 that impact sports. I'm your host, Angela Hazelett. Today's guest is J.W. Cannon, the senior director of corporate and sports alliances for the American Cancer Society. Today we are going to discuss corporate and sports alliances, creating impact through sports. Welcome, J.W. Thanks for joining us today. Oh, thanks for having me. Always great to see you, Angela. Absolutely, J.W. Well, I'm excited to share with our viewers a little more about what you do because you're creating an amazing impact in the world and using sport as leverage to do that. So tell us a little bit more corporate and sport alliances. What are they and why are they important to the American Cancer Society? Well, I'm at the American Cancer Society like anybody has the need to connect with people, right? And we can't do so just through our mission. We have to do so through passion point marketing and passion point relationships and sports have shown the ability to really connect with fan bases in a very deep and emotional way. And it's proven, you know, time and time again for them to be able to drive fundraising and drive civic engagement, you know, which is why it's important for us to be in that space. And you mentioned the impact that it has on fans. But there also can be an impact on the team and the athletes themselves, correct? Like you have several campaigns that are running with professional sports organizations that raise awareness and funding for cancer research. So tell me a little bit more about some of these campaigns that you have. Well, the, you know, the unfortunate part about cancer is that it impacts everybody, right? Which means that, you know, our message is relevant to a broad range of people, including, you know, big, strong athletes that are very, you know, and sometimes mostly very healthy, right? So this is whether it impacts them personally. They come down with it or whether they have somebody who's close to them. And we've had a number of long standing partnerships with fantastic leagues such as the NFL, we have our upcoming Crucial Catch campaign, which has raised tens of millions of dollars in support of getting people critically screened in underserved markets and in the NFL markets. We've got our NHL program with Occupied Cancer, where we are providing free rise treatment for people who have been impacted by cancer in places to stay, as well as our 24-7 helpline. That's part of that. We've got programs that you have seen with Minor League Baseball. We've got a budding relationship with the NBA and the WNBA. And so we've built one of the strongest, what we feel is one of the strongest sports portfolios at the American Cancer Society in all of the nonprofit world, which we think will give us an edge, you know, from a fundraising standpoint and also bringing awareness to a really good cause. So it really is a lot more than just cancer research that American Cancer Society is supporting. You're talking about helping people get screenings, you know, maybe even before they've identified that they have cancer, and also helping people get transportation to and from treatments, which can be really, really important. What would you say from your campaigns that you have, which is your longest standing? Which one of you maybe had the largest impact? Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Well, the NFL is by far our longest standing campaign with a league. And many of you guys had seen the previous iteration of it, where it was all about breast cancer awareness, raising funds for breast cancer research, and the pink everywhere recent years, we have shifted that to focus on raising awareness of the importance of screening, in particular underserved communities for all cancers. And what we found is that black and brown communities in particular have been disproportionately impacted by both cancer mortality and incidence rates. I mean, if you go, what was the codes over from where I live right here, you could have those flipped on their end. And so it's important that we're using this as a, and the megaphone that comes with the NFL as a way to champion for people who otherwise wouldn't know to get those critical screenings, don't have the access to get them for a variety of reasons, don't understand the risks associated with certain types of socioeconomic or behavioral things that could lead to cancer and the funds that are raised through that relationship go to help support those underserved communities. And you mentioned that the NFL is your longest standing relationship. Or does that also mean that it has the greatest impact, or do you measure impact differently for each campaign? I mean, it's a little bit of both, right? I mean, impact, obviously, we are a fundraising organization, right? So the impact is measured first and foremost through the dollars that we do raise to help support the cause. But secondarily, these relationships that we built within the sporting world have an immense megaphone for us to take advantage of to reach fans about the importance of whatever we're trying to champion through that relationship, in the case of the NFL, it's through the importance of screening, right? And so they have this great way to connect with people. So we do measure it in terms of our reach that we're getting because it is a marketing vehicle for us. But also in terms of the number of people that we impact through the relationship, right? The number of screenings that people would otherwise not have access to, the number of rides to treatment, the number of night stays that are hope lodged, which are essentially these lodges that are close to cancer centers that people can come to and stay for free with their caregivers for treatment while they're getting treatment. How many nights are we funding for those? So we do measure it in terms of impact that way, in addition to the fundraising that we do create for that relationship. Yeah, absolutely. It's important to make sure that those campaigns are effective. And you mentioned earlier that previously the relationship with the NFL was focused on this October breast cancer awareness, wearing pink. Are you saying that the wearing pink won't happen on the gridiron this year? No, I mean, you'll still see pink because breast cancer certainly impacts an immense amount of people. But, you know, the NFL several years ago has gone through with their own transition, right? And looking at all the various relationships and they said, how can we shift in order to make the greatest amount of impact to our relationships? And so we came together on the importance of this