Episode 248 Snippets: Elisa Padilla, longtime CEO in the NBA, MLB, NHL

Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 248: Elisa Padilla
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
On episode 248 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil
chatted with Elisa Padilla, Founder of Kick It By EP and longtime
senior marketing exec with the Brooklyn Nets, New York Islanders,
Miami Marlins, Apple, and more.
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.

Elisa’s Career Path
“So I have over two decades of experience in sports and
entertainment. I started off as a marketing assistant working for an
NBA team and have had the great opportunity to not only work at the
team level but also work at the NBA. I have worked on professional
basketball, I have worked on professional hockey, I have worked for
Major League Baseball and I have also worked for brands such as
AT&T and Apple and HBO Sports.

“My love for basketball started as a young kid. Growing up my older brother was a
high school athlete and we used to go to his basketball games to cheer him on, so
basketball was part of my life early on. I do not play sports. However, late in my 20s
after working for a few years — I have a passion for tennis so I took tennis lessons,
learned how to play tennis…I'm not very athletic at all but still loved it and tried it.
And most recently when the world shut down in March of 2020, like so many
Americans, the world was turned upside down and I turned a negative into a positive,
and I founded a platform Kick It by EP, which features lunchtime conversation; it is a
platform on IG Live where I elevate people's stories by doing a 20-minute IG live
where I ask the guests a few questions and it's them sharing their story and at the end
I ask for three career insights to share with the audience and people who are going to
watch later. So I've been doing that for three years now and I really love it. And like I
said to you earlier, it fuels my soul because one of the things that I really want to
push back into the world is fitness and that allows me to do it.”

On deciding to pursue a career in sports
“I was a junior in college and as part of the program going into senior
year you had to do an internship and I originally wanted to go into
television, so I applied for an internship at Madison Square Garden
Network. I did not get the internship with the network per se, meaning I
thought that I was going to be a camera operator. So I didn't get [that], I
got an internship in the programing department and I was sitting next
to the sales and marketing team, so I quickly through that internship
discovered that I didn't want to be in television [production], that I was
more interested in what the sales and marketing teams were doing.

“So I went back to school after my summer internship and I took my first
marketing class and I fell in love with marketing and I fell in love with it
based on the psychological aspect of marketing, making consumers
believe that they need your product. So I took my first marketing class —
and I was still an intern at [MSG Network] and had gone to a few sporting
events and thought, ‘Wow, I would love to work for a team.’ And I
graduated and did another internship with, back then it was called
Virginia Slims Championships, I don't want to date myself, but that's
what they were called. And then there was an entry level position at the
New York Knicks and I went for it and I got it. I remember vividly today
what suit I had on that day, but that's neither here nor there. So that's
that's when I decided, it was basically my senior year in college.”

On traditional marketing vs. sports and entertainment marketing
“It's interesting because in sports we're selling an experience. You don't know
the outcome, right? You're selling an experience where you're tapping into the
emotion and the fandom of your fans. So I was really fortunate [that] when I got
my first job out of college, I my first boss was this brilliant woman who was the
director of marketing at the time. And what was so great about her background
was that she had come to to sports from a CPG (consumer products and goods)
perspective. So her early career she had worked in the CPG sector, which was
obviously, you know, traditional marketing. So I was able to really learn from
her and she took me under her wing and she taught me everything from the
principles of sports marketing, how to attract fans, how to communicate to fans
what you were offering because we were selling tickets, right?

“Now when I look at it, and what people should know, is that no
matter what position you're in, you're selling — whether you're a
barista at Starbucks or whether you're the CMO for a sports team. So
she really taught me everything from understanding fan psychology,
from a game presentation perspective — so here's how you get them
in the door [and] when you get them in the door, here's how you have
to entertain them. I was very blessed from that perspective and to this
day so many years later, she's still my mentor.”

On the KPIs for marketing, particularly before digital and big data took off
“So it was based on ticket sales and attendance and show rates, right? And from the
entertainment aspect of the game, you were able to see how the crowd was reacting. So
movie clips were a big deal, you know, having celebrities singing the National Anthem was
a big deal. And I think as my career has evolved, one of the things that I have learned is
that from a data perspective, sports is a little bit behind because what I've learned from my
time outside of sports is that we weren't weren't tracking the way that we perhaps should
have been tracking. But that's not here nor there because I think that the launch of social
media and digital really changed the world.
“I mean, I remember I was working for a team when the NBA launched NBA.com. I
remember going to Seattle and spending a week there being trained on the website and
how we were going to be able to put content on the website. And now everything is at your
fingertips, anybody can build a website, right?”

