Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Reflections on Marketing with Joshua Shuck, Marketing Director of the Indiana Pacers
10 Plays3 years ago
Our journey defines us, so for today's episode of the Onya Mic Podcast your host Ashley Monk, CEO and Lead Marketing Strategist at Onya, share reflections on marketing with the Director of Marketing of Indiana Pacers Joshua Shuck.
In their conversation you will hear about Joshua background before he became the Director of Marketing for the Pacers. It is worth noting that a lot of learning happened for him until the perfect position to boost his career came along.
Excited to get more insights from this episode? We got you covered. Here are some great points you'll be picking from this conversation:
- Flipping the switch in your head plus other mindset hacks to realize your potential
- What it's like trying new things in marketing in the context of the pandemic
- Helpful tactics for marketing your business and some pieces of advice from Joshua
Get ready to dive in to this episode. Here's a note from Ashley that you should also watch out for in this episode.
"Leverage what you've got."
Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/joshuashuck
If you want to work with him, send him an email jshuck@pacers.com.
Born and raised in Indiana, Joshua Shuck is currently the Director of Marketing for the Indiana Pacers. In this role, he oversees the brand strategy, creative development and marketing & advertising. When he's not cheering on the Pacers, he and his wife spend their free time with their daughter with another on the way! His favorite thing about Indiana is the people.
Know how you can live out your full potential. Visit the Onya Mark Website at https://www.onyamark.com/
See you next week for another episode of the Onya Mic Podcast!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Anya Mike podcast, a podcast where we discuss the ins and outs of marketing, running a business, and tips and tricks the industry may just not be telling you, but we will.
00:00:14
Speaker
If you're looking for inspiration on exactly how to grow your business with ambition, innovation, and confidence, while creating maximum impact to influence your clients like never before, you're in the right place.
00:00:26
Speaker
Grab your AirPods, pen, paper, or laptop, and let's get on your mic.
00:00:31
Speaker
Get set and grow.
00:00:33
Speaker
And now here's your host on the mic, CEO Ashley Monk.
00:00:39
Speaker
All right, everyone.
Guest Introduction: Joshua Shuck's Background
00:00:40
Speaker
Well, this episode is going to be absolutely amazing because we are talking to Joshua Shuck today.
00:00:46
Speaker
He is the director of marketing at the Pacers.
00:00:49
Speaker
has a huge background in attraction marketing and overall is just one of the brilliant minds that's been able to carry them through so much change as we have all seen in the world over the last few years.
00:01:00
Speaker
So Josh, welcome to the show.
00:01:02
Speaker
So excited to have you today.
00:01:03
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for having me.
00:01:05
Speaker
Excited to talk with you.
00:01:07
Speaker
I cannot wait.
00:01:08
Speaker
I have so many questions for you, but before we dig into it, I would love to hear the story of how you ended up at the Pacers.
00:01:16
Speaker
I know you worked for the symphony for a while and you've been in the industry for some time.
00:01:20
Speaker
So would love to hear more about your career journey.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah,
Educational Journey: From High School to College
00:01:24
Speaker
definitely.
00:01:25
Speaker
And I will preface, I'm very long winded.
00:01:28
Speaker
Sometimes when it comes to answers, this will definitely be one that I'm a little long winded at because I think it's a fun story.
00:01:35
Speaker
I get a, as I'm sure you do, my LinkedIn is usually blowing up with
00:01:40
Speaker
You know, college students or, you know, even students in high school that are really interested in getting in marketing, especially, you know, sports marketing on, you know, so many folks on our team get reached out to, hey, can we can we talk to you?
00:01:53
Speaker
We want to know how you got your your spot and everything.
00:01:55
Speaker
So I feel like it's always interesting to kind of give a little bit of details.
00:01:59
Speaker
of how I got to the spot that I'm at, starting from way, way back.
00:02:03
Speaker
So I think it gives a lot of, I think it gives a lot of hope for people that like, hey, maybe one time too, I can get in one of these positions.
00:02:09
Speaker
So it kind of starts off on a negative note.
00:02:13
Speaker
So I was a really bad high school student.
00:02:16
Speaker
I just couldn't find my groove.
00:02:18
Speaker
You know, I was, I was more interested in a lot of things that weren't like, you know, grade related.
00:02:22
Speaker
So I think I graduated from high school with a GPA of like one.
00:02:27
Speaker
So it was,
00:02:27
Speaker
It was very low.
00:02:28
Speaker
So my college attraction, it wasn't very high.
00:02:33
Speaker
So I didn't even know if I want to go to college.
00:02:34
Speaker
Like I was just like, what am I going to do?
00:02:36
Speaker
And ended up, IU has this great program where if you go to Ivy Tech for, I think it's a year or maybe it's even like one semester and you do really well there, then they will direct admit you into IU.
00:02:51
Speaker
So for me, I started off again coming out of high school with a one GPA.
00:02:57
Speaker
But I did really well on my SATs.
00:02:59
Speaker
So that kind of gave me hope that like, hey, maybe I'm supposed to do this.
00:03:03
Speaker
So I went to
Shift to Politics: Influence of Obama's Campaign
00:03:04
Speaker
Ivy Tech for a year, got on the dean's list.
00:03:07
Speaker
It really got me kind of like comfortable with everything.
00:03:09
Speaker
Then I get to IU, direct admit in there.
00:03:12
Speaker
I actually started at IU.
00:03:14
Speaker
I really wanted to go to the Kelly School of Business, which if anybody's familiar with IU, I mean, it's nationally recognized.
00:03:21
Speaker
I mean, it's one of the great programs at the time.
00:03:23
Speaker
I thought maybe I wanted to get into accounting or marketing.
00:03:26
Speaker
I didn't know which one I wanted to get into.
00:03:28
Speaker
That's a no-brainer.
00:03:29
Speaker
You know it is.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:03:32
Speaker
And especially like financially, right?
00:03:35
Speaker
Like an accounting degree is like you can do so much.
00:03:38
Speaker
You can have a job forever.
00:03:39
Speaker
Marketing, who knows?
00:03:41
Speaker
But the so for me, I was really into that.
00:03:44
Speaker
I was on that fast track.
00:03:46
Speaker
But then I got it.
00:03:48
Speaker
involved with politics.
00:03:50
Speaker
This was around the time that then Senator Obama was just kicking off like his presidential campaign.
00:03:57
Speaker
So I guess maybe I'm showing my age a little bit, but the that campaign really tipped off a love for me for politics and the power of
00:04:08
Speaker
neighborhood building and everything and I actually switched my major at that point and switched my university so I transferred out of IU Bloomington and then I went to Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis better known as IUPUI which at that time was if you wanted to work in politics and I think it's still kind of that way or you want to be involved in government it's located in Indianapolis and it's like I don't know
00:04:35
Speaker
half a mile away from or the campus is half a mile away from the Indiana State Capitol.
00:04:40
Speaker
So if you want to be involved, it's like right there, you're able to meet so many people.
00:04:44
Speaker
So I transferred out of Kelly, I went to, it was then known as the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, or the School of Partying and Easy Assignments, which was, you know, it was actually a term I didn't figure out until later, after I graduated, which shows that we were definitely studying very hard while we were there.
00:05:04
Speaker
But
00:05:04
Speaker
But got
Early Political Career and Community Engagement
00:05:05
Speaker
involved with that.
