Content Strategy

Content as Currency: How the LA Kings Put Strategy to Content to Drive Fandom, Brand, and Business

What does it mean to have a content strategy in sports?

For some, the question may conjure ideas of content pillars or buckets. Others may think in fan development, segmentation, and player marketing. Another notion would consider the most common key performance indicators (KPIs) like reach and engagement. Still others may cite business objectives like brand building and revenue generation.

The thing is, it’s all of the above, and then some. Content serves many masters in 2025, more than ever before. Because it can. Thoughtful content strategy can and should accomplish all those aforementioned objectives. But it’s a strategy, not a catch-all goal for every post and piece of content. Creators create, producers produce, and managers manage. Well, duh. But speak to somebody like Alec Palmer, the Senior Manager of Social Content for the LA Kings, and you’ll appreciate how content strategy is an organizational strategy, transcending the tweets and TikToks that populate fans’ feeds.

Palmer came up as a content producer, picking up skills in college that kick-started his career path. His background, now coupled with years of experience managing content, makes him particularly well-suited to balance the never-ending content needs for a sports team in 2025, while still making the producers feel they have the agency and freedom to be creative.

“There’s an understanding of, Oh, he does know what goes into shooting this video,” said Palmer, who joined the Kings in late 2021. “And maybe he doesn’t know the entirety of like, what all goes into a red camera and a whole studio and production setup, but there’s enough where they know where, if I’m pressuring them to get something done or asking them to do something, it’s something I would ask myself to do as well. That’s what I hope comes through to my team, and even cross-departmentally, is I know what it takes, and I know I can step in at any time, and that trust that builds…

“We want the producers to have an innate green light,” Palmer explained. “That obviously can get you in some muddy waters when you need to rein someone in and be like, ‘I need you to do this thing,’ but we look at it as, like, the risk is worth the reward of like, Hey, we might lose a producer or two on a tangential project that doesn’t play out, but most of the time it’s going to work out in some fashion. That’s where we really hone it, like [harping] on communication…”

Palmer looks after the big picture while helping the content team to bring to life creative projects that fit with organizational goals. Such alignment is essential to getting buy-in and resources to take ambitious, creative swings in content, and tell stories that can drive convertible KPIs and create meaningful engagement that drives lifelong fandom.

That’s how Palmer and the content team found themselves in Switzerland this past summer. The team saw some other teams producing similar content, all-access content series, and remote shoots in player hometowns, and the Kings knew they wanted to tell their players’ stories with such a rich tapestry. Requesting to fly thousands of miles with a content team is not an insignificant ask, but when you have a plan and can connect the initiative to important objectives for the organization, the picture becomes pretty clear.

“We pitched [the idea], it was going to be expensive, we didn’t have the money,” said Palmer in describing the pitch to profile players in their hometowns. “In that pitching process, we said, ‘Here’s the content we would pull from these. Here’s roughly the amount of deliverables. Here’s the crew and the staff that would go; here’s the rough budget. And also here’s the story we’re telling and why this story is important.’…”

It’s understanding the why behind content that gets at the heart of strategy. Too often, reports and KPIs are reduced to a few surface-level numbers that, left unchecked, can lead to perverse incentives. If it’s just about hitting a certain number of engagements, impressions, and views, that leaves out a whole lot of substance. The goal isn’t to hit certain metrics, it’s to hit certain metrics that can tie to the actual goals. Hitting big numbers alone isn’t a strategy. Palmer talked about the blend of art and science in presenting reports and defining success in his position with the Kings.

“People learn in all different ways; people understand performance and success in all different ways,” he said. “So when you’re presenting something back, you need to be able to tell the anecdotal and the qualitative successes or failures, and the quantitative and the analytical successes and failures, and sometimes they may be in contention with each other. That’s something where you are the expert, you have to explain why and why that might be okay, or why it might not be okay…”

Palmer continued, also later noting that within the content strategy are nods to marketing, ticket-buying, and other revenue-generating elements: “So what we look at is, yes, we’re always looking at analytics. We have our paces, we have our KPIs, and generally we’re hitting them. But there are also things we are accepting where it’s like we’re taking a risk that this might not perform or it might perform, or it performs to average, but it’s important to tell the story about our team, or about the game, or about this player, because that is what helps drive fandom. And it’s also the age-old question of how are you driving revenue?”

