By: Eddie Kendralla ('12)
Every time you watch or attend a sporting event, you see not only the game itself but exposure to countless sponsors through various mediums. Whether it is a Coke commercial on the video scoreboard, a Chase sign dressing the outfield wall or a towel giveaway with a Farmers Insurance logo on it; sponsorships have become a part of the fan experience.
The exposure these various sponsorship activations receive does not come free however, and in most case it comes at a very steep price. With the amount of money on the line for both brands and properties, it would be nice to know exactly how much these sponsorship opportunities are actually worth. That is where Navigate Marketing comes in.
I was fortunate to make my way northwest to one of the greatest places to spend a summer, Chicago, to do my internship at Navigate Marketing as the Valuation Analyst Intern. This unique opportunity has allowed me to explore a niche aspect of sports utilizing my quantitative and analytical skills.
Navigate specializes in market research, sponsorship valuation and ROI in the sports industry. The company provides their services to both brands and properties in evaluating sponsorship opportunities. AJ Maestas, President and Founder of Navigate, leads an incredible staff that operates small office locations in both Chicago and Scottsdale Arizona.
My time at Navigate has been spent performing a variety of duties assisting the valuation analysts in the areas of research and information gathering necessary to complete client projects. The average valuation takes about six to eight weeks so I have been fortunate to see projects from start to completion with all the stages involved. Days at Navigate consist of lots of excel spread sheets and an endless supply of Cheez-Its and fruit snacks. I have also helped the company expand their marketing efforts online through social media and search engine optimization.
Additionally, I was assigned on a project outside of work that required me to diligently watch baseball games on TV and time the exposure that Nike logos on players’ undershirts receive during games. Once enough games were watched to calculate an average exposure time, a figure was calculated to determine how much value Nike receives over the course of a season.
Overall, my experience at Navigate has been overwhelmingly positive. My time at Navigate has given me a unique perspective of sponsorships, seeing the value from both the brand and property’s point of view. The agency atmosphere is something I enjoyed thoroughly and will most likely gravitate towards after graduation. Every person in the office has been great and has helped me to make the internship an invaluable experience. It will be hard to leave Navigate and the great people I was given the opportunity to work with and learn from but I look forward to the year that lies ahead back in Athens.