Greg Busch

Greg Busch never really intended to end up in sports marketing, he just kept chasing his passions. Those just happened to be business and sports.

Greg Busch Age: 39 Titles: Senior vice president and group account director Company: GMR Marketing Education: B.S., communications, Western Michigan University, 1991 Family: Wife, Adrianne; daughter Sydney (7) and son Gunnar (4) Career: Started career in the promotions department with the Detroit Tigers and marketing department at the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Wings minor league hockey team; Joyce Julius & Associates, 1992-95; partner with startup SportsPLUS International, 1996-97; director of sports and event marketing at Porter-Cable Corp., 1998-99; joined GMR Marketing in May 1999; promoted to current position in 2006. Last vacation: Harbor Springs, Mich., last summer Last book read: “Inside Home Depot,” by Chris Roush Last movie seen: “Alvin and the Chipmunks” What’s on your iPod? A diverse catalog but a lot of U2, Stones, Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews Band Pet peeves: Over-reliance on e-mail when you can pick up the phone or walk down the hall for a live conversation; lack of integrity. Fantasy job: Centering the first line of the Detroit Red Wings with Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk on my wings Business advice: Be passionate about what you do, do it with integrity and respect your employees, clients, partners and competition.

"I didn't necessarily set out to be a sports marketer," Busch says. "I thought if the opportunity to marry those up and combine those passions was there, it sounded more appealing."

That decision has been GMR Marketing's gain. Since joining the agency in 1999, Busch has been a large part of GMR's growth from one client - albeit a prominent one in Miller Brewing Co. — to the New Berlin, Wis.-based firm's current roster of 20, a list that includes Visa, Miller, Lowe's, Alltel and the NBA, among others.

"We really weren't on the map in sports," said Busch, GMR's senior vice president and group account director. "It was just Miller then, an iconic sports marketing brand. Obviously, we've built this entire agency on Miller."

Most recently, Busch spearheaded the expansion of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.'s name in sports. The strategy Busch and GMR created resulted in Wrigley developing sponsorships with NASCAR and the NBA.

"Wrigley has been a partner of ours for eight years now," Busch said. "We had a deep understanding of the brands and the category going in. With new marketing objectives and campaigns, we identified sports as a medium we could leverage and push those communications through."

In NASCAR, Wrigley aligned with Chip Ganassi Racing (with drivers Juan Pablo Montoya, Reed Sorenson and David Stremme). They developed a program that was attractive to mass markets while also being relevant to the Hispanic consumer, thanks to Montoya's popularity among that demographic.

Despite GMR's success, which Busch says included 34 percent revenue growth in 2007, challenges arise daily.

"There's the constant need of justification of a marketing program," he said. "It's something we work on every day."