message. And now it's focused on all cancers as opposed to one that focuses on one specific area. Now all cancers are being represented as part of this campaign, including breast cancer. And so while pink is a very, very powerful marketing tool, and it's something, and it's a campaign that's super important that impacts a lot of people, we're now impacting a much greater amount of people because we're not isolating our campaign to just focusing on low cancer. Not just the cancers that are widely known, but maybe some of the lesser known cancers as well can be part of your campaign and your messaging. For sure. During COVID, did you shift at all with your messaging, your branding? How did COVID impact sports shutdown or we're playing the empty stadiums and arenas? And how did that impact the American Cancer Society? And it impacted us like a lot of nonprofits. It certainly impacted us both from my relevant standpoint and a fundraising standpoint. My cancer was not first and foremost in people's minds when they were thinking about what dollars or where they're going to help support charitable organizations. It was not first and foremost in their minds. And so we had to shift not only from a broader organization standpoint into how we raise funds, right? We were very heavily focused on events, right? You know, people gathering and during COVID, people were not gathering as much. And so a lot of our fundraising became more digital in nature. We had to make some strategic investments in the infrastructure in order to be able to accommodate those sorts of programs. We had to really think differently and innovate in a way that we hadn't done before. And from a sports perspective, you know, we were not isolated to that, right? You know, we had to focus more of our campaigns on connecting with people through content, digital fundraisers, things of that nature, things that didn't necessarily rely on what I call hand in hand combat, right? You know, it's places where people have to gather like dinners and events and walks and in person fundraisers. We had to avoid that for a good portion of the time. And good news is that the sports world I think was a lot more ahead of the rest of the world in that regard. So it allowed us to really capitalize on a trend because people were anxious for sports, right? They were anxious. They were craving the content and they were craving, you know, being able to experience that connection to their teams in a time where they couldn't actually see them on the field. And so we were lucky enough to be able to kind of dovetail into some of those efforts as well. Did you have any resistance and any alliances that you have, preexisting alliances or forging new relationships? I imagine these teams, these leagues, they had a lot of additional responsibilities and concerns with making sure people were safe and healthy. And I would imagine helping with a campaign for the American Cancer Society may have been secondary to that. Did you experience any challenges during that time period that made it hard to kind of forge with these relationships? You know, our existing partners recognize, you know, the importance of sticking with us and being able to support us because, you know, they knew that we were also hurting and that our patients and the folks that we're trying to serve have needs. You know, and I would be lying if I didn't tell you that, you know, from a new business standpoint, forging new partnerships, it was a little bit more difficult just because, like you said, that wasn't the first and foremost in their minds, right? Their focus was on the here and now and what they could control and things that were already under the tense, so to speak. And so it was important for them to focus on those new relationships, but thankfully, you know, we have a lot of great relationships in tow already and that enabled us to sort of, you know, bridge the gap to get us through that hard time and continue to grow. And prior to coming to the American Cancer Society, you had a really unique position to work with ESPN and the Home Depot account to help with the creation of ESPN's College Game Day, which is a football broadcast traveling road show that takes place at different universities each week. So kind of building a set, tearing it down, moving on to the next location, which may be unknown from week to week. And so this has really become a Saturday morning staple across the country for millions of viewers. Tell me about this really unique partnership and how did this idea to do College Game Day and have the Home Depot be affiliated with it? How did that happen? Well, I'm sponsoring a television show at the time and now we're going back 20 years now. So as you bring here here a little bit, there was a lot more of it and a lot less gray at that time. But, you know, going back 20 years ago, sponsoring a TV show was not a new thing, right? But what we had done with that platform, and I worked for Home Depot's agency at that time, Octagon, in helping to build part of the fun, what that experience looked like. You know, we looked at it through a different lens from the lens that College Game Day itself, you know, had some value as an intellectual property, something for us to capitalize on, something for us to use as a rallying point for fans of college football and also who happened to be home improvement consumers, right? And so, you know, the thing that was different from that is that we sort of took what was traditionally advertising and just logo placement and commercial ad units in the broadcast and brought it outside of that environment. So taking a look at what the onsite experience looked like, how could we use that as a way to captivate not just the at-home audience on television, but the in-person audience for College Game Day that came out to watch that show every week? How could we use that to bring that in store and create experiences and work with vendors to create special offers that could target home improvement fans? How could we use that as a way to leverage content outside of that environment by leveraging the talent who were the personalities themselves that weren't really being heavily leveraged at that time, right? And so we created this really 360 wheel around the College Game Day property and put it through all facets of Home Depot's business and treated it almost like a traditional sponsorship, you know, which you're looking back on it 20 years now, now it's the North, right? Most of these TV shows are trying to recreate the same thing and using College Game Day as the model. And many of