Recipe for sports marketing

There’s something about food that perks up Auty Villarama, known in local sports circles as Nike’s biggest drumbeater the last 14 years. It’s not that Auty just likes to eat although his size may be an indication.

Auty says food is good for the body and soul, especially food for thought.

So when Auty and another Nike drumbeater Rely San Agustin decided to strike it out on their own with events organizer Pia de los Reyes, it was no surprise they thought of food in naming their new sports marketing and events management outfit.

The outfit is called Waffles Marketing Inc. and Auty says it’s because they offer breakfast food for thought.

"Across our office is a pancakes place so it was natural that we thought of waffles," notes Auty. "Besides, a waffle symbolizes what we are. A waffle is a perfect square, equal on all sides, and made up of small squares linked up to each other inside the big square, like a closed-knit network. Rely, Pia and I are co-equal in this venture and our areas of expertise are fused to offer an integrated approach to our clients. It’s what sports marketing is about. We call it 360-degree marketing where we don’t only look at activation for sales but also things like developing markets, communications and market research. There’s always a sales component in the field of marketing and sometimes, it limits the scope of work. In integrated sports marketing, we cover all bases, including finding the right sponsors for the markets you want to reach."

Auty, Rely and Pia combine 26 years of sports marketing experience. That’s their trump card.

"We’ve done it all," says Auty. "We’ve done nationwide marathons, nationwide three-on-three tournaments and nationwide football competitions. We’ve been involved in sports marketing in the NCAA, UAAP, PBA, PBL and even the big Metro Manila villages.

One of the last things I did for Nike before leaving was signing up Jay Washington, Mac-Mac Cardona, Arwind Santos and Mark Isip as endorsers. Look at their careers now. I think our track record shows we know what we’re doing when it comes to sports marketing."

Auty says leaving Nike was a painful decision but it was something that was due. He just turned 40, became a first-time father and the milestones triggered a reassessment of where his life was going.

"I also wanted to do something with the athletes we’ve worked with," explains Auty. "I’ve seen athletes retire and not be productive. At Waffles, we hope to work with retired athletes and get them back in sports, not as active competitors but as motivators and teachers."

Auty says managing events has become an ordinary thing. "Everyone’s doing it," he continues. "Coaches are doing their own camps and players, too. What we’re offering is our expertise in sports marketing.

We want to work with coaches and players. We want them to take care of the technical aspects of sports teaching and we’ll take care of the sports marketing side. We don’t want events to be one-shot deals. We want a continuing development process. It’s not about just making money in one event. It’s about creating markets, maximizing resources and doing things right."

Auty says talent management is something Waffles will eventually get into but not at the moment.

In terms of division of labor, Auty says he’ll primarily handle basketball and track while Rely will focus on football and futsal. Pia, who plays hoops herself, will cover all events, banking on her experience in the National Basketball Conference and the Danny Espiritu Cup, among many other projects.

Waffles’ first project is the Sports For Peace football tournament involving the country’s top eight clubs. The games are played in three venues and mainly on weekends.

"We envision our clients to be mainly corporations and sports associations," says Auty. "We’re offering our services to NSAs. We think we can contribute in a big way to the growth of NSAs in our area of expertise. We’re hoping to be able to sit down with sports officials, conceptualize with them their marketing objectives and design programs to suit their needs. Some of the projects we’re thinking of are an Alvin Patrimonio camp all over the country to continue his legacy, a celebrity basketball tournament tied up with local government units and provincial marathons for high schoolers, not professionals."

Auty, 40, Rely, 31, and Pia, 33, are bursting with energy. They’re excited about their new venture.

"We’re starting small," says Auty. "We’re paying for a small space in my father-in-law’s office. We’ve got a fax machine, telephone lines and four walkie-talkies with a 12-mile radius. We’re working on our DSL connection. Of course, we’re watching our expenses. But we’re ready to invest our time and personal resources. Because we’re small, we can offer personalized service. Like in the Sports For Peace project, we’re involved in every single detail of the tournament. We used to outsource events management to third parties at Nike. Now, we’re doing it all and we’re enjoying every minute of it."

Auty says Waffles is open to work with any company or any brand.

"What we learned from Nike was thematics in designing a sports marketing program," adds Auty. "We’re guys who can develop an integrated approach from finding sponsors to actual staging of an event. If activation is a priority, we can work out a mechanism where an event will have an immediate impact on sales. And we can make the event pay for market research."

Auty, Rely and Pia are ready to take on all sports, including badminton, boxing and mixed martial arts. They’re out to make Waffles a key partner in developing Philippine sports.

Before breaking up our conversation, Auty puts in a plug.

"We can be reached at tel. No. 894-5425 and our office is in Room 212, Narra building, 2276 Pasong Tamo extension in Makati," says Auty, his face glowing with excitement.