just transactional, right? They're not listening, they're not asking questions. And it's more like what have you done for me lately? Or what can you do for my bottom line? What can you do for my bottom line in time for the deadline on my bonus structure? Like sometimes people will legitimately tell us we need this, I need the sign because it affects my compensation, right?
Matt Farrell (24:13)
I haven't heard that one.
Bill (24:16)
And that's just
like, gosh, like I hear you. Right. Like that's legit. And people need to make a living. And we understand like there's commissions involved in things, but, that transactional nature can be a little tough. I think the other thing is like, I pitch all the time. have to pitch internally. have to pitch to partners. just today I awarded a pitch and had to turn down two others and I had to make one. So I'm doing that all the time. And I think.
Matt Farrell (24:42)
It's a
well-rounded day.
Bill (24:43)
These are lessons that
I have to apply as a partner as well. I can't just go to a team and say, we want to do this, let's move forward. I have to sell them on it. I have to say, hey, are you in? Is this something you find valuable to you? We took into account what your organization's objectives are. We think that this idea can really help that as well. So it's constantly evolving lessons being learned.
Yeah, mean, there's, yeah, I'm not gonna get it. I'm not gonna name anybody that's done a bad pitch, but there's been great ones.
Matt Farrell (25:16)
No, no, no, no, no, I've confessed this in I've
confessed this in other areas. So it's not new. I mean, I sent the Avis proposal to the Hertz guy, you know, there's all these mistakes you you you make as you as you're coming up.
Bill (25:22)
You
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah. And I think it's just what you do with that and how you learn from it. I think that anybody that says that they've, they've gone, you know, a couple of decades in a career without tripping a few times is, is probably lying to you. It's just, are you, are you tripping again and again on that same crack in the sidewalk? Right? Like that's the problem. As long as you get up, move on. I don't know. I've done that thousands of times in my career, I think.
Matt Farrell (25:56)
That's well said.
So we were chatting a little bit before we started recording and I would say you're, you're really a pay it forward type person. You talk to students, you talk to classes, you're involved in Metro state in Denver on some of their sports programs. But what, even with your alma mater, James Madison, you're involved in some programs there with their sport management program, which I think it's great. That's gotta be a real
fun charge to do and be involved with your alma mater.
Bill (26:34)
Yeah, I mean, it's great. I think that I have a lot of pride with the school I went to and JMU is having quite a couple of years here with regard to their athletics program, but just from an academic standpoint, they're fantastic. Since I graduated almost 20 years ago, that's hard to say out loud. They've really grown. This school wasn't even there whenever I went to school. I majored in PR because I thought I wanted to be a sports writer.
And I didn't even do sports management. was part of the school of kinesiology, but now it's, it's this hard school of hospitality, recreation and sport management. What they're trying to do there is not only send people into the sports industry, into the workforce, but develop leaders. And they're doing such great things. And I wanted to help them out for years. I finally got an invite to help out on their advisory board. I love it. And I think, I mean, you can.
You definitely know this, Matt, is like, there's a lot of people that want to work in sports. There's very few out of those people that will, and there's even fewer that will become leaders and really impact change in the industry. And I think it's extremely important to be able to identify those folks and help the 19, 20 year olds really start making moves when they're in college to be those leaders if that's really what they want to do.
You mentioned Metro State, but know, JMU has an amazing program for that that's on the up and up. I'm proud to serve them honestly.
Matt Farrell (28:07)
it's great stuff. there's just, I don't know, there's something special about doing stuff for your country. There's something special about doing stuff for your hometown and your alma mater. It's just got to be very fulfilling.
Bill (28:21)
Yeah, yeah, it's great.
Matt Farrell (28:23)
So last question for you is, I just call it the shameless plug. Anything you've got going, anything that you wanna add, how people should follow UCHealth and what you're doing in the sports world.
Bill (28:38)
You know, I don't think necessarily a shameless plug. think that there's a lot of really great stuff going on in the sports industry today that are not, that's not happening at the big global brand stage. That's one of the things I love working where I work. We are focused in our own community. We are Colorado.
There's amazing stuff and a lot of brands with amazing budgets out there, but there's very creative thinking. There's very innovative thinking on the local level with local partners. And that's a vast majority of sponsorship rosters across the country where we don't have the reach or resources that say a Verizon or an Anheuser-Busch or a State Farm does.
I think looking towards those local in-market partners and what they're doing will surprise a lot of people if they haven't looked there before. We feel really fortunate to consider ourselves leaders in that space, not only in our industry, but really in sports in general. We try and do a lot with a little, and we're really proud of it too. mean, the impact that we make, think is something that I have a lot of pride in. And yeah, I'm just excited to...
guess continue my journey with UC health and see where the next path takes me in my career.
Matt Farrell (30:04)
Well, it's awesome and I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate you joining. whether you live in Colorado or not listening or watching this, just the lessons that can be applied for sponsorship and working in sports and careers is invaluable. So Bill, thank you so much.
Bill (30:24)
Yeah, could see you knew again, Matt.