Steve Gaffney

In 2020 I launched a marketing consulting boutique to provide brand, media and sports insights and strategy to brands.

In this role as Sprint’s Vice President of Sports, Media, Local, and Retail Marketing, I led all media investment, sports and entertainment marketing, and local and experiential efforts. I led a team with 100 employees and spearheaded the strategy, planning, and execution of each functional area supporting Sprint, Boost, and Sprint Hispanic efforts. ► Transformed agency support model and media mix while instituting a rigorous measurement construct, yielding 18% savings. ► Drove groundbreaking product development and media firsts with Google and Facebook, including new omnichannel sales measurement, platform-agnostic video investment strategy, and unprecedented media executions. ► Drove Sprint Media Measurement Innovation Initiative by establishing and deploying a closed-loop model to validate the impact of mass-reach media on consumer shopping behavior, providing insights for ongoing optimization. ► Built a local, high-performance marketing team that empowered the national retail sales organization. ► Delivered historically high customer metrics for NASCAR Sprint Cup sponsorship, including triple-million-dollar incremental revenue to Sprint directly attributable to the sponsorship. ► Directed all aspects of Sprint Nextel’s industry award-winning media strategy, planning, and execution, including delivering breakthrough multi-media integrations with The Voice, Survivor, and Business on Main, including 2010 Cine Golden Eagle.

During my time as Director, Sports Marketing, I led sports and event marketing, promotions development, and hospitality management. I developed overall strategy, direction, planning, and execution for Sprint’s sports marketing investments, including NASCAR, NFL, US Ski and Snowboard, the PGA of America, and multiple regional sponsorships. ► Delivered 1.2M Facebook and Twitter followers for Sprint Cup initiative. ► Oversaw NFL sponsorship, including launch of pioneering NFL application (“NFL Mobile Live”) that broke company record for fastest 1M downloads, most downloaded application for a single day, and most downloaded app for a weekend. ► Led launch of Sprint’s most successful sports application (“Sprint Cup Mobile”) with 3M+ downloads to date. ► Negotiated a comprehensive, multi-brand NBA sponsorship, a first of its kind, to market the differentiators of Sprint’s value proposition and offer an immersive application experience via NBA Mobile.

As Director, Nextel Cup Marketing, I directed all aspects of marketing strategy, planning, and activation for Nextel’s entitlement position with NASCAR’s premier racing series. I served as primary liaison with NASCAR's national marketing team to develop and execute co-branded marketing initiatives. ► Transcended traditional branding element focus by liaising across the organization to develop marketing programs around NASCAR Sprint Cup sponsorship to drive core business metrics (e.g., Most Want to Investigate). ► Achieved TIME Magazine’s “Best Invention” recognition for introducing NASCAR Sprint Fanview, which delivered an immersive fan experience built on technology.

At Octagon, the world’s largest sponsorship consulting practice, I came initially onboard as Account Manager before being promoted to Program Director and eventually Group Director/Corporate Consulting. I oversaw overall management of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup sponsorship in support of the Nextel Sports Marketing team. ► Led fully integrated launch of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup sponsorship at the 2004 Daytona 500. Program included at-track and in-market activity utilizing broadcast media, event marketing, and public relations tactics.