Leading Digital Marketing for Super Bowl

On February 4, 2018, all eyes were on Minneapolis for Super Bowl LII at the U.S. Bank Stadium. Thousands of football fans arrived early to partake in game-related activities in the days leading up to the big event. The Minnesota Super Bowl Committee Host website was the first stop for many fans looking for information and guidance during the festivities.

The person behind the host committee’s high-profile website? St. Thomas’ own Gino Giovannelli, a digital marketing guru and Clinical marketing faculty member who also runs his own consulting practice.

Giovannelli was hired to lead digital marketing for the Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee, including the website and search programs supporting 52 weeks of events leading up to the game.

“The project started with just a few of us including the CEO, the VP of sales and marketing, an admin and me,” he said. “We started out working on building out the infrastructure to support the website. Over time, more people joined as we continued to evolve the site. It felt, ironically, very much like a start-up at first.”

Over the course of the project, Giovannelli gave his students a behind-the-scenes peek at his work. “I started every class by saying, ‘You want to know what’s going on with the Super Bowl?'"

Bridget Rissman MBA ’18 couldn’t believe her luck. “Gino’s digital marketing class was almost like a mini internship in a way,” she said. "Learning the behind-the-scenes marketing of this huge event was such a unique thing.”

Even though he's worked on a myriad of websites, from a world stage point-of-view the Super Bowl was his biggest project yet.

In his spare time Giovannelli is a drummer in the rock band Twin Star Rocket and passionate about teaching digital marketing at St. Thomas.

“Seventy percent of companies actively doing social media, email, mobile marketing or websites are doing it without a strategy. That’s a big part of what I teach – figuring out what you should do versus what you could do.”

His students develop a digital marketing strategy and a marketing plan for either a concept business or a real business. “I want to make sure everyone knows how to create a strategy,” he said. “I tell them to bring this strategy to their job interview.”

They also build a website following the same methodology for the Super Bowl website, the University of Minnesota’s Alumni Association website, Caribou Coffee, Sun Country Airlines, Radisson Hotels and Resorts.

“Many MBA students choose to create a website for their current employer or a business idea they are considering on the side or sometime in the future. It’s a great learning experience.”