On social media getting bigger and how the team approached that evolution
“Well, I think that early on the conversations were about, ‘Oh my goodness,
here's another outlet where we can tell the team's story.’ To my recollection, the
conversations were always about content first. And it wasn't until we got a little
savvy here in regards to being able to track digital advertising and put pixels on
websites and really understand the customer funnel that we then started
investing on the advertising side. But the crux of it when digital launched was
all about content. And then when social, when Facebook first introduced itself,
that was more about making the connection with the fans. It was about pushing
out content where fans were — it was fan engagement. That's literally where the
fan engagement started on digital, where the fan engagement prior to that was
in-arena

“So whether you were in arena or in a ballpark, how fans reacted —
that's how we were gauging engagement, right? But with the launch of
social media, it became more of the 1 to 1 with with your fans. So are
they commenting? Are they sharing? Are they liking? Are they
reposting? So I think social really opened the door to having more
brand ambassadors and not only marketing within your own local
footprint, but you were able to go regionally, nationally and even
globally. When I was with the Nets there were certain teams that had
a Weibo account in China and we were one of those teams; not all
teams had a presence in China.”

On creating value from the growing non-local audience
“My belief has always been that you take the 360 approach to your
fandom. So you want to make sure that your message is where fans have
access to it and where they can consume it. I always think specifically for
a sports fan, that if you're a fan of of your local team and you can't get to a
game for whatever reason, it's the team's responsibility to be able to to
ensure that you have access to the team — whether it's television, radio,
digital, so when you think about the KPIs, when you think about social
media, it's about growth, right? How many people are following you?
How is your account growing? How are your fans engaging? What is the
reshare [rate] like?

“From a social media perspective, you have a lot of points that you can look at, right? So if
you're sitting in China and you're a Nets fan, well, you know what, you can interact with
the Nets via social media. You can buy their merchandise, you may be able to see their
games through Slingbox or whatever is offered from an overseas perspective. I think that's
how you have to look at it. You have to look at the journey of your fan and really make sure
that you're showing up.
“From a monetization standpoint, I think that you have to look locally, right? Like who's
buying your tickets, where are they coming from and drill down to zip code, demographics,
psychographics to really understand — because not everyone who is a fan of yours is going
to want to attend a game. Or maybe they will, maybe they won't, right? Hopefully that's the
end game. But at the end of the day, you have people that are buying your merchandise,
that are contributing to your TV ratings, your radio ratings and they’re your ambassador,
they're equally as important as the ones that are spending money to come into the arena to
buy your merchandise, to consume food at your concession stands.”

On how much to glean from the vocal minority on social media
“I think it's just having a temperature on what the chatter is, right? And it's just like if
you have 24 comments, I'm taking this as an example, and 12 of them are negative and
eight of them are not, it's like, okay, that’s one view. And if those comments are on
Instagram, well, what are they saying on Twitter? What are they saying on TikTok?
What are they saying on Facebook? What are they saying on Reddit? I think it's more
important to really have your finger on the pulse, and if it's something where the
sentiment is red flags all across, then I think that that's where you address it.
“But I think that the most important thing from a leadership perspective is just,
number one, understanding where your fans are engaging, right? How they're giving
you feedback and if the feedback needs attention to make sure that you address it
quickly and appropriately.”

On how much the marketing leaders need to know about social platforms
themselves
“What's interesting about the social media platforms is that the algorithm changes
like every week. So I think that you have to be educated enough on the content that
works on the platform and then you have to be educated enough to understand
how your brand shows up on the platform. So when TikTok came out, I was just
like, ‘Okay, you know what? I'm going to learn about TikTok. I'm going to learn
how people use it.’ And I know enough, however, I rely on others that are experts
because I think that social media and I say this without any rose-colored glasses —
I did not grow up with a phone in my hand. And I have been working with folks
that have grown up with a phone in their hand. And you know what? I believe that
in life you have to continue to learn and be open to learning new things.

“So I approach it where I know enough about the platform, but I lean
on others that have the expertise from a user perspective, right? Like,I
know that there's a generation out there that uses TikTok as research,
so it's like, okay, when we show up on TikTok we need to make sure
that we're, whatever brands you're working on, you have to show up
from from a place of knowing that the majority of the people that are
going to see your content are potentially using it as research. So what
do you want them to know? How are you putting your brand out
there?

“So I think that's been my approach since day one. I opened up a
TikTok account for my own platform for Kick It By EP and I took a
step back because I'm not a content producer in terms of being able to
produce raw content on the spot that I found interesting enough for
my audience and the community that I was growing where, you know,
it was like, okay, that's not going to work for my personal brand.
However, on Instagram, that's really where I have found a place
where I can call home for my brand.”