00:05:06
Speaker
And again, just to go to some of the challenges.
00:05:10
Speaker
So I was really interested in politics, but I couldn't really get like an internship.
00:05:17
Speaker
Right.
00:05:17
Speaker
I was competing to get internships with like at the statehouse is like they were these coveted internships that if you wanted to be involved, you know, there were ones you really wanted to get involved.
00:05:29
Speaker
And couldn't get one couldn't get one.
00:05:31
Speaker
And I had a professor who
00:05:36
Speaker
really took a chance and went out on a limb for me and gave me a letter of recommendation to the Indiana Democratic Party and got me an internship there.
00:05:46
Speaker
And, you know, at the time, I mean, the internship, I mean, it wasn't the most thrilling thing.
00:05:51
Speaker
I mean, it was, you know, unpaid.
00:05:53
Speaker
It was, you know, I was doing a lot of like paperwork and I think they were just happy that someone applied for the internship, honestly, at the time.
00:06:01
Speaker
And so, you know,
00:06:02
Speaker
did that, but it led to my first career or my first professional job, call it, where I was a tracker where I would go to opposition campaign rallies and things like that and take video and try to catch them and like gotcha moments and everything.
00:06:16
Speaker
So a very cool, you know, sarcastically career, but
00:06:21
Speaker
It got me involved in politics.
00:06:23
Speaker
I then went from that position to kind of campaign work with, you know, neighborhood organizing, volunteer management, things like that.
00:06:32
Speaker
I got to work with some incredible candidates.
00:06:34
Speaker
So all the way from President Obama to Melina Kennedy, who ran for mayor of Indianapolis, to Senator Joe Donnelly, you know, a lot of great people involved.
00:06:50
Speaker
that were there and got to meet so many people.
00:06:51
Speaker
It really tipped off my love for like neighborhoods and meeting people.
00:06:54
Speaker
And I would be, you know, on the ground of the campaigns and hearing people's stories about, you know, why they supported the candidate or why they didn't support a candidate and then trying to change their mind.
00:07:05
Speaker
And, you
Transition to Marketing at Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
00:07:06
Speaker
know, here's all these great things that, you know, this person's doing that, that would positively, positively impact your life.
00:07:12
Speaker
And I did that.
00:07:13
Speaker
And it was, it was really great.
00:07:15
Speaker
If you don't know this about,
00:07:17
Speaker
political campaigns, the demands and the hours are very exhausting.
00:07:24
Speaker
It's very thrilling, right?
00:07:26
Speaker
You're working towards this one event, which is election day.
00:07:29
Speaker
And at the end of it, you can say like, we won or lost.
00:07:32
Speaker
Like it's the ultimate win-lose in those scenarios.
00:07:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:37
Speaker
But I got to a point where I thought that two things, one, that if I wanted to keep moving up in that field, I would have to move out of state, which a lot of my friends did, and which I didn't want to do.
00:07:52
Speaker
I'd been in Indianapolis for a couple of years at that point, and I was really excited about where the city was going.
00:07:59
Speaker
And I used to say, and I think it's still a little bit that way, is Indianapolis was a blank canvas.
00:08:06
Speaker
And if you wanted to do anything there, you could do it because it hadn't been done yet.
00:08:10
Speaker
I'd spent a lot of time in Chicago, uh, at that point.
00:08:13
Speaker
And, um,
00:08:15
Speaker
I had seen like, I always felt that like there were businesses that existed in Chicago that didn't exist in Indiana or Indianapolis.
00:08:22
Speaker
And if you wanted to, you could borrow some of those ideas and start them here and they would be very successful.
00:08:28
Speaker
So I knew I wanted to stay in Indianapolis one.
00:08:31
Speaker
The second part of that is that I knew that like I was at a competitive disadvantage from the people around me that even though I was like a hard worker and I felt like my work was speaking for itself, like I didn't have, um,
00:08:44
Speaker
Some of the credibility that I thought other folks had in terms of like my network was okay, but it wasn't great.
00:08:50
Speaker
And I also had a lot of colleagues that were either going to law school or had finished law school or law school or some other kind of like.
00:08:58
Speaker
post degree.
00:09:00
Speaker
So I decided I wanted to get my graduate degree at IEPY, but then have it a little bit more focused between you and I. Like, again, I wasn't thinking marketing at that point.
00:09:10
Speaker
I was really still in like civic leadership.
00:09:13
Speaker
My whole thought was that I was going to go back to grad school.
00:09:15
Speaker
And then at the end of it, I would start working for the mayor's campaign or the mayor's office at that point.
00:09:22
Speaker
I randomly
Growth in Marketing: Tackling Nonprofit Challenges
00:09:23
Speaker
took a job during that time.
00:09:25
Speaker
I was working for, I got the job with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, which was, the position was kind of like the lowest position they had at the organization at the time.
00:09:34
Speaker
Like it was, it was, it was a volunteer management position where they had went from like a fully paid usher staff to volunteer ushers.
00:09:44
Speaker
And they needed somebody to come in and like really shape that program.
00:09:48
Speaker
They had had somebody that was in it before, but had like, didn't really like it.
00:09:51
Speaker
So they needed to,
00:09:52
Speaker
somebody to come in and breed life into it and make it work.
00:09:55
Speaker
It only been around for a couple months and they were thinking about shutting it down.
00:09:59
Speaker
And so it was like, Hey, you can come in and kind of like do whatever you want with this.
00:10:02
Speaker
And I was like, okay, great.
00:10:04
Speaker
Like I love that idea.
00:10:06
Speaker
and took that job and then the rest is kind of history.
00:10:10
Speaker
It really ignited my career and in my path.
00:10:14
Speaker
That organization at the time had just gotten a new CEO, Gary Gensling, who's now the CEO for the National Orchestra in Washington, DC, who's doing some amazing work out there.
00:10:25
Speaker
But his whole mindset was like building strong leaders, like up and down the organization.
00:10:29
Speaker
So it was like, if you have great ideas or you have passion,
00:10:33
Speaker
Like, I don't care about your experience.
00:10:35
Speaker
I just want to like bring great ideas to life.
00:10:38
Speaker
I had great mentors above me who gave me opportunities.
00:10:43
Speaker
Sarah Meyer, who's someone who's doing like incredible work in Indianapolis now, she works for the Indiana Sports Corps, gave me like my introduction into marketing.
00:10:53
Speaker
Like I transitioned out of that volunteer role into like a group sales role and then kind of just like flourished into there to taking on like
00:11:01
Speaker
overseeing all of like our single ticket sales to then marketing and allowing me to do the marketing for like our biggest concert series.
00:11:08
Speaker
Um,
00:11:09
Speaker
that we had there and just learned so much.
00:11:12
Speaker
Like that's, that was nonprofit marketing.
00:11:15
Speaker
The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is the largest performing arts organization.
00:11:19
Speaker
So from a nonprofit standpoint, it's like, you've got a big budget, but compared to like other marketing organizations, you still have to do like a ton of grassroots, a ton of like creative things to, to get people awareness.
00:11:33
Speaker
You don't have, you know, a million dollars that you can put behind like a radio campaign or, or something like that.
00:11:40
Speaker
So I learned so much from there.
00:11:42
Speaker
And then I had been there for, you know, almost six and a half years, I think with the symphony and like kind of various roles, you know, just continuously adding things to my plate.
00:11:54
Speaker
And then the position with the Pacers actually came across randomly on an email.
