What the Sports Industry Can Learn (and Adopt) from the Retail Business
NeilHorowitz
4 views
69 slides
Oct 10, 2025
Slide 1 of 69
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
About This Presentation
On episode 305 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Shripal Shah, Chief Digital Officer, Next League, and author of 'Unlocking Fan Loyalty: From Frequent Flyers to Fanatics in the Age of AI.'
What follows is a collection of snippets from the podcast. To hear the...
Slide Content
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
On episode 305 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil
chatted with Shripal Shah, Chief Digital Officer, Next League, and
author of Unlocking Fan Loyalty: From Frequent Flyers to Fanatics in
the Age of AI
What follows is a collection of snippets from the podcast. To hear the
full interview and more, check out the podcast on all podcast
platforms and at www.dsmsports.net.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
On episode 305 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil
chatted with Shripal Shah, Chief Digital Officer, Next League, and
author of Unlocking Fan Loyalty: From Frequent Flyers to Fanatics in
the Age of AI
What follows is a collection of snippets from the podcast. To hear the
full interview and more, check out the podcast on all podcast
platforms and at www.dsmsports.net.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Shripal’s Career Path
“I've been fortunate to sit at that intersection of sports, tech and
marketing now for about 20 years. I'm getting old. Before sports. I
was working for digital agencies and e-commerce. Most recently, I
was at Barnes & Noble.com prior to getting into sports. Then I sort of
accidentally fell into a role with what was then the Washington
Redskins, now Commanders, where I helped them transform digital
from being an afterthought to being one of the top two revenue
drivers in the NFL.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I've been fortunate to sit at that intersection of sports, tech and
marketing now for about 20 years. I'm getting old. Before sports. I
was working for digital agencies and e-commerce. Most recently, I
was at Barnes & Noble.com prior to getting into sports. Then I sort of
accidentally fell into a role with what was then the Washington
Redskins, now Commanders, where I helped them transform digital
from being an afterthought to being one of the top two revenue
drivers in the NFL.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“From there, I moved into the agency side, working for a PR agency called
Catalyst, where I was the Chief Digital Officer, and helped build their digital
and social media practice. In 2012, they get acquired by IMG, I get recruited to
come back to what was then the Redskins as Chief Strategy Officer, and got a
chance to really drive broader marketing and revenue strategy and activation.
Then from there, I moved into the tech and startup work world, working for a
company called MOKO Social Media, it was an Australian mobile apps and
media company. We were public on the ASX and Nasdaq, so it was like pre-
SPACs. That was kind of interesting, like a public startup. We had an app that
was an iTunes top 25 app in sports that was being used by 180 colleges. We
were the official app for kids who play intramural sports, scaled that to 1.5
million users. We had a running website that I sold to Iron Man, a political
website that I sold to Media Matters, LLC. So it was an interesting ride.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Catalyst, where I was the Chief Digital Officer, and helped build their digital
and social media practice. In 2012, they get acquired by IMG, I get recruited to
come back to what was then the Redskins as Chief Strategy Officer, and got a
chance to really drive broader marketing and revenue strategy and activation.
Then from there, I moved into the tech and startup work world, working for a
company called MOKO Social Media, it was an Australian mobile apps and
media company. We were public on the ASX and Nasdaq, so it was like pre-
SPACs. That was kind of interesting, like a public startup. We had an app that
was an iTunes top 25 app in sports that was being used by 180 colleges. We
were the official app for kids who play intramural sports, scaled that to 1.5
million users. We had a running website that I sold to Iron Man, a political
website that I sold to Media Matters, LLC. So it was an interesting ride.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“Then I went to a company called KiwiTech for a hot second, and then
I was at Shop Your Way for about seven and a half years, where we
drove a few billion dollars in credit card spend annually. It was there
where I got overwhelmed with the amount of AI. So I was working
with the parent company of Sears and Kmart and the amount of work
that they're doing with data scientists, AI, machine learning, it blew
my mind. I was like, if I could have known what I learned there in
sports, it could be really transformational. And seeing that Sears went
from 1800 stores to five, from the time they filed for bankruptcy to
when I left last year, and they were still generating just under nine
figures in revenue directly attributed to loyalty. I'm like, there's really
something here.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
I was at Shop Your Way for about seven and a half years, where we
drove a few billion dollars in credit card spend annually. It was there
where I got overwhelmed with the amount of AI. So I was working
with the parent company of Sears and Kmart and the amount of work
that they're doing with data scientists, AI, machine learning, it blew
my mind. I was like, if I could have known what I learned there in
sports, it could be really transformational. And seeing that Sears went
from 1800 stores to five, from the time they filed for bankruptcy to
when I left last year, and they were still generating just under nine
figures in revenue directly attributed to loyalty. I'm like, there's really
something here.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“That led to a journey where I started publishing one of the first two
books [I wrote] on AI in sports. I started writing a column for a
website called JohnWallStreet on AI in sports. And that led me to
Next League, where I'm now Chief Digital Officer, where I'm helping
leagues and teams harness AI and digital digital transformation to
really grow revenue and deepen fan loyalty. So it's been kind of
interesting starting from retail, going into sports, where at the time
people were trying to figure out websites and e-commerce; that really
helped me going back into retail, where I learned about how to really
drive scalable loyalty programs in AI. And now back to sports.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
books [I wrote] on AI in sports. I started writing a column for a
website called JohnWallStreet on AI in sports. And that led me to
Next League, where I'm now Chief Digital Officer, where I'm helping
leagues and teams harness AI and digital digital transformation to
really grow revenue and deepen fan loyalty. So it's been kind of
interesting starting from retail, going into sports, where at the time
people were trying to figure out websites and e-commerce; that really
helped me going back into retail, where I learned about how to really
drive scalable loyalty programs in AI. And now back to sports.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I think it's interesting because, 20 years ago, there were a lot of
teams that had loyalty programs. I remember working for those with
the Redskins and ripping out loyalty programs that we had because,
and then three, four years ago, they're starting to come back, but
they're still not at the level of what you see with Marriott Bonvoy or
Delta. You know, these loyalty programs are driving billions of dollars
in revenue.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
teams that had loyalty programs. I remember working for those with
the Redskins and ripping out loyalty programs that we had because,
and then three, four years ago, they're starting to come back, but
they're still not at the level of what you see with Marriott Bonvoy or
Delta. You know, these loyalty programs are driving billions of dollars
in revenue.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“And I think about loyalty, like in the case where I just worked at
Transformco, you go from 1800 stores to five and you still are driving
billions of dollars in transactional spend, and just under nine figures
in profits — that's almost like fandom. So if you are now a sports team
with this lifelong fandom, how do you really make loyalty that type of
revenue driver, especially within the age of AI? That kind of led me to
write the book, which was on the basis of some columns I started for
JohnWallStreet late last year that started getting a lot of interest, and
I was like, well, if this is really resonating, maybe we can turn it into a
book, and that's kind of what led to the book.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Transformco, you go from 1800 stores to five and you still are driving
billions of dollars in transactional spend, and just under nine figures
in profits — that's almost like fandom. So if you are now a sports team
with this lifelong fandom, how do you really make loyalty that type of
revenue driver, especially within the age of AI? That kind of led me to
write the book, which was on the basis of some columns I started for
JohnWallStreet late last year that started getting a lot of interest, and
I was like, well, if this is really resonating, maybe we can turn it into a
book, and that's kind of what led to the book.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
On the dynamics for loyalty programs in sports compared to those
outside of sports
“I think when we talk about product marketing, UX and those areas,
there's a lot of similarities, between retail and sports; when you talk
about driving marketing campaigns, like a brand marketing campaign
and growth, I think there are a lot of similarities. I think the one area
where the strategy changes, which I think sports could adopt towards,
is retail is much further ahead in this idea of true personalized
marketing, like use of personas, segments, data enrichment. And in
retail, there's a concept called RFM marketing: recency frequency
marketing.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
outside of sports
“I think when we talk about product marketing, UX and those areas,
there's a lot of similarities, between retail and sports; when you talk
about driving marketing campaigns, like a brand marketing campaign
and growth, I think there are a lot of similarities. I think the one area
where the strategy changes, which I think sports could adopt towards,
is retail is much further ahead in this idea of true personalized
marketing, like use of personas, segments, data enrichment. And in
retail, there's a concept called RFM marketing: recency frequency
marketing.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“It's an approach and a framework to drive people, based off this idea
[of] how recently have they shopped with or interacted with you, how
frequent and the monetization. And it really touches on this idea not
just going from awareness, you know, awareness, consideration to
purchase, but this idea of how do you really create higher lifetime
value from your customers? How do you create a higher share of
wallet or a higher spend?