On flexibly adapting the brand to fit the social platform and its audience
“I think that as long as you remain authentic, it's okay to color outside the lines. I
think that as long as you are showing up as your true brand self — using a sports
team for for example, they can show up in the arena or the ballpark and behave one
way and they show up on Facebook one way or they show up on [their] halftime
show another — but there's a common thread there of ensuring that there's brand
consistency, and the brands that have embraced coloring outside the lines clearly,
not that I should assume but I'm assuming that they have data that backs up that
them coloring outside the lines is paying off, whether it's in regards to growing
their fan base or reaching new audiences. I think that sometimes the risk is worth
the rewards. And when it's not, you're going to know because if you're coloring
outside the lines and you're not seeing growth, then you have to rethink what
you're doing.”

On how teams formalize their brand to ensure consistency with flexibility
“So it starts with a brand, your brand guidelines. I remember we went through an
exercise where it was social tone of voice, this is how we show up, this is how we
speak, these are the do's, these are the don'ts — and that was the Bible and we
used those guidelines. So whether we were on Twitter or we were on Facebook or
we were on Weibo, it didn't matter what platform we were on as long as we were
following the guidelines to ensure that consistency. It goes from the guidelines,
then it goes to the content calendar, right? Because what we know is similar to
one size doesn't fit all content, one size doesn't fit all the platforms. So you can't
behave on Facebook the way that you behave on TikTok because number one, the
audiences are different. And number two, you have to know your platform
similar to us marketers having to know your audience, right?

“So on the content calendar — it's like, okay, this is what we want to
communicate out. And then once we had the content calendar, then it
was like, okay, here's content production — we need photography, we
need copywriting, we need video. And then it was the path of production.
It's like, okay, if we want to do a video and it's going to show up on
Instagram, is it going to show up in-arena? Is it going to show up on our
website? What are the distribution channels to make sure that from a
production standpoint we were producing the content from a multi-
channel perspective. And there were times when we were producing
something for social that we would never play in-arena and that was okay
and that was intentional because what worked in-arena potentially
wouldn't work on social or vice versa.”

On evaluating the ROI of social media that primarily serves to strengthen the brand
“I think that we've gotten a lot smarter in terms of what are the KPIs and the ROI on
content development. But when I think about content and I think about what's hooking
your fans or your consumers, it's good storytelling, right? It's really understanding and
feeling confident in your brand to be able to tell a story that's going to have impact. So the
way that I look at it is it's about evoking emotion, driving action to share of wallet, right?
So if you produce a piece of content and you're evoking emotion, what is the action that
you want that customer or your fan to take? Is it that you want to lead them to your
website? You want to lead them to a landing page? The brand has to figure that out.
“Then how once you get them to do that action, then what is the next step to get your
wallet? And it may not show up the day that you post the content. It may show up six
months later. But as long as you're evoking that emotion and breaking through the clutter,
I think that you can you can justify it.”

On marketing the brand of the teams just as much as. the sport
“I think it's twofold. I think that it's okay to have folks engage with your
content and never be a fan. And the way that I look at it is if I like
something, I'm going to tell ten people, right? If I don't like something,
I'm going to tell ten people. So it's a double edged sword. And what I
mean by that is that you can have a larger presence on social than you do
in a ballpark or in an arena, however, the reality of it is that you still have
that connection with that consumer who eventually may — they may like
you on TikTok, they may see your brand in a store and pick up a t-shirt or
a sweatshirt or, you know, tell their friends about your content. You're
still touching that person and that still matters too.”

On the changing nature of sports fandom
“I just think the world has changed and I think that consumer behavior has
changed. And I think that when we think about sports, the live playing of the
sport is what you're selling. I just think that teams have to adapt and leagues
have to adapt to the consumer behavior. Think about specifically the music
industry; so, prior to the pandemic, you would never — and I know this because
I worked at an arena and I did marketing for an arena — you were never
allowed to post anything of the artists unless it was the ad mat or previously
approved images of the artists. And then come 2020, when John Legend did a
concert on IG Live, and it was like all these artists started doing pushing out
their own content and it was like the entertainment industry completely
changed.

“And it's interesting because I went to my first concert literally at the
beginning of June post-pandemic. I was still very cautious about
going to places where there were a lot of people. And there were
people holding up their phones and security was coming by telling
them to put their phones down, that they weren't allowed to
photograph and they weren't allowed to take video, which I thought
was so interesting. Because, like, the artists were giving us their
content for free and here we we paid to be at this concert, we want to
share it and security was saying that we couldn't. So it's just very
interesting.”

On the nature of fans that are just rooting for their bets or fantasy teams
and are not traditional fans of a team
“Look, they're watching, right?. They're watching.. And at the end of the
day, I think that it doesn't matter how you capture your fans attention. I
think that the greatest thing about sports is that you don't know the
outcome. That's where you're invested, right? That's where you have, you
know, 20,000 people showing up because they want to see X team play
against X team and they don't know what's going to happen. It's live
drama. And I think, from a betting perspective, you know, I think I'm kind
of very old school, very traditional; if you want to be do sports betting,
that's all great and good, but I think that that's a different mindset.”