00:12:00
Speaker
And it was like,
Joining the Pacers: Passion for Marketing and Basketball
00:12:01
Speaker
hey, this position is available.
00:12:04
Speaker
And I think I blind applied to it.
00:12:06
Speaker
And I just submitted my resume.
00:12:09
Speaker
And yeah, went through like my love for, um, I have a passion for marketing.
00:12:14
Speaker
I realized that.
00:12:15
Speaker
And, you know, through, throughout, I think like, I can always look back at my, um, careers that I've had and can see that, you know, I love storytelling.
00:12:25
Speaker
I love, um, connecting with people.
00:12:28
Speaker
I, you know, I, I like persuasion, you know, all the way back.
00:12:31
Speaker
My, uh, my parents say, uh,
00:12:34
Speaker
I, you know, used to love to argue, right?
00:12:37
Speaker
Or just like, I'm the youngest, I've got two older sisters.
00:12:40
Speaker
So I think I was always like trying to like get my way a little bit with them.
00:12:46
Speaker
And so
00:12:47
Speaker
You know, my passion for marketing and that side of it, but like my passion for basketball is like unrivaled as far as like things I'm interested in.
00:12:55
Speaker
And, you know, I'm an Indiana kid at heart.
00:12:57
Speaker
So we grew up with the Indiana Hoosiers.
00:12:59
Speaker
We grew up with, you know, the Reggie Miller years for the Pacers and all that.
00:13:04
Speaker
I have such great memories of all that.
00:13:07
Speaker
So to think that I would be able to take my passion for basketball and my passion for marketing, it was like, I got to get this job.
00:13:14
Speaker
And so that interview process was like three months.
00:13:18
Speaker
And, you know, it's, you know, it was just me against,
Marketing During the Pandemic: Innovative Strategies
00:13:21
Speaker
you know, whoever candidates were there.
00:13:22
Speaker
And, you know, I didn't have like a sports background, which at that time is like, and for a lot of people was still kind of like,
00:13:29
Speaker
Not necessarily unheard of.
00:13:30
Speaker
I mean, other people were doing it, but, you know, from everything I've learned, like in the sports business is that the old way is that you really had to start off as an intern and then kind of like grind your way up to get like a spot, like in like in some sort of management role, which the more I see our team building around us and then other teams like that's not necessarily.
00:13:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:55
Speaker
It's really now just like talent driven, excited, excitement driven and things like that.
00:14:00
Speaker
So that's a really long again, I mentioned long winded answers here.
00:14:07
Speaker
But that's kind of like where I started and how I worked my way to where I'm at now.
00:14:12
Speaker
Josh, I love that so much because there are so many amazing threads woven throughout that story that I know listening to it, I'm like, I just wholeheartedly relate to.
00:14:21
Speaker
And I think for everybody listening, it's so inspiring.
00:14:23
Speaker
The first one was starting from like not having the education, because I think that that's a huge barrier for people is struggling in school or, you know, thinking that their degree is not in the right area that, oh, because I didn't go to college for this.
00:14:38
Speaker
Like, how am I supposed to really accelerate my career in this area?
00:14:41
Speaker
What do I do if that's not my forte?
00:14:43
Speaker
And I know I relate to that.
00:14:44
Speaker
My degree has nothing to do with the work that I do now.
00:14:49
Speaker
And, you know, being in online advertising, I was that held me back for a little bit until I finally flipped the switch in my head that this field is emerging.
00:14:58
Speaker
Marketing is always changing and evolving.
00:15:00
Speaker
There's more opportunity leading into your next point with Indianapolis being a blank canvas and
00:15:05
Speaker
I feel like marketing is the same way.
00:15:07
Speaker
It is always evolving.
00:15:08
Speaker
It is always changing.
00:15:10
Speaker
And you've got two choices.
00:15:12
Speaker
One is to look at everything and say, well, everybody's already done that.
00:15:16
Speaker
I don't have enough resources.
00:15:17
Speaker
I don't have the ability to compete.
00:15:19
Speaker
I don't have the background to learn.
00:15:21
Speaker
And then the second option is to say, awesome, everyone's in the same place.
00:15:25
Speaker
This is changing rapidly.
00:15:27
Speaker
Now is the best opportunity that I have to jump in to learn these skills, to be effective, to
00:15:32
Speaker
to be ahead of the curve or to try things that no one else has done.
00:15:35
Speaker
And I love that blank canvas idea because I see the opposite with Indianapolis too.
00:15:40
Speaker
It's like, Oh, it's just this little small town.
00:15:42
Speaker
It's just Indianapolis.
00:15:44
Speaker
But like you said, when you're able to flip that and see the potential and see the opportunity, Oh my goodness.
00:15:50
Speaker
It's been amazing watching our city come to life.
00:15:52
Speaker
And then the last one was being scrappy.
00:15:54
Speaker
I think that's so important.
00:15:56
Speaker
And with, I worked in the nonprofit area myself and
00:15:59
Speaker
You can make a little go a long way because at the end of the day, you know, we work with clients with budgets of all sizes from small to large and those smaller budgets.
00:16:08
Speaker
Well, it's not always enough to move the needle what those budgets do.
00:16:11
Speaker
And when you eliminate that from being an excuse to not being effective, it really forces you to look at and prioritize on what is a needle mover.
00:16:20
Speaker
What will actually help propel the organization forward and what is not a priority?
00:16:26
Speaker
And I think when you are really put under those constraints, you have to prioritize.
00:16:30
Speaker
And so those were the things that I loved and really just resonated with hearing your story.
00:16:35
Speaker
And I think they're so universal and so applicable in so many areas.
00:16:40
Speaker
Um, so thank you.
00:16:41
Speaker
So switching gears to, or I guess kind of on the same token, I want to know you were with the Pacers through the pandemic when there were no games, when there were, I mean, I would imagine one of the biggest revenue drivers being getting people in seats.
00:16:58
Speaker
None
Remote Fan Engagement: Creative Solutions
00:16:59
Speaker
of that went away.
00:16:59
Speaker
Opportunities to advertise to those people that were coming to games went away.
00:17:04
Speaker
What was that like?
00:17:05
Speaker
And how in the world did you lead your team through that?
00:17:10
Speaker
Yeah, it was definitely a challenge.
00:17:13
Speaker
So that was, that was my first season with the Pacers.
00:17:16
Speaker
So I was kind of in just to throw a little interest or another twist.
00:17:24
Speaker
We had a lot of new people on our team as well.
00:17:27
Speaker
We had a new VP of marketing that had come in as well.
00:17:32
Speaker
So we were, we were both like brand new to the organization.
00:17:36
Speaker
And we'd had a couple of months like under our belt.
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:40
Speaker
So when that happened, I think it was really challenging from the sense that, wow, we are a live event business, right?
00:17:50
Speaker
Like we...
00:17:52
Speaker
we understand that, you know, fans come to the game, right.
00:17:55
Speaker
And they, they, uh, call their friends, they buy tickets, they come, they, you know, they, they get their popcorn, they get their beer, they watch, you know, these incredible professional athletes put on the most incredible game, um, you know, that they've seen and they're going to create lifelong memories out of it.
00:18:10
Speaker
And it's like, Oh, that doesn't exist anymore.
00:18:12
Speaker
So what do you do?
