ABOUT ERIC HAFT 
 

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As a graduate of Penn State University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing and a Minor in the Legal Environment of Business, Eric Haft has a competitive advantage in the field of sports & entertainment marketing. During his term at Penn State, Eric proved his passion and dedication to the sports & entertainment industry by organizing “Get in the Game”, Penn State’s first Sports Symposium. 

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Since his graduation in 2007, Eric further developed his business acumen by interning as the sole Sponsorship Coordinator for Black Bear Sports Properties, a division of Learfield Sports at the University of Maine. Eric then utilized his unique skill set by obtaining various sponsorship sales management positions for such notable and reputable organizations as: 
Hall of Fame Racing, which resulted in Eric securing Ask.com as the only new primary sponsor to enter the sport during the 2008/2009 off-season, the official search engine of NASCAR and the sponsor story of the year featured on the front page of the “Sports Business Journal”. 

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Eric also directed all sponsorship sales & procurement for the United Football League during its inaugural season, College Battle of the Bands, Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room – an environmental initiative that focuses on utilizing green, sustainable, and renewable energy in order to “create climate wealth”, Bellator Fighting Championships, where he got his first taste of mixed martial arts and led to a sales consulting position with MMA4MMA, the worlds premier media, marketing, and advertising agency in the realm of mixed martial arts. 

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Eric has also consulted with Ask.com; Conviva, a live streaming media company; Pluck OnDemand Media; SAS; XOS Technologies; and Chegg.com among others with regard to various corporate consulting & sports marketing initiatives within the sports vertical. 

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Eric is now the founder and Managing Director of his own agency, Haft2Win Sports & Entertainment Marketing and representing clients on various high level experiential marketing events within the sports, music, film, television, and entertainment industries. 

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Eric’s passion for sports & entertainment is deep-rooted as a movie will soon be released about the boxing career of his relative, Harry Haft, the only professional athlete to come out of the concentration camps, based on the biography which has already been published by Harry’s son, Alan Scott Haft, entitled HarryHaft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano.

 

A NOTE FROM ERIC:

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT HAFT2WIN SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING
 

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“Entrepreneurship is something deeply rooted in what it means to be an American. Unfortunately, somehow, we have seemed to get away from that as a country as of late. We have ceased production, other than “pushing paper” as they say. I was thinking over all this nearly three years ago when I decided to start my own agency and founded HAFT2WIN Sports & Entertainment Marketing. Since then, I’ve been “captaining the ship” of all daily operations.

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What I can tell you today, as an American entrepreneur and marketer in a down economy is this: There are plenty of great ideas and opportunities out there in the marketplace, but not nearly enough dollars available to back them. As a matter of fact, corporations and investors, alike, have been forced into becoming very selective in who they chose to work with. With regard to corporations’ external communications, “trimming the fat”, and honing in on their key brand attributes has been a primary objective along with identifying their core value structures and then looking to partner with platforms that share in them.

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This, of course, is primarily how the economy (both domestically and globally) has affected my business from a macro-economic standpoint. This shortage of dollars has not been very discriminatory. Affecting large, small, and mid-sized businesses alike. In a way, for my business and my personal sales skills, this has been somewhat of a blessing in disguise forcing me to hone in my listening skills and find common ground to relate with each brand manager I speak with on a daily basis. Quite simply, I connect dots, trying to match corporations’ specific marketing goals and objectives with the most appropriate platform within my stable of clients.

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On the micro-economic scale, I, have also had to be very selective as a Business Owner, Sole-proprietor, Managing Director, Independent Contractor, Business Development/Corporate Consultant, Agent, Business Manager, Talent Adviser, Corporate Sponsorship Sales Broker, Marketing Executive, Brand Ambassador, whichever hat I’m wearing at any given moment, but at the end of the day, what business practice have I been forced into…?

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Becoming very selective in how I allocate my time and resources just like the rest of us, in all walks of life chasing “The American Dream”. For me, this translates into which clients I chose to represent. The vast majority of my clients, just like the vast majority of the corporations I’m trying to partner them with, are experiencing their own financial difficulties. Once again, a common problem as a result of the state of today’s global economy.

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You might be asking yourself, “What can we, as individuals and business-people, do to help solve this widespread problem that seems to be touching all of us over the globe?” Find people who share your same value structures and beliefs and work with them to try to bring some form of common good to your communities while helping each other raise each of your bottom lines, respectively.

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It is this extra effort to “protect our house” and our respective “home courts” that is, as I see it, the only possible and very necessary first step in attacking the current global crisis. People are suffering all over the world, much worse than you and I if you have the luxury of reading this post from a computer screen right now. The only way to fix this global problem is by finding common ground to work together as a globe.

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In G-d’s perspective, we are all his children. No matter what our religion, nationality, race, background, ethnicity, our whatever we usually use as differentiating factors. It’s time we take a long hard look in the mirror and try to identify our “key brand attributes and value structures” as human beings. Bullying, greed and hatred are unacceptable. Teamwork is the answer!

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To me, sports has always been the best “reality show” for “the game of life”. There are rules, regulations and guidelines in place, but it’s up to you and your team to go out there, working individually and collectively, simultaneously, and for one cause – to WIN! It’s time we work together as the family that we are all included in by being blessed with life on G-d’s beautiful Earth – it’s time to give G-d something to cheer about!”

 – Eric Haft