Making the Fan

Subscription models - seems like almost every industry and product has one. Except for live sports & events. But what if... In this episode, we're rethinking the entire business model of ticketing and access to sports & events. Our guest, Chris Giles, was the COO of the Oakland Athletics, where they created a first-of-its-kind membership model called A's Access. The program debuted in 2019 and has had smashing success according to a number of different metrics, from revenue growth to number of members to customer satisfaction. Instead of selling ownership of an individual seat for a season, what if we sold access to the stadium and certain perks associated with it? And we could play with, test and adjust the perks as time goes on? It's certainly a model that caters more to the Millennial and Gen Z consumption patterns, but where does that leave more traditional fans? Could your ticketing software even process such a change? What other roadblocks did Chris and his team face when trying out this massive change to "the way we've always done it"?  If you want to explore a change like this, where would you even start? These are the questions we set out to answer with Chris on today's episode. After his experience with the A's, Chris founded Greenfield Sports Group and is helping progressive sports properties navigate these new waters of changing fan behaviors and expectations. Follow or connect with Chris Chris' Twitter: @chrisgiles01  Chris' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophergiles/Follow or connect with Greenfield SportsTwitter: @greenfieldsptsLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/greenfield-sports-group/Additional Resources mentioned in the episode: "Subscribed" by Tien TzuoConnect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Nick Lawson, the CEO of SQWAD sits down with us to talk about the future state of sponsorship in sports. Nick's company works with sports properties around the world to help them sell more sponsorship through digital contests. What kind of contests? Could be trivia games on your team app, digital scratch and win games, or supplementing live mascot contests with a digital component. Nick is leading the shift in sports sponsorship to create ads that people actually want to see, and better yet, participate in. For those of you new to the sponsorship game, this is an eye opening look at the changing world that could impact you indirectly in your role. For sponsorship and corporate partnership veterans, Nick addresses a lot of your concerns and provides some strategies and tactics you can start using today. Connect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Disney's Magic Band. Carnival's OceanMedallion. Our guest today was behind both industry leading tools that enabled massive experience ecosystem transformations.Forrester defines a customer experience ecosystem as “the web of relations among all aspects of a company - including its customers, employees, partners and operating environment - that determine the quality of the customer experience.” As you can imagine, building a seamless experience ecosystem is no easy task. Our guest today, Michael Jungen, has been a key senior leader on two massive experience ecosytem builds. With both Disney's Parks & Resorts and Carnival Cruise Line, Michael led the strategy and implementation of two iconic, industry leading ventures. At Disney, "My Disney Experience" and the "Magic Band."  At Carnival, it was "MedallionClass" and "OceanMedallion." Both projects were multi-year, highly complex initiatives involving thousands of touchpoints and 9-10 figure investments. With that type of experience, safe to say, listening to Michael's viewpoints and stories and advice will help you think differently about your own organization's customer journey. Connect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