00:18:14
Speaker
So for us, uh,
00:18:17
Speaker
our first thing that we did is, you know, we kind of level set with everyone that like, one, we're operating in a pandemic, right?
00:18:25
Speaker
So we understand that some of us have relatives that are getting sick.
00:18:30
Speaker
I mean, I know people like close to me that got incredibly sick.
00:18:33
Speaker
And we had, you know, friends of the family that passed away during that time.
00:18:38
Speaker
And, you know, it was a very scary time.
00:18:40
Speaker
But we also...
00:18:42
Speaker
So, so we one took that, took that in, but then we also realized that, you know, we have this unique opportunity that we are entertainment for a lot of people.
00:18:50
Speaker
And we are a lot of what we do is escapism from, you know, their, whatever's going on in their lives.
00:18:57
Speaker
So it's like, what can we do to provide something that's meaningful and that gives them just a break from everything that they're seeing?
00:19:05
Speaker
So, um,
00:19:07
Speaker
It also was a cool opportunity because there was no one that could say, hey, we tried that before and it didn't work.
00:19:13
Speaker
Right.
00:19:13
Speaker
So
NBA Bubble and Virtual Fan Experiences
00:19:14
Speaker
which I know for a lot of people in marketing, you hear that all the time and it can be some of the most frustrating responses that you hear.
00:19:21
Speaker
So we brought a team together from all our different, you know, call it verticals throughout the marketing division and just talk through, you know, what are some things that we can do?
00:19:31
Speaker
And just to give you some, this is before the even the bubble had been,
00:19:36
Speaker
an idea that it was coming back.
00:19:38
Speaker
And for those that don't know, the bubble was a remote location where all of the NBA, for the most part, playoff teams or playoff hopeful teams went and finished out the season.
00:19:51
Speaker
It was in Universal Studios, Orlando.
00:19:54
Speaker
I'm pretty sure I'm remembering that right.
00:19:57
Speaker
And there were no fans there and everything.
00:19:59
Speaker
But before that was even hinted at,
00:20:02
Speaker
You know, we started doing just some really creative things.
00:20:07
Speaker
We had things where, one, we had fans could submit clips of like their kids shooting baskets or things like that.
00:20:16
Speaker
And we would have some of our broadcast team would actually narrate that.
00:20:22
Speaker
whatever the kid was doing, right?
00:20:24
Speaker
And do it from like, if you were playing for the Pacers, this is what it would sound like to have Chris Denary do it, which was really cool.
00:20:31
Speaker
We got some really great submissions out of that.
00:20:33
Speaker
We had, we actually broadcast like NBA 2K games.
00:20:38
Speaker
So like the video game version, if we were supposed to play, you know, call it the Knicks on this certain day, we would actually do a 2K version of that that people could do.
00:20:50
Speaker
you know, some other teams that we saw and some of the things we would do is, you know, the go to your neighborhood and we would do like surprises like on your doorstep or, you know, there might be parades that would go through certain spots and things like that.
00:21:05
Speaker
And, you know, you think about those parades or anything that we would do is very much like, you know, you stand, you know, on the sidewalk, like 20 feet away, we'll come by and wave.
00:21:13
Speaker
And that's kind of just shows like the
00:21:16
Speaker
the level that people were at at that point that like something like that was exciting right and um
00:21:21
Speaker
It was really interesting.
00:21:23
Speaker
So we just went through our team.
00:21:24
Speaker
I mean, our digital team, we did such a great job of like, let's just go through highlights of past things.
00:21:29
Speaker
Let's talk about like what was going on, you know, during, you know, this time, like, you know, a lot of the historical on this day kind of stuff and just give people a reminder of like what basketball was like at that time.
00:21:41
Speaker
We would do things with, you know, players.
00:21:42
Speaker
Could we do Zoom, you know, Q&As and, you know, all those kinds of things.
00:21:47
Speaker
So you could have like some relations with players if you couldn't see them.
00:21:50
Speaker
you know, on the court and things like that.
00:21:53
Speaker
Eventually,
Team Collaboration and Innovation During Pandemic
00:21:54
Speaker
like I mentioned, the bubble happened.
00:21:56
Speaker
So it came back in one of the things my team was in charge of was overseeing like the virtual fan experience.
00:22:03
Speaker
So if you if you watched one of these NBA games, they they played again in an empty arena outside of just like family there.
00:22:11
Speaker
But they had these LED walls that were LED screens surrounding the court.
00:22:16
Speaker
And so we would have 10 sections for every game and we would have in each section, I think, 50 sections.
00:22:21
Speaker
People and fans could, you know,
00:22:24
Speaker
not even auditioned, they could just say they wanted to be in it.
00:22:27
Speaker
And then we would pick, you know, fans and, you know, they would come in and they would watch the game kind of like you and I are right now.
00:22:33
Speaker
They would be on a Zoom meeting or it was actually Teams.
00:22:36
Speaker
It was a Teams meeting, Microsoft Teams.
00:22:39
Speaker
And they would come in and you could see everybody on the screen and then you'd watch the game.
00:22:43
Speaker
And, you know, we'd encourage people to react like they would because the players could see you during that time.
00:22:52
Speaker
And we would have, you know, we would try to keep people engaged during that.
00:22:57
Speaker
So for timeouts, we'd have, you know, trivia that we might ask people or, you know, we joke about maybe somebody in the meeting had like a
00:23:07
Speaker
an old Pacers hat on.
00:23:08
Speaker
So we'd talk about like, you know, tell us a story about that hat.
00:23:11
Speaker
Where'd you get that?
00:23:12
Speaker
And just engaging the fans and people were excited to do it, which is again, goes to speak to where it was at at the time.
00:23:19
Speaker
And, or we'd have, you know, we had a special room for like a player's family, or we'd have former coaches that would come in and it would be exciting for the players to see like, oh, my, you know, my, my newborn is on the screen or, or something like that.
00:23:33
Speaker
And,
00:23:34
Speaker
There was so much that we were able to tap into and I'm probably forgetting some of the, we did so much during that time.
00:23:42
Speaker
Again, one of the lessons that we learned out of that is, you know, all that came together because we had this great team that got organized and said like, okay, let's just spend the next hour and we'll do this every week.
00:23:53
Speaker
And we'll just talk about like, what opportunities do we have?
00:23:58
Speaker
What is the, you know, for instance, our broadcast team, they were like, we want to do something.
00:24:02
Speaker
We want to help in some way.
00:24:03
Speaker
So it was like, great, let's get you announcing something.
00:24:05
Speaker
you know, those, those kids highlight plays and things like that.
00:24:08
Speaker
And just having everybody like open and willing to do stuff was just such a great experience at that time.
00:24:15
Speaker
And I think it really kind of like reshaped some people's thoughts of like the magic that can happen when we all come together and we just say like, we want to make this great for our fans, for our community, and let's put something great out there that they can get engaged with.
00:24:30
Speaker
Love that so much.
00:24:31
Speaker
And
Post-Pandemic Marketing and Storytelling
00:24:32
Speaker
some of the most innovative ideas too.
00:24:34
Speaker
I didn't realize that all of those things were happening and just how cool I've, you know, I think sometimes we all fall into this trend of just doing the same thing over and over again.
00:24:45
Speaker
And we feel like, Oh, there's no, I, we feel like we're running out of ideas and look at how creative and how innovative you all were during that season.
00:24:52
Speaker
I'm just so amazed.
