The passion for high school sports displayed by Northeast Ohioans inspired four high school buddies — three of them brothers — to develop a unique sports marketing program that pairs national sponsorship dollars with more than 3,000 high schools across the country. The result? Home Team Marketing is approaching $5 million in annual sales in just over seven years.
The company is now batting a thousand — last year sales were up by more than 1,153 percent and the employee base grew to 22. Regan Fitzpatrick, along with brothers Peter and Jake and childhood friend Patrick Spear, recently moved the company into a new downtown office space with another office located in Dallas and, perhaps soon, Atlanta as well.
It is quite a step up from a single phone and computer in the attic of Fitzpatrick's parents' attic in Cleveland Heights, where all four grew up and graduated from St. Ignatius High School. With a background in national advertising and, after working for New York-based media companies, Regan and Peter moved back to Ohio when they realized the potential of their plan.
"As we were putting together advertising and sponsorship deals, we [thought] the best audience out there was really the high schools. So, we developed an idea and a way for these national companies and sponsorship dollars to really have the strongest benefit to the best audience," explains Regan Fitzpatrick, vice president of the company.
The biggest challenge was persuading corporations and organizations that high school sports were a viable option for their marketing and sponsorship dollars, besides the traditional venues of college and professional sports. "It's still a battle. Like any new media out there — like when the Internet started — it was a struggle to convince people to advertise," Fitzpatrick says.
People have advertised at high school sporting events on the scoreboards for more than 60 years, Fitzpatrick says. "We just organized it and brought it to a different level. We offer signage on the field and in the end zones, public address announcements and everything from traditional print advertisements in game programs to sponsor booths and kiosks and other types of promotions."
National corporations — like AT&T, McDonald's and Gatorade — want a stable, family-oriented sponsorship or advertising platform that is relevant to people's lives. Across the country, Fitzpatrick says, people flock to high school games on Friday and Saturday nights. "High school sports are popular no matter where you go," he says. "We've known that for years and is the reason why our partners renew year-in and year-out."
Along with the rapid growth of the company, Fitzpatrick says the biggest reward has been the true partnerships Home Team Marketing has with the high schools. "They are all advocates of what we do. We've done the research on whether commercialization is positive for high schools and it shows not only the schools are tremendously in favor of the program, but so are the parents and community."
Clearly Home Team Marketing delivers a win for everyone involved.