In a recent wide-ranging interview conducted by CBS Sports’s Seth Davis, ESPN Sports Business Reporter (and frequent Twitter user) Darren Rovell was asked about what he thinks is next in sports and social media. I appreciated what he articulated and is a good reinforcement on what teams themselves it can continue to do — to find the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. Check out the excerpt below:
“It’s raw. It’s raw stuff. It’s instead of a camera and the standard sit-down interview, it’s raw stuff from phones. ..People want stuff that is raw, and in places that they can’t get. The press box might be dead, but when I was in Wrigley Field (for the first regular season game for the Cubs after their World Series win), I was with my phone as Theo Epstein made his way to his seat and was completely mobbed. That’s what people want to see; they want to be behind the scenes…
That’s one of the products that I’ve helped push and report out (for ESPN) – this kind of on-the-scene thing where people want to see something that is handheld, raw, immediate, and something that feels like they are there. If I’m a Cubs fan and I can’t get to Wrigley [Field], how can I put out video immediately that makes me feel like I’m at Wrigley? So I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time…thinking about places to be, and how to execute that.
And it’s very difficult, because, I think for a long time, I had always thought (that) you happen to catch something going on when you’re walking to your seat or something else and then it turns into gold. And I’ve seen that on my social media feed. I’m at an event for one reason and I catch something else and that becomes the star [sic] of the night. But with this stuff, the behind-the-scenes stuff, you think it requires no preparation because it just kind of happens spontaneously. And I’ve found that you have to block the day out in a way that it’s harder than if you’re going to write a story or have TV hits.
We’re learning this and that’s one of the things that I feel is the future. Raw, immediate, and behind-the-scenes.”
Listen to the full interview here.
Digital and Social Media Sports 