Golden Bears Marketing Guru

Craig Peden helps attract thousand of fans to Golden Bears sporting events every year and has the perfect insight to the world of collegiate athletic marketing. This far-reaching interview goes into the depth of the marketing department of Cal Berkeley athletics and shows how it’s a much different product to market for including the environment for communication. While switching between marketing talk and business talk, he goes into depth about the difficulties of proper communication. From dealing with students to department heads he must switch his styles of communication every day. Learn how he deals with this and what he believes is key to success. Although he is in the early stages of his career, He still has had the chance to work for three different university marketing departments which include: University of Louisville, Western Kentucky University, and University of California Berkeley; He has had valuable experience in his field and is working to better Cal athletics marketing team.

1. What is your professional history?

I graduated form the University of Louisville in 2013 and was marketing intern at the University from 2010 until 2013. I moved to Western Kentucky University for my master’s for two years where I worked for the students union then switched to a graduates assistant in the marketing department until I graduated on the Fall of 2014. After that I worked for a season at WKU in the same department. I finally moved to the University of California Berkeley in this current position in the Fall of 2016. In this position I work with the PAC 12 conference, Golden State Warriors, San Francisco 49ers, Oakland A’s, San Francisco Giants.

2. What writing advice to you have for professional communicators?

Everyone communicates differently. In my role I communicate with people high up in the athletic department until I get to know them where then I can be less formal in communication. I also get to interact with students daily where I get to talk shorthand and talk as if I’m still in school with them. Knowing your target audience and knowing what the proper way is to communicate with them. The one exception with my area is game day where I talk to everybody the same way.

3. What is your one pet peeve when it comes to professional writing?

How formal you have to be at times. If you aren’t used to it why sugarcoat it when you know what you are looking for or what you are trying to explain. Knowing the right tone is important unless you may have to go back in later and further explain the situation.

4. What kind of business reports do you read and/or compose regularly?

I have direct access to our marketing and spirit budget for the university. I actually oversee the spirit budget so everyday I’m looking at a spreadsheet and seeing if were are reaching our goals. A lot of the reports we make are for our digital ads seeing how they are doing; we are very intentional on seeing if we are hitting our goals for the year.

5. What are your writing suggestions to make those types of reports successful?

We work with a shared group mentality in my department and so when we do get reports from the business office, our type of reporting has been different than what shows up on the ledger. So we have been working on how we classify our expenses so it becomes easier for everybody. Asking for help is never a bad thing. We have worked to make our marketing plans streamlined and detailed so that when I leave Cal, the next person that comes in can easily implement these plans and make changes if needed.

6. What speaking advise do you have for professional communicators?

Don’t be afraid. I had the chance to speak to a class here at Cal which I never thought I’d have the chance to do. But make sure you are confident in yourself and being able to own up to your faults or mistakes. You also want to try to connect with the audience and just be who you are.

7. Name one thing you wish you had know about business communication prior to your professional career?

There are so many different forms. In college, APA was the format that I used in college but since I haven’t had to write a single paper like that. Now I know that there are many different ways to communicate in the professional world and being able to use multiple different ways to get the end result.

8. After assessing the Burning Glass of Baseline Skills (2016), which skills not in the top five would you move into the top five… and why?

The five in my experience that I believe should be in there are planning, detailed-oriented, building effective relationships, listener, and team work. In marketing and especially athletics team work is key, planning is important in seasonal items like sports which allows us to plan for the season. Just for this season’s six home football games we have been planning since March. This allows us to have backup plans incase one idea is not showing the results that we want. We have multiple backup plans which makes us very detail-oriented. With that we are building relationships with our fans and building their connections with the teams and the school. While dealing with our fans one of our most important jobs is to listen to them. If we don’t do this it makes our job more difficult.

9. What skills do you feel young professionals need the most?

Being able to communicate effectively. It is different from texting a friend than a parent and is key to all businesses. Also knowing your social media, knowing the difference between personal and professional business.

Key Takeaways

Craig description of a collegiate athletic marketing team shows that communication can vary significantly in a professional setting. Knowing the type of communication is key. He tells me that many times it is these different levels of communication that causes the problem. Making sure that no matter who your message is going to, whether it be to a student, a fan on social media, or the head of the athletic department you must be able to get your message across clearly. His top five of the Burning Glass of Baseline Skills shows how much they value teamwork and communication between. Both go hand and hand and lead to success.

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Craig Peden, a Marketing Coordinator at University of California Athletic Department where they have over 30 sports. He oversees Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Basketball, and the day to day operation of the spirit groups. Although they have 30 sports, they only focus on seven of the sports for the in-game video production; those are Football, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, Baseball, Women’s Gymnastics, Volleyball, and Softball. The marketing office handles all the Cal athletic social media pages where we try to share all 30 sports but only push those seven.