00:24:54
Speaker
And I'm sure everyone just watching was just
00:24:57
Speaker
blown away by, by all that you're able to accomplish.
00:25:00
Speaker
And I'm curious too, what are maybe, I feel like the last couple of years have given so many of us so much perspective on, you know, do we even go back to doing some of the things that we were doing?
00:25:10
Speaker
How much of this do we keep like finding better and more innovative and more engaging ways to do things that we would never thought of before?
00:25:18
Speaker
What are maybe some of the things that,
00:25:20
Speaker
you had been doing from a marketing perspective before that maybe with all this, you realize, Oh, do we really need to do that?
00:25:27
Speaker
And that maybe you substituted
Trends in Authentic Content and Storytelling
00:25:29
Speaker
with some of the new stuff that you've done instead.
00:25:32
Speaker
You know, honestly, I don't, I don't know if there's anything that we came away from it and it was like, Hey, let's actually drop all radio advertising.
00:25:40
Speaker
Um, so there wasn't really, I, I will actually say is that like,
00:25:44
Speaker
it's, it's allowed us to try more things, but I think for us, especially, and I know this is true of like the majority of like people in the entertainment field right now is like, we still don't feel like we're back to a spot that we were originally.
00:25:57
Speaker
There's still a lot of hesitancy that we see from folks.
00:26:01
Speaker
We, at least from our organization, we really look at like next season, our 22, 23 season as hopefully one where like, we're back to, you know,
00:26:10
Speaker
Fully normal call it, you know, and all that.
00:26:14
Speaker
So we we've been very
00:26:19
Speaker
kind of steadfast and the approaches that we've done before, um, in, in moving towards that.
00:26:24
Speaker
I think one of the things though, we have leaned in a lot more to, to certain things.
00:26:29
Speaker
I think that we learned and, you know, as soon as I say it, you'll be like, well, that's obvious, right?
00:26:35
Speaker
Like when you've done that anyways, but really the behind the scenes aspect of things that, you know, we, um,
00:26:42
Speaker
We would sometimes look at like, hey, a highlight clip is going to be our best performing.
00:26:47
Speaker
You know, if we have a great dunk, that's going to be our top performing post that we might do for the year.
00:26:53
Speaker
But we really learned that a lot of these behind the scenes things were really interesting to fans and that the engagement around those things, even from like a single ticket ad campaign, people react to it.
00:27:08
Speaker
a lot better than we thought they would.
00:27:10
Speaker
So that's definitely been something that we've rethought as far as, you know, how do we actually lean into some of these other things and help use those pieces to help tell our story and engage fans that we were maybe not really thinking about beforehand.
00:27:26
Speaker
I love that though.
00:27:27
Speaker
Cause we, so I don't know how much you know about me, Josh, but I'm an online advertising expert and we're a verified agency with Facebook.
00:27:34
Speaker
So we're all in the trenches with all the media buying.
00:27:37
Speaker
And that is my love language.
00:27:38
Speaker
I know most people hate it, but it's really fun for me because it's like a game and bidding.
00:27:42
Speaker
And I always feel like I'm a digital stockbroker, but anyway, all of it to say, it was so fascinating to me watching the
00:27:49
Speaker
A lot of our clients pre-pandemic in the, I mean, I guess we're still in the pandemic, you know, so, but all of it to say, like watching the progression of the last two years, a lot of creative that worked beforehand.
Creative Marketing Strategies and Consumer Behavior
00:28:01
Speaker
And then even during and now that behind the scenes stuff that, um,
00:28:05
Speaker
We found that with so many across all industries and we work with entertainment, we work with tourism, we work with nonprofits, we work with lawyers and attorneys, we work with like huge B2B organizations.
00:28:17
Speaker
It has been so eye opening to see that across all of these different industries, people have craved one thing and it's been authenticity and being able to kind of peek behind the curtain to where things feel less curated.
00:28:30
Speaker
And I
00:28:31
Speaker
You know, I, I makes complete sense.
00:28:33
Speaker
Like you said, it's one of those things in hindsight.
00:28:35
Speaker
It's just like, well, of course that would be that way because now our lives are more integrated than ever.
00:28:40
Speaker
You and I are both out of our home offices today.
00:28:42
Speaker
You might be at your office.
00:28:43
Speaker
I'm at my home office, but you might have a dog barking during your zoom.
00:28:47
Speaker
I know I heard my daughter crying a little bit ago and it's like, our lives are more human and more not that they weren't human, but there's more of those intentional real life
00:28:58
Speaker
moments happening more than ever.
00:29:00
Speaker
And I feel like
Effectiveness of Display Ads and Multi-Channel Approach
00:29:01
Speaker
as marketers, we have to reflect that.
00:29:03
Speaker
And so it makes complete sense that all of that creative was working really well for you because it feels real.
00:29:08
Speaker
It feels tangible.
00:29:09
Speaker
It doesn't feel as artificial or like everybody's yelling and creating noise.
00:29:14
Speaker
It just cuts through because I think that people feel a connection to that.
00:29:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:19
Speaker
And
00:29:20
Speaker
to use an example, I'd be remiss if I didn't.
00:29:22
Speaker
Um, uh, I'm always about congratulating our team and lifting them up when we can.
00:29:27
Speaker
Uh, we have a great designer on our team.
00:29:29
Speaker
His name's Renick Bowman, who does like just incredible design work.
00:29:33
Speaker
And, um,
00:29:35
Speaker
we have a great team, but, but he's one of them that this next example just focuses on him is that we made a mid season trade.
00:29:43
Speaker
That was a very big trade and took one of our franchise pieces and traded him away, you know, some other players that, you know, were kind of, you know, had been here for several years with the team and fan favorites and things like that.
00:29:59
Speaker
And we got some, some new players who are great at that are,
00:30:03
Speaker
creating so much buzz and excitement with the team and things like that.
00:30:06
Speaker
But one of our most highest performing posts that we've done for the year was Riddick did basically, it was just a, a fast version of him doing a Jersey swap for one of the new players, Tyrese Halliburton, and just showed the design process that went into it.
00:30:25
Speaker
And he,
00:30:26
Speaker
I think it was, you know, we had like 100,000 likes, you know, on this video.
00:30:32
Speaker
And it's hopefully, you know, a lot more than that now.
00:30:35
Speaker
And that's just like white.
00:30:36
Speaker
So the impressions and the views and the shares and all that, it's not taking into account any of that.
00:30:43
Speaker
But it was one of those that he just did.
00:30:46
Speaker
And he was like, hey, here's a cool little piece of content.
00:30:49
Speaker
And we put it out there and it just outperformed like an ad that we might spend, you know, a large number of dollars on and doesn't get that type of engagement.
00:30:57
Speaker
So I think that's, again, one of the things that hopefully many marketers came away with, you know, during the past two years of like, hey, if you got an idea and somebody thinks this will perform well, and there's somebody that's like, again, like in touch with like the
00:31:12
Speaker
call it the scene at that point to go into it and to just go back to like that CEO I had Gary Gensling at the orchestra.
00:31:20
Speaker
Like that was something again, like if somebody has got a good idea and like they think it'll perform well, like what's the harm and like trying it out as long as you've kind of like
00:31:30
Speaker
taking it through some safeguards and be like, yeah, this is like, okay, this is, this is great.
00:31:34
Speaker
Let's try it.
00:31:35
Speaker
Then put it out there, see how it performs.