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
[of] how recently have they shopped with or interacted with you, how
frequent and the monetization. And it really touches on this idea not
just going from awareness, you know, awareness, consideration to
purchase, but this idea of how do you really create higher lifetime
value from your customers? How do you create a higher share of
wallet or a higher spend?
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I think that concept is starting to emerge in sports, with mixed use
development being brought in like The Battery in Atlanta, with more
and more brands also wanting to know more about the sports fan; not
the activities within the arena, but what are they doing away from it?
What's going on from when someone leaves their house until they
walk into the arena and what happens on their way back? So now
you're really seeing that sort of change, which I think will lend itself to
this other marketing approach. But I think that's where the real
difference is.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
development being brought in like The Battery in Atlanta, with more
and more brands also wanting to know more about the sports fan; not
the activities within the arena, but what are they doing away from it?
What's going on from when someone leaves their house until they
walk into the arena and what happens on their way back? So now
you're really seeing that sort of change, which I think will lend itself to
this other marketing approach. But I think that's where the real
difference is.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“When you're really driving for a retailer, you're going to look at an
RFM marketing strategy once you get beyond like the small stages,
once you're at a real scalable retail, because at that point you could
have — like at Shop Your Way we had over 50 million users, you don't
actually need to go acquire more users, you already have a lot of their
info. You could always try to get more people in the funnel, but if you
can also retain those users and convert more, [get people to] spend
more, that can also drive not only your top line growth, but better
bottom line profits.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
RFM marketing strategy once you get beyond like the small stages,
once you're at a real scalable retail, because at that point you could
have — like at Shop Your Way we had over 50 million users, you don't
actually need to go acquire more users, you already have a lot of their
info. You could always try to get more people in the funnel, but if you
can also retain those users and convert more, [get people to] spend
more, that can also drive not only your top line growth, but better
bottom line profits.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“And I think that nuance is starting to show up in sports, as you're
seeing the advent of these holding companies that are now cross-
team, the insertion of private equity. And now with AI democratizing
and bringing more of these mature marketing tools to the budget
levels of sports teams, I think that's going to also lend itself to really
leverage those tools and those data sets and technology. It sorts of
lends itself to another marketing approach that I think ultimately
could lead to a higher lifetime value for the fan base. So that's kind of
how I see the space.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
seeing the advent of these holding companies that are now cross-
team, the insertion of private equity. And now with AI democratizing
and bringing more of these mature marketing tools to the budget
levels of sports teams, I think that's going to also lend itself to really
leverage those tools and those data sets and technology. It sorts of
lends itself to another marketing approach that I think ultimately
could lead to a higher lifetime value for the fan base. So that's kind of
how I see the space.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“But I think what you hit on, like from a UX, product strategy, growth
marketing, like brand marketing, I think there are a lot of similarities.
I think this is where the nuance, and then social media, of course, is
very different in sports and for retail. But I think that's kind of how I
see the similarities and differences.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
marketing, like brand marketing, I think there are a lot of similarities.
I think this is where the nuance, and then social media, of course, is
very different in sports and for retail. But I think that's kind of how I
see the similarities and differences.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
How Shripal has seen the growth and improvement of data collection by
sports team over his career
“I think early on, right, you just had people like just taking out their
websites and emails, and they were just trying to basically, they would
just send. It's like, okay, let's send today. Let's re-send two days from
now and let's just go. It was like one email list, right? We all got the same
email. It was like there's one email list and they just use it for everything.
And back then the KPIs were primarily clicks and impressions. But I
think over time, you know, there's a learning in the industry about
engagement, about comments, shares, deeper time spent was a better
indicator for ‘likely to buy tickets’. So you started seeing that.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
sports team over his career
“I think early on, right, you just had people like just taking out their
websites and emails, and they were just trying to basically, they would
just send. It's like, okay, let's send today. Let's re-send two days from
now and let's just go. It was like one email list, right? We all got the same
email. It was like there's one email list and they just use it for everything.
And back then the KPIs were primarily clicks and impressions. But I
think over time, you know, there's a learning in the industry about
engagement, about comments, shares, deeper time spent was a better
indicator for ‘likely to buy tickets’. So you started seeing that.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“Okay, you know what these other things could help, and then you
were starting to distinguish, okay, who's in market versus out of
market, remote fans versus who's likely to buy. Then that led to this
idea, like, can we now start thinking about propensity and
predictability? That led to the natural, like, Okay, let's create a central
profile. You know, these CDPs; let's start creating personas. That's
what I think started lending itself to, Okay, now you went from that
single email list that was being used by everyone to now us
understanding that these engagement points and these subtleties
would lead to higher…people are using things like predictability, and
propensity…
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
were starting to distinguish, okay, who's in market versus out of
market, remote fans versus who's likely to buy. Then that led to this
idea, like, can we now start thinking about propensity and
predictability? That led to the natural, like, Okay, let's create a central
profile. You know, these CDPs; let's start creating personas. That's
what I think started lending itself to, Okay, now you went from that
single email list that was being used by everyone to now us
understanding that these engagement points and these subtleties
would lead to higher…people are using things like predictability, and
propensity…
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“It went from one list to ten lists to now using personas to
dynamically create the list of where things are going. And I think the
reality is people in sports are still across all of those tiers, the high
revenue teams seem to really be doing the more mature stuff. You still
have teams and, you know, like on the MLS side, NWSL and others
that I would argue are still doing the marketing just like we did it 20
years ago. Then you have a bunch of folks kind of in the middle where
they know they want to get to here, but the barriers could be cost, tech
debt, not having the staffing, so therefore they're not there yet.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
dynamically create the list of where things are going. And I think the
reality is people in sports are still across all of those tiers, the high
revenue teams seem to really be doing the more mature stuff. You still
have teams and, you know, like on the MLS side, NWSL and others
that I would argue are still doing the marketing just like we did it 20
years ago. Then you have a bunch of folks kind of in the middle where
they know they want to get to here, but the barriers could be cost, tech
debt, not having the staffing, so therefore they're not there yet.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I think if you were to map the landscape of sports, they're going to
kind of fall into this level of buckets. But I think AI just kind of came
and became a thing. Like, I was talking with the major LLM providers
and they said it was almost like what they called an awakening, that
this summer, demand for an LLM ChatGPT, OpenAI Copilot, the
demand went up 1,000% this summer, which was more than the
request to buy enterprise licenses than the prior nine months or year
combined.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
kind of fall into this level of buckets. But I think AI just kind of came
and became a thing. Like, I was talking with the major LLM providers
and they said it was almost like what they called an awakening, that
this summer, demand for an LLM ChatGPT, OpenAI Copilot, the
demand went up 1,000% this summer, which was more than the
request to buy enterprise licenses than the prior nine months or year
combined.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“So that kind of came over the top. But before that, when I first
rejoined Next League and I was talking with CMOs, this idea of
creating a more mature marketing tech stack for personalization was
really everyone's number one priority. And I would think then some
form of loyalty was usually like 2 or 3. So you were seeing people
going down this route. I think now with AI mandates starting to come
in, that that's kind of caused some stuff to just be paused. Others are
doing all, like go forward, all steam ahead. But now I think that some
people I think are waiting to see how AI changes what their plan was
for the marketing approach and or their loyalty.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
rejoined Next League and I was talking with CMOs, this idea of
creating a more mature marketing tech stack for personalization was
really everyone's number one priority. And I would think then some
form of loyalty was usually like 2 or 3. So you were seeing people
going down this route. I think now with AI mandates starting to come
in, that that's kind of caused some stuff to just be paused. Others are
doing all, like go forward, all steam ahead. But now I think that some
people I think are waiting to see how AI changes what their plan was
for the marketing approach and or their loyalty.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“But it was interesting, in January, if you had asked me this question, it
