Creating 'brand ambassadors'

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The evolution of a small sports marketing firm with Omaha roots has resulted in a slew of promotional pairings between some major retailers and professional hockey players and other emerging athletes.

Recently, Sportified, the firm run by Omaha native Maggie Ortmeyer, even wrangled a deal between 8 Ball Nutrition, a nutritional supplement brand produced by Omaha-based FSI Nutrition, and an endurance racing team made up of officers from the Omaha Police Department.

Most of the deals Ortmeyer organizes through Sportified are simple: She works with a retailer, like True Religion Jeans, David Yurman jewelry, Skins compression clothing or Lululemon Athletica yoga gear, and pairs the brands with athletes who best represent the products.

But unlike most big-ticket sports marketing gigs, or sponsorships, no money changes hands between the brands and the athletes.

"I haven't done a deal where a player gets paid," Ortmeyer said. "What I'm trying to do is create brand ambassadors."

In the case of 8 Ball and the police endurance team, Ortmeyer had existing professional relationships with Mike Carnazzo, president and chief executive at FSI, and Omaha Police Officer Nate Keenan, a member of the racing team.

Ortmeyer knew FSI had a reputation for working with the Army, Navy and police and fire departments on developing sports supplements and nutrition plans, and had heard through Keenan that the police runners, bikers and triathletes were seeking a sponsorship.

After a few phone calls and meetings, Carnazzo pulled the trigger and 8 Ball was off to the races as the police team's sponsor, helping to pay for new jerseys, some race entry fees and supplying the officers with free supplements like recovery drinks and protein powders.

"We saw it as an opportunity to give back to the community," Carnazzo said. "It just gets us more exposure in another area of civil service. Within Omaha, not too many people know about us."

FSI makes its own 8 Ball branded products but also does private label work for widely known sports nutrition companies like EAS, General Nutrition Centers, also known as GNC, and BSN. The company is often used by athletes because the products are screened by third parties for stimulants and pro-hormone substances, Carnazzo said.

Omaha Police Officer Michael Pecha, who is the department's spokesman and one of the officers who got the endurance racing team started, said the sponsorship started to come to fruition when Keenan joined the team last year.

Previously, the team hadn't put much thought into finding a sponsor and paid for their jerseys and race entries out of their own pockets. But Keenan finally convinced them a sponsor would be a good idea.

"I think we just realized that we were an easy brand to sell," Pecha said. "We've got police officers who are fit and in shape and competing at a fairly high level. Plus, we're out in the public eye."

Most of Ortmeyer's other deals have been in professional sports, specifically with players and teams from the National Hockey League. Ortmeyer's husband, Jed Ortmeyer, is a professional hockey player who has had stints with the New York Rangers, Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild.

Since Maggie Ortmeyer started Sportified in March 2010, she has primarily worked with midtier brands that NHL players would typically use or wear.

"We have relationships with guys that are just friends of ours," Ortmeyer said. "So the brands that I target are ones that the players like. We don't need six-figure endorsement deals.

"I haven't come across where a player comes and says, 'I'm not going to do it without any money.' "

Think of Sportified as a matchmaker for lesser-known but emerging brands and hockey players who may not be superstars, but are well-known within NHL circles.

For now, Sportified has only one employee, Ortmeyer. But eventually, when Jed Ortmeyer ends his playing career, Maggie wants him to join the company and work his NHL connections and develop Sportified's player relations.

For now, Maggie works from wherever Jed's hockey career takes them. Currently, Jed is in the minor leagues in Houston, but the couple still spend time in Omaha, where they both grew up and attended Central High School.

In the long run, Maggie Ortmeyer said she wants to keep working with the middle-market brands and players, where there's not the cutthroat attitude of big-dollar sports marketing and sponsorship deals.

"What I'm doing, it's like the grassroots approach to sports marketing," she said. "So far, nobody's really taken that approach, and personally, I feel like the secret is finding the right connections."

Contact the writer: 402-444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com, twitter.com/rossboettcher

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