This episode features Kevin, an experienced media professional from the sports industry. He has years of experience in the field and has some valuable insights to share with us where he talks about the power of data and how it can give you a better understanding of your performance and guide your future actions.

Introduction

0:54 I got my bachelor’s and Master’s in strategic communications.

I did like my thesis on how social media, new technology enhanced the college football recruiting process. You know, I definitely wanted it to be told to sports.

However, once I finished my degree, I ended up working for a pr agency in New York, primarily focused on the ad tech industry. So I had clients such as Samsung tv optimal trans union and a few others.

So basically, you know, that led me to, while I was doing that, I was also doing an internship with USA triathlon for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics during that time I got to interview like Olympians and you know, go to different events and actually like run social media and yeah, it was great.

So that actually led me to bigger opportunities in the sports industry which started with the Los Angeles clippers where I was just doing like game day marketing stuff.

And then I ended up getting with Los Angeles football club which is the major league soccer team in the area.

So I was working for them which they ended up referring me to the pr manager position at Angel City Football Club which is the new expansion team in the national Women’s Soccer League.

So it’s been like a trickling effect where one opportunity has led to the next.

And just all of the hard work and education that I’ve put in just starting to pay off and that’s really it.     How PR is shaping the world of sports? 2:37 you know I used data a lot because you know we have a lot, well especially with our team because you know we are celebrity based on team majority women owned lead on team.

So it’s really interesting because you know we’re doing a lot of media for not only our team but for our partnerships that we’re starting to create for the first time and a lot of our like investors, you know we who are celebrities.

So a lot of times were pitching stories for them or monitoring stories for them.

So it’s really important to capture all of that, right?

So what I mainly do is I create recap decks with data.

So I create recap decks with data and pretty much I use meltwater and TVEyes to not only monitor printing online but broadcast and radio.

So we’re pretty much covering all bases, you know, we want to get like anything from tv market value, local tv market value, national tv market value down to printing online, share of voice the whole nine.

So it’s really intriguing but it’s a lot because you know, we’re trying to get to that common ground where not only are we promoting our soccer side, right, we’re promoting our inaugural season, we’re promoting our ticket sales were promoting all this stuff but we’re also coming out with a lot of different partnerships with cedar Sinai with Heineken with Chevy with you know, it’s so many different things that we have going on and we’re really community-based organizations.

So we’re doing a lot of stuff with Los Angeles LGBT Community center, the public school districts, the whole nine. So a lot of data needs to be developed to figure out, hey, you know, where do we lack at, you know, are we lacking in the partnership area when it comes to promoting stuff?

Are we lacking in the community aspect where you know, we’re pushing our initiatives and stuff like that, but we’re not really getting the media so it’s really important to measure data in that sense because we’re an expansion team and we’re also new on the corporate end as well.

First interaction with data and metrics

5:07 So you know definitely by using meltwater and TVEyes to you know cover all aspects from broadcasting radio to printing online. And you know obviously we want to get the share of voice. We want to get like the AVE Like the total market value.

So a few antidotes I would say is you know, first you know I use meltwater because I feel like that is a great platform to pretty much monitor what kind of media is coming in. We also use the dashboard so that’s pretty much just finding the right templates to share with our investors and our shareholders. So a lot of times where monitoring to share a voice, that’s the total number of articles versus mentions or the sentiments and I think that is really important because you know it determines like your positive versus your negative like how many positive articles you have versus negative articles. So I think that’s really important.

And then also your you’re also monitoring like the for as far as broadcasting radio which is totally different from print, that’s why we have to use TVIS.

Because you’re monitoring different things.

So when you’re monitoring broadcast and print, you know when you’re when you’re doing your data, your monitoring like I said your share of voice, your total mentions your sentiments. But when you’re monitoring TVEyes You’re monitoring total market value from a local international standpoint. You’re also monitoring you know the total number of hits.

And I think it’s very important because it helps you measure your data in a different aspect, especially with us being an expansion team. So another antidote that I would like to add in as far as once you gather all that data, it helps you measure or monitor like you know, on a partnership side, if we’re if we’re pitching and we’re getting media on the partnership side, but on the community side it’s not really translating the same.

Then we know like maybe we have to use certain keywords or you know, different, different, there’s different tactics that show up in the report that say hey maybe it’s we’re using this or maybe another team had more information to speak on this week and they kind of like over buried us. So I think it’s really that is really important in that aspect and why we use it so much is because of the fact that once you’re able to gather all those numbers you’re able to measure your process and if it actually is it is effective.

Challenges in communication

7:45 when I first started out in the pr agency and I was working in the ad tech industry it was really hard for me to measure data at first because I was, you know, I came in at a very rough time. Not only was it during the pandemic, but also you know, it’s, it was like the beginning of the streaming wars with like cable versus SVOD and AVOD, which is like, you know, streaming on demand, you know, like you have paramount plus Disney plus different stuff like that versus actual cable tv and it was, it was really hard to measure data at that point because it’s like, I didn’t really know much about the ad tech industry, especially being so sports driven in all of my like education and also like my studies and research and you know, I come to the ad tech industry and it was like horrible. I didn’t know how to measure anything or just my method of pitching but then that’s when I was introduced to melt water and that’s when I was able to like see the numbers and actually see like, okay, these keywords are good for this. And you know, when, when you’re pitching to the media or when you’re news jacking, we call it where you’re basically, you know, you might see an article that is similar to something you’re pitching and you reach out to that journalist is very important that you use, you know, a measurable method and I think that was my challenge is finding that balance of the measurable method of reaching out to the journalist or reporter and pitching the right thing or using the right words. So I think data helped me with finding those key words that really were effective and also like noticing, okay, well these articles that we’re pitching are coming out with a positive sentiment versus these articles that we’re putting out there kind of being perceived in a negative way. So you get to learn that balance and how you’re able to shift things.

And I think that was like the core of me learning data.

Metric to measure

10:04 I would definitely say share of voice, but I’m also really, really stern on, you know, AVE like your value, your market value, right? Like or potential market value because I think with broadcast and radio, the numbers are accurate. You know, it’s like an accurate number as far as like, oh your local market value, maybe 1.1 million but when you’re working with printing online, it’s all projected. It’s not like accurate numbers. It’s all because it’s not based on the article itself is based on the media outlets.

So it’s based on if, if we’re talking about Forbes, it’s based on how many people visited Forbes that day and potentially saw that article versus how many people actually, if we had a more accurate number, we’ll be able to say, hey, these are how many people that actually view this article. So, I would say between share of voice and sentiment, those are very important because share voice like I said, it doesn’t really focus on how many articles but dimensions as well. And you know, article, how many articles you get in the media versus your mentions are two different things, right? You may be mentioned a million times versus your article may be posted only 500 times.

So, you know, that’s very important as far as like measuring data because it also helps you see like we’re getting mentions here, so maybe we need to try this approach a little different in this aspect of versus oh we’re well we’re getting hits here and it’s not really translating into anything.

    Data evolution in communications and marketing   11:51 We’re in a society where there’s more innovators, right? There’s more, especially on the tech side, I feel like we’ll get the opportunity where someone may be right now drawing up the big platform that will show us accurate numbers, right? I think we’re gonna get to that point where we have the engineers and the, we have the tech savvy people to, you know, create this platform where we’re able to actually monitor, our data. I think another important thing is, you know, it’s important to talk about third party cookies, right? Because that’s a big part of how data is met, is measured. You know, when you go to a website, what’s the first thing that pops up at the bottom, do you accept these cookies?

Right? Well that goes away. It’s gonna, go away like google already they’re done with it and then you have like Apple, well I think Apple’s done with it google. They were gonna stop this this year but they ended up saying we’re going to stop in 2023 now you’re at a point where people are coming out with data clouds and that was one of the companies that I used to work with in the PR agency where I was optimal and at the time, they were coming out with a third-party data cloud because of cookies being removed cookies is the reason why websites are able to get data right there. They’re able to see how many visitors and where the geographics, all of that stuff.

Now with that going people have to now make these data clouds where one company and another company can share each other’s data instead of or you can, you don’t have to share with anyone but you’ll be able to use this platform and this is just an example of how, how tech savvy people are now where they’re saying, okay, third party cookies are going, but we’re not going anywhere. We’re gonna find a way to overcome this.

