When Hinkle’s doors are open and nervous energy ricochets off the walls of Butler’s most iconic building, there are usually fans filling the seats and players ready to tip off a basketball game. On Sept. 10, however, a different competition was about to begin.
The Butler Institute for Sports and Entertainment (BISE) partnered with Dawg Pound and the NBA to host the NBA Cup Promotional Sprint Challenge, an overnight marketing contest hosted at Hinkle Fieldhouse from 9 p.m. on Sept. 10 to 9 a.m. on Sept. 11.
In teams of five, students worked for 12 hours to develop a marketing campaign to convince Butler students to attend the NBA Cup Championship, being hosted at Hinkle on Dec. 11. The prize? The winning team was hired by the NBA to implement their plan leading up to the event, and will be working inside Hinkle on game day.
Boyce Consulting president Dianna Boyce is serving as the local event activation lead for the NBA Cup Championship. Boyce had high hopes for the students entering the competition.
“I think the insight [and] different ideas that they’re going to bring to the table will help not just this event, but planning for other marquee events,” Boyce said. “That perspective will be fresh, and not necessarily one that’s just discussed around a conference room table. Those elements can bring some uniqueness to, again, not just this event, but maybe more events that the NBA hosts.”
Teams used their intimate knowledge of Butler and its campus to come up with ideas to activate Homecoming weekend, use Hinkle as a marketing tool, design NBA Cup-related merchandise and much more.
BISE coordinator Trevor Fox, who played a significant role in organizing the event, sees the marketing sprint as not only advantageous for the NBA, but a valuable opportunity to current students.
“It’s going to be tough to execute in such a short window of time,” Fox said. “I think it’s going to really teach these kids what it’s like to actually work in that industry.”
Beyond just skills they can carry over into the professional world, participants also got to enjoy themselves during their overnight stay in Hinkle. The agenda included a game of knockout on the court, pizza and Insomnia Cookies as a midnight snack and even a visit from Jeff Van Gundy, the Los Angeles Clippers lead assistant coach.
Still, throughout all the events and entertainment, students continued to build ideas and craft presentations so that when pastel orange oozed through Hinkle’s windows at sunrise, only the finishing touches remained. But the hardest part was still to come: presenting to the panel of judges.
Fox participated in two marketing sprints during his time with BISE as a student. He stressed the importance of practicing a polished, punchy pitch.
“We went through every single sentence that we were going to say, every word that was going to come out, and planned who was going to say what,” Fox said. “You only have this five-minute period of time; you don’t have time to ramble and get through it. You [can] have good ideas and great content, but you need to make sure that that’s displayed to the judges.”
Presentations began at 9 a.m. sharp, exactly 12 hours after the competition started. Fifteen teams pitched their ideas in front of the panel, hoping to be selected to implement their plan for the NBA.
After nearly an hour of deliberation from the judges, “Team Ball Brothers” was named the winner. The group used Hinkle’s history and legacy as a driving force behind their campaign.
JJ DeBrosse, director of graduate and professional recruitment for the Lacy School of Business, was one of the judges. He felt that the winning team’s attention to detail and focus on an attainable approach ultimately set them apart from the competition.
“They were able to hit every little nuance that was asked for [in the rubric and] I think that was key,” DeBrosse said. “[Their plan] was something that could be done … The fact that it was obtainable and doable in the time frame [and budget] they were given is probably what elevated them just one notch higher than second and third place.”
After securing the win, “Team Ball Brothers” had to hit the ground running, with Homecoming weekend serving as one of the centerpieces of the project. They will be focused on activating campus and garnering student interest right up until the game on Dec. 11.
For everybody else, coming away without the win may be disappointing, but there was more to take away from the experience than just a victory.
“It’s an opportunity for this event to leave a legacy on this campus, to impact these students,” Boyce said. “They’re learning how to work in a team. They’re learning how to put a proposal together. They’re learning about budgeting. All of those elements are going to continue to help them down the road. I hope this overnight, 12-hour experience is something that they think back on in 30 years and say, ‘That was a cool night.’”