There’s no secret password. It doesn’t require a blood pact. There isn’t really a catch at all to joining TD Garden Business Network. A business-to-business network that marries old-school networking with new technology, the program launched in May to give TD Garden’s premium club members, corporate partners and Boston’s business leaders a chance to connect in a new and unique way. By officiating the joining of these two entities Jen Compton, TD Garden vice president of Marketing, and Jim Delaney, president of Activate Sports and Entertainment, earned the 2014 Venues Today Hall of Headlines Award in Marketing.
(Caricature by Grag Dohlen)
“The business audience is a difficult group to communicate with,” said Compton. “Traditional advertising is not going to do the job for us. We know we’re not going to become the Boston Business Journal or their source for business news in Boston, but we’re providing a unique position on things, a unique opportunity to meet people.”
With business partners already taking advantage of their Premium Club to entertain clients, the TD Garden Business Network acts as an added members amenity and a valuable program for the businesses and their clients.
“The primary focus is how can we use these B2B social tools to create more value for our premium clients and corporate partners,” said Delaney. “The secondary benefit is growing your own community of current and potential clients.”
TD Garden Business Network offers members a chance to network face-to-face at meet ups hosted by TD Garden at the arena or at an off-site location. On average, 50 to 100 members attend. After opening the network to TD Garden clients when it first launched, they then made membership available to any business leader in the Greater Boston Area.
Some of their meet ups have included prominent business execs such as Boston Bruins President Cam Neely and Celtics President Rich Gotham. During the Playoffs the network hosted a meet up and invited NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Mayor of Boston Marty Walsh. Two of their top corporate partners had been trying to facilitate face-to-face introductions with these individuals for some time, and the network provided a way for that to happen.
“We normally come up here and eat before the game,” Bill Marsden, director of Business Development at NFP Corporate Services, told TD Garden during the first meet up. “In between periods we network a lot. There are a lot of dynamic people here, and it’s been good for my business.”
The network model evolved from their digital entertainment network, Bruins Den, which Activate Sports and Entertainment helped launch at TD Garden a little over two years ago. It focused on harnessing all of the emerging social media channels under one centralized brand in order to better engage and monetize their digital fan base. From there, Delaney said they looked to extend the program to target the business audience.
“Premium members and corporate partners really are the lifeblood of any arena, and you typically aren’t reaching them through Facebook and Twitter,” said Delaney. “I would say at least 90 percent of the target audience that you’re after in trying to sell a B2B product has a LinkedIn profile and more and more of them are actively using the platform.”
By launching the network simultaneously with the TD Garden app, members were able to use the new app to chat with other members, request to connect with someone through the app using LinkedIn and even see which members are in the building that night. This allows members to connect with each other even on nights when there is no official meet-up event scheduled.
“Your next business alliance could be sitting two rows down from you or in the suite next to you, and you don’t have a way of connecting with those people or to know that they’re there,” said Compton. “We’ve witnessed some fun introductions between people who have been meaning to meet for years and this was the opportunity that facilitated that.”
Currently, the TD Garden Business Network LinkedIn group has more than 800 members, and many of Boston’s top businesses are represented.