And I think that’s where we’re at with media measurement, you know, we’re at the standstill where it’s like, okay, this is where we’re at, this is what they’re giving us but we’re not satisfied with it and I’m sure there will be someone with brains and a genius mindset that will come in and be creative and create that and I think we need it because how you know how will media outlets measure data without third party cookies without cookies now, you know like what’s the method now to that?

So I think we’re really, it’s kind of like a midlife crisis if you want to think of it in that sense because once third-party cookies are going down, media outlets are scrambling to find ways to provide data, right?

Favourite metric

14:40 You know those are really the basic ones we do like you know with meltwater you have your earned media measurement dashboard and you have a classic dashboard. So the earned media is obviously it gives you more, it gives you your mentions your total potential news, reach your sentiments, top performing news content.

You know, and I think top performing news content is also important and as well as like dimensions turned by source type total publications by value, total publications by reach. So you’re able to see which publications, you know, I mean media is all about building, it’s all about building relationships with reporters and journalists. So you get to see those relationships you know transcribed to data, you know like oh you know Los Angeles times, we’re always talking with them, we’re always working with them. Well they mentioned us or they posted our articles 10 times this month, you know like stuff like that. So I think that’s important as well. Just saying the Valium of the media outlets like who’s posting you, how many times you’ve been posted by them opposed to other competitors?

I think that’s important as well too. So that we understand the type of relationships we’re building. So I would say that I would say outside of, share voice the sentiments I would say like understanding, your publications and you know, their potential reach and how many times ESPN posted you? How many times did the Daily Mail or L.A.Times and really hone in on those relationships as well.

I think also top organizations, so with us being international Women’s Soccer League, obviously we’re competing with 10 other clubs or 11 other clubs. Right. And we’re also competing with the league as far as news.

The league is posting news all the time. Other clubs are posting news all the time. And then we’re posting news all the time. We even have clubs that mentioned us, like we’re playing, we’re playing San Diego on September 17th and they’re mentioning us leading up to that versus the NWSL, they mentioned one of our players, in their best of starting 11 for the month. So it’s just like competing with different things.

So I would say those are other important things you should be including in your reports or, or monitoring outside of the actual content and like I said share of voice mentions and sentiments.

Favourite campaign

17:25 Well I would have to say Copa Angelina which was our latest match against, the Mexican women’s national team and it’s like a new branded thing that we’re doing where we’re annually gonna play this team right every year. And being as though this is our normal season, it was our normal match with this being like a whole different branded thing. Like it’s not Angel City Fc vs. Mexico women’s national team. It’s the two teams combined to create this branded Copa and Helena annual match which we hope that you know build into a huge tournament of other teams coming in and playing and everything like that. And I think the biggest thing for us was getting the Mexico women’s national team fans to come have the opportunity to see them play but also have the opportunity to come to bank of California stadium and learn about Angel city and learn, you know, how we do things. So I think the campaign around that was amazing to me. It was amazing to be a part of, I don’t think I’ve been a part of anything that has been such a creative and thorough and I think, from a media standpoint. It was really excellent to, to be involved in the media campaign.

That was not only local and nationally but internationally. You know like where we have, we have, players from Mexico that that have played on tigress and so forth that have played with some of these, these Mexico women’s national team players, former teammates, stuff like that. And then, you know, I think it was also important because we’re new, we’re new expansion team, right? And we’re, this is the first time that anybody in the NWSL has played a national team.

So all of this stuff I think was important and you know, we got excellent coverage, we’re getting hits and Fox were getting hits in abc Cbs.

We had, TU N from Univision television networks, they broadcast the whole thing and it was just amazing to see, but I think it was amazing to be a part of, I’m actually doing the numbers for that right now, like, you know, creating the report for it but from a media campaign standpoint from the media day to the press scrum, that we did pre match too, the post-match press conference, everything, you know, it was excellent to be a part of that to provide photos to the media to provide, like, detailed recap with quotes and, you know, Cope Angelina had its own website, so being able to provide game notes for that and, it was just an excellent experience and I think that was probably one of the best media campaigns that I’ve been a part of.

