The position of CMO has evolved quite a bit in the last 20 years, in large part due to the introduction of digital media. Major League Soccer CMO Howard Handler began his marketing career in the 1990s with the National Football League before moving on to Virgin Mobile. Now heading up marketing for a sport whose fans are young and digitally savvy, Handler is finding that the game is always in motion.
“Digital and social innovation and the availability of better and more accurate data have affected everything: the way we market and sell, the experience of the MLS supporter, how we create content, and a greater immediacy and overall sense of urgency.
Live sports are such a powerful medium these days, and it is great to be a content creator. Everything we do now, we think, ‘how will this be used and experienced on multiple screens?’ Our supporters are young, fit, tech-savvy and really committed to the club that they follow.
They want to consume everything Portland Timbers or Sporting Kansas City or LA Galaxy on multiple screens when and where they decide to watch it. We are all about super-serving our supporters. My focus is to expand our fan base, and I’m having a lot of fun doing it.”
Watch the following two-minute video to find out how [x+1] CEO John Nardonne thinks the role has changed since he began his career in the 1980s marketing for Pepsi.
https://vimeo.com/62516229
-
‘We’re out there hitting the pavement’: Ad management firms scoop up sites ahead of cookie changes
Ad management platforms such as Cafe Media and Freestar have collectively gobbled up the rights to thousands of sites' ad inventory.
-
Browser makers, now including Mozilla’s Firefox, are already ditching Google’s proposed cookieless ad targeting method FLoC
Google's cohort-based tracking needs browser support to work, but browsers like Brave and Microsoft Edge can easily block its functionality.
-
Cheat Sheet: What a ‘radical’ GOP antitrust bill that would kill big tech acquisitions has in common with the Democrats’ push for reform
Bipartisan momentum behind Sen. Josh Hawley’s antitrust bill is likely to be tepid, but it could spur more dialogue on anti-competitive behavior in an tech-ruled era.
-
SponsoredVideo: How employer rewards and incentives changed in 2020
The nature of employer rewards programs has transformed, accelerated by the events of 2020 — a year of sweeping change. Employees shifted to digital, their preferences moved to digital wallets and they asked for new and surprising ways to use the rewards their employers delivered. In these new interviews, employer rewards experts talk about the evolving […]
-
Member ExclusiveMedia Briefing: How publishers are pushing podcasts to new audiences
Podcast listening has rebounded from an initial pandemic-induced dip. But publishers still have work to do to attract more people to their shows.
-
Los Angeles Times enters crowded daily news podcast market with a West Coast twist
The Los Angeles Times is banking on offering a West Coast twist to daily news podcasting when it debuts its own version next month.