was really clear. I had quickly called up a bunch of CMOs that I used to
work with ten years prior before I kind of left sports, reconnected, and it
was really clear our number one priority is that we got to create this
marketing tech stack. We're investing because we want to because at this
point, a lot of the top revenue teams have multiple sports properties,
multiple venues, and they're like, we need this as our number one
initiative because that's what's going to allow us to keep growing the
revenue. And it was about personalization, propensity, predictability,
going from like, you know, 40 personas to 400 to 4000 to to infinite,
right? Like they had this idea where they want to go. And they were using
sort of more of what I call OG AI. But now everyone’s saying they want
AI, what's really the case is they want generative AI.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
was really clear. I had quickly called up a bunch of CMOs that I used to
work with ten years prior before I kind of left sports, reconnected, and it
was really clear our number one priority is that we got to create this
marketing tech stack. We're investing because we want to because at this
point, a lot of the top revenue teams have multiple sports properties,
multiple venues, and they're like, we need this as our number one
initiative because that's what's going to allow us to keep growing the
revenue. And it was about personalization, propensity, predictability,
going from like, you know, 40 personas to 400 to 4000 to to infinite,
right? Like they had this idea where they want to go. And they were using
sort of more of what I call OG AI. But now everyone’s saying they want
AI, what's really the case is they want generative AI.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“And how generative AI fits into the marketing tools. What I'd call OG AI,
like machine learning and how that fits in like this umbrella policy and how
that affects operationally how these teams operate has kind of caused this
weird shift. You had a few outlines and forward thinking folks [before], but
in the last 90 days, it feels like all of a sudden there's this groundswell,
right? Of course, everyone is really trying to go down this route, and I think
that's it's not changing the importance of all these one, two, three, from the
marketing stack and loyalty, but now people want to make sure that they
have the AI pieces ready to ensure everything is sort of AI first as they
move forward as an org, and I think that may lead to even faster adoption
once people get back going, because I think that's going to ultimately lead
towards more automation because what existed outside of sports was
people already had marketing automation and workflow automation.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
like machine learning and how that fits in like this umbrella policy and how
that affects operationally how these teams operate has kind of caused this
weird shift. You had a few outlines and forward thinking folks [before], but
in the last 90 days, it feels like all of a sudden there's this groundswell,
right? Of course, everyone is really trying to go down this route, and I think
that's it's not changing the importance of all these one, two, three, from the
marketing stack and loyalty, but now people want to make sure that they
have the AI pieces ready to ensure everything is sort of AI first as they
move forward as an org, and I think that may lead to even faster adoption
once people get back going, because I think that's going to ultimately lead
towards more automation because what existed outside of sports was
people already had marketing automation and workflow automation.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“That was the concept that no one ever invested in sports and AI is going
to, I think, really force that. Because to really have good AI products and
workflow, you need to have good data governance and you need to really
focus on automation. And I think AI is going to sort of be the forcing
mechanism that really should cause this level of maturity, because it's
going to force the data to get better. The people have looked at their
workflows and their processes to figure out how they want to automate.
So now when the AI comes in, it's kind of forcing efficiencies across the
board. And I think it's stuff that could have happened before, but it was
only happening by a very small percentile of all the sports properties. And
now you're going to see a sort of a groundswell, which is going to then
bring more parity between how sports teams go to market versus what
goes on in retail and hospitality and hotels.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
to, I think, really force that. Because to really have good AI products and
workflow, you need to have good data governance and you need to really
focus on automation. And I think AI is going to sort of be the forcing
mechanism that really should cause this level of maturity, because it's
going to force the data to get better. The people have looked at their
workflows and their processes to figure out how they want to automate.
So now when the AI comes in, it's kind of forcing efficiencies across the
board. And I think it's stuff that could have happened before, but it was
only happening by a very small percentile of all the sports properties. And
now you're going to see a sort of a groundswell, which is going to then
bring more parity between how sports teams go to market versus what
goes on in retail and hospitality and hotels.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
On where sports is at in having clean and comprehensive data to put to use
with machine learning and AI
“I think people have always seen the value out of the social media metrics, and
the content and the data. You didn't always have folks who could easily
articulate the attributed value out of that, other than knowing that when this
happened, they would see an effect and therefore they kept doing it. I think by
having a uniform CDP and going down those processes, creating fan journeys,
as people are thinking of this idea of first party data, data enrichment and then
the layering in of social content to then again create that deepened experience,
more personalized experience, and then start measuring things like share of
wallet and LTV versus just AOV — lifetime value, share wallet versus average
order or ticket size. That is, I think, going to lead towards this no longer being
noise, but a cog into this sort of broader view of the fan.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
with machine learning and AI
“I think people have always seen the value out of the social media metrics, and
the content and the data. You didn't always have folks who could easily
articulate the attributed value out of that, other than knowing that when this
happened, they would see an effect and therefore they kept doing it. I think by
having a uniform CDP and going down those processes, creating fan journeys,
as people are thinking of this idea of first party data, data enrichment and then
the layering in of social content to then again create that deepened experience,
more personalized experience, and then start measuring things like share of
wallet and LTV versus just AOV — lifetime value, share wallet versus average
order or ticket size. That is, I think, going to lead towards this no longer being
noise, but a cog into this sort of broader view of the fan.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I think because so many CMOs have come into sports post-COVID
outside of sports, there is this view that you've had CMOs that I know
of even of baseball teams that did very mature media mix modeling
with regression algorithms and all this data work. So you were seeing
that at the highest levels. And I think the barrier was a lack of
resources where they didn't have as many BI folks, or didn't have as
many data engineers, they didn't have as many developers.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
outside of sports, there is this view that you've had CMOs that I know
of even of baseball teams that did very mature media mix modeling
with regression algorithms and all this data work. So you were seeing
that at the highest levels. And I think the barrier was a lack of
resources where they didn't have as many BI folks, or didn't have as
many data engineers, they didn't have as many developers.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“Generative AI in some ways could [help], and automation and the
Copilot studios and the ChatGPTs, in some ways, bring the barrier
down that I think is going to create not a full democratization, but it's
brought the cost down in some ways where a lot of people are starting
to be feeling like they can now move or they're getting ownership,
private equity investor buy in- to now make these investments; where,
earlier on, I think there would have been a question like, well, why are
we spending, you know, $400,000 on this tech stack when we could
just hire 3 or 4 other ticket people? Alright, let's go hire three, four
ticket people at $35k each, fresh out of school, why are we going to
spend half a million? dollars? Like you would run into that type of
thinking as recently as a few years ago.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Copilot studios and the ChatGPTs, in some ways, bring the barrier
down that I think is going to create not a full democratization, but it's
brought the cost down in some ways where a lot of people are starting
to be feeling like they can now move or they're getting ownership,
private equity investor buy in- to now make these investments; where,
earlier on, I think there would have been a question like, well, why are
we spending, you know, $400,000 on this tech stack when we could
just hire 3 or 4 other ticket people? Alright, let's go hire three, four
ticket people at $35k each, fresh out of school, why are we going to
spend half a million? dollars? Like you would run into that type of
thinking as recently as a few years ago.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I think the AI discussion is now throwing that out the window where
it's saying No, what could be done with AI before you ask for
headcount? AI is not replacing people, but it's forcing a new
conversation which is now forcing an investment into these other tool
sets because the tools are going to help people do better, more
impactful work, more deeper work. So I firmly believe it, in some
ways, could create more opportunity, not less. But it's forcing a
different discussion, whereas before the justification for the tools was
always getting outshouted.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
it's saying No, what could be done with AI before you ask for
headcount? AI is not replacing people, but it's forcing a new
conversation which is now forcing an investment into these other tool
sets because the tools are going to help people do better, more
impactful work, more deeper work. So I firmly believe it, in some
ways, could create more opportunity, not less. But it's forcing a
different discussion, whereas before the justification for the tools was