The approach to content strategy is also a massive part of the picture, alongside the marketing-driven elements. In the best of conditions, they all work together. So while storytelling is inherently integral, the way content is presented, the copy used, the tone and voice that emanate, it’s absolutely critical in driving fandom and partnerships.

For years, the Kings had a distinct brand. As Palmer recounted in our interview, the Kings are often credited with starting a pivot for brand communication on social. A new era that welcomed comedy, snark, and sometimes savage or even self-deprecating, instead of the overly formal, official-sounding brand representations and tone of years past. But the LA Kings team that Palmer joined was different from the dominant team of the 2010s, which captured multiple Cups and grew over a massive fan base that loved the Kings’ distinct voice across social (and all fan touch points, really; the in-arena presentation also echoed those LA Kings vibes). It felt like there was a disconnect, as Palmer explained.

“They were going through a rebuild,” he said. “And what was happening was the sarcasm, the poke fun at ourselves wasn’t landing with fans as much. And it started not to land internally as well. Without getting into too many specifics, it was okay, well, we need to change this without losing this thing that got us here. It’s the same thing with the Kings, like the Kings have been known forever as this ‘we’re going to beat the living hell out of you’ on the ice. Our guys are bigger, faster, stronger than everyone, and we’re going to play great defense, and we’re going to just grind you till you can’t go anymore. That’s how they won their Cups. And that has changed and will change, but there’s always this mindset.

Palmer discussed the way the Kings evolved the brand, while remaining authentic and credible for fans.

“So that’s kind of how we approached it. It was, okay, we can’t lose this entire funny sarcastic, fun personality, but we have to make some changes to better suit what’s happening on the ice,” he said, later emphasizing the Kings’ approach to proudly wearing their Kings fandom and leaning into the ups and the downs. “We overcorrected right away to kind of peel so much back, and I was like, Let’s just start fresh, almost. Let’s pull back. And it’s going to be kind of uncomfortable to start, it’s going to be frustrating. Let’s pull back right away to just like a cookie-cutter, let’s start getting back to the team, and let’s reintroduce things, because we had no idea where that line was anymore. We had no idea where the line was that was too much or too little. So we had to reintroduce and kind of build and build and refit that boundary, and we hit that line…

“Over the years, we stripped that back and we started adding it in…As the team got better, we were able to do more and more, and we’ve now developed this kind of voice of we are the best and this idea of we’re going to beat you up. We’re not arrogant. We’re confident in what we do. We’re going to grind you out on the ice, we’re going to be able to just, you know, push through you, and we’re bigger, better, faster, stronger. So this mindset of being that on the ice, we thought, how can we relate that to our social presence?

“We kind of operate, and this is more internally, it’s not quote-unquote our written social strategy on the wall, but we operate as: Be a fan, be intentional, and be excellent…”

The optimal content strategy compounds. All of the elements explored in this article work together, enabling the sum of the whole to be greater. That’s a bigger story than any surface-level metrics can tell.

So, consider all the dots to connect for a content strategy. Create platforms that showcase to fans what the brand is all about, build avenues for connections, develop fans for life. Content is the most valuable currency we have; make the most of it.

WATCH/LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ALEC PALMER OF THE LA KINGS (TREMENDOUS)

READ THE SNIPPETS

Podcast Snippets

How and Why the LA Kings Invest in Longform Content, Develop Fans, Create Voice and Tone, and Drive Business Objectives

On episode 303 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Alec Palmer, Senior Manager, Social Content for the Los Angeles Kings

What follows are some snippets from the episode. Click Here to listen to the full episode or check it out and subscribe to the podcast via Apple or listen on Spotify or YouTube.

Podcasts

Episode 303: How Alec Palmer and the LA Kings Use Content to Drive Fandom, Brand, and Transcendent Engagement

Watch or listen to episode 303 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast, in which Neil chatted with Alec Palmer, Senior Manager, Social Content for the Los Angeles Kings.

