CHAMPIONS

One of the most challenging and gratifying campaigns I’ve been a part of was in 2018 when CAC engaged Anthony Rizzo and his nonprofit the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation.

This was the first celebrity endorsement campaign I’ve ever been a part of. Our company had worked with the Cubs at one point in the past. They had not engaged a celebrity or fully jumped into an MLB sponsorship, however. The Cubs first baseman worked with us for one day where he filmed a commercial and then we used that content for joining campaigns, May through September, of that year.

A big part of our contract with Rizzo was the promise of raising money for his foundation. To be clear, we had never raised money for an individual or nonprofit up to this point. No one on our team had much fundraising experience outside of raising money for an outside artistic project or to cover marathon entry fees.

In short, 2018 was about how many memberships we could sell with one commercial, a few stills of the commercial, and game day logo displays at Wrigley. Oh also, can we fundraise a few thousand dollars while we’re at it? Our year of Anthony Rizzo was then divided into two parts:

Corporate Partnership/Sponsorship

Fundraising Event: CHAMPION CHALLENGE

For the corporate partnership piece, we got to work doing what we did well: FITNESS. We took over what started as The Park at Wrigley, now Gallagher Way, and launched 5 workouts a week for 8 weeks. We also had one on-field event: Yoga in the Park.

Knowing that the fitness series would ultimately be the same Lakeview residents each week, we knew we had to extend our reach any way we could. I called dibs on the giant video screen above the park that anyone driving or walking by couldn’t help but watch. I worked with our club videographer to create three class hype videos that we played interspersed with the Rizzo commercial during classes. Between videos, we ran a text campaign. That same text slide would come up during the game after the second double play (if there was a second double)

The on-field event was Yoga In the Park. This workout happened on one of the hottest days of the summer. Brutal. But… Wrigley is magic so it was still fun!

Once we had the fitness series running and the game day promos set, we turned our gaze to the fundraising event: THE CHAMPION CHALLENGE

Our owner didn’t want to stretch out fundraising efforts, he wanted one big event. We created a workout challenge of three workouts that you would experience with a team or as an individual. 20 minutes of Cycle, 20 minutes of a Bodypump class, and 20 minutes working a circuit with our training staff. The buy-in was a $200 minimum per participant.

One of the nice things about our Cubs sponsorship is that we then could tap Cubs partners and Anthony Rizzo’s other sponsorship clients for post workout eats. After the workout participants could enjoy a beer, Buena Beef and Garrett’s popcorn. Throw in a few RXBARS, energy drinks, and a DJ and we had a real party!!

We decided to work with a PR Company to get a couple of local TV spots. We also used a social media influencer to attempt to drive traffic to our fundraiser. Both of these things added energy to our event but didn’t really give us any measurable results.

We worked as a team of 5-6 and we all had various jobs throughout the year. Our Corporate Membership Managers were the leaders on our team. This partnership was all-encompassing for us all and took over the majority of the year. We are big Cub fans but I think we all were a little over Cubbed that summer. In the end, my takeaway from the whole experience was that sponsorship at this level really was company branding rather than a direct tie to dollars spent to dollars made. In the end, 2018 ended up being a big year for our bottom line. How much of that was tied to the Cubs and Anthony Rizzo we’ll never know entirely but some of our measurable results are below.

NUMBERS FOR CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP:

Text Message Campaign Start Date: 5/7/2018

Text Code Viewable: 2+ Double Hits, Gallagher Way Fitness Series, Anthony Rizzo Tweet Offer: 7 Day Pass

Total Texts Received: 396 Total 7 Day Pass Submissions: 86 Total New Members: 9

Gallagher Way Fitness Series Start Date: 5/7/2018

Total Participants: 1041 Total Non-Member Participants: 909 Brand New Prospects: 748 Total new Members: 15

New Corporate Leads via Cubs Partnership:

Corporate Leads: 7 New Accounts: 4 Total New Members: 30 Total Cubs Employee Members: 41

Yoga in the Ball Park:

Total RSVPS: 352 Total Attended: 230 Total New Leads: 78

Total New Members: 274

CHAMPION CHALLENGE

Total Fundraised: $39,634 (includes day of event, Barre on Robey Rooftop class and Crowdrise site tweet)