always getting outshouted.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“People would look at, yeah, maybe next year; we're not ready to take
that half a million-dollar investment. And now, you know what? If
you said we're going to go hire 20 people, that's going to get a higher
scrutiny right now than, I would argue, an AI-first marketing tech
stack. I think there's sort of a universal, not universal per se, but
there's a maturation or view that if you were to poll a lot more people,
you would find that that part of the conversation has gotten a lot
easier, and the staffing discussion has gotten materially harder. It's
kind of swung the other way a little bit, and that's forcing a different
dynamic that has not existed in sports that I've ever seen in 20 years.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
that half a million-dollar investment. And now, you know what? If
you said we're going to go hire 20 people, that's going to get a higher
scrutiny right now than, I would argue, an AI-first marketing tech
stack. I think there's sort of a universal, not universal per se, but
there's a maturation or view that if you were to poll a lot more people,
you would find that that part of the conversation has gotten a lot
easier, and the staffing discussion has gotten materially harder. It's
kind of swung the other way a little bit, and that's forcing a different
dynamic that has not existed in sports that I've ever seen in 20 years.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I never even saw that in the original e-commerce website boom,
because at some point it's like, this is getting too expensive. Leagues
go take over and give [teams] free website systems, and then the
teams all just did that. So here it's like, no, we're going to make the
investment. We're going to make it proprietary. We're going to go
build our own mixed use. We're going to use this to go make more
money and we're going to keep more money. So now we're making the
investment.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
because at some point it's like, this is getting too expensive. Leagues
go take over and give [teams] free website systems, and then the
teams all just did that. So here it's like, no, we're going to make the
investment. We're going to make it proprietary. We're going to go
build our own mixed use. We're going to use this to go make more
money and we're going to keep more money. So now we're making the
investment.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“And that was not what I had heard back in ‘05, ‘06, ‘07 when sports
team owners were talking about their websites like, well, if I don't
have to spend a million, million-five a year on my website, and if the
league's just going to give it to me, God bless him. Then when social
media came, yeah, it's kind of fun, it took a while before they really
started seriously investing in it. It was like, oh it's this free thing, I got
2 million likes, I'm just going to go use it for free. And it took a good
five years before it really started to sink in what the true value is, that
you need to invest in this and you need to build tools for this, and you
need to invest in analytics and all of that.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
team owners were talking about their websites like, well, if I don't
have to spend a million, million-five a year on my website, and if the
league's just going to give it to me, God bless him. Then when social
media came, yeah, it's kind of fun, it took a while before they really
started seriously investing in it. It was like, oh it's this free thing, I got
2 million likes, I'm just going to go use it for free. And it took a good
five years before it really started to sink in what the true value is, that
you need to invest in this and you need to build tools for this, and you
need to invest in analytics and all of that.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“So as you look at these curves, it's there. But I've never seen
something like this, where it's universal, like this investment is like an
easier discussion than it is hiring those 20 ticket reps. It's like, it's
almost like it's like people are almost, not appalled, these investors
are really questioning, like, why would you even say that? And I think
that's forcing a different view on the type of roles that might open up,
the type of resourcing, because you're going to want people, you're
going to want roles and resources that can leverage these tools to then
do that more mature marketing that you were focused on a little while
ago.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
something like this, where it's universal, like this investment is like an
easier discussion than it is hiring those 20 ticket reps. It's like, it's
almost like it's like people are almost, not appalled, these investors
are really questioning, like, why would you even say that? And I think
that's forcing a different view on the type of roles that might open up,
the type of resourcing, because you're going to want people, you're
going to want roles and resources that can leverage these tools to then
do that more mature marketing that you were focused on a little while
ago.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
On how to think strategically and analytically about content strategy and
investments
“If you were to look at social media and people that are doing it well, it was so
reliant on the person. And what happens when that person left? You would see
a drop in engagement, a drop in views, because the next person didn't have it
and these people weren't documenting the techniques. It was also like there
was a style it could be that they were on. Sometimes they're on camera,
sometimes they weren't. So when you think of an intern, when someone gets an
intern, they're kind of green. They understand that, and people are putting in
the time to train them, right? They train it, they train it, they get really good,
they get maybe indispensable, and then the intern may get a full time job or
they leave them. But when that person leaves, either before that, full time or
after, you then have to start from scratch.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
investments
“If you were to look at social media and people that are doing it well, it was so
reliant on the person. And what happens when that person left? You would see
a drop in engagement, a drop in views, because the next person didn't have it
and these people weren't documenting the techniques. It was also like there
was a style it could be that they were on. Sometimes they're on camera,
sometimes they weren't. So when you think of an intern, when someone gets an
intern, they're kind of green. They understand that, and people are putting in
the time to train them, right? They train it, they train it, they get really good,
they get maybe indispensable, and then the intern may get a full time job or
they leave them. But when that person leaves, either before that, full time or
after, you then have to start from scratch.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“What people have to look at with AI models is that it takes time. It
takes a little bit of time to train, not as much time as a person, but if
you spend that time to train the models, as they get more nuanced
and they can close the gap, it stays with you, right? So I think, will it
do everything that creators do? No. But if it can take the most
baseline content and almost make it indistinguishable to what
someone used to spend six hours doing, that someone now has six
hours to go spend and go do more custom content, almost in the role
of a creator.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
takes a little bit of time to train, not as much time as a person, but if
you spend that time to train the models, as they get more nuanced
and they can close the gap, it stays with you, right? So I think, will it
do everything that creators do? No. But if it can take the most
baseline content and almost make it indistinguishable to what
someone used to spend six hours doing, that someone now has six
hours to go spend and go do more custom content, almost in the role
of a creator.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“And therefore, the net benefit is that we're now getting the maximum
value of that person, in terms of where we go. So while we didn't make
the investment for getting a second person, or maybe you did, it's a
sequencing of like, if we play this out a year from now, 18 months
from now, what's going to give us the best portfolio? It's like a
portfolio view now. If you have AI-generated content, human-based
content, what does that mean from a quality, from a reach, from a
volume point of view? And you almost start thinking of that.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
value of that person, in terms of where we go. So while we didn't make
the investment for getting a second person, or maybe you did, it's a
sequencing of like, if we play this out a year from now, 18 months
from now, what's going to give us the best portfolio? It's like a
portfolio view now. If you have AI-generated content, human-based
content, what does that mean from a quality, from a reach, from a
volume point of view? And you almost start thinking of that.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I think it's a poor analogy, but probably a similar analogy of how a
private equity person would think of a portfolio view of investments,
right? Or a VC. They know that some are going to be hits, some are
going to be misses, some are going to be singles, but they have a view
and they always look at it in the lens of the entire portfolio.They don't
look at it in a single view. And I think that's going to be sort of the
view of like when you think of content in the context of a portfolio
view now, of creator, human consumption, AI content generation,
you're going to start thinking of things differently.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
private equity person would think of a portfolio view of investments,
right? Or a VC. They know that some are going to be hits, some are
going to be misses, some are going to be singles, but they have a view
and they always look at it in the lens of the entire portfolio.They don't
look at it in a single view. And I think that's going to be sort of the
view of like when you think of content in the context of a portfolio
view now, of creator, human consumption, AI content generation,
you're going to start thinking of things differently.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“And that can then lead towards different decision making as well. I
think that's an evolution that is going to feel painful, but I actually
believe, for some, it won't. I think that's where messaging and culture
need to be our key to kind of handle the short term parts of it, because
there's angst and there's anxiety and these platforms are changing
daily. But like, if you'd make that, I think a year from now you could
be in a much bigger view.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
think that's an evolution that is going to feel painful, but I actually
believe, for some, it won't. I think that's where messaging and culture