00:31:37
Speaker
And, you know, you know, with most social media, right.
00:31:41
Speaker
If it, if it flops, then great.
00:31:42
Speaker
You'll have another great idea that comes out in another couple of days.
00:31:47
Speaker
It's so true because I think when it comes to content, so many people are so worried about taking that risk.
00:31:53
Speaker
And you're exactly right.
00:31:54
Speaker
Once you've gone through the safeguards and you've done that, what's the worst thing that can happen?
00:31:58
Speaker
It doesn't get a lot of engagement.
00:31:59
Speaker
It doesn't, I mean, you won't know until you try, but it might just be that best piece of content.
00:32:05
Speaker
And that's just sitting there and you would have never known until you just put it out there.
00:32:09
Speaker
So I think it's so important to take those, take those risks.
00:32:13
Speaker
And of course, like within the parameters of the brand, but you've,
00:32:16
Speaker
got to be able to do that.
00:32:17
Speaker
And I think the companies that do that are the ones that are really being rewarded and really being successful because people are attracted to what's new and what's different.
00:32:26
Speaker
And it just immediately captures attention.
00:32:28
Speaker
And when, when they're able to cut through the noise like that.
00:32:32
Speaker
Now I'm curious
Leveraging Team Creativity for Innovative Strategies
00:32:33
Speaker
to you, are there any tactics that you've found?
00:32:35
Speaker
You've shared so many great insights.
00:32:37
Speaker
Are there any, like recently, I'd love to know what has been one or two tactics that you feel like has been working really, really well for your team collectively.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:46
Speaker
So hopefully this boosts your business, but I really think display ads right now is from like the entertainment industry.
00:32:53
Speaker
I mean, they're so important for us.
00:32:55
Speaker
The, you know, the ROI that we see on those ads, it's just, it's kind of staggering sometimes when we look at it and yeah, it's for us, it's, it's, you know, we have a lot of games, right?
00:33:06
Speaker
So we play 41 regular season home games, right?
00:33:10
Speaker
And if you think about that, that's, that's a lot.
00:33:12
Speaker
So,
00:33:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:13
Speaker
And, you know, Indiana is not a huge state, you know, or even if you're in, you know, California, you know, you're eventually your audience is your audience, you know, and you're it's it's a lot of awareness.
00:33:24
Speaker
So.
00:33:25
Speaker
for us it's those display ads across, you know, um, ad networks, but then also, you know, in, in Facebook and Instagram, uh, TikTok, LinkedIn, whatever it is.
00:33:35
Speaker
I mean, those are, those are so important for us.
00:33:37
Speaker
And again, cause ours, there's a lot of awareness in what we do and that we want you to know that like,
00:33:43
Speaker
hey, it's, you know, Friday coming up, we're playing the Lakers or, you know, don't forget, you might not have been able to make that game, but coming
Fan Experience and Word-of-Mouth Marketing
00:33:49
Speaker
up, there's going to be these opportunities.
00:33:51
Speaker
And here's why you don't want to miss those matchups.
00:33:53
Speaker
So that's been huge.
00:33:54
Speaker
And again, like the content that we're putting behind it is a lot different.
00:33:58
Speaker
When I first started with the team, a lot of what we were doing was just like a static ad.
00:34:02
Speaker
But and then we went from static to carousel and then we went from static to carousel to video.
00:34:07
Speaker
And that video was the branded content that we were doing.
00:34:10
Speaker
Now it's a lot more
00:34:11
Speaker
You know, our our incredible video team, you know, they sit courtside and they're able to capture these angles that the fan doesn't see on the broadcast.
00:34:20
Speaker
And so that those kind of angles perform so well for us.
00:34:24
Speaker
And so I think display ads are huge for us in that regard.
00:34:30
Speaker
This is a little bit, I'll say it's generic, but it's also unmeasurable a bit is that really the face-to-face word of mouth advertising is huge for us.
00:34:42
Speaker
We, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, over the last three years,
00:34:47
Speaker
has undergone a $360 million renovation and which will actually, the interior renovation will be done at the tip off of next season.
00:34:59
Speaker
And for that, we need fans coming in the building and experiencing this.
00:35:05
Speaker
you know, the building and what it looks like and all the great new amenities.
00:35:09
Speaker
And we like to say, and I'm a firm believer in this, is there's no better building anywhere to watch a basketball game via, you know, high school, college, pro.
00:35:20
Speaker
Great.
00:35:21
Speaker
And I would tell you, right?
Integrating Marketing Strategies Across Platforms
00:35:22
Speaker
So I love Assembly Hall.
00:35:24
Speaker
And, but this Gainbridge Fieldhouse, I mean, it is
00:35:28
Speaker
just the best basketball venue.
00:35:30
Speaker
And, you know, you feel like, you know, the players always say it feels like the fans are on top of us.
00:35:34
Speaker
And now to have, you know, this concourse experience, that's just like next level.
00:35:37
Speaker
And it's just so premium and in such a great experience is that we need fans coming to the game, but then we also need them going and talking about their friends about like, Hey, I've been to Pacers games before, but like, it's awesome there now.
00:35:50
Speaker
And, you know, we have so many like standing room,
00:35:53
Speaker
only kind of spots for fans to, you know, you go to your seat for the first quarter, but then you, you know, you go stand at, you know, one of our bars and watch the second quarter from a bar with like your friends that you aren't sitting with and, and things like that.
00:36:06
Speaker
And that, you know, I can show you a commercial, you know, so many times of that happening, but until you actually do it, you got to go.
00:36:13
Speaker
So I think that's another tactic that has been huge for us.
00:36:17
Speaker
And just several other real quick is that, you know,
00:36:23
Speaker
some of the, the tried and true methods, you know, radio and billboard is, is just big for us just because it's like you, I, I was watching something, um, last night and, um,
00:36:36
Speaker
Again, for all you marketing folks out there, I mean, there's so much information now about marketing that you can just grab from, you know, a mentor I have.
00:36:45
Speaker
She was telling me she just goes on Twitter and does hashtag commercials and then just sips through all of that to see like what's trending on there, which I think is like a great thing.
00:36:54
Speaker
But...
00:36:55
Speaker
One of the speakers I was listening to last night was saying that like previously, I mean, we've all heard the old thing of like people need to see an ad, you know, anywhere from seven to 11 times or something.
00:37:05
Speaker
And he was saying that like the new way is like 29 times that someone has to see.
00:37:10
Speaker
your thing.
00:37:11
Speaker
And I was actually listening to one of your
Multi-Channel Marketing for Maximum Impact
00:37:13
Speaker
podcasts where you were saying people have the attention span of like a goldfish and it's like three seconds that people have.
00:37:19
Speaker
So like take all that into mind and to go back to what I said earlier about like, we haven't gotten rid of any of our tactics.
00:37:25
Speaker
We've just tried to like strengthen what we're doing and having our message be more clear in those things that,
00:37:31
Speaker
You know, again, for us, 41 games, it's all about awareness.
00:37:35
Speaker
So those radio ads, those Billboard ads, just having the team, the brand in front of people and just out there is so key.
00:37:43
Speaker
It's so important for us.
00:37:45
Speaker
It's so all first off, I have to go see the facility.
00:37:48
Speaker
You've convinced me, my husband and I keep saying, Oh, we need to get tickets.
00:37:52
Speaker
We need to get tickets.