On the career insights that stand out for Elisa from her Lunchtime Conversations for Kick
It By EP
“I think the greatest thing is that everyone's journey is different, right? And I think that the
ones that have bubbled up are: always continue to learn; actually, today's guest that was
her third insight. And networking, the power of your network. Another one is
understanding that your skills are transferable. My all time favorite out of the 150+
conversations that I have is having your own personal board of directors. The guests talked
about how important it is to to have a circle of people that you can trust who know you and
who have your best interests at heart no matter what the situation is.
“So I think those are the top ones that come to mind. But there are so many great ones out
there, some really good ones that I quote every so often. There's another one by someone
who was in sponsorship for a long time who said [to] be solution based, always come to the
table with a solution. And it's like, yeah that's right.”

Elisa’s favorite HBO show of all time and the favorite campaign she
got to work on while at HBO
“So my favorite show by far is The Sopranos, hands down. [My
favorite] campaign was the De La Hoya versus Mayweather the first
time that they fought.”

The most memorable campaign from Elisa’s time with Brooklyn Nets
“‘Hello, Brooklyn,’ [from] when we introduced the brand, when we
introduced the Nets to Brooklyn.”

The most memorable game ever that Elisa has been at either as an
employee or as a fan
“So as an employee I was working at the New York Knicks and it was a
Sunday and we were playing the Chicago Bulls and we were on NBC
and we had to break away and do the split screen because it was the
[White] Bronco chase [involving OJ Simpson]. I was sitting behind
the director of game presentation at the time. My eyes were like, ‘Oh
my God, is this really happening?’ So yes, that was my most
memorable.”

About the pathway to the CMO nowadays and where social media
pros fit
“I definitely think that the future pathway to a CMO role is going to be
through social / digital and I think it's because if you're in the digital
landscape, you have so much more access to understand how your
consumers are behaving and what's working and what's not working
than you probably had 10-15 years ago.”

On her experience as a woman working in sports
“I think that, you know, a former boss of mine at HBO summed it up
very perfectly and he said to me, he said, ‘Elisa, you're here because of
your intellectual property and that's why we hired you.’ So while the
sports industry is definitely very male-dominated, gender was never
top of mind for me. It was always about putting my head down and
getting the work done.”

The most memorable non-sports entertainment event that Elisa ever
attended, whether for work or as a fan
“Well, I have to tell you, many years ago I attended the balloon
festival out in New Jersey and I was there with a friend. It was on her
bucket list to go on a balloon ride and I was able to make that happen
for her. So that's my most memorable non-sports event memory…I
didn't go up, but she went up and that's all that mattered.”

What can MLB do to grow or maintain its popularity with younger
generations?
“I think it has to start from the ground up. You have to start at the
grassroots level and I think that the teams within MLB and MLB [itself]
have to really think about capturing the fans when they start playing tee
ball; and it should be baseball and softball. You know, we had
tremendous growth in youth baseball and softball when I was with the
Marlins and that's how we did it. It was because we dedicated our
resources to sponsoring the teeball programs in Miami. You have to get
them when they're young, you have to get that baseball in their hand
when they're very young.”

The best meal to get in New
York and where to get it
“Oh, my goodness…There are so
many great food offerings here
in New York. But I have to tell
you, coming to New York, you
have to get a bagel and you have
to go to Leo's Bagels in the
financial district on Pearl
Street…Their egg and bacon
sandwich on a plain bagel is to
die for.”

What advice does Elisa have for someone that wants to work in
sports?
“I think that you have to network. [The sports industry] is so
competitive that you have to start networking very early on, even
when you're in school. You never know who you're going to be sitting
next to, that potentially someone in your chemistry class or stats class
will end up working in sports. I think networking is really important.”

The pro sports league whose stock Elisa would be willing to buy and
hold for the next 50 years
“Hands down the NBA.”

Elisa’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
“So I want to give a shout out to two — one is Shauna Griffiths. Follow her
on LinkedIn and also on Instagram. Her handle on Instagram is
@SLGImpact and she’s also [posting] on LinkedIn. And the reason that I
follow her is because she talks about leadership and the trends within
leadership and things that leaders should be thinking about.
“The other one is Jacob Brown and he is on LinkedIn. I was introduced to
Jacob's material on Shauna's podcast and I follow him on LinkedIn and
he just has very snackable pieces of advice on a daily basis that are really
relevant to anybody who's interested.”

Where to find Elisa and Kick It By EP across platforms
Elisa is most active herself on LinkedIn (Elisa Padilla) and find it Kick
It By EP @kickitbyep on Instagram and on the website
kickitbyep.com

@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
Thanks again to Elisa for being so generous with her time to share her
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.

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