On Tuesday, Oct 21, we had the honour of taking part in the Business Fives Glasgow event. The charity football championship was a tough regime of the best of office workers who happen to be football fans going head-to-head. We, as a marketing firm with an ex-pro footballer, Jamie Mitchell, at our helm, got off to a good start that had us all convinced we’d take it all the way.
But there’s more to the matches than winning. We are a marketing firm, after all. We were reaping a lot of benefits. We’re taking a look at how you can dominate local and charity events, even if you’re not the one lifting the trophy.
The team
We had a superstar team made up of Ricky Waddell, Steve Lee, Ross Thomson, Ben Anderson, Roberto Facchini, John Conor Gildea, Shaun Payne, Mike Ward, and Jamie Mitchell, who all did their bit to take us through five games. Our managing director Sharon McFarlane got benched and had to sacrifice her strip to another player, but she was enthusiastically cheering (and occasionally fuming) from the stand.
There was a variety of talent and experience in that jumbled bunch, but that was part of the fun. A lot of the team rose to the occasion.
The event
The tournament took off with high hopes. We were all sure the GCM team could win the entire tournament after a massive 6-nil win against our first opponents, business outsource service company, Solvd.
The tournament continued with increasing intensity. A 7-4 win, a string of 2-0 wins, and finally we got a taste of our own medicine with a 7-4 loss against Adapt Commercial Property, who went on to win the Business Fives Championship and hoist the trophy.
It was a bitter pill to swallow. There had been injuries, there had been words, strategies yelled from the sidelines, and there had been rising heart rates not only from all the exercise.
But we graciously, perhaps with some grumbles, exited the championship to enjoy a pint and some pizza while listening to the anecdotes of ex-Ranger’s player Charlie Miller and ex-Celtic player Charlie Mulgrew.
The takeaway
There was a lot more to win than a trophy in the Business Fives Championship. There was the substantial charity donation we made as partners of the event, which was helpful in raising funds for various charities and it’s always an honour to give back. To associate with such an impressive charity event created positive PR and encouraged the most powerful marketing tool: word-of-mouth. Sponsoring or taking part demonstrates that you support community initiatives and causes, which consumers increasingly look for.
We are a marketing team first and foremost, so we had to take the opportunity to get our name out there. The GCM team was sporting sleek black and white strips bearing the Game Changing Media logo in order to represent the company. And represent what they did.
And, as you can imagine from a digital marketing firm, we used the opportunity to get a lot of social marketing content. So, yes, we were eagerly snapping away with our cameras, and carefully following the action for a fun narrative (where we were clearly the scrappy underdogs taken down by the team with more money and no honour in the game), and it’s all put into a fun TikTok for now, but in the future? Who knows?
The event allowed us to talk to the people we would be affecting most, whether they were in the sports industry in some manner or they were potential customers and fans of the sport. These events allow you a chance to network with other companies and teams in the tournament and meet local community leaders and influencers.
Conclusion
There’s a lot of reward in taking part in charity events like these, not least what you are giving back to the world. Putting a net positive out there will reward you, in goodwill from customers and clients, marketing exposure, and positive energy.
