Former NFL Commissioner Discusses Marketing Best Practices at 42nd Annual Regents Business Symposium

“If it isn’t broke, fix it anyway,” was just one of the pieces of advice that the attendees left with at the end of the 42nd Annual Regents Business Symposium on Friday, November 8. These words of wisdom were spoken by Paul Tagliabue H ’05, former commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) and member of the board of directors of the NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee. Tagliabue, a Jersey City native, returned to his hometown to serve as the spotlight speaker for this year’s Regents Business Symposium, one of New Jersey’s longest-running forums designed to inspire and educate professionals of all industries regarding business trends, challenges and best practices.

The theme of this year’s Symposium was Brand Alignment: A Powerful Marketing Tool. The inspiration for the topic was based on a current situation in New Jersey, which is unlike any other in the history of the Business Symposium; the first outdoor, cold weather Super Bowl will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. this coming February.

While marketers of international organizations are often drawn to large-scale events such as the Super Bowl, the event also presents tremendous opportunities for the cities and the regions where it is played. The 42nd Annual Regents Business Symposium sought to examine the value of strategic and creative alignments that can serve to bolster one’s brand whether the organization is a start-up, non-profit, small business or established company. The event proved to accomplish exactly that.

For the first time in over a decade, the annual Symposium was held on the Saint Peter’s University Jersey City campus and The Duncan Family Sky Room in the MacMahonStudentCenter was filled with hundreds of business professionals from across the tri-state area. Louis Ruvolo, M.B.A. ’80, ’08, director of graduate business programs at Saint Peter’s University, served as the moderator for the event.

Before Tagliabue took the stage, attendees of the event had the opportunity to hear from a unique and interesting panel of marketing experts including Porter Gale, former vice president of marketing for Virgin Atlantic; Bill Rasmussen, founder of ESPN; and Steve Stoute, marketing and branding guru and chief executive officer of Translation LLC. The panel covered a wide-variety of topics ranging from marketing deals to risk management to social media.

The panel specifically focused on the Super Bowl coming to the area in the next three months and how local businesses should be prepared to maximize their marketing efforts during this time. The panel suggested it would be an ideal time to launch a new company or product and that it is a chance to do business with individuals who may not typically be in the area.

In addition to marketing advice for the business leaders in the room, the panel also provided some valuable recommendations for the current students and recent graduates for branding themselves. “Individuals also have a brand to manage and when it comes to students, you should manage your brand as you would manage a business,” said Gale.

Stoute took the advice a step further and examined the impact of social media on a brand. “Online behavior is like a tattoo for life,” he said. “You have to make sure your backyard is clean!”

Tagliabue later took the stage to participate in a one-on-one interview with the moderator, who took a number of questions from the audience. Tagliabue focused on his personal role in the discussions that ultimately brought the Super Bowl to New Jersey. He also discussed his experience in establishing the Big Game as not only the “most exciting event in America,” but as an official “mid-winter holiday.”

“The combination of the members of the panels, the timeliness of the topic and the inclusion of Paul Tagliabue as the spotlight speaker was very impressive and it truly brought the entire event together,” said Matt Bonanni of ESPN. “The event was very memorable.”

A portion of the proceeds from the annual Symposium benefit The Patricia Q. Sheehan H ’77 Scholarship and Students at the Center: The Campaign for Saint Peter’s University. Saint Peter’s University gratefully acknowledges the support of the event sponsors, which included Patton Boggs LLP as the presenting sponsor and United Way of HudsonCounty as the executive sponsor. Associate sponsors included Bank of America Merrill Lynch The Spanarkel Browne Granizo Group, Capital One Bank, Genova Burns Giantomasi Webster, Fidelity Investments and Sodexo. Program sponsors included Brinker Capital, CohnReznick, Liberty Mutual, Liberty Savings Federal Credit Union, SILVERMAN, Staples and Strategic Development Group. Student sponsors include Business Technology Advisors, LLC, Cambridge Capital Corp., Independent College Fund of New Jersey (ICFNJ), Jordan & Jordan, Madison Consulting Group, North American Wholesale Lumber Association, PSE&G, RJ Goldstein & Associates Inc., J. Paul Schaetzle ’75, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and Sherwin-Williams. The community partner sponsor was the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce.

Media coverage from the Business Symposium can be found in NJBIZ, The Record and The Jersey Journal, among others.

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