the things that you see on College Game Day today, you know, the channels have changed, you know, in terms of social media rising to prominence and the like, but a lot of those same sorts of tactics and ways of looking at the business are still in place 20 years today, which tells me, you know, that we did something right along the way. Absolutely. You kind of set the standard there for what that could look like. Tell me about the early days though. You mentioned this 20 years ago. It's still going strong. So obviously the foundation was good, but were there bumpy moments or were there challenging moments when you were first rolling out this campaign? Oh, for sure. I mean, there was a lot of trying to figure it out and build the plane as we fly it and seeing what works. A lot of the core components of it that you see today, like I said, are still in place. Things like the bus, things like the video screen, the hard hats, you know, the way signage is placed around the venue. You know, a lot of those things are still in place, but we had to do some experimentation with how we were doing offers to consumers, how we were engaging Clompe Depot associates across the country, how we were, you know, bringing out the top pro customers every week. So it was, it was a lot of experimentation and the challenge being not knowing where you're going on a week to week basis. You know, that adds an extra wrinkle of having to plan things on a week to week basis. The good news, you know, today for the folks who are working on the College Game Day program is that there isn't a single school in the United States that's going to turn down College Game Day, but that wasn't the case 20 years ago. A lot of people looked at it sometimes as a pain in the butt. And so while we didn't have to handle any of that, thankfully ESPN did all those negotiations. It did create some ups and downs in terms of knowing where you're going to be going on a given basis, not having the best real estate location, you know, to be able to set up the set. You know, nowadays that is not a problem, but that also means that the pressure is tenfold and the amount of dollars that are being spent are tenfold in the amount, but the amount of impact is also tenfold today too. So a lot has changed. But back then it was, you know, a lot of building the plane like while we were flying it. A building. How appropriate for a home improvement company. Yeah, you know, back in those days, I used a lot of those really bad like cliches like, can't let's hammer one out, you know, let's build this thing, you know. So and I still use them to the day and, you know, given my time at UPS, I said a lot of like, we're going to deliver this home, you know, so yeah, they don't channel change. So you, you've had the opportunity to work with with really big name brands and companies and what led you to make a shift to the American Cancer Society? You know, not that I didn't. I really, really enjoyed all of the positions that I've had in the world, but during my career, but you know, I felt there was something missing for me and I think it was more of a personal thing and the desire to have more impact with the work that I do. And I just so happened to meet someone who had gone through the same professional transition that I did, who ultimately ended up recruiting me over to some work at the American Cancer Society, you know, that where we can sort of use the the fun tools in our toolbox that we've been able to work with for the entirety of our careers, but now we can use it as a force for good rather than one that's just selling widgets. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there's something inherently great about going home every day at the end of the day and saying, you know, you tried to cure cancer today, and that's why we're all here is to end that mission or to complete that mission to find a cure for this terrible disease. It's going to mean that I'm out of a job if that happens, but it'll be a hell of a party, that's for sure. More time on the beach at that point, if that happens. I guess so. One thing that any time a partnership or an alliance is formed, you have to be careful about the reputation of the partners that you're dealing with. If we think about Lance Armstrong and his doping scandal, he was affiliated with the cancer organization Livestrong, and they had to separate and distance themselves from Lance Armstrong as he became known as someone who had been cheating in sports. So reputation is really important. Can you talk to me about like a crisis communication plan or reputation? How do you identify who you're going to work with and what do you do when something happens that might compromise that relationship or that reputation that you've relied on? It's all about preparation. You mentioned having a crisis communication plan, so when we go into forging relationships, there's a significant amount of research that's done into what are all of the potential risks of partnering with that organization. Are they in alignment with our values? Is there a risk of one of the athletes doing something that would be a deterrent to our brand? Is there a risk of the league itself and the reputation they've created doing something that could harm our brand? We try and figure out all of those things ahead of time and develop a communications plan that is tied to each one of those potential outcomes. The unfortunate part about it is that there are so many different outcomes that you can't prepare for them all, but so long as you create an infrastructure that at least you're talking about them as they come up and you're bringing in the right people into the fold to address them quickly, then I think you're good. But the importance of it, of having a plan ahead of time and knowing who to bring into the fold early on is of utmost importance in those instances. Would you say the risks were greater for commercial for-profit businesses that you've worked for in the past versus a non-profit philanthropic organization like the American Cancer Society? Not necessarily. Our job is to just like a job of a for-profit organization is to generate sales. Our job is to raise funds. So we have sort of the same goal even though our tax status is different. And so our reputation means a lot, especially it sounds weird to say competition, but there's a lot of competition in the non-profit space. And that pie is only so big and you need to make sure that you're trying to grow your slice of the pie, but I'll also try to maintain your existing slice of the pie. And a lot of that is tied to