Q & A with Helios Partners' Terrence Burns

Founder and President of Atlanta-based international sports marketing firm Helios Partners Inc.(ATR) Terrence Burns has a long history of helping companies benefit from the exposure of sporting events as well as cities bidding for the Olympics.

The founder and president of Atlanta-based international sports marketing firm Helios Partners Inc., has helped companies such as candy maker Mars pair up with the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the FIFA Women's World Cup. He was involved with the Beijing bid for the 2008 Games as well as the Sochi bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Burns first started pairing corporations with large sporting events during his fifteen-year tenure in international sales and marketing at Delta Air Lines. While there, he led Delta's sponsorship of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Following the Olympics, Burns moved to the IOC to lead the organization's marketing agency. He eventually left the IOC to open his own brand management company Helikon Media, which was followed by the current firm known as Helios Partners.

In October, Helios announced that Paris-based Amaury Sports Organization had acquired a majority ownership in Helios. Amaury is known for its staging of the Tour de France and other sports events, as well as a publishing arm that includes L'Equipe.

Burns recently spoke with Around the Rings about the Olympic bid process as well as the other aspects of business for Helios.

Around the Rings (ATR): What would you say is the big advantage for Helios to make this kind of a partnership with Amaury?

Terrence Burns (TB): For one, I think it give us more substance, size, scope. You know we've grown very quickly, we've got great clients and we're going to continue to do good work with these people for the value.

At the end of the day we're a 40 employee agency competing in a world where you have some of our competitors have offices all over the world and hundreds and hundreds of employees. You know when you are selling to big multinational brands, it's crucial to be able to show you are part of a broader, bigger entity.

ATR: And when you say 40 employees you're talking about 40 for Helios. How much bigger now?

TB: We're still Helios, and we're still who we are. We aren't a part of ASO. We can show we have a relationship with them and what they do, but we haven't suddenly said we're Helios and now we have 200 employees. We're still independent. We aren't Helios dash ASO, we're Helios dash Amaury Partners LLC and will remain so.

ATR: I know Amaury has the organization involved with staging the Tour de France.

TB: Tour de France, Paris-Dakar road rally, French Tennis Open.

ATR: So I don't think of them in terms of Olympic connections. Is this one of the things you bring to their side of the deal?

TB: Certainly. And very strong credentials, as you know, in media and strong credentials in events. Those events tend to be equestrian, golf, motor racing, cycling.

They are a billion euro, privately-owned company. So they do quite well, they are very French focused. One of their interests in us is broadening that outlook, more international perspective.

They know that we work all over the world and have relationships all over the world, and certainly our Olympic relationships and Olympic work is of great interest to them.

The good news is, as I said, they don't have a group of people there who compete with us, nor do we with them, so I think it's what we were kind of looking for. Something where we can frankly learn and gain value in that relationship in areas where we just don't do…we just don't do events.

But the opportunity to go in and work with the ASO team, look at their events, are there different ways to market them, are there ways to extend those brands, are there ways to create new events, based on those models somewhere else in the world, all of those things are of great interest to us.

ATR: Your firm is known for its work on Olympic bids, but your most recent client, Doha 2016 is no longer in the race. Will Helios work for any other 2016 client?

TB: It is interesting that we are known for our "bid" work when in fact that is just a portion – although a high profile one – of our business. Essentially, we are a group of senior people from the former IOC marketing agency and the majority of our work is helping potential or current sponsors of the Games negotiate, plan and implement successful strategic sponsorship plans.

For example, we just renewed Samsung's Olympic TOP sponsorship, negotiated Acer's new TOP sponsorship and helped negotiate both the Lloyd's and Deloitte deals with London 2012. Several current TOP partners have approached us to help them analyze the renewal potential of their IOC deals that expire in 2012.

We have no plans to pursue work for a 2016 city, although we've been approached by two of them. A lot of the planning work that we do for bid cities has already been completed by each 2016 city. One thing we are reluctant to do is get involved with a bid in a "tangential" way, meaning we prefer to work from a strategic perspective with our bid clients, not on a short-term tactical basis.

ATR: What about work on other Olympic bids?

TB: We have already been approached and are talking to cities interested in 2018 and beyond, up to 2030 believe it or not. We also produced Moscow's Olympic Youth Games technical plan (rated #1) and worked on the Kazan 2013 University Games winning bid. We have also been asked to do technical analyses for a few cities considering future Olympic bids. Interestingly, we have also been approached by two of the countries bidding on the 2018 World Cup. That is one of the benefits of the bidding business – a very long-term planning horizon.

ATR: What kind of services can Helios provide to a city bidding for the Olympics?

TB: One thing that bid cities don't have much of is time; we provide insurance that cities will be as efficient as possible in terms of both time and money spent.

When I began working on Olympic bids with Beijing in 2000, I noticed how many disparate consultants were involved– it was a fragmented and inefficient process. Bids are also usually managed by people with little-to-no experience in bidding or the Olympic Movement – it takes time to learn, and the bid cycle is only two years.

We made Helios' bid city services more strategic in that we provide guidance that encompasses everything from Games foundation and technical planning, to branding guidance and communications advice and the EC visit and Final Presentation preparation.

We prefer to work with all aspects of the bid as team players and partners. We started Sochi with a blank sheet of paper and helped take them to victory in less than two years.

ATR: Do you have some non-Olympic clients?

TB: Yes, we consciously try to diversify our business in order to not only be known as the "Olympic agency." We have worked with FIFA directly helping them sell deals in China. We worked on Hyundai's and BenQ for UEFA EURO 2008, MLB and NBA in China, ESPN, Australian Rugby and football (soccer), Kraft for collegiate sport in the U.S. and Fed Ex's Asian sports strategy to name a few. And our friends at Infront have just engaged us to help sell Chinese Basketball Association sponsorships in China.

ATR: Do cities bidding for the Games underestimate what it takes to win?

TB: Only the ones who lose…seriously, it is a very complicated process where everything has to fall in place in a very short time frame. A great technical bid is the minimum required – it is expected. It takes iron-clad government support, a clearly differentiated vision, strong empowered leadership and knowing what you don't know and who to trust to help you. It requires supplication and humility and that can be challenging for bid leaders who are highly successful and powerful in their own communities yet don't understand the Olympic Movement.

ATR: What do you think is the most important factor in a city winning an Olympic bid?

TB: It seems obvious, but you would be amazed how many bid cities miss this point - gaining the trust of the IOC membership and staff. All competitive bids have credible venue plans, transport plans, hotels and financial guarantees – some to a greater or lesser extent than others, but all within the margin of acceptance. The intangible thing that wins bids is obtaining the trust and confidence of the IOC membership. This is a relationship business. No question. It has to start from the top – and now often at the very top, as we saw with the Sochi bid.

Written by Ed Hula III.