Tessa Court (00:03):

Welcome to the Brand Intelligence Podcast from IntelligenceBank, the show where we pull back the curtain on some of the world’s smartest brands and marketing professionals. We’ll dig into how great brand marketing is the flywheel for growth and how to manage brand compliance and governance while growing a business. I’m your co-host Tessa Court and today we’ll be taking a deep dive into the world of sports marketing and sponsorships. Joining me today to discuss all things sports marketing will be Lonnie Evans, brand manager of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation. Welcome Lonnie to the programme.

Lani Evans (00:34):

Thanks, Tessa. Thanks for having me.

Tessa Court (00:36):

Before we get into all things brand, I firmly believe that everybody has a theme song. So tell me about your theme song and why you love it. So mine is Proud Mary firstly because it starts slow and you can sing it a karaoke and it’s easy to do, but importantly it’s an ode to appreciate the little things in life. So I’d love to hear what yours is.

Lani Evans (00:55):

I love Proud Mary, great choice. Yeah, I love this question. The first song that came into my head, which I’m going to stick with, is Hand In My Pocket by Alanis Morissette.

Song snippet (01:06):

“I’m broke, but I’m happy. I’m poor, but I’m kind….. “

Lani Evans (01:15):

I think that is a song that I can sing in the car I cannot sing, but it is one of those songs that it just gets me in a good mood. I will wind up all the windows and sing my heart out. And I think any song you can do that to is a great theme song, and I think it’s one of those songs that can be interpreted in different ways. But I think overall for me, it’s whatever life throws at you, just focus on the positive and it’s going to be okay. So I really like that about that song. Just focus on the good things in life. It’s going to be okay.

Tessa Court (01:46):

Yeah, I love that. And I think as a brand marketer and working to deadlines and sports sponsorship, you kind of need that motto in your back pocket, so to speak, no pun intended, because things go wrong and when you’re working towards a big deadline with major brands and everything else, we were talking about this the other day at work, but keeping your head up and staying positive and staying focused is one of those things you just always have to do, which is great.

Lani Evans (02:10):

Well, absolutely. And I always say to my team, it’s okay, mistakes happen. It’s okay, let’s just learn from them and let’s find a solution and that’s okay. We’ll get through it together. So yeah, I think that song for me encompasses that, which is really lovely.

Tessa Court (02:25):

Yeah. Great. So before you came to the Australian Grand Prix, which is an incredible organisation and puts on two amazing events each year, which is no short task there, tell me a little bit about your background and how did you get into brand management, I guess, for sporting teams and what did you do before?

Lani Evans (02:42):

Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve been at the Australian Grand Prix Corporation for two years now. I just had my two year anniversary last month, and then before that I was working at the National Rugby League in Sydney, so the National Rugby League, I was marketing manager there. So that was actually my first, I guess, step into sports marketing, which was really exciting for me somewhere I always wanted to end up, but I did different things before then and had some great experiences in other industries. So at university I studied marketing and then straight after university actually fell into the world of advertising agencies. So worked for a big, I guess above the line international agency, which was fantastic. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who maybe doesn’t have experience in it. I think you learn a lot of discipline dealing with different clients and tight deadlines.

(03:35):

So I did really, really love that and learned a lot and then moved into another agency, which was more your below the line kind of smaller agency. So it was great to have I guess that kind of 360 degree view on both above the line and below the line agency. And then from there I moved into client side and worked in F M C G in the world of F M C G. So I think in there you do learn, again a lot of disciplines and really 1 0 1 brand management. F M C G is obviously very fast moving. So I really enjoyed that and was in that for a few years before landing the role at N R L. And then I saw this role come up at Australian Grand Prix Corporation and it did require me to move from Sydney to Melbourne, but I’ve grown up with Formula One and working in sports. I thought, well, that’s kind of a pinnacle, one of the pinnacles in Australia, if not the world, and here I am.

Tessa Court (04:27):

Yeah, that’s amazing. And I think I come from an agency background and I always think hiring people with agency backgrounds is a good thing because they can work under pressure, they exposure to lots of different marketing challenges, whether it’s sponsorship, brand, whatever it is. And that experience, it’s irreplaceable. And I know a lot of people who are agency side always want to go client side at some point, and sports marketing I think is most people’s dream to get into at some point. And you did land the dream job with Australia Grove pre corporation, and it is, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s one of the most watched sports in the world. Is that correct in terms of viewership and participation of people? I guess tuning into it is from a TV rights perspective.

Lani Evans (05:14):

Yeah, correct. Formula one is up there. At one point it was just behind the Olympics, I guess in overall viewership. So yeah, it is one of the most popular sports and it’s just continuing to grow, which is really exciting. It’s a really great time to be involved in the sport. There’s just so many opportunities at the moment and I guess our audiences are growing and diversifying, which from a brand point of view is really exciting to work with…

Listen to the full episode to see even more great conversation between Lani Evans and Tessa Court…