The Heroes Are Coming: Treating hockey like a blockbuster movie sold 525,000 tickets – Episode #7

Keep it simple. You are nothing without the people around you.

These are a few of the lessons from the stories Maja Frølunde Sand-Grimnitz, Director of Global Marketing for Consumer Gaming, EPOS (formerly Sennheiser Communications)(https://www.eposaudio.com/) shared with Daniel Burstein in Episode #7.

Some lessons from Sand-Grimnitz that emerged in their discussion:

– Keep it simple…both in defining the problem/need of the consumer and developing the solution and communication to meet that need

 Sand-Grimnitz led sales and marketing for Denmark’s hosting of the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (which has an estimated global viewership of 1.3 billion people). But Danes don’t know ice hockey. Instead of a campaign explaining ice hockey, she kept it simple by focusing on the entertainment/leisure budgets of potential attendees, and focused on the entertainment aspect – adrenaline, action, competition. In the end, the campaign sold 525K tickets and generated 130M+ Danish krone in revenue (116% of the target).
 
– You are nothing without the people around you

Sand-Grimnitz was part of building the sports media brand, ONE Championship. She was in her hotel room working late to prepare for the mixed martial arts brand’s first Pan-Asian Summit. She rushed down to the first floor where she saw the entire team working on packing gift bags for the hundreds of guests. She went in, got what she needed and went back to her room thinking, “good, they are on that, and I am on the rest.” However, in the eyes of her team, they saw a leader that didn’t pitch in.

 – Positioning marketing as a commercial discipline

Going into her 1st budget meeting with C-level management at EPOS, Sand-Grimnitz thought it was enough to put the marketing plan, KPIs & needed budget in front of them. But that didn’t cut it. She went back & restructured the presentation to communicate a more holistic plan.

 Sand-Grimnitz also shared lessons she learned from people she collaborated with:

– Keld Strudahl, Founder, BrandActivators & Sports Marketing Strategies: If you master stakeholder management and getting people to buy into your plan/idea, the sky is the limit. 

 While Strudahl & Sand-Grimnitz were at Carlsberg Group, she briefed the top 3 men & women from the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup about a brand activation. She used marketing industry terms &just told them what to do. Strudahl gently pulled her aside & told her she needed to speak their language

– Victor Cui, President & CEO, Edmonton Elks: The power of being a humble leader when called for

This story place after the gift bag incident (mentioned earlier) when Cui & Sand-Grimnitz were at ONE Championship. Cui informed her that he would scold her publicly at the upcoming team meeting for not pitching in when the team needed her.

 – Iris Isabella Engelund, CEO & Founder, Play Your Talent: If you have dreams, pursue them or let them go

Sand-Grimnitz called Engelund saying she was feeling restless & not motivated but didn’t understand why – her job was good & interesting, career path was moving in the right direction, etc. Engelund helped her map out a 5-year plan for professional ambitions, but also the dreams beyond that.

A podcast episode and free toolkit mentioned in this episode:

How to Model Your Customer’s Mind (https://meclabs.com/about/research-partnerships)

500 Mangled,

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