Brian Gainor of Freshwire and Partnership Activation on the Digital & Social Media Sports Podcast,...

Best Snippets from Brian Gainor on the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast

Director of Strategy and Analytics at Freshwire and founder/publisher of Partnership Activation, Brian Gainor, was the guest on episode 6 of the DSMSports Podcast.

Brian offered several insights on how to pitch and execute brand partnerships in sports. What follows are some snippets from the interview.

Hear the full interview at DSMSports.net or download & subscribe in iTunes.

@njh287DSMSports.net


Brian's career path:

University of Florida - Got his start working in sports info dept. at UF, helping with PR aspect of several sportsThat experience led to internships with both Tampa Bay Bucs and Miami Dolphins --> led to NFL Europe gig, doing PR for a team.

Then went to OhioU and got his MBA in Sport Administration and got more into brand activation, led to GMR Marketing from OhioUGMR gave him his sports love...



Brian started the Partnership Activation Newsletter [and website] to share best practices, network within the industry, differentiate himself, build a thought leadership platform.

"I started the site as a young, aspirational sports marketer...I set out to create an outlet to share my creative ideas, shsare what I think are best practices across the world, and put my lens on it."



“The last seven years in sports, it's amazing how much the landscape has shifted; the way social media has impacted PR and the way brands see themselves. Brands these days are so much more reactive and proactive.”

Cites Coca Cola: “Be liquid in length. They have to push out content on an active basis, and all that content must tie back to their brand.”



“Real-time content is a space that didn't exist five years ago, but now there's such an interest in content marketing and the brands seeing themselves as publishers. It's an exciting time.”



How Brian keeps up with sports sponsorship activation best practices:

Brian relies on his network for people to share ideas, YouTube and its search for brands and keywords, etc.; search by keyword on Yahoo images and Flickr, Google Alerts based on keyword, Twitter with tracking keywords, sports biz journals/publications

“The biggest thing is your mindset. I went from just reading articles to actively seeking out great ideas and actively thinking about how things could be different.”



“When you're trying to reach a mass audience these days, there are not many other platforms like sports, where you can reach and engage and message fans around live viewing content.”



“From a team and league sponsorship standpoint, it's such a unique opportunity to engage with fans on a one-on-one basis. It's one of the most natural ways for brands to enhance a consumer's experience doing [anything]...”



“[Don't] undervalue what a partnership means versus a sponsorship...Brands want some type of mutual benefits to both parties.”



“It's dependent on [an] agency to help identify the most valuable situation [and partnership] for a brand...Making the sure that the right match is made, assuring both parties will benefit.”

The top 100 spenders in sportsbiz are typically aligned with an agency of record; it's commonplace...For teams, some fit with the traditional model selling relationships; others have looked to agencies to help them, especially in college.



“ROI [return on investment] and ROO [return on objective] differ so greatly depending on what brands you're talking about...A lot of teams are selling assets quantifying values based on engagement, comments, likes, [etc.]...It's important to look at the qualitative things too, like access to specific audiences and influencers...Teams can measure it from an ROO [instead of ROI] perspective...we're continuing to see more growth [there, and] in social media analytics.”



“When brands and teams look at the social space, the biggest opportunity is identifying ownable elements that can be brought to life to enhance the on-site experience...When you look at social elements as a standalone, it doesn't make sense. When you can package it into what the brand is doing with their entire partnership and finding ways to bring their typical activation elements and brings those to life via social to a whole new audience is where you see the value...

It's all about how properties approach the channel, as an extension of what they're doing.”



“Another opportunity is a lot of brands continue to want to test the waters and be innovative; teams can leverage social channels to help brands do something unconventional to reach fans in a different way.”



“The biggest things brands are looking for when they're looking at offers is a property that understands their business and delivers a custom solution that makes sense for their business [like which asset]...It's important teams convey that they understand a partner's business and the value and impact they can deliver.”



“Teams need to invest the time and resources in ideation in bringing forth the best ownable platforms for the brand...focusing on areas where there has been success in the past driving revenue [and impact].”



“It's all about: what is going to be the best platform[s] a brand can leverage to maximize their sponsorship?...It's about figuring what compilation of assets will work best to support an idea [across all channels]?

It all comes back to the platform and idea.”



This episode's Helpful Tool: Topsy, a Twitter analysis and archive and tracking tool, searchable by keyword and hash tag; results can be filtered.

Topsy.com



Brian's 7 Elements for A Successful Activation:

A platform/idea that is ownable, unique, social, brand-centric, targeted, extendable, and measurable...Creativity drives the best partnerships. It fuels everything.



“It's really about finding that ownable element that no one else can replicate, that has social extensions, ties back to the brand, is targeted against a key audience, and is extendable across several mediums, and ones you can measure.”



On being a proclaimed [by publications] a young, rising star in the industry:

“My mentality from the get-go is: find something in life you're passionate about, then you don't mind putting in the extra time and effort. Also, finding ways to help others along the way, by acknowledging and helping others.”



This episode's Shareable Stat:

(via Scarborough Research) Women represent 45% of #NFL fan base and 33% of the NFL viewing audience based on Nielsen data



Best team with sports activation: Manchester City, they continue to push the boundaries and use their players in new ways to create fun, valuable experiences for fans.

For ballpark experience, the Giants have created so many unique, ownable destinations in their stadiums and their social channels.



Best brand activation: State Farm [I.e. Chris/Cliff Paul ads] -

“...[They] tell their message and leverage a player in a unique way...I'd love to see brands leverage endorsers in more creative ways.”



Social media platform best suited for parnership activations: Twitter, the way it is positioned with real-time consumption is just beginning to scratch the surface; especially with engaging fans worldwide in real-time.



Best part about being a “rising, young star in sports world”: People you get to meet and share ideas with along the way



Brian's prediction for next big network: Instagram.

“I think Instagram is going to continue to be the platform people are going to go to for new ways to engage fans.”



Brian's recommended follow: JW Cannon @jwcannon, great resource for brand activations, one of the creators of #sbchat



Brian's recommended follow: JW Cannon @cannonjw, great resource for brand activations, one of the creators of #sbchat

Where to find Brian: @briangainor on Twitter; http://PartnershipActivation.comhttp://freshwire.com


http://PartnershipActivation.com/

http://freshwire.com/


Thank you to Brian Gainor for sharing his time, expertise, and knowledge with the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast!!!

For more info on the podcast, visit http://DSMSports.net and follow me, Neil Horowitz, on Twitter @njh287


http://DSMSports.net/

Brian Gainor of Freshwire and Partnership Activation on the Digital & Social Media Sports Podcast,...

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Transcript of Brian Gainor of Freshwire and Partnership Activation on the Digital & Social Media Sports Podcast,...