IUSMA gives students sports marketing skills

When students first arrive at IU their freshmen year, they hear about how diverse the campus is; how many opportunities they have right at their feet; how they can individualize their own major or start their own club.

Or change an already existing one.

This year, the IU Sports Marketing Alliance instituted a name and logo change to begin a re-branding of the organization and a new committee structure to allow members to become more involved.

This fall, the IUSMA began a new partnership with IU Athletics, helping the members get true hands-on experience with jobs they would do in a day-to-day
sports marketing job.

“It helps when they can put that on their resume,” President and junior Mike Cohen said.

“This is a great opportunity for them to get experience with sales and game operations and gets them connected in case they want to pursue a career in college athletics.”

When working with IU Athletics, the members participate in a Sales Academy where on Fridays members can come into the Assembly Hall Press Room and make sales calls to sell IU Athletics tickets.

From these ticket sales, they get a commission in addition to real world experience.

Working with IU Athletics has another side to it though. Even though the partnership was only started months ago, members of the IUSMA have already been working at IU volleyball games and running game operations.

On a given night, they do anything from coming up with market plans, working the press table and reading the press release at half time.

But, when it comes down to it, Cohen said the signature of the IUSMA is its networking trips, which allows select members of the group to travel to large cities across the US to meet with representatives from college and professional sports organizations as well as sports news representatives.

Because the group is so diverse and from all edges of the country, Cohen said they try to spread their trips out across the U.S. so members can all get connections around where they live in case they’re interested in pursuing an internship or looking for a job close to their hometown.

This year’s networking trips include visits to Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, Los Angles and a recent trip to Cincinnati.

In Cincinnati, the IUSMA managed meeting with a variety of Cincinnati sports officials, including the University of Cincinnati Deputy Director of Athletics, the Cincinnati Reds public relations manager and the Reds CEO Phillip J. Castellini.

They toured the Cincinnati Bengals’ stadium and locker room and saw the inside of a production truck with a Fox Sports Ohio producer and IU graduate.

The day was capped off with a trip back to Great American Ballpark to watch a Reds game.

Senior Cade McDonald, a first-year member of the IUSMA, said the trip alone affirmed his decision of wanting to be in the sports public relations
agency in the future.

“In one day, I really got a feeling for what PR really is and saw what a day-to-day job in the business would be like, and it really helped to hear it straight from an actual professional,” he said.

The IUSMA will sponsor more networking trips over winter break, where students will have further opportunities to network.

“In this industry, it’s all about networking connections in sports, and this is a great way to find that,” Cohen said.

“It’s a signature of our club. It gives them the most enjoyment, and they derive the most benefit from these networking trips.”

And it’s these opportunities, senior Caleb Keller said, that set apart these IU sports marketing students from others across the country.

“The sports industry is really all about knowing people,” Keller said.

“You’ve got to be able to take all the experience you can. Dress up and shake hands with professionals and hear what they have to say.

“Students here can get that experience now through the IUSMA, where others graduate and then have to learn afterwards.”