need to be our key to kind of handle the short term parts of it, because
there's angst and there's anxiety and these platforms are changing
daily. But like, if you'd make that, I think a year from now you could
be in a much bigger view.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“Just look at even things like image generation. A year ago you typed
in, you know, ‘Create an image’ in ChatGPT. The text would be
unreadable, logos would be distorted. Now you look and ChatGPT has
gotten better. You look at Google launching Nano Bananas, and now
you could upload two logos, give it any scenario, and the accuracy,
you could argue, is as good as some graphic designers coming fresh
out of school. So while they may not be as good as the most senior
designers, you could argue that some of the work that the AI is doing
now has become as good as entry level. So that forces the human
production to actually now have to step up, or it frees up people to
spend more time creating where the human content now has that
nuance, the details.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
in, you know, ‘Create an image’ in ChatGPT. The text would be
unreadable, logos would be distorted. Now you look and ChatGPT has
gotten better. You look at Google launching Nano Bananas, and now
you could upload two logos, give it any scenario, and the accuracy,
you could argue, is as good as some graphic designers coming fresh
out of school. So while they may not be as good as the most senior
designers, you could argue that some of the work that the AI is doing
now has become as good as entry level. So that forces the human
production to actually now have to step up, or it frees up people to
spend more time creating where the human content now has that
nuance, the details.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“So I think it's just sort of that view. Like, the AI went from illegible
text, distorted logos to, you know, entry level faster than that graphic
designer went to college; they went through four years to get to that
point. The AI tools went to that in like nine months or less. So when
you take that sort of perspective, it's like machine learning could in
theory evolve at such a rate that if you do it now in six months, it's not
iteratively better, it could be exponentially better.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
text, distorted logos to, you know, entry level faster than that graphic
designer went to college; they went through four years to get to that
point. The AI tools went to that in like nine months or less. So when
you take that sort of perspective, it's like machine learning could in
theory evolve at such a rate that if you do it now in six months, it's not
iteratively better, it could be exponentially better.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
On fan loyalty programs and the difference in general between loyalty
programs and rewards programs
“So rewards are transactional, right? Buy this, get that. Loyalty is emotional. I
stay because it's a part of my identity. Sports teams should design programs
for both. I think that's the awareness that has occurred is we want to give our
fans both: rewards, but we want to create a loyalty program that's going to play
into the fandom, which is emotion, right? It's also an awareness that different
fan types matter too. The bettor, the fantasy player, the player-driven fans, the
casual fans, so the successful programs are going to acknowledge those
segments and ensure that it has value for all of those fans, both from a rewards
point of view and from that emotional connection connectivity for you that's
going to ultimately create that loyalty, which then enhances the fandom.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
programs and rewards programs
“So rewards are transactional, right? Buy this, get that. Loyalty is emotional. I
stay because it's a part of my identity. Sports teams should design programs
for both. I think that's the awareness that has occurred is we want to give our
fans both: rewards, but we want to create a loyalty program that's going to play
into the fandom, which is emotion, right? It's also an awareness that different
fan types matter too. The bettor, the fantasy player, the player-driven fans, the
casual fans, so the successful programs are going to acknowledge those
segments and ensure that it has value for all of those fans, both from a rewards
point of view and from that emotional connection connectivity for you that's
going to ultimately create that loyalty, which then enhances the fandom.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“It also gives the teams the ability to get real data points to then
describe and demonstrate that fandom and the value of that to their
brand sponsors, which then ultimately should lead to higher revenue.
Because by being able to have that data and the proof to be
demonstrated, that's going to ultimately lead towards more spend,
because then the sponsors can look at this versus other media
channels and say, This is going to give me a much deeper connection
that's going to help me so that I'm not always having to reacquire my
customers. I'm also building long term customers at a much lower
acquisition cost. It creates that flywheel effect.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
describe and demonstrate that fandom and the value of that to their
brand sponsors, which then ultimately should lead to higher revenue.
Because by being able to have that data and the proof to be
demonstrated, that's going to ultimately lead towards more spend,
because then the sponsors can look at this versus other media
channels and say, This is going to give me a much deeper connection
that's going to help me so that I'm not always having to reacquire my
customers. I'm also building long term customers at a much lower
acquisition cost. It creates that flywheel effect.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
On the fragmentation of loyalty programs and if sports can serve as a
unifying point
“I think there’s a realization that people are not going to download
over 50 apps and use all 50. I think the mobile space has evolved, that
people have come to recognize that, so they no longer put their hopes
on just paid download campaigns. I think we've seen it outside of
sports, that what's called open loop reward programs, the ability to
actually spend and earn points or value, not only in, say, a specific
retailer's walls but elsewhere, and then redeem elsewhere leads to
more usage and a higher spend.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
unifying point
“I think there’s a realization that people are not going to download
over 50 apps and use all 50. I think the mobile space has evolved, that
people have come to recognize that, so they no longer put their hopes
on just paid download campaigns. I think we've seen it outside of
sports, that what's called open loop reward programs, the ability to
actually spend and earn points or value, not only in, say, a specific
retailer's walls but elsewhere, and then redeem elsewhere leads to
more usage and a higher spend.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“There's data for this. If you think of, you know, Bonvoy and United
[Airlines], Uber and Lyft working with, I believe, with the airline apps
or the Amtrak app. It's already occurring and people are using that.
And in that situation, people are able to connect their loyalty account
from one program to the other. They earn points, and the platforms
are all exchanging, almost like cash.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
[Airlines], Uber and Lyft working with, I believe, with the airline apps
or the Amtrak app. It's already occurring and people are using that.
And in that situation, people are able to connect their loyalty account
from one program to the other. They earn points, and the platforms
are all exchanging, almost like cash.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“They're doing that because they've seen it's creating a higher spend
across everyone. And it took a while for people to get that. Then in retail,
people started expanding their points beyond just their four walls to
make it available to, if they had their own credit card, you can earn points
now at gas stations, grocery stores, and they started seeing a higher spend
and a lower age rate. Sports are not there yet, partially because you have
these 20, 30 year veterans selling sponsorships that are reluctant to think
that way, which happened in other industries. So that may or may not
change. You then have people who have yet to put the investment in on
the tech side to do that. And that then becomes a thing where in sports,
loyalty is still being thought of as just apps versus outside of sports people
think of loyalty as a centralized profile, points engine and offers engine.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
across everyone. And it took a while for people to get that. Then in retail,
people started expanding their points beyond just their four walls to
make it available to, if they had their own credit card, you can earn points
now at gas stations, grocery stores, and they started seeing a higher spend
and a lower age rate. Sports are not there yet, partially because you have
these 20, 30 year veterans selling sponsorships that are reluctant to think
that way, which happened in other industries. So that may or may not
change. You then have people who have yet to put the investment in on
the tech side to do that. And that then becomes a thing where in sports,
loyalty is still being thought of as just apps versus outside of sports people
think of loyalty as a centralized profile, points engine and offers engine.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“So you think of United. You can log into the United app and see your
points. But if you went to the Bonvoy website they may say ‘Connect
with your United account’. You're not going back to the United app,
you're just typing your United account number and password. They
just connect and now you're getting the benefit. So those things work
on web, they work on mobile web, they work in app, they work at
POS, they work on SMS, they’re omnichannel.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
points. But if you went to the Bonvoy website they may say ‘Connect
with your United account’. You're not going back to the United app,
you're just typing your United account number and password. They
just connect and now you're getting the benefit. So those things work
on web, they work on mobile web, they work in app, they work at
POS, they work on SMS, they’re omnichannel.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“They're open loop, meaning they work beyond just a single retailer or
partner. They're cross currency. So what that's done is it drove more
value to the currency because now it has value in multiple places,
which then creates higher liquidity because now there's more people
who are earning more. But then they're also redeeming more, so
therefore they're spending more. Now that drives higher potential
frequency. The person that came twice a year somewhere might come
three, four times a year without having to pay for acquisition costs.