00:37:53
Speaker
And so now I'm like, okay, we are figuring out what game we're going to, and we're going to have to come down there.
00:37:59
Speaker
But you're spot on.
00:37:59
Speaker
Cause I think I've seen that so much.
00:38:01
Speaker
Well,
00:38:02
Speaker
one for trends display ads, a hundred percent.
00:38:05
Speaker
I could nerd out about them all day.
00:38:07
Speaker
And I've been laughing because I've been telling our clients cause they're like, Oh, you don't always see like the exact lead come through.
00:38:12
Speaker
I'm like, y'all the ROI on display ads, right?
00:38:15
Speaker
Like you just have to do it.
00:38:16
Speaker
You just have to do it.
00:38:17
Speaker
Um, but going back to every, the, the meat of what you said,
00:38:22
Speaker
Everything like we can't just stop.
00:38:24
Speaker
And I think I saw a lot of companies make this mistake.
00:38:27
Speaker
And listen, I'm biased, of course, because I love online advertising.
00:38:30
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:38:31
Speaker
And it's so effective, but you cannot put all your eggs in one basket.
00:38:36
Speaker
And I think there have been a few companies that I've seen do this like during the pandemic and
00:38:40
Speaker
really done such a huge digital push.
00:38:43
Speaker
And again, I love digital.
Taking Risks in Marketing for Unique Experiences
00:38:44
Speaker
It's amazing, but you have to have a multi-channel approach.
00:38:47
Speaker
You've got to be still doing print.
00:38:49
Speaker
I mean, print is so important to having that, like you said, they have 29 touches.
00:38:54
Speaker
Print is the touch, having a billboard, having, you've got to have all these other factors working together.
00:38:59
Speaker
And of course the end goal is word of mouth because at the end of the day, it's going to be so much more effective.
00:39:04
Speaker
You can get someone to
00:39:06
Speaker
to have an incredible experience for their testimonial to be able to talk about that.
00:39:10
Speaker
But now all I can think about is coming down myself.
00:39:13
Speaker
I'm like, okay, we've got to do that.
00:39:14
Speaker
I know one of our friends just opened that new Chick-fil-A there too.
00:39:17
Speaker
I'm like, oh, I got to go get some Chick-fil-A.
00:39:20
Speaker
It's going to be great.
00:39:22
Speaker
But I think that's the lesson, hopefully for all the marketers listening is that trends are great.
00:39:27
Speaker
You want to capitalize on them.
00:39:28
Speaker
Like TikTok is so effective right now in reels, that short form content.
00:39:32
Speaker
It's never been easier.
00:39:34
Speaker
People that are complaining about the algorithm, it's never been easier to go viral.
00:39:38
Speaker
I hear one more person to complain about Instagram going back to chronological.
00:39:41
Speaker
I'm like, y'all were the people complaining about the algorithm and having too much data.
00:39:46
Speaker
Like, you know, you've just got to leverage what you've got.
00:39:48
Speaker
And there's right now still the
00:39:51
Speaker
whole era is so new that there is more opportunity than ever.
00:39:55
Speaker
It just takes that marketing brain to be able to assimilate and figure out what is the best plan of attack.
00:40:01
Speaker
So that in mind, Josh, I would love to know because I really like, I could talk to you for three more hours.
00:40:06
Speaker
So we'll have to do coffee at some point, but what are maybe those words of advice that you would give for some of
Highlighting a Successful Campaign: Meta World Peace
00:40:12
Speaker
the marketers listening or the business owners or other pros that are like,
00:40:15
Speaker
What do I do?
00:40:16
Speaker
Where should I focus my time?
00:40:18
Speaker
There's so many tactics based on all of your experience.
00:40:20
Speaker
What are a few pieces of advice or wisdom that you would want to relay to them?
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:27
Speaker
First, I would say probably, you know, don't sell yourself or your team short.
00:40:34
Speaker
Right.
00:40:34
Speaker
And and what I mean by that is that, you know, if you.
00:40:41
Speaker
If you have a campaign coming up or you have something coming up is, you know, really invest the time and in thinking it through.
00:40:48
Speaker
We have an incredible CMO or he's actually co-president now of Pacer Sports and Entertainment, Todd Taylor, who's has the great and it's, you know, he didn't invent it, but, you know, the wheel concept.
00:41:01
Speaker
for marketing and that, you know, our team brand marketing is at the center of this hub and, you know, all the different spokes coming off the wheel for a wheel to move right.
00:41:10
Speaker
Right.
00:41:11
Speaker
And you think about like, you know, community engagement, corporate sponsorship, you know, ticketing, all those things.
00:41:18
Speaker
So, so when you have an idea really thinking through, like, how do we apply that, you know, to this spoke of the wheel and how do we have them feel engaged on it?
00:41:28
Speaker
We, we,
00:41:29
Speaker
You know, for instance, for us, you know, we have a city edition jersey release that we do every season and every NBA team does this.
00:41:37
Speaker
And, you know, some teams, you know, just do, you know, hey, here's the here's the jersey and here's where you buy it, you know, which is fine.
00:41:45
Speaker
Right.
00:41:45
Speaker
It's an apparel piece, you know, and it's.
00:41:47
Speaker
They look great and the players love them.
00:41:51
Speaker
And so if you want it, here's where it is to buy it.
00:41:53
Speaker
But there's so much you can do around those.
00:41:56
Speaker
And that's one of the things that we spend time with as far as like, hey, is there anything that we can do with this from our organic social channels?
00:42:03
Speaker
Or what can we do from like a ticket sales perspective?
00:42:06
Speaker
What does that look like?
00:42:07
Speaker
Or what if we seeded all of these with our corporate partners and had them feel like they were part of this as well?
00:42:14
Speaker
So to me, like I'm...
00:42:17
Speaker
you know, I'm in marketing because I love that kind of thinking and like, how do we expand something and how do we take a good idea and make it a great idea and then make it like an unforgettable experience and, and things like that.
00:42:27
Speaker
So I think that's one of the things and you might look at what you're doing and say like, well, this is kind of boring or this is just X. And so it doesn't really apply to it.
00:42:36
Speaker
I would actually really challenge everybody in their marketing teams to, to kind of like figure out like, what would be something that would be unexpected, right?
00:42:43
Speaker
I was reading a book last night and he was like, you know, if you're in marketing and you're not like upsetting people in your team or having them think that this is a risky idea, then you're not really doing your job.
00:42:51
Speaker
And I think that's like a great mindset of like, hey, this works well.
00:42:55
Speaker
But like, how can we make this like either unexpected or make it memorable to fans?
00:43:01
Speaker
I know we're short on time, but who knows?
00:43:05
Speaker
This could be like your first two hour podcast.
00:43:07
Speaker
But hey, it'll be a good one to make it two hours.
00:43:11
Speaker
Yeah, one of the things our team did this year for our All-Star campaign that we were doing was we invited Meta World Peace, better known as Ron Artest when he played with the Pacers, to be basically the spokesman for our All-Star campaign.
00:43:30
Speaker
This was right around the time that Mark Zuckerberg
00:43:33
Speaker
had come out and, you know, made the meta announcement for Facebook.
00:43:37
Speaker
So we internally, we came up with this idea of having the metaverse.
00:43:41
Speaker
So since Ron Artest is Meta World Peace, we came up with this entire campaign of how, you know, meta, our meta had created his own
00:43:50
Speaker
uh, version of that in his garage.