Role of PR and communications in recession

20:27 Definitely building relationships, networking, connecting with other pr people, understanding their methods and picking their brains and I think the biggest thing in the pr world and sports is like I said, connecting with other pr sports professionals from other teams and you know, these difficult times, like you said with the recession and the pandemic, we’ve been dealing with everything else, you know, from like just lack of media from the pandemic, trying to get that back into four full form because you know, in the sports pr world we have live press conferences with people in seats, right? So we’re just trying to get back to, we’ve been getting back to that point. I think us as a club, we’ve done an excellent job with that with actually having people in seats at our press conferences.

So I think we’re gonna get to a good place again. I think this is just a minor setback for a major comeback, right? You know, we this is not the first time we’ve been in a recession, but I think also monitoring previous recessions and how organizations and clubs kind of dealt with it back then, maybe monitoring the pr methods of that. So I think like I said, it’s all about networking, staying connected with journalists and reporters, most importantly because relationships kind of fell off because of the pandemic and lack of being able to provide reporters and journalists news. So I just say like stay in touch with people keep you know the narrative strong, make sure that you’re monitoring your data.

So you know how to story tell, you know, how to be intentional and effective in those aspects.

PR as a part of marketing mix 22:22 You know, we work hand in hand with our marketing departments all the time. And I think you know marketing is based off of you know, create creativity and camp and campaigning creative campaigns. And I think pr and marketing go hand in hand because I think from a marketing standpoint, you want to know you know, the events, the events that’s coming up, the events that the organization you’re working with is tied to. I think it’s very important to be intentional with the with the content we’re coming out with interviewing and you know, making sure that we’re getting our players the storytelling they need because from our end marketing has an extremely hard job, right?

They have to market not only the players but the coach, the organization itself so if we’re helping them with developing talking points messages, different types of messaging and just being intentional, like I said with our pr pitching and stuff like that, making sure that we’re working collaborating hand in hand with them on certain things. And even if it’s down to, you want to push you want to push a certain merch line or you want to push a certain interview that we have with a player, then it’s very important for us to reach out to, you know, our media context and say, hey, our team developed this excellent story on Megan reed, can we, you know, push this to you to see if you, you know, interested in posting this or interested in sharing it with your newsroom. So like I said, marketing in PR work hand in hand for that aspect of, especially in sports, we’re pushing content, we’re pushing merch, we’re pushing ticket sales and on our end we need to be able to develop the messaging for that. We need to be able to push the messaging to the reporters while they’re in there pushing the production and the creativity aspect.

So it works hand in hand and we’re able to help each other out in many ways.

My two cents  

24:36 It’s very important. Everything works hand in hand. So your relationships with reporters and journalists down to your media measurement, down to your pitching and your you know, your press release, writing down to collaborating with marketing community partnerships, ticket sales, ticketing department, I’m sorry, and many other aspects of it.

it’s just very important to make sure your messaging is aligned with all of those departments, make sure that you are pushing the correct storyline the correct narrative and then also going back measuring that data and then coming up with a solution for what we can do better next time, right? I think, you know, using data to use data to your advantage, right? You know, don’t just say, okay, these are numbers. No, these are actual, these are actual measurements of what you’ve done, you know, like whether it was in your hands, you can control it or not, this is what you’ve done. This is just the numbers side of your production. So I would say take advantage of that if you have a lot of people, a lot of people don’t use this to their advantage and they’re not able to really, they still excel the organization of their brand but not to their potential because they’re not taking those numbers very, very serious and I think that’s the most important thing.

Data is, real data is important and data, you know, helps us build the brand, maintain a brand and continue to grow a brand. So I would just say use data to your advantage.

Be intentional with your approach, make sure you’re finding solutions, if you see something negative, make sure your stakeholders are aware of the good and the bad.

It’s not always about providing good numbers, providing bad numbers can help shift their mindset too. So make sure your head departments, the CEO whoever the stakeholders and shareholders are, make sure they understand, it’s not always gonna be good, but what we’re doing is we’re working to get to that point right?

We want everything to be good. We don’t want any bad articles; we don’t want any bad or negative reviews or outlooks on the article.

So, yeah, I think, like I said, just take it to your advantage, use the numbers to be more intentional in your PR approach.