The person that came once a month might come one and a half times
a month. And that is what everyone outside of sports is seeing.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
partner. They're cross currency. So what that's done is it drove more
value to the currency because now it has value in multiple places,
which then creates higher liquidity because now there's more people
who are earning more. But then they're also redeeming more, so
therefore they're spending more. Now that drives higher potential
frequency. The person that came twice a year somewhere might come
three, four times a year without having to pay for acquisition costs.
The person that came once a month might come one and a half times
a month. And that is what everyone outside of sports is seeing.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I think at sports, when you have some leagues with only eight home
games, it's like, well, we didn't have enough metrics to do it, it's not
worth the investment. Okay, but now we're about to do an $800
million stadium renovation, and we're going to do a mixed use
development, all of a sudden there's now people coming here year
round. Okay, now I'm going to make revenue, you know, like the
Braves did, where they found an incremental $65 million in less than
five years by creating this. So now people look at that and go Wait a
minute. If they're going to get on pace to ultimately get an
incremental $100M outside of the actual stadium, I want that. And
then I get the property value and the higher rent.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
games, it's like, well, we didn't have enough metrics to do it, it's not
worth the investment. Okay, but now we're about to do an $800
million stadium renovation, and we're going to do a mixed use
development, all of a sudden there's now people coming here year
round. Okay, now I'm going to make revenue, you know, like the
Braves did, where they found an incremental $65 million in less than
five years by creating this. So now people look at that and go Wait a
minute. If they're going to get on pace to ultimately get an
incremental $100M outside of the actual stadium, I want that. And
then I get the property value and the higher rent.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“So I think we're going to see this eventuality, and AI is starting to bring
the cost of the technology down too. So I think it's just a matter of when,
because these behaviors actually exist everywhere outside of sports. They
exist in hospitality, transportation, restaurant apps, grocery stores, apps
in your town, I'm sure you see, like the grocery store and the gas station
allow you to cross mingle points, right? That's pretty nationwide. So this
idea of cross industry collaboration is happening in industries and
verticals that have much higher spend. People spend a lot more with their
grocery stores and their gas, because they need it, than they do with their
sports tickets. People in some places could be spending more on travel, so
they're using it for personal and for work than they are for their sports
tickets. So it's just a matter of understanding market size and TAM, and I
think it's an education.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
the cost of the technology down too. So I think it's just a matter of when,
because these behaviors actually exist everywhere outside of sports. They
exist in hospitality, transportation, restaurant apps, grocery stores, apps
in your town, I'm sure you see, like the grocery store and the gas station
allow you to cross mingle points, right? That's pretty nationwide. So this
idea of cross industry collaboration is happening in industries and
verticals that have much higher spend. People spend a lot more with their
grocery stores and their gas, because they need it, than they do with their
sports tickets. People in some places could be spending more on travel, so
they're using it for personal and for work than they are for their sports
tickets. So it's just a matter of understanding market size and TAM, and I
think it's an education.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I've had many conversations. It's one of the reasons I also wrote the
book. That's the premise of the book of, like, this is a reality where, for
airlines, their loyalty programs are considered more valuable assets
than their entire fleet of airplanes. Like, full stop. The little ‘app’,
which is not an app, but that app in some people's mind, is worth
more than my entire fleet of airplanes.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
book. That's the premise of the book of, like, this is a reality where, for
airlines, their loyalty programs are considered more valuable assets
than their entire fleet of airplanes. Like, full stop. The little ‘app’,
which is not an app, but that app in some people's mind, is worth
more than my entire fleet of airplanes.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
On the opportunity for loyalty and rewards programs to engage and monetize
remote fans
“I think there is. And I think that's also going to be the catalyst, right? I think
you look at the NBA globally and the European football clubs, I think the
European football clubs have already embraced global fandom, and they've
created loyalty programs that appeal to fans that, you know, will never come to
the games in Europe. And you see a pattern there. I think the NBA has, while
they haven't created a global loyalty program, they've embraced global content
and global fandom better than most. And I think the NBA team owners that
have these global superstars are coming from Europe, they're starting to see
that they need to find a way to take advantage of that, and they're seeing the
tourism and all these other things that are starting to come out of that.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
remote fans
“I think there is. And I think that's also going to be the catalyst, right? I think
you look at the NBA globally and the European football clubs, I think the
European football clubs have already embraced global fandom, and they've
created loyalty programs that appeal to fans that, you know, will never come to
the games in Europe. And you see a pattern there. I think the NBA has, while
they haven't created a global loyalty program, they've embraced global content
and global fandom better than most. And I think the NBA team owners that
have these global superstars are coming from Europe, they're starting to see
that they need to find a way to take advantage of that, and they're seeing the
tourism and all these other things that are starting to come out of that.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“So I think when you look at clubs like FC Barcelona, who built a
digital first monetization model, ownership groups that are operating
across multiple clubs and cross-pollinating innovation, primarily part
of it is because Europe in general is probably more mature on the
fintech side than the US, and that also lends itself to doing a lot of this
from a security and scalability point of view. It removes a lot of the
friction to do that. But I think in some ways, the US market was
slower to adopt a lot of the mobile standards than the European
market. Covid sort of forced some of that. I think it's just a matter of
time, and I think the global fan, the properties that are trying to hit a
global fan reach, are not going to do a crawl, walk, run.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
digital first monetization model, ownership groups that are operating
across multiple clubs and cross-pollinating innovation, primarily part
of it is because Europe in general is probably more mature on the
fintech side than the US, and that also lends itself to doing a lot of this
from a security and scalability point of view. It removes a lot of the
friction to do that. But I think in some ways, the US market was
slower to adopt a lot of the mobile standards than the European
market. Covid sort of forced some of that. I think it's just a matter of
time, and I think the global fan, the properties that are trying to hit a
global fan reach, are not going to do a crawl, walk, run.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I think they're just going to eventually realize they’ve got to make
that investment because they see a window to go capture that global
fan market before they might lose a player's prime years, and they're
going to want to make that investment. So I think everyone likes, for
budgeting purposes to say, crawl, walk, run. But just like AI is coming
over the top where people are now making investments that they
would have otherwise questioned even six, nine months ago, I think
you're going to see a similar over the top mentality of like, wait a
minute, we need to capture this global fan base.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
that investment because they see a window to go capture that global
fan market before they might lose a player's prime years, and they're
going to want to make that investment. So I think everyone likes, for
budgeting purposes to say, crawl, walk, run. But just like AI is coming
over the top where people are now making investments that they
would have otherwise questioned even six, nine months ago, I think
you're going to see a similar over the top mentality of like, wait a
minute, we need to capture this global fan base.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“We're going to make that investment and we're not going to do a
crawl, walk, run. We have a minimum point that we got to start at.
Because in reality, most of these owners are billionaires, so it's not
like they don't have the capital. So it's just a mindset. And I think
when these owners are now coming in pushing that and the pressure
is starting to be felt as part of this AI piece, this is going to probably
be the next domino to hit, where's it’s, okay, what are you doing for
AI? What are you doing to really capture a global fan base? What are
you really doing to really capture more spend? Because they're going
to see it everywhere else. So like, it's just a matter of where this is
going to happen over the next two or three years.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
crawl, walk, run. We have a minimum point that we got to start at.
