Earlier this month, the Atlanta Braves hit the next phase in its transition from one era to another, not with the firing of manager Fredi Gonzalez, but with season tickets to the club’s upcoming home at SunTrust Park going on sale to the general public. The move away from Turner Field and its history with the MLB franchise to the shiny new venue outside the city represents both an opportunity and a challenge to the team’s marketing play. Cynopsis Sports spoke with Braves’ VP of Marketing Adam Zimmerman about the team’s approach to promotion, tapping local resources and the future of the business.
Zimmerman on leveraging technology: Everybody is trying to solve the fan experience. We’d be remiss if we didn’t define what that actually means. For me, it is a three-part equation. The first part is that you have to make sure you have the guts. We feel very confident with Comcast supplying us with a terabit of data, Wi-Fi, etc. Number two is that once you have the pipe, what do you put in there? I have to surround myself with smart people who are telling me, as we look at the fan experience from a technology aspect, what’s out there and how I can be nimble. To that end, I have a burgeoning tech community right outside my door. I don’t have to go to California. For one example, we now have a partnership with Georgia Tech where we are discussing everything from wearables to virtual reality to gaming and everything in between. We are also doing a lot of stuff with Experience LLC, Atlanta Tech Village, and in a couple weeks we are going to offer a hackathon to hack the Braves, not to mention our connection with MLBAM. All in, I have five or six leading thinkers to help me think about what’s next in technology. The third part for me is to determine the Braves’ spin on that output, considering that I’m blessed to own a region of the country with seven states that make up my territory.
On new challenges: The fluidity of how fast things move remains a challenge in this industry. You have to both have a plan and not have a plan. It sounds silly, but when you think about it, there are things I need to achieve but I also need to be opportunistic. As things have shifted to being real-time, the Holy Grail in sports marketing is to know what your audience wants to do and now I have that ability because they tell me. I have the opportunity to do that and scale it.
On how the job will evolve: The things I talk about and think about literally changes every 18 months. If you had told me a few years ago that Drupal would be a factor, I would have no idea what you were talking about. The business continues to expand and if you look at what sports marketing is and the meta-trends, you have to continue to push yourself.
On a career-defining marketing activation: Several years ago, I was working with Coca-Cola on “Surprise and Delight” (a campaign that saw the brand send social media fans an unexpected gift like a signed football, helmet or game tickets) and knew that if we crowdsourced what fans wanted to do and paid that off, that would be magic. I think now, that listening on social media and acting on it has become a standard in the industry.
Hear more from Zimmerman at the Cynopsis Sports Business Summit on June 22 in NYC, where he will join Instagram, comScore, New Era and CSE for a candid conversation on how technology will impact marketing and create even more opportunity – and confusion – in the years ahead. Click here for more info and to get your tickets now.
