We are lucky to have a student from Elon University, Noah Zaret, working with us this summer. We have asked Noah to go back and break down some of the best episodes of the CUSP Show, the Columbia University Sports Podcast. This time we selected three hot takes…NFT’s, global soccer and the marketing of the NFL… These three and more recent, are Jorge Urrutia del Pozo of Dapper Labs, Boris Gartner, a recent Sports Business Journal 40 Under 40 selection, at LaLiga North America, abd Brian Haprer of the Minnesota Vikings… More from key episodes to follow…all episodes can be found here as well.
Episode 262: The Future of NFTs w/ Jorge Urrutia del Pozo
? NFTs stand for non-fungible token and non-fungible means unique and there is no substitution
? Block chain – is basically a digitally distributed public ledger (like a book and that book has all the relevant information about assets)
? NBA Top Shot – marketplace where sports fans can buy, sell and trade basketball video clips. Partnership with NBA and Dapper Labs
? 30 unique one of one NFTs will be auctioned through Dapper Labs and those winners of them will have the opportunity to attend the all-star game for the next 5 years and get all kinds of behind the scenes special access
? If one sells or resells the NFT, the benefits go with it
? Fans nowadays are expecting their leagues, teams or athletes to associate with blockchain
? In order to get as many people as possible to participate in blockchain, there must be user friendly concepts for payment such as accepting credit cards
? Career advice from Jose: Think long and hard about what you do well and how you can help out an organization or company because of those talents
Episode 265: Growing LaLiga in the Americas w/ Boris Gartner
? LaLiga understood that in order to enter the US, they could not be alone; therefore, LaLiga knew they needed a partnership with a company that was willing to invest in them and to be able to capitalize on the growth of the game of soccer. The key difference with LaLigas approach was that they did not look at the entry into the US as a marketing effort, it was a business plan to make money in order to expand and put money back into the company but also invest back into the clubs. As with other leagues, they underestimate the US market and just throw in advertisements without integrating themselves. LaLiga created investments, not a marketing expense.
? Based the strategy of the joint venture around 5 pillars:
1. Growth and the value of the tv rights and the reach of the games
2. Content: The strategy for LaLiga was centered around content (building a community within the audience) – added benefit from that was generating local assets that can then be turned around and be sold
3. Being able to actually monetize in the right way that growth of the audience and making a business sustainable
4. Events and activation: need to have a touch point in certain parts of the region to be able to build a natural presence
5. Grass roots: a way to help grow the sport in general and not just the company (LaLiga)
? The ability to quantify the segmentation of the Latino presents – the best way to segment the Hispanic audience is behavior and demographics.
? First generation Hispanics are Spanish speakers and more connected to the heritage (reach them in Spanish) – no need to sell them on soccer, they grew up with soccer (super fan).
? Second and third generation are more American but proud of their Hispanic background – would watch the content in English. They follow soccer, as they grew up with it, but they also follow other sports.
? Having a partnership with ESPN was an opportunity for streaming and having LaLiga be able to be seen by everyone and have all of their games on the same site. Important to have the simplicity for the fans to be able to only need to have one subscription service on one platform in both English and Spanish. (every game on ESPN +) Digital platform from the ESPN app on push notifications.
? Expansion on the women’s teams – even though all of the soccer clubs have women’s teams, advertising for the club is pushing both men’s and women’s soccer. In the US, the main driver of soccer is the women’s team so that is beneficial for LaLiga to understand the impact that has.
? LaLiga was the first soccer league to associate with NFT deal – partnership with DapperLabs. Dapper helped LaLiga structure the deal and the rights that were necessary throughout the process.
Episode 273: Content Creation at the Minnesota Vikings w/ Bryan Harper
? Looking at content production and creation in a different way – Minnesota Vikings
? Strengthen the bond with the Vikings fans through storytelling
? How do you connect the fans to the new personalities in the Vikings front office?
? All-access entertainment for fans- attracts a certain fan persona
? Attraction of the future fan: the opportunity with the new ability to think different and create a new department and connect those fans with the personality in the building
? Pulling everything together at the surface level – all the creators (let the creators create)
? Everyone on the team knows their specific job in order for it to run well
? Social media platforms, (TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) Vikings.com, Vikings team app – all platforms in which team media and entertainment is consumed
? Best practices to decide which platforms to participate in – in a testing phase – using TikTok to experiment and see what it can do for the promotion of the team and build upon that for the future
