Transforming a Passion for Sports Into a Fulfilling Career

TJ Lynch ‘03 (business administration major) is the senior vice president of brand marketing at Allied Sports, a rising agency committed to helping modern marketers accelerate the shift from Sponsor to Storyteller™. In June, Sports Business Journal selected TJ as a member of the prestigious Forty Under 40 class of 2021. 

SBL asked TJ to describe his path to a career that brings him joy.

How did college athletics impact your life?

I played four years of varsity soccer under Coach Doug May and attribute a number of great life lessons and achievements to my soccer experience at Naz. If you know Coach May, you know he was a philosopher and had a way of tying everything back to life. I learned so much more than soccer, including the benefit of preparation and the need for different strategies depending on the task ahead. For example, Coach May taught us to consider all factors of the game, including which players were on the field, what formation to use, which tactical approach to employ, and even the playing surface we chose to play on. Playing soccer also facilitated lifelong friendships – my former teammates remain some of my closest friends to this day.

Were internships part of your program?

Gary Nothnagle, a supportive adviser at Nazareth, helped me gain the approvals needed from the business school and professors in order to be able to accept an internship with the company Sportsmark at The Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, UT. That internship, which ran for the majority of the spring semester in my junior year, was not only a great experience but also later turned into a position at The Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. A second internship with the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) performing sponsor servicing and World Cup event execution also turned into a position following graduation.

“He took a semester off to work the Winter Olympic Games as an internship. I was teaching a Sport Management class at Nazareth at that time and TJ was a student. He told me about his opportunity and I remember thinking that it made sense for him. If you knew him you could see that there was a quality in him that he was going to be a success. He understood Coach May's lessons and incorporated them into how he lived. I remember Coach May talking about how much he loved coaching TJ. He played hard and he played smart.”
                                                   - Peter Bothner, Athletics Director

How has your career developed since graduating from Naz? 

 

Over the last couple of decades, I have grown from an entry-level coordinator working global brand hospitality programs at The Olympic Games, to leadership positions in marketing that awarded me various opportunities to be part of iconic sports marketing campaigns. A few of the sports marketing campaigns include:

• The historic loyalty program NFL 100 Experiences of a Lifetime
• Innovative platform development in the Kia NBA Performance Awards
• Product placement with Blake Griffin jumping over a Kia vehicle in the 2011 NBA dunk contest
• Groundbreaking sponsors assets with the NBA Jersey patch in 2016 All-Star game
• Influential product launches such as Kia Fit for a King with LeBron James

Prior to my current role at Allied Sports, I worked at Endeavor (formerly WME|IMG and IMG) for 15 years. Over the course of my career, I have been fortunate to work with a variety of brands, including Cisco, NFL 100, NFLPA, Kia, Ticketmaster, Pernod Ricard, Starwood-Marriott, GE, Cleveland Clinic, Verizon, Quest Diagnostics, and Toyo Tires. On behalf of these brands, I’ve engineered many marketing partnerships, the most notable including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA, MLS, IOC, USOC, F1, USTA, LPGA, LeBron James, Blake Griffin, and Michelle Wie.

As the SVP of Brand Marketing at Allied Sports, what do you love about what you do?

To be successful in marketing, you must be constantly creating new material. This process requires curiosity and a desire for continued learning. As technology has evolved, the marketing environment has expanded from a simpler world of newspaper ads to a more complex world including social media and OTT streaming for example. Fans consume media in new ways and new business categories are continuously being generated. This new terrain requires us to be smarter and innovative in order to reach our audiences. The bar is constantly being raised, which fuels my competitive spirit.

Tell us about your influence on the sports industry.

Through my team’s development of the NFL’s Experiences of a Lifetime program, role models and coveted aspects of the sports world became accessible to the average person. By doing so, this program advanced an approach that ties sports to larger societal ideals, more specifically The Turkey Bowl at Lambeau Field, Travis Kelce in Your Wedding, and Tickets for 100 Years, all celebrated the importance of family and connecting across generations, while Leg Day with Saquon engaged youth and promoted healthy exercise. In a climate in which people are increasingly divided politically, economically, and culturally, our work with the NFL showcased how sports can be used to unite and foster connection across the lifespan.

Can you share an experience that stands out? 

I will never forget the work I did with Kia. It began in 2006/7 with true collaboration between our consulting team and Kia’s executive team to build a marketing program that continues today. What stands out the most from this work is having Blake Griffin jump over a Kia Optima in the 2011 NBA dunk contest. This single impact engagement increased buyers’ likelihood of considering a Kia by 20% and doubled their likelihood of considering an Optima. Bill Simmons coined this engagement, “The greatest commercial integration of all-time!” Another experience that stands out is the partnership with LeBron James and the Fit for a King campaign that I led; this partnership tied Kia with one of the world’s most influential people, James, and elevated the perception of the Kia brand. In addition, I helped identify a new asset for Kia in jersey branding to secure the first ever jersey branding by a non-apparel brand in one of the four major U.S. leagues in the 2016 NBA All-Star game. Finally, I collaborated with the NBA to develop a new awards platform, the Kia Performance Awards, which pooled all awards into one sponsored platform. Not only did this platform allow Kia to align with the NBA’s top performers, it centered Kia in the fan conversation. This new approach was so successful that it was adopted by several other leagues who are now pooling awards into one platform that is delivered to fans through a TV broadcast. 

 

These experiences were incredibly rewarding and were a big factor in being recognized by the Sports Business Journal. It was an honor to be awarded alongside so many deserving individuals. This award reflects the hard work and dedication of all of my team members who worked with me on these partnership programs.

 

What advice would you give to current and incoming SBL students?

Be unapologetically curious. I say unapologetic because not everything you do in life is going to be an A, a win, or a sensation. I hate to break it to you, but you are going to lose, fail, or even be let go from a job. While curiosity will not change the emotions that you will experience, it will ensure that you are accepting these challenges and learning in the process. It is a big world out there, and you may not know what you want to do post-graduation. While sport was certainly a passion, I did not initially know how that would translate into a career. Instead, it was curiosity that continuously brought me to each building block that has led me to where I am today.