Guarascio mixes up the NFL plays

Headnote

Marketing QB's mandate: 'Deliver value to business partners' of football league

PHIL GUARASCIO SPEAKS.

"I guess what I'm trying to do is take an organization from good to great."

Phil Guarascio speaks.

"I've never seen an organization so aligned and so understanding of what the brand is."

Phil Guarascio speaks.

"I have some very specific things that I want to do, and I'm going to have a role in them."

Phil Guarascio speaks, and it's like E.F. Hutton. People listen. Just as they did when he was the VP-general manager of marketing and advertising at General Motors Corp., and just as they will now in his new role as lead executive in charge of marketing and sales for the National Football League.

From one highly visible, highly competitive marketer to another.

From one company that spends $2 billion a year in advertising, to one that receives $2 billion yearly in ad revenue.

"When I first went to GM, I didn't know anything about the car business," Mr. Guarascio, 63, says with a laugh. "At least here, I know what I'm talking about."

He's joking, of course, about the car part. Mr. Guarascio was a larger-than-life figure in Detroit and in the automotive industry, which made him a larger-than-life figure everywhere else.

Now he's at the larger-than-life NFL, where the aforementioned ad revenue, as well as TV ratings, attendance and, most importantly, corporate sponsorship are second to none in sports marketing.

So how...