00:43:52
Speaker
And like the, it is used to experience like all-star basketball, um, versus going in and getting like digital real estate or, or things like that.
00:44:01
Speaker
Um, the, um, insider information around this was that Meta hadn't really been involved with the team for 17 years, uh,
00:44:09
Speaker
For those familiar with Indiana basketball, there was an infamous incident called the Mouse at the Palace where, you know, there was a fight in the stands.
00:44:17
Speaker
And, you know, the I think Meta got suspended for the entire season.
00:44:21
Speaker
And that team was like a championship contender.
00:44:24
Speaker
So it was really a tough time for the franchise and the organization.
00:44:28
Speaker
When my VP and I pitched this idea up, a lot of jokes were, you know, are you trying to get fired?
00:44:34
Speaker
Is this, you know, that is that is definitely not going to not going to work.
00:44:40
Speaker
But we pitched it and we sold why this would be a great opportunity for us in that, you know, this is a chance for us to write a new chapter with us and Meta and the franchise.
00:44:50
Speaker
And we did it.
00:44:52
Speaker
We got it approved and it was like, well, let's see what you do with it.
00:44:55
Speaker
And we had Meta, you know, do the campaign.
00:44:58
Speaker
We had him come back for a game, which the there was worries about that.
00:45:02
Speaker
You know, what would the reception be?
00:45:04
Speaker
Which it was, you know, open arms.
00:45:05
Speaker
It was incredible.
00:45:06
Speaker
It was a huge challenge.
00:45:07
Speaker
moment for him.
00:45:09
Speaker
He thanked us so much for allowing him that opportunity and vice versa for us, for him and everything.
00:45:15
Speaker
And that was one of those ideas, again, that if we would have just said in that room, this can't happen, we're not going to be able to do it, it wouldn't happen.
00:45:24
Speaker
I'll to our team's
Empowering Teams for Creativity and Engagement
00:45:26
Speaker
horn that we won second league-wide.
00:45:30
Speaker
for the all-star campaigns.
00:45:32
Speaker
The league does like voting each year internally and they will announce winners.
00:45:37
Speaker
We got second place in that, which there were so many great campaigns in there.
00:45:43
Speaker
And again, that really wouldn't have happened if we wouldn't have sat in a room and said like, okay,
00:45:48
Speaker
Here's baseline what we can do.
00:45:50
Speaker
Okay, what's the next level to that?
00:45:52
Speaker
And what's something that's going to be unexpected and something that's different?
00:45:55
Speaker
So that would be step one to that.
00:45:59
Speaker
But then the second part is, you know, something I've touched on so many times during our chat today is like investing in your team and allowing them to feel like they own something.
00:46:09
Speaker
projects and that they are able to create.
00:46:11
Speaker
There's nothing worse than, and I've seen this many, many, many times that, you know, people shut off because they feel like they can't speak or they can't, you know, they'll get ideas out there, but then no one cares about it.
00:46:25
Speaker
There's no worse feeling.
00:46:26
Speaker
I've been in that position, you know, plenty of times, you know, throughout my career.
00:46:31
Speaker
And I think that is, that is number one.
00:46:32
Speaker
You have to invest in your team from, you know, the bottom up.
00:46:36
Speaker
And, you know, really get them invested, get them involved.
00:46:39
Speaker
And, you know,
Connecting with Joshua for Insights and Collaboration
00:46:40
Speaker
it's for me, it's we're in live events.
00:46:42
Speaker
So the hours are not fun.
00:46:44
Speaker
You know, it's it's exciting, but, you know, it's long hours and you've got to you've got to come to terms with that.
00:46:49
Speaker
So if we can make it as enjoyable and as rewarding as possible, then that's what we're going to do.
00:46:56
Speaker
I love that, Josh, so much.
00:46:57
Speaker
This has been probably one of my favorite episodes.
00:47:01
Speaker
So I can't thank you enough for taking the time.
00:47:03
Speaker
Where can everybody listening?
00:47:04
Speaker
How can they find you?
00:47:06
Speaker
How can they stay in touch with you?
00:47:07
Speaker
What's the best place for them to connect with you?
00:47:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:10
Speaker
So my home phone number is social security.
00:47:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:15
Speaker
Let's get it all out there.
00:47:16
Speaker
LinkedIn obviously is probably the easiest way.
00:47:19
Speaker
Joshua Shuck, director of marketing with the Indiana Pacers.
00:47:23
Speaker
I'll actually give my email.
00:47:24
Speaker
So it's J Shuck, J S H U C K at pacers.com.
00:47:28
Speaker
So if anybody wants to shoot me an email or ask me questions, like I'm always open to it.
00:47:32
Speaker
One of the things, so to go back to students and things like that is that like, I, again, I love marketing.
00:47:38
Speaker
I love, um,
00:47:40
Speaker
look, I'm not going to be able to solve like, you know, your marketing problems, probably if you have them or give you like the greatest idea that you've ever had.
00:47:46
Speaker
But I'm always open to like look at campaigns and say like, you know, hey, this is this is good.
00:47:51
Speaker
Or here's how I might take this or here's kind of an interesting approach of something similar that we did.
00:47:57
Speaker
Um,
00:47:58
Speaker
Maybe people like don't value my opinion because I've only had like one or two people do that.
00:48:01
Speaker
But it's something that I always leave out there for like people.
00:48:05
Speaker
So I'm always open.
00:48:07
Speaker
Like you said earlier, like I'm always into coffee.
00:48:09
Speaker
Like I'm also like I work for the Pacers.
00:48:12
Speaker
So I'm always open to invite people to games and like hang out for like a game.
00:48:16
Speaker
And you get pretty good seats when you do that.
00:48:17
Speaker
So, you know, people want to take me up on that opportunity and network a little bit.
00:48:21
Speaker
I'm always open to those.
00:48:22
Speaker
It'll be me.
Podcast Conclusion and Community Invitation
00:48:23
Speaker
It'll be me asking you after our interview.
00:48:24
Speaker
So I'll be the first one.
00:48:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:26
Speaker
Look forward to it.
00:48:28
Speaker
I love that.
00:48:28
Speaker
No, it's so generous of you.
00:48:30
Speaker
So everybody listening, be sure to look Josh up.
00:48:32
Speaker
Oh my goodness.
00:48:33
Speaker
Definitely.
00:48:34
Speaker
They're all probably too scared.
00:48:35
Speaker
So they better take you up on it because it's a super generous offer, but thank you so much for the time.
00:48:40
Speaker
And if you're listening, be sure to connect with Josh.
00:48:43
Speaker
All right, everybody.
00:48:43
Speaker
We'll see you next time.
00:48:46
Speaker
Thanks for joining us this week on the Anya Mike podcast.
00:48:50
Speaker
We'd love to hear from you.
00:48:51
Speaker
Make sure to visit our website, anyamark.com, where you can subscribe and never miss a show.
00:48:57
Speaker
While you're at it, if you found value in this episode, be sure to drop us a five-star review on iTunes and share the show with a friend to help us to continue to influence more people to create maximum impact.
00:49:08
Speaker
You'll also want to make sure to join the influential entrepreneur community on Facebook at where you'll find weekly tips, live training videos, and resources to help elevate your business to the next level.
00:49:28
Speaker
Tune in for next week's episode, and we'll see you then.