Because in reality, most of these owners are billionaires, so it's not
like they don't have the capital. So it's just a mindset. And I think
when these owners are now coming in pushing that and the pressure
is starting to be felt as part of this AI piece, this is going to probably
be the next domino to hit, where's it’s, okay, what are you doing for
AI? What are you doing to really capture a global fan base? What are
you really doing to really capture more spend? Because they're going
to see it everywhere else. So like, it's just a matter of where this is
going to happen over the next two or three years.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
On how sports organizations can start better integrating generative AI
“The easiest way is to just get started. I think you go to like what's
going to motivate you to want to just play with it. For some it's taking
an email, can I shrink it, can it help me write, take a long email thread
and summarize it. Can I just get basic productivity? And that's enough
to get people curious. For others it's like I need help with creative
ideation, brainstorming. For others, it's like, I really suck at creating
graphs and visualizations, so now I'm using AI to do that for me, or
other people want to play with the image creation.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“The easiest way is to just get started. I think you go to like what's
going to motivate you to want to just play with it. For some it's taking
an email, can I shrink it, can it help me write, take a long email thread
and summarize it. Can I just get basic productivity? And that's enough
to get people curious. For others it's like I need help with creative
ideation, brainstorming. For others, it's like, I really suck at creating
graphs and visualizations, so now I'm using AI to do that for me, or
other people want to play with the image creation.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“You have to find what I think people's motivations are, but I think
there has to be a level of education, like the do's and don'ts; like, don't
upload a spreadsheet of people's personal information, make sure you
don't use a personal email. What you're doing at home is one thing,
but if you're doing work, probably make sure you have a corporate
email and you use the AI platforms that your corporation wants.
Don't upload sensitive data, right? But you could start with instead of
public facing, I always tell people, take stuff on a website or sales
cloud and ask it to do things there, right? That's usually fairly safe
because, if it's on a website, it's already being seen by millions of
people. You could say, take that and translate it, take that and
summarize it, take that and turn it into FAQ. So that gets you reps.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
there has to be a level of education, like the do's and don'ts; like, don't
upload a spreadsheet of people's personal information, make sure you
don't use a personal email. What you're doing at home is one thing,
but if you're doing work, probably make sure you have a corporate
email and you use the AI platforms that your corporation wants.
Don't upload sensitive data, right? But you could start with instead of
public facing, I always tell people, take stuff on a website or sales
cloud and ask it to do things there, right? That's usually fairly safe
because, if it's on a website, it's already being seen by millions of
people. You could say, take that and translate it, take that and
summarize it, take that and turn it into FAQ. So that gets you reps.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“But I think ultimately people have to find something that's, like I
said, get them, so they see an immediate value. It drives some level of
curiosity, so they go deeper and they start really exploring. That's
going to ultimately then create that aptitude that they can then apply
elsewhere. So it could be something that's work related. It could be
something that's personal. Like, one of the things I did was I always
encouraged people to use it in all aspects of their life.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
said, get them, so they see an immediate value. It drives some level of
curiosity, so they go deeper and they start really exploring. That's
going to ultimately then create that aptitude that they can then apply
elsewhere. So it could be something that's work related. It could be
something that's personal. Like, one of the things I did was I always
encouraged people to use it in all aspects of their life.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“[For example] today's Friday, and people are like, okay, there's only a
few things left in the groceries in the fridge, I haven't gone to the
grocery store yet. Do I just tell ChatGPT, Hey, I've got these five
things, give me three recipes under 30 minutes or less, in the style of
celebrity chef XYZ. They'll give you some recipes. Oh, that was great,
it saved me two hours of trying to figure this out. I didn't have to drive
to the store, I could just get it and go. Or, I used it to manage, you
know, carpooling for my kids’ travel soccer team, or I did it for a quick
spreadsheet, because I suck at making it, I just sort of gave it a raw
email thread of a bunch of notes, and it turned into a spreadsheet, like
a grocery list.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
few things left in the groceries in the fridge, I haven't gone to the
grocery store yet. Do I just tell ChatGPT, Hey, I've got these five
things, give me three recipes under 30 minutes or less, in the style of
celebrity chef XYZ. They'll give you some recipes. Oh, that was great,
it saved me two hours of trying to figure this out. I didn't have to drive
to the store, I could just get it and go. Or, I used it to manage, you
know, carpooling for my kids’ travel soccer team, or I did it for a quick
spreadsheet, because I suck at making it, I just sort of gave it a raw
email thread of a bunch of notes, and it turned into a spreadsheet, like
a grocery list.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“Once people start finding that passion point to go, I think the uses
now are endless. And once they see that, it kind of becomes like this
light bulb moment and then you see people settling into, Okay, I'm
going to start thinking about using this, because now I know that the
extra three minutes I spent on the first try are going to start saving me
30 minutes, 20 minutes, ten minutes, an hour for every other try. And
I think once a light bulb hits for people, that's what really drives them
forward. Whereas for social media, it was kind of the same thing.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
now are endless. And once they see that, it kind of becomes like this
light bulb moment and then you see people settling into, Okay, I'm
going to start thinking about using this, because now I know that the
extra three minutes I spent on the first try are going to start saving me
30 minutes, 20 minutes, ten minutes, an hour for every other try. And
I think once a light bulb hits for people, that's what really drives them
forward. Whereas for social media, it was kind of the same thing.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I don't think anyone's gonna really do this Twitter thing. I don't want
to be on this Facemash thing or whatever. And then all your friends
and family are on[it]. Oh, we need to get on there. Well, I don't know
about this Instagram thing. What do you mean photo filters and
things? Oh, well, now everyone's on Instagram. Okay, I'm going to get
on Instagram. I don't know what this Snap thing is. Like, I don't
understand that, these disappearing things. Well, all these kids are on
Snapchat, and it does really cool short form content.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
to be on this Facemash thing or whatever. And then all your friends
and family are on[it]. Oh, we need to get on there. Well, I don't know
about this Instagram thing. What do you mean photo filters and
things? Oh, well, now everyone's on Instagram. Okay, I'm going to get
on Instagram. I don't know what this Snap thing is. Like, I don't
understand that, these disappearing things. Well, all these kids are on
Snapchat, and it does really cool short form content.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“Okay, I'll go check it out. So, with content, you had similar barriers
and it might take a really long time before it was a critical mass that
then almost created peer pressure to get you to go. I think this case is
very personal. People are going to see it. They're going to see it saves
them time, and they're going to go jump in where you don't need that
social sort of family or friends peer pressure to really push you onto
something. I think in this case, people just have to see it, and once
they see it, it's like a moment of magic that then forces you to want to
go deeper.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
and it might take a really long time before it was a critical mass that
then almost created peer pressure to get you to go. I think this case is
very personal. People are going to see it. They're going to see it saves
them time, and they're going to go jump in where you don't need that
social sort of family or friends peer pressure to really push you onto
something. I think in this case, people just have to see it, and once
they see it, it's like a moment of magic that then forces you to want to
go deeper.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
What does Shripal make of the resurgence of Barnes & Noble (where
he worked earlier in his career)?
“They lean into community and differentiated experiences.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
he worked earlier in his career)?
“They lean into community and differentiated experiences.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
The most memorable content or campaign from Shripal’s time with the
Washington Redskins
“We did a Vote the Redskins ticket presidential campaign for the Pro Bowl,
with Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff. And at one point with the fan vote, I
think nine out of the 11 starters were actually Redskins players, because we
literally had lawn signs and bumper stickers, and it turned into this thing
where we where they clearly had to then push everything else to then fix it. But
at one point we were literally leading in one area. It was during a presidential
election year, and we were in DC, obviously, but it was something and there's
such great Hall of Famers and personalities. So seeing that just created this
crazy dynamic. It was pre-social media, and it still kind of created what was
like a viral moment without having social media, because this was like 2008.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Washington Redskins
“We did a Vote the Redskins ticket presidential campaign for the Pro Bowl,
with Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff. And at one point with the fan vote, I
think nine out of the 11 starters were actually Redskins players, because we
literally had lawn signs and bumper stickers, and it turned into this thing
where we where they clearly had to then push everything else to then fix it. But
at one point we were literally leading in one area. It was during a presidential
election year, and we were in DC, obviously, but it was something and there's
such great Hall of Famers and personalities. So seeing that just created this
crazy dynamic. It was pre-social media, and it still kind of created what was
like a viral moment without having social media, because this was like 2008.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
What’s it like writing and publishing a book?
