Selling Fathead

The SMBA 2010 class has been doing some creative marketing work with our Sports Marketing professor Dan Bruton. Recently, we were tasked with generating ideas for Fathead on how they might license their brand to other companies with similar values and target markets.

After much research and discussion regarding demographics, fit and the like, each group presented their laundry list of ideas to Dan and he gave us feedback on which ideas to pursue further and what he thought Fathead was looking for.

Over the weekend, the best ideas were flushed out completely and formulated into a presentation and take away deliverable for Linda Castillon, Chief Licensing Officer at Fathead, LLC.

Linda’s visit to class was tremendous, it was fascinating to hear about Fathead’s start-up phase and how they managed to became an industry leader and licensing giant in such short time. Linda talked about Fathead’s vision and where she sees sports marketing and licensing heading in the future. It was extraordinary to learn about Linda’s career and how licensing is such an intricate and cooperative part of the sports industry from a first-hand executive perspective.

This was our second formal presentation to an industry executive in Dan Bruton’s class. To be honest I was just as nervous the second time round. It was great to feel the pressure of a work environment again, and to now know what it’s like to be staring out at the Chief Licensing Officer of Fathead is truly priceless.

The presentations were great and our ideas were well received by Linda and Dan. There was even talk of Linda taking the proposals back to Fathead headquarters. Just another example of how the SMBA program is helping to teach us about - and connect us to - the sports industry.

David Carter, SMBA 2010