the reputation that you have and the impact of the work that you do. So it's super, super important in our line of work, even though we are not a for-profit company to make sure that we're protecting our brand and our reputation. Yeah. And kind of cultivating that reputation through those alliances that you may have. Tell me a little bit about your time with UPS and what you did for them in this space. So I spent seven years at UPS overseeing their domestic sponsorship platform, and I started their global, what we call the Center of Excellence for Corporate Events. So our platform in the United States around sports sponsorships was mainly tied to college sports. We had spent a long time in the sport of NASCAR, and NASCAR was a wonderful property for many years, but at the time it become extremely regionalized. And we were looking to see what we could do that could have a broader impact on our customer base. Who could we reach more? And college sports touches every community, both rural and urban, across the entire company. And we also saw it as a way for us to connect with our growing customer base and small business and middle market segments. And so we built a really large platform in college sports with the NCAA with three conferences. And at the time was the largest, what was the largest individual school deal signed at one time, which we did a 69 school deal with IMG college at that time. And the events side of the business, we went from running five to six small events from our group to eventually managing several hundred events across the globe for our entire company, building standards, procedures and policies along the way on how to help the company better manage some of these events that previously hadn't been managed. So I got to do a lot in my short time there. It sounds like events is one of your key cornerstones of the history of how you've been involved with these organizations. That requires a lot more planning and work. And would you say that the events side has greater impact typically than just more of a pure advertising type of campaign? I think it depends on what you're trying to accomplish, right? Every brand, every company is a little bit different. Every brand is a little bit different in terms of what their objectives are and what they're trying to accomplish as a company. And so for us, events were a great way for us to interact with our customer base. In the case of ACS, it's a great way for us to bring people together and raise a ton of money when people are doing it face to face. Events are staple of the sports industry, right? People gathering are important. The challenge is not everybody can have access to those events, right? So what are you creating around those partnerships in order to engage people who can't attend the Super Bowl, who can attend the national championship game or something along those lines to engage those folks? And that's where a lot of those programs like, or there's tactics like advertising come into play because it helps you engage them in a different way and talk to them about your relationship and hopefully engage them that way. And you mentioned social media as a growing importance. And imagine you have a really strict plan on how you promote something, how you post something, but it's pretty easy to send something and fire it into the wide world through the internet. So talk to me a little bit about some additional risks that you may experience through using social media as a vehicle. Well, it requires constant monitoring for sure, because you don't like to be caught off guard with something that somebody posts and that the fact remains is that because social media is typically immediate, you know, once something gets posted out there, especially if it's somebody who already has a significant audience, you are at risk, you know, and it's hard to take it back. And there are always people out there who are looking for gotcha moments. And so we have to understand that. We have to develop a communications plan to deal with what those things sort of happens, whether it's be prepared to put out a statement, whether it's be prepared to rebut those things that someone might say on our behalf. And if worst case scenario, you know, cut ties with that league or that individual if it's bad enough. But, you know, hopefully it never comes to that. But, you know, it does that immediacy and that need to connect with fans, you know, really increases the level of risk that's associated with those things in a way that, you know, 20 years ago, we really didn't have to worry about, right? We just had to worry about when people stuck a microphone in your face and what they would say. So it's certainly, the game has certainly changed. But with that has also changed the level of engagement opportunities that you have with your customer base as well. It's opened up a much, much broader, broader world from an engagement standpoint that we never could have been thought possible 20 years ago. So there are positives and negatives. But the negatives you just have to be prepared for. In your current role as the American Cancer Society, are you looking to tap into the future of sports like eSports? We have pickleball is booming. Are you guys looking at the longevity of these sports potential platforms to create these relationships and campaigns? For sure. I mean, we have to, like any business, we have to invest for the future. And, you know, and invest for us doesn't always mean, in fact, it rarely means us investing significant amounts of dollars. But in terms of time and resources devoted on developing a marketplace for us to really engage with, we have to do that just like any other business, right? You know, otherwise we wither and die on the vine. And so we're always trying to look at what is next for the sports world and how we might be able to capitalize on it. And again, the good go back to my original statement, answer impacts everybody. So the good news, good news, bad news, bad news that impacts everybody. Good news is it gives me something to talk about when we go and put and talk to new people and new brands and bring them up to speed on the work that we're doing and how we might be able to work together. Absolutely. Well, thanks, JW. I appreciate your time and sharing with us about corporate and sports alliances and how you're creating impact through sports. So thank you for your time today. You bet. Always happy to do it. Good to see you again. You too. I appreciate it. And thanks to our viewers for joining us today on the Sports Playbook. We will see you next time.