“I mean, it's like running a season, right? Like it's planning, long
nights, and then you're trying to go from an outline to iterations, and
you just gotta grind it out and it's a process. But then seeing people
engage and react to it is always rewarding. So it's very similar to
planning for like a season in a lot of ways.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I mean, it's like running a season, right? Like it's planning, long
nights, and then you're trying to go from an outline to iterations, and
you just gotta grind it out and it's a process. But then seeing people
engage and react to it is always rewarding. So it's very similar to
planning for like a season in a lot of ways.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
The most memorable game Shripal has ever attended
“Probably 2004 Yankees-Red Sox ALCS, as the Red Sox started slowly
mounting their comeback. I think I was last row, third base line,
partial view..”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“Probably 2004 Yankees-Red Sox ALCS, as the Red Sox started slowly
mounting their comeback. I think I was last row, third base line,
partial view..”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Which LLM tool is Shripal’s favorite to use and why?
“ChatGPT for speed and creativity, Claude for depth. Copilot for
enterprise integration, for the Outlook suite, security, scalability. I
think Copilot really is driving a lot now.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“ChatGPT for speed and creativity, Claude for depth. Copilot for
enterprise integration, for the Outlook suite, security, scalability. I
think Copilot really is driving a lot now.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Shripal’s favorite project[s] from his time at MOKO or KiwiTech
“With MOKO, it was really getting to work in the youth sports space,
intramurals, you know, getting to 95% of all D1, D2, D3 intramural
programs. Seeing us go from a $40 CAC to under $2 in less than 18
months, scaling from 100,000 to 1,500,000, and it was based off of
going from B2C and seeing this light bulb moment and going B2B2C,
where we started going after the rec directors. The rec directors would
mandate the app where they’d tell the students, if you don’t download
this, you couldn't play. And that just changed the ball game. So that
moment of understanding this concept of b2b2c was something that I
then took elsewhere in my career from a marketing standpoint.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“With MOKO, it was really getting to work in the youth sports space,
intramurals, you know, getting to 95% of all D1, D2, D3 intramural
programs. Seeing us go from a $40 CAC to under $2 in less than 18
months, scaling from 100,000 to 1,500,000, and it was based off of
going from B2C and seeing this light bulb moment and going B2B2C,
where we started going after the rec directors. The rec directors would
mandate the app where they’d tell the students, if you don’t download
this, you couldn't play. And that just changed the ball game. So that
moment of understanding this concept of b2b2c was something that I
then took elsewhere in my career from a marketing standpoint.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
The best meal to get in New
York and where to get it
“I like Los Tacos No. 1. I think
there's one by MSG, Penn
Station. There's another one in
Broadway, near Times
Square.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
York and where to get it
“I like Los Tacos No. 1. I think
there's one by MSG, Penn
Station. There's another one in
Broadway, near Times
Square.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Looking ahead to the future,10-15 years-20 years, what's one
prediction Shripal has about sports that he’s particularly excited
about?
“I think fans are going to see ways to really personalize their content
stream. So something that came up in this event, I was here at
Columbia on the panel I was on, I think you're seeing now with
streaming and broadcast rights going to streaming providers, it now
allows the ability to have multiple streams, people can pick what they
want. Do you want a data centric one? Do you want a creator stream?
Do you want a second commentary team? And because the content's
going to the cloud, you don't need multiple trucks.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
prediction Shripal has about sports that he’s particularly excited
about?
“I think fans are going to see ways to really personalize their content
stream. So something that came up in this event, I was here at
Columbia on the panel I was on, I think you're seeing now with
streaming and broadcast rights going to streaming providers, it now
allows the ability to have multiple streams, people can pick what they
want. Do you want a data centric one? Do you want a creator stream?
Do you want a second commentary team? And because the content's
going to the cloud, you don't need multiple trucks.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“So I think what you're going to find in less than ten years is as more
and more of the media rights go to streaming providers, fans are
going to be able to really personalize the content streams exactly how
they want it, and that's going to lead to a very personalized in-home
broadcast experience that wasn't probably even imaginable a decade
ago.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
and more of the media rights go to streaming providers, fans are
going to be able to really personalize the content streams exactly how
they want it, and that's going to lead to a very personalized in-home
broadcast experience that wasn't probably even imaginable a decade
ago.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Shripal’s All-Star to Follow
“I'm partial because I work with [both] closely, but I always love reading
Joe Favorito, what he does. I like JohnWallStreet. And then I really like
the research that Arctos has been pushing out on the sports side, so that's
something that I highly encourage people to look at, because I think with
all the changes, those are things that could be really valuable for folks. So
those are areas that I would definitely, from a written point of view, I
highly encourage. I think if you're looking at podcasts, besides yours,
which I should push, Know What Is Next, Next League’s podcast. We're
interviewing lots of commissioners and C-level execs all across sports. I
think you'll find some fascinating conversations with our CEO Dave
Nugent, so I would recommend that too.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
“I'm partial because I work with [both] closely, but I always love reading
Joe Favorito, what he does. I like JohnWallStreet. And then I really like
the research that Arctos has been pushing out on the sports side, so that's
something that I highly encourage people to look at, because I think with
all the changes, those are things that could be really valuable for folks. So
those are areas that I would definitely, from a written point of view, I
highly encourage. I think if you're looking at podcasts, besides yours,
which I should push, Know What Is Next, Next League’s podcast. We're
interviewing lots of commissioners and C-level execs all across sports. I
think you'll find some fascinating conversations with our CEO Dave
Nugent, so I would recommend that too.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Where to find Shripal, his book, and Next League on digital/social
media
“You'll find some of my content on JohnWallStreet. You can email me
at gmail. I'm on LinkedIn, I have a Twitter, Instagram, and then my
books are on Amazon. Check them out. Hardcover, paperback or
Kindle. I think one of the Kindle ones might be even free right now.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
media
“You'll find some of my content on JohnWallStreet. You can email me
at gmail. I'm on LinkedIn, I have a Twitter, Instagram, and then my
books are on Amazon. Check them out. Hardcover, paperback or
Kindle. I think one of the Kindle ones might be even free right now.”
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
Thanks again to Shripal for being so generous with his time to share
his knowledge, experience, and expertise with me!
For more content and episodes, subscribe to the podcast, follow me
on LinkedIn and on Twitter @njh287, and visit www.dsmsports.net.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Thanks again to Shripal for being so generous with his time to share
his knowledge, experience, and expertise with me!
For more content and episodes, subscribe to the podcast, follow me
on LinkedIn and on Twitter @njh287, and visit www.dsmsports.net.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 305: Shripal Shah
Categories
BusinessDownload
Download Slideshow Get the original presentation fileQuick Actions
Statistics
- Views 4
- Slides 69
- Age 60 days
Related Slideshows
1
DTI BPI Pivot Small Business - BUSINESS START UP PLAN
MeljunCortes
35 views
1
CATHOLIC EDUCATIONAL Corporate Responsibilities
MeljunCortes
36 views
11
Karin Schaupp – Evocation; lançamento: 2000
alfeuRIO
35 views
10
Pillars of Biblical Oneness in the Book of Acts
JanParon
30 views
31
7-10. STP + Branding and Product & Services Strategies.pptx
itsyash298
32 views
44
Business Legislation PPT - UNIT 1 jimllpkggg
slogeshk98
35 views