There is a big difference between marketing a sport that features human beings interacting within it—the athletes—and marketing a consumer product. You may be able to manipulate, manage, control and package the consumer product at your whim. You can’t simply do that with athletes. They are simply highly skilled performers, simply the best in the world at their craft. It is their spectacular play that attracts people to the sport.

Sports marketing, however, requires an emotional commitment. You have to live, eat and breathe it every day to have any chance of getting it right. Sports marketing can be a fuzzy business. You can’t always measure a marketing program’s value unless it makes an immediate, direct impact on the bottom line, and that isn’t often the case. To bring any sport to the next level, a marketer must recognize what the next level is.

When president of Team Ads Inc. Teddy Pereña talks about Sports Marketing in upper case, he is referring to the agency’s client Smart Sports advocacy as a new way to connect to the market. As a marketing strategy, Smart Sports follows a cohesive plan that aligns with what the brand stands for.

“With the game so deeply ingrained in their psyches, the Filipino people believe that they own basketball, boxing, and so on, and they’re right. As marketers, we are responsible for making sure our consumers continue to feel this deep attachment to the game. At the same time, we must also discover the means of exporting that attachment abroad, while preserving the game’s cultural identity,” Pereña told this columnist.

The agency takes pride in its unique integral corporate philosophy—a way of life, a way of thinking, a way of envisioning things with emphasis on dynamic concerted effort, mutual understanding and consultative harmony with Smart Sports. Team Ad’s solid line-up of accounts includes Mansfield International Inc., Burlington Industries Philippines, Sportshouse International Leisure Inc., Event Visions, Horizon Travel & Tour Inc., First Philippine Scales, L.A. Gear, Soriano Holdings, Mitsuboshi Belting Philippines Corp., Better Herbs Inc., Flixirs Pacific International Corp. and Chloe Lightings.

“We’re helping sports. Our involvement in basketball, boxing, tennis, taekwondo, cycling, and now running, is driven by clear and simple goals—to help the Filipino athlete, discover and train promising talents, and to encourage those involved in sports where Filipinos have a fighting chance of one day bringing home an Olympic gold,” head of sports marketing and special projects of Smart Communications Patrick C. Gregorio said in an interview.

Launched middle part of last year, Smart Sports was designed to identify, train and reward Filipino athletes “so we can give them a better chance of winning the elusive gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics.” It was an idea born out of a visionary’s personal conviction and drive.

Gregorio chose to embark on a program and a cause that will further strengthen Philippine sports. By doing so, he hopes to discover upcoming talents, nurture them through a long-term development program, and to ultimately and hopefully see them bag that elusive Olympic gold for the country. Together with his staff, these people have invested tremendous energy, thought and devotion in their passionate interest in marketing sports. Business planning often comes second to making a dream come true or realizing a cultural opportunity.

“When we support athletes, we support the Filipino talent, our flag, for the country and [their] dignity. That’s how we analyze it. So when we spent one centavo for Philippine sports, we don’t compute it in terms of mileage that we will get. We look at it as helping the Filipino athlete,” Gregorio stressed.

The company’s goal is to create greater participation and global reach. Attaining that objective requires us to “grow” the game up from the grassroots levels. Gregorio is not just talking about attracting new fans. To ensure that Smart Sports is sustained as a business, it must build the game player by player.

Smart continues to be actively involved in the discovery and development of Filipino athletes, and promote the value of various sports. It has partnered with Philippine National Police (PNP) officers for the Smart Subic International Marathon (SIM) 2009, which was held last weekend—an event that engaged more than 10,000 runners from all over the world.

The marathon featured a 42.19-km race, a half-marathon or 21-km race, and 10-km, 5-km and 3-km fun races. It offered cash prizes totaling P1.6 million, including $5,000 each for the top male and female runners—the biggest prize among all marathon events in the country so far. This cash prize is on par with that of the Boston Marathon and other international events of its kind. Smart SIM 2009 is the only long-distance running event in the country that is accredited by the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races.

PNP director for community relations Gen. Leopoldo Bataoil and retired Gen. Samson Tucay, founder of the long-distance running event, jointly said the marathon traces its roots to the PNP in 2004, when PNP senior officers started a campaign around the country to promote running for health, fitness and wellness. “Running is symbolic of one’s physical development. To have a sound mind, to be a productive and responsible citizen and contribute to nation-building, one needs to have a sound body,” said Bataoil.

“Our goals are to bring in the best runners from all over the world, and to discover promising Filipino runners from every corner of the country. We are proud that in Smart, we have found a partner which shares our vision and belief that Filipino runners can compete against the best in the world,” said Tucay.

According to Pereña, Smart’s support of long-distance running is perfectly aligned with the telco’s advocacy of helping advance the value of sports, and the discovery and development of Filipino athletes. “They aligned [their] sports program of the country. For example, in basketball, they support the Smart Gilas National Basketball Team [the National team of the Philippines] under the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas. Another is the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines and the Padyak Pinoy,” he added.

“Do we sponsor events?” Gregorio asked. “No, we don’t, but we partner to make sure that the [sports] event is successful and it ultimately benefits the Filipino athletes. It’s partnership rather than sponsorship,” he pointed out. Smart Sports is willing to invest time and money in any sports activity that promises more than sheer enjoyment. As the company simultaneously extends the reach of its super brand, it guarantees that the company’s logos and trademarks stand for being number one in the marketplace. “[That is what we want] we cannot be champions in our own turf. Let’s excel internationally.”

Imprinting the game presents a formidable challenge for any sports marketer. It also raises a philosophical question. Can you have a business without a sport? My answer is no. True, the business alone may capture people’s fascination, but only for a short time. However, the challenge of marketing sports, according to Gregorio, confirms how human nature compels us to gravitate toward testing our Filipino athletes against the best in other parts of the world.

“Every time there’s a major international event, we always tell our athletes laban para sa bayan but let’s analyze their life as an athlete before we say laban para sa bayan. Two years before [the international event], did we train them well? Did we remove their distractions? Do they have food for their families while they go on training? Let’s rewind. We analyzed the mindset of an athlete. The first thing [an athlete] will say is me, [then] my family, my province and [then] my country. So even before you say laban para sa bayan, did you support his family so that when he competes internationally, his mind is well-focused on the competition [with no distractions]. The reason why we call it an advocacy. If we cannot even provide simple medical benefits to them or allowances, how do you expect them to win an international competition?” Gregorio furthered.

Nevertheless, athletes are human and may fail. No marketer can control their play, which represents the core of the company’s business. And the success of sports marketing and branding efforts depends on the performances off the field, as well as on. Performance is serious business. Sports marketer is to find a way to sell it all, the highs and lows, to market the human element that lends this great game so much drama.