Monday, April 13, 2015

Dave of Dave

Unless you're British, and a supporter of the Burnley Football Club or the owner of a fleet of minibuses, you might not know the name Dave Fishwick. Until yesterday, I'd never heard of the man. But today, courtesy of Men in Blazers, I'm caught up on one of Northern England's great entrepreneurs and a hell of a good listen.

(For what it's worth, even if you don't consider yourself an English football fan, the Men in Blazers podcast is worth your time. It's rich in pop culture, history, and self-deprecation, and a celebration of sport and whimsy.)

Dave Fishwick is a 43 year-old school dropout who made his fortune selling minibuses to the commercial market. He parlayed his charisma and drive to a highly successful enterprise, giving him enough personal wealth to a major sponsor of Burnley Football Club, currently in the Premiership. The Club's Turf Moor home park features the Dave Fishwick stand as one of its seating sections. As Fishwick explains in the video below, as lending for small commercial enterprises began to dry up in the face of the global economic downturn several years ago, he faced a business challenge:


His solution, lend the money himself. And even better for our purposes was the name he first gave to the bank, and then to a television program that amplified his populist message.

Dave Fishwick's customers patronize the Bank of Dave. 

I'm not the Team G:TB member with the marketing acumen. That's the Doofus Overlord's gift. (My gift, if you're asking, is coming up with excellent ideas and never executing them. And the ability to get into small spaces.) But if there was ever a circumstance tailor made for brand partnership, it's the potential for Sentence of Dave and Bank of Dave to build a relationship. Imagine the possibilities for a stateside audience as Sentence and Bank partner to deliver pithy content and competitive returns.

Someone make this happen.

9 comments:

zman said...

If you're good at getting into small spaces, could you please come over and replace the insulation in my crawl space. I"m terrified of crawl spaces.

rob said...

i charge a pretty penny for that service, z. you normals are a squeamish lot.

TR said...

Great post, Rob. I listened to that and marveled at what a great dude he is.

Back in the hotel room to get a bit of rest after a furious day of Colonial Williamsburging. I played catch w/ a Nerf football w/ my sons in the Sunken Gardens, which was a ton of fun, although my kids won't understand part of the reason why.

Pierce's BBQ tonight!

Dave said...

we are signing some documents to let the government subsidize some dude to hire some small guys to crawl into our crawl space and insulate our house. we got some kind of green loan and rebate to do this, but next time i will use bank of dave.

sentence of dave totally endorses bank of dave!

although when you go to make a withdrawal, they often refuse and tell you "dave's not here, man."

T.J. said...

Sharper removed from Tribe HoF. But has Paul's taken his jerseys off the wall?

Dave said...

the first three articles on this page are really depressing, especially the one about lawrence philips.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/04/13/darren-sharper-removed-from-his-colleges-hall-of-fame/related/

TR said...

I will try to answer Teej's question tmrw.

And what's the deal with the Brickhouse Taven next to Paul's? That would mean that "The Strip" has just grown by 33%.

TR said...

Bruce Rader still doing sports!

Donna said...

r you guys aware that there is a second Paul's location, too?! it's at New Town, the other "town" within Williamsburg now.
Yes, this place is a little (A LOT!!) different!