For Episode 15 of Flip the Switch, we take a journey w/ our guest, Dan Cockerell, the former Vice President of Magic Kingdom. The episode’s larger theme is around leading your team and your organization with a human touch. We explore Dan’s involvement and influential role in running the Magic Kingdom theme park; we cover how to build rapport with your employees and develop a good culture; and we get an inside look on selecting the right talent.If you’re passionate about becoming a great leader and creating magical guest and employee experiences, you won’t want to miss this episode. To get in touch with Dan, check out his website https://dancockerell.com/For more from Dan, subscribe to his weekly news article; “Food for Thought”. https://dancockerell.com/media-appearances/SHOW NOTES·        [4:10] Leveraging your relationships·        [5:10] Dan’s background·        [8:30] How to build rapport with your employees ·        [12:00] Prioritizing tasks  ·        [16:00] Prioritizing your time as a leader·        [18:37] The Eisenhower Matrix·        [22:05] Dan's new book, “How is the Culture in Your Kingdom"·        [28:40] Selecting the right talent·        [32:40] Selecting the wrong talent·        [36:42] Evolving culture·        [39:30] Utilizing technology for culture creation·        [41:36] Leading using incentives·        [46:07] An effective 1:1 meeting with your employees·        [48:46] Looking back, leadership lessons learned from the Walt Disney Company·        [52:30] Game changing tools ·        [56:34] The fictional character Dan would love to work for·        [58:30] Advice for young leadersConnect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Our guest today, Jesse Cole, is the Founder of Fans First Entertainment, Author of Find Your Yellow Tux and Owner of the Savannah Bananas, who have sold out every game for 88 straight games and has a wait-list for tickets in the thousands. How do they do it? Well, simply by being the most fan-centric organization in sports. The Bananas take it being customer-centric to the extreme. Jesse famously says about his ballpark, “it’s a circus and a baseball game breaks out.” In this episode we go under the hood of the Bananas organization to find out some of the systems, processes, and mindsets that help Jesse and his team stay so fan-centric. Because if a collegiate summer-league baseball team can consistently sell-out a venue, that's an organization all of us can learn from. Connect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Josh Brooks, Deputy AD at Georiga Athletics and Shane Todd, Franchise Operator at Chick-Fil-A in Athens, GA join us. The theme of today's episode explores the differences between product innovations vs. strategy innovations and how they impact your business. As you're thinking about investing time, energy and resources to improve your business, there's a temptation for us in sports to think that a new sexy product-type innovation, like a jumbotron or is going to be the enhancement that moves the needle from a customer experience perspective. But often, it's the non-sexy strategy innovations, like a grab & go concession stand, that really have the most impact for investment. In today's episode, both Josh and Shane lead organizations who are really enhancing customer experience through strategy innovations. Connect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Today’s guest is Frank Supovitz, who’s been changing and shaping the sports & events industries for over 30 years. We discuss planning an event that wows your customers, and all that goes into the prep of a massive live event. Frank is imminently qualified to discuss this topic, as he was the SVP of Events for the NFL from 2005 to 2014, overseeing the massive growth of the Super Bowl, NFL Draft and London games. Before his time with the NFL, Frank led the NHL’s event group for 13 years, responsible for the NHL All-Star Weekend and Stanley Cup.  Together with the Edmonton Oilers, he developed the first NHL outdoor game in 2003, the forerunner to the highly successful NHL Winter Classic.In 2014, Frank left the NFL to start Fast Traffic Events & Entertainment, an innovative consulting and management company serving sports & entertainment clients all around the world.  Fast Traffic was an integral contributor to the development team for the Rooftop at Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport in New York City, winner of the Pollstar Award for Best New Concert Venue of 2018.  Frank is the producer of the pre-race show for the Indy 500, which was honored in 2016 as Best Sports Event of the year by Sports Business Journal.  He also recently produced the Major League Soccer All-Star Skills Challenge this past summer at ESPN Wide World of Sports.If you enjoy this episode and want to hear more about, I highly encourage you go check out his new book, What to Do When Things Go Wrong. If reading’s not your thing, 1) Shame on you, make it your thing. 2) If you’re more of an auditory learner, go get the audio book- it's out now. In Frank’s newest book, You’ll learn why things go wrong, how to best go about preventing crisis, and how to fix them when they happen anyway. Connect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

We join Adam White, CEO of Front Office Sports, at his office in NYC.  You might be thinking, "I don't work for a media company, what can I learn from this?" The stories and strategies Adam shares in this podcast are applicable to anyone building a brand. If you're trying to build a passionate audience or a customer base, you'll gain tons of insight from Adam who's building his company through the power of brand and beginning to monetize the fandom.Adam takes us behind the scenes of Front Office Sports to share insights around their business and growth strategy. He discusses the things FOS struggle with internally as they grow. And if you work for a sports property, he shares actionable strategies, tips, and best practices that you can take back to your organization. Enjoy!Connect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Mike Bohn, Director of Athletics for University of Cincinnati joins us. UC and Mike are hyper focused on increasing the "intensity of interest" for their brand in the Cincinnati community, creating deeper relationships with more people. UC has created some incredible experiences for fans on game day that run counter to what many other athletic departments are doing. We talk about the decision making behind some of these enhancements, like the premium Truly sponsored rooftop experience. We discuss the renovations to Fifth-Third Arena, UC's new state-of-the-art basketball arena. We go behind the scenes and talk about the impact MLS team FC Cincinnati has had on the athletics department and community, and what's it like having a tenant of that magnitude use your facilities. Enjoy!  Connect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

While out in San Diego, we sat down with Carl Thomas and Reid Carr at Red Door Interactive's HQ. Carl Thomas, the former CRO of Hookit, and Reid Carr, the CEO of Red Door Interactive, go deep on creating and inspiring care. Both Carl and Reid have a long history in the B2B space of working with both major brands and corporate sponsors, as well as sports properties. So we sought out to answer three questions- What do their employees care about? What do major brands care about?What does the end customer care about?Enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Carl and Reid!Connect with Host, David Millay:Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay