Louis Fernandez interned at Gridiron Legacy - Gary Clark Inc., a sports marketing and business development agency, from January to June 2016. His goals were to increase registrations for Gary Clark's raffle program targeted at firefighters, teachers, law enforcement, and the general public in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia areas. His responsibilities included marketing the raffle through email blasts, flyers at sports bars, and social media. He also entered data from prospect lists. Fernandez created emails and flyers and distributed them widely to target audiences in the region, with a focus on Fairfax County, Virginia. He faced challenges promoting on social media and keeping track of all outreach contacts due to the large volume.

1. Fernandez 1
Louis Fernandez
The Gridiron Legacy – Gary Clark Inc.
SPMT 490 Portfolio
Spring 2016

2. Fernandez 2
Section A: Introduction
Name: Louis Fernandez
Major: Sport Management
Duration: January 18th – June 26th, 2016
Site Name: Gridiron Legacy – Gary Clark Inc.
Address: 1800 Tysons Blvd Suite 550 – McLean, VA 22102 
1875 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 571-249-6272
Website: www.yournflexperience.com
Supervisor: Gary Clark
 Phone Number: 571-249-6272
 Email: info@yournflexperience.com
 Credentials:
o 2x Super Bowl Champion
o 4x Pro Bowler
o Washington Redskins Legend
o Washington Redskins Ring of Fame
o NFL Career (1984-1995)
Brief Description of Agency:
The Gridiron Legacy – Gary Clark Inc. are a caused based grassroots business
development company that develops businesses for our partners through unique marketing
techniques. These techniques include a raffle, which is a tool used to capture information for
sponsors with the promise of a potential memorable experience (sports tickets, gift cards, etc.),
and football camps, which are held by GCI to not only promote the health of the youth in
America, but also to benefit the sponsored company by capturing information to potentially
increase foot traffic.

3. Fernandez 3
Section B: Agency Overview
Introductory Statement
 Name: Gridiron Legacy – Gary Clark Inc.
 Location: 1800 Tysons Blvd Suite 500, McLean, VA  1875 Connecticut Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20009
Gary Clark’s office in Tysons Corner closed down for unspecified reasons and Gary’s items
were moved to Redskins Park in Ashburn. Gary now uses a WeWork Space in Dupont Circle in
Washington DC, but due to the nature of his job, he rarely goes to the WeWork Space. After the
office closed in Tysons, I was allowed to work from my home.
 Type of Agency: For Profit – Business Development – Sports Entertainment Division
History & Development
 Gridiron Legacy – Gary Clark Inc. was founded in 2011 by Gary Clark as a grassroots
business development company that grows a client’s business through capturing
information from clients through a memorable experience retention program (raffle). The
hope is 1-10% of individuals who register for the raffle will use or knows someone who
will use sponsored services (Real Estate, Financial Advice, Construction, Personal
Training, etc.).
 Gridiron Legacy – Gary Clark Inc. has grown from a company which generates hundreds
of dollars for their clients in its first year to a company that generated over millions of
dollars for their clients in present day. This is done through the memorable experience
retention program (raffles) and through football camps, where mass amounts of data are
captured and distributed to the appropriate sponsor based off the response. The
relationships that were built by Gary and his employees have helped build his company
expand.
 The agency is small business who uses their NFL credentials to build a report with Real
Estate Agents, & business companies to create a mutually beneficial partnership.
Purpose & Philosophy
 Mission – To create strategies and tools that build our clients brand and word of mouth
success within any community within the United States.
 Vision – To make our clients more marketable, more profitable, more successful.
 Goals – To generate revenue for our clients by providing them our memorable experience
retention program so their consumers have a reason to use our clients products & services
o To generate Word of Mouth success for our clients for every partnership
o To be a part of the fight to end Childhood Obesity through the sport of football
and through our football camps
 Philosophy – Business is never done in the office, it is done through face to face
interaction with potential clientele and through developing relationships.

4. Fernandez 4
Personnel
Gridiron Legacy – Gary Clark Inc. Organization Chart
Programs & Services
 Services Offered: Grassroots Business Development Services
o Memorable Experience Retention Program (Raffle)
 On the raffle registration page, there are some questions that ask about
interest in a buying/renting a home, home remodeling, life insurance,
personal trainer, etc. (utilizing our sponsors)
 People will click what applies to their need and they’ll be registered, if
they feel that they don’t need any of the services offered, they’ll still be
registered. Only need to be registered one time, and you’ll have the chance
to win every month.
 Ex. If the person registering is interested in buying a house, then
Gary will refer them to one of his Real Estate sponsors. If the Real
Estate agent sells that person a house that Gary referred them to,
then Gary gets a portion of the commission.
 Free Raffle that offers the winner free tickets to sporting events, gift cards,
dining experiences, and potentially meet Washington Redskins legends.
 Prizes are obtained thanks to Gary’s main sponsors
 Raffle is provided by GCI to the sponsor in hopes that if we give their
clients memorable experience, then the clients will use our sponsor’s
product more often
o Football Camps
 Sponsors are also given an opportunity to work with Gary to host local
football camps. Gary and his team will market the camp in the targeted
region or county of the sponsors choosing. GCI will then market the camp
in that specific community through grassroots marketing to create a buzz
for the event. The main goals of the football camp are to provide the youth
fitness techniques to stay active and to generate foot traffic and interest for
partnered sponsor for the event.
 The main idea is that since the sponsor is partnered with NFL Legends,
then their brand will be more known in the targeted community.

5. Fernandez 5
 GCI & the Washington Redskins Alumni Association’s cause is to fight
childhood obesity
Clientele
 Populations Served: Entrepreneurs, Real Estate Agents/Brokers, Independent
Contractors, Small-Business Owners, Large Corporations, All Businesses, etc.
 Individuals Served: Varies by weekly. Dependent on Gary’s meetings throughout the
week. May serve as many as 100 individuals at a conference, or 10 people through lunch
& learn information sessions about the company.
 Region: DC, Maryland, Virginia area
Funding
 The Gridiron Legacy – Gary Clark Inc. are able to generate funding through paid
appearances at events, speeches/interviews at events for companies, through the client
retention program (raffle), sponsorships, partnership events (football camp), and owner
helps fund the company independently.
Problem Areas
 Biggest concern at the moment is educating clients about the GCI process of developing a
foundation for a business to grow through the use of unconventional marketing and
business development. The best way that GCI is combatting that concern is to further
develop relationships with clientele and around the area through word of mouth to create
trust and potentially foster a partnership.

6. Fernandez 6
Section C: Internship Experience
Goals & Objectives:
 To increase raffle registrations in firefighters, teachers, and law enforcement in DC, MD,
VA area
 To increase raffle registrations for general public in DC, MD, VA area
 Create and manage social media twitter account
 Create leads for Gary Clark and Sponsors
 Develop Marketing Plan for Raffle
Job Responsibilities
My primary job responsibility was to market the raffle to as many people as I can. Gary entrusted
me to increase raffle registrations for firefighters, teachers, and law enforcement in the DC Metro
area. My secondary job responsibility was data entry for Gary.
 Ways I marketed the Raffle
o Email Blasts
o Flyers posted at Sports Bars
o Social Media
 Other Duties Assigned
o Data Entry prospect list
My day to day job duties varied per day. There would be some days that I would target teachers
via email blasts, some days that I would target law enforcement officers via email blasts, some
days I would target fire fighters via email blasts and visits, and some days I would target sports
facilities via visits. During my internship, I did a lot of driving to local sports bars, sports gyms,
and facilities all around the DC Metro area. I mainly focused on Fairfax County to conserve gas.
Also, the high area traffic in Fairfax was a primary reason why I wanted to promote the raffle in
the area since I am familiar with the territory.
I constructed emails to be universally versatile as I could send multiple emails at one time for a
specific target group. I was not given a software or any online marketing tool, so many hours
were spent during research. I sent the most emails to educators since their emails were the most
accessible during my research planning phase. A lot of my time was spent researching emails for
teachers and law enforcement officers. I created a list of all the schools and offices that I emailed
but that eventually turned into something I could not control and not keep track of due to the
volume of schools and law enforcement offices contacted.
I created the flyers to drop off at local sports bars and facilities. I made small flyers so I can print
off multiple small flyers and hand them to individuals. I got reimbursed for the printing that I
did. However, I had to call a lot of the bars to ask if I could drop off the flyers at their location, a
majority said yes, but for the ones who said no, it was for a corporate sponsorship issue.
I tried to incorporate social media to help promote the raffle in the DC Metro area, however, I
was blocked on multiple pages for trying to promote “spam” and my posts that I made through

7. Fernandez 7
Facebook on my personal account on group pages were instantly deleted by mods. Twitter seems
to be the most successful avenue of social media because of the amount of followers. However, it
is hard to constantly think of creative tweets that will get the page recognized. I learned to not
directly tweet about the raffle every tweet, but instead be a sports page where people can follow
for updates on DC Sports. By doing so, I can interact with the general public in the DMV
without promoting the raffle directly. The idea is if I interact with someone on twitter, chances
are they’re going to click on the profile and see that there’s a free raffle, and hopefully that will
lead them to register for the raffle.
Gary would also assign me miscellaneous tasks such as data entry for his respective clients. As a
result, I was able to use Microsoft word & excel to flourish in this role as all my planning and
research was done in those apps.
Professional Development
 I was able to attend many sponsorship events and large company meetings with Gary to
gain a better understanding of the business world. I was able to interact with employees
who worked as real estate agents, financial analysts, and marketing coordinators.
 Gary gave me valuable life advice to always be “thinking outside the box” because he
believes in innovation, creativity, and unconventional, rather than the traditional business
model.
 Gary gave me free reign to create a plan for myself for the raffle because he believed that
it would force me to creatively think of ways to promote the raffle.
 Was able to meet former NFL players
 I was able to attend Doc Walker’s Pro View and snap a photo of Gary’s interview with
Doc and attend multiple sponsorship events, such as one is with Dan Ryan Builders for
an upcoming football camp.

8. Fernandez 8
Section D: Special Project
Summary:
For my special project, Gary assigned me to market and gather sponsors for The 1st Annual
Charles County NFL Legend Fitness & Music Expo to the citizens in Charles County. By doing
so, I was put in charge of creating a marketing plan of how I would target each individual
community and figure out how to get the desired amount of sponsorships for the event. Gary is
creating this event for Dan Ryan Builders to help increase their foot traffic.
Primary Responsibilities:
 Grassroots Marketing
 Gathering Sponsorships
Plans of Action: Marketing
Since this event is free to the general public, the best way I concluded to get the word out was to
place the flyers at high traffic areas that are related to the event. I began by emailing press
releases to all the major news stations in Charles County to begin the marketing campaign. I
researched every sports bar in Charles County and went directly to those locations and were able
to post flyers in the bars. The next area that I would target in Charles County were the gyms. I
went to every gym and Charles County and were able to post flyers. Next, I targeted every
library and posted as many flyers as I could in each library location. There were also days where
I would knock door to door in neighborhoods to notify people about the event.
As for the emails, I drew a web of ideas to see who would be interested in attending the camp. I
initially targeted youth sports teams and were able to successfully send them emails regarding
the event. However, my main focus was to send the teachers and educators of Charles County a
notice about the event. I researched on their county website and found emails of every school
principal and administrator in the county and sent them email invitations about our event.
I also tried to kick start a Facebook group relating to the event, but so far, that has proved to be
unsuccessful because my time has been spent grassroots marketing in the region. I do what I can
to get the message out by posting status updates, liking other Charles County organizations and
commenting on Charles County related Facebook Pages. By doing this, I feel that I am able to
reach out to the online community and help generate interest for the event.
I mainly focused on 3 areas, Waldorf, La Plata, and Bryans Road/Indian Head. I focused on these
3 regions because Waldorf & La Plata are the most populated cities in Charles County while the
event is held in Bryans Road. By doing so, I am able to target populated areas in Charles County
and the direct area for our event. This is still a work in progress as I still need to complete the
Recreation Centers and place flyers in as many “bulletin boards” in the region.

9. Fernandez 9
Plan of Action: Sponsorships
My plan of action for the sponsorships were to initially research every business in Waldorf,
Indian Head/Bryans Road, and La Plata via Google Maps. I thought it was the most effective
way to gather data about the business companies that I was interested in asking for sponsorships.
I eventually gathered around 150 businesses via google maps and contacted several of them
(yellow highlight means contact, 2nd yellow means contact 2x), however, I wasn’t getting any
responses. I would send a sponsorship offer and hope for a response, if not, then I would conduct
a phone call, but ultimately many companies were not interested.
I switched my focus from researching companies online to actively looking for bulletin boards in
Charles County, because there are many business cards from small companies that want to be
noticed or seen. I would take the business cards and send the people a sponsorship email and
hoping for a response. This has proved to be the most effective way to solicit sponsorships for
me as I have been able to gather several sponsorships for the event so far.