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How does a non-profit take on a huge, complex campaign and do it with limited resources? Very creatively! Robin Tooms interviews Lisa Gagnon, vice president of marketing for the 2017 Houston Super Bowl Host Committee.

Robin: Hello and welcome to this edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies. I’m Robin Tooms, VP of Strategy at Savage Brands, and my guest today is Lisa Gagnon, VP of Marketing at the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee. So, Lisa, welcome to Brandonomics.

Lisa: Thank you.

Robin: Well, one thing that people may not realize is that the Host Committee is also charged with promoting, and raising awareness, and building excitement about everything that’s happening up until Super Bowl LI. So, that’s a big task.

Lisa: It is a big task.

Robin: How are you doing that?

Lisa: So we started promoting Super Bowl LI the day after Super Bowl 50. So, February 8th, we started. We are officially on the clock, so we started promoting on February 8th. As far as being on the clock, you might have noticed we have two of our countdown clocks are up already. So, one is at NRG stadium, and one is at IAH. We have two more coming very shortly (Robin: Very appropriate.). Yes, so those have been two of our big projects that we have done thus far.

Robin: Well those are two very visible activities that everyone’s seen, and those are very appropriate locations for that. And I know there’s a lot more activities behind it, and something our audience may not be aware of is you are also what’s considered a non-profit.

Lisa: We are a non-profit.

Robin: So you have to be very creative.

Lisa: We do.

Robin: How are you going to make this happen?

Lisa: Yes, so unlike my previous jobs, yeah, we’re a non-profit, and we obviously have limited budgets, so we rely very heavily on earned media, social media, and we also rely very heavily on partners. So, folks like Houston First, Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston Texans, obviously city leaders. We rely very heavily on them to help us promote our message. Again, we have very little paid media.

Robin: Right, but that’s got to mean, obviously, all of these organizations all want the same goals (Lisa: They do.), so you’re pulling resources together.

Lisa: We do. So we all have the same goal. Our partners are fantastic; they really want to help, and again, we do have the same goal. Everyone, all of Houston is very excited to host the Super Bowl, so we’re all working very closely together to get the word out. And Houston has been really excited, and you can feel the excitement already.

Robin: Well, I appreciate everything and all your partners are doing to make this happen.

Lisa: Yes. Thank you.

Robin: Thank you. This has been another edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies.