John Gilbert, CEO, JGFR reviews The Marketing Society’s Under the Spotlight with Barry Hearn.
Building up life skills is becoming a fashionable concept with many institutions formalising the process to increase employability among young people. Inspiring leaders from disadvantaged backgrounds can help enormously in providing motivation.
On Tuesday night Marketing Society members were privileged to hear how a council estate kid from the East End created a global sports based business and during this fascinating journey, coloured by many sporting anecdotes, provided much streetwise marketing wisdom.
Set on his way by his hard working mother, keen to see her son join a profession, young Barry Hearn heeded his mother’s advice to become a chartered accountant who told impressionable Barry who asked why ‘simply because you never see a poor chartered accountant’.
While possessing the streetwise money-motivated skills of many east-enders Barry was different in being the only boy from his council estate who went to grammar school and who achieved his ambition of joining a firm of accountants on leaving school.
From there Barry’s early career took off rapidly, achieving the distinction of being the youngest qualified Chartered Accountant and joining the ranks of the professions. He joined KPMG where he built up a client base as an auditor and learned rapidly about profit and loss and assets and liabilities across a range of businesses.
He also knew how to leverage his value telling a fashion designer firm that they needed a financial director. When asked if he would be prepared to take on the job and offered £5,000 (ne was earning £3,500 or so at KPMG) he told the firms’ owner that money does not buy Barry Hearn’. A quick response of £7,500 ensured Barry was the new financial director at 24 in a world of swinging London as he came into contact with the fashion business and the world of property.
While being in the right place at the right time generates opportunity with luck playing its part, seizing the opportunity, often through considerable risk-taking is the key to business success. Barry had become interested in re-developing properties and a run-down snooker hall fitted the bill.
What surprised him was that there were queues to go into the hall and following more extensive research this was the case across most snooker halls. Colour television had resulted in Pot Black becoming a major success on the BBC and millions of young men were seeking to become snooker stars.
At the same time millions of working class people started to enjoy watching snooker on television. Barry understood working class people and what they liked. He had an affinity with them and their need to be entertained. He wanted to give them back an experience they would continue to come back for. He also understood the need for volumes of customers that television needed for ratings.
By creating clubs where kids could play and discovering the best of the talent he commercialised snooker and moved into the world of sports promotion. One such lad he discovered was Steve Davis who he became manager of in 1976 and together with Tony Meo were formed the original Matchroom.
To build success with the viewing public Barry knew he needed to create soap-like characters. Each player had a distinct, carefully cultivated personality that the public felt they knew and followed.
Today Matchroom Sport has extended across a number of sports with an event somewhere in the world built on making sure the market is aware of what is going on through all the various communication media. In an economic downturn sponsors demand value for money through the delivery of ratings. Social media is providing the channel that was lost with the demise of terrestrial channels for a number of sports, especially boxing.
Developing the sports personality brand has played a major role in the success of the Matchroom success story. Barry’s move into boxing promotion was something he always wanted to do –“ I used to love hitting people” and the sport was full of tremendous characters. His description of his relationship with Chris Eubank and the creation of his boxing personality proved particularly insightful including Chris asking Barry if he could wear a monocle as part of his persona.
Barry’s role as Chairman of Leyton Orient is currently subject to media comment as he battles to win backing for sharing the Olympic Stadium with West Ham. As a sports fan and promoter the Olympics delivered an excellent customer experience giving the public a happy feeling about sport – he was especially proud of the boxing team – and of being a Londoner.
He is very much a supporter of ease of access to, and of low-entry cost sports that should be community based. Premier League football is in danger of losing the community basis. What many marketers don’t understand about sport is that low-cost sports create big audiences and that many are too keen to promote middle class sports with more fickle audiences. He knows his audience and their desire to get out of their daily routines and ‘feel a little stardust’. That is why darts is so popular.
Barry continues to search for new opportunities with Ping Pong the latest successful addition to his stable. By replacing the mystery of table tennis bat rubbers and the focus on spin with the traditional pimple bat the game is being re-branded and more watchable, it benefiting also from becoming fashionable among celebrities. At Alexander Palace where the new World Championship took place Barry was expecting 200 or so to watch, 1,200 turned up. The inaugural winner was a gay Russian whose partner had recently died providing added media interest.
While his financial background helped Barry manage his business on one occasion he was about to go under as cash-flow dried up. Barry described a wonderful Christmas present in the early 1990s of being given 300 hotel rooms that he quickly sold on for cash that rescued his business. This was a wonderful gesture when too often people in trouble are not helped. He cited the story of a trip he promised to his Leyton Orient players to Las Vegas if they avoided losing a home FA Cup tie to Arsenal. The side drew 1-1 and Barry suddenly was on the hook for some £36,000. Because of the success of the team he ended up with sponsors approaching him and practically paying for the trip.
With Strictly star Chris Hollins an excellent questioner, ably abetted from questions from the floor, the evening fairly flew by. One question that was not asked is what about women’s sport? Can a similar formula be applied? We need Barry to come back and discuss and regale us with more tales of his love of sport and give us some more stardust!
Read more from John.