112 minute duration. Listen on Apple, Spotify and YouTube

Listen above and watch below

Fan Development, General Sports Business

The Sports Fan Experience Through a Parent’s Eyes: What Marketers Should Know About Fans with Families

It’s easy to fall into a trap after years of working in sports (or any industry). It’s just difficult to see things from an objective point of view, taking on the perspective of the ‘normal’ fan or consumer.

That’s why I love peppering friends, family, and, heck, complete strangers with questions about their experience as sports fans. Avoiding an insular point of view is critical to effectively understand the fan experience — the motivations, challenges, and opportunities. And that’s why each year when my Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast hits a milestone (12 years this year!), I’ve had friends and family members appear on the pod to ask about their relationship to sports and experience as a fan. I learned from my brother, an avid fantasy player and diehard San Diego Padres fan, my mom, a non-sports fan who became one of the biggest Anaheim Ducks fans you’ll meet, and, this year, my brother-in-law, Richard Schulman.

Rich grew up a sports fan, cheering on the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers. He became a big fan of Cal during his undergrad experience in Berkeley. For years, he’s always been aware of the sports zeitgeist, tuning into the biggest events and having enough knowledge to carry on a conversation about the sports news of the day or debate the biggest topics. Today, he’s a father of four, working (quite successfully!) in real estate, challenged for time to follow sports, but a season ticket holder for Angel City FC, because he’s raising girls who love to play soccer (and go to ACFC games with their friends).

I came away from my interview with Rich with a ton of insight about what it’s like to be a time-strapped father trying to balance keeping up with sports while keeping up with his kids, who adopted a team that didn’t exist when he was growing up, because it’s fun to do with his daughters. Here are some key lessons and takeaways:

Time is the Limiting Factor for Fandom

The days are still 24 hours as one starts to build a family, but the days are necessarily more managed and time feels more crunched. Rich can recall days in the past when he’d settle in to watch a day of sports or attend a game not knowing what time the game would end, but now such uncertainty is downright daunting. That’s part of the appeal for Angel City games (and Savannah Bananas games), he explained.

“Now I’m constrained on time. Like, I took my seven year-old to a Savannah Bananas game. I’m sure you’re familiar with them; and the same with soccer, it’s like you get there and you sit down and exactly two hours later you’re walking to the car.

“I can take my kids to an Angel City game, which is the women’s pro team in LA, it’s like on a schedule. It’s like 7:00 game; I like to go early with the kids, we can walk around; but I can leave my house at 6:00, I can sit down at 6:30, the game starts at 7:00, the game is over by 8:45, I’m home by 9:30. It’s a pretty tight time. And the kids like it…

“So sports now has to fit into a box. Like, I can watch playoffs. But you know, I used to watch college football Saturday all day, and I could just watch a random three-hour football game. You can’t do that anymore.”

Takeaway:

We’ve already seen Major League Baseball, in particular, take proactive steps to limit the duration of its games, introducing a clock to the sport that had been distinct by its lack of a countdown time function. Recognize that parents, in particular, are balancing mealtimes, naptimes, and school nights. Part of the appeal of sports is the escape, leaving worries and clock watching aside, but that’s often not realistic for busy parents (and many adults, in general). While we can’t build in assurances, we can be more proactive about helping fans fit in their sports, whether that’s providing average duration and end times, recognizing some fans won’t stay or watch the full game (in person or at home), and helping them still be fans and have enjoyable, stress-free experiences nonetheless.

Following Sports Closely Ain’t Easy

There are days when there’s an exciting buzzer beater or an unreal comeback, and it feels like everyone has to be aware of this, right? But the reality you are the minority if you’re refreshing the Twitter feed every few minutes or locked into notifications for Adam Schefter and Shams reports, and planning your weekends around sports. There are certain transcendent news stories that break through for Rich, however; I offered the Luka Doncic trade, as an example. And while Rich rarely finds time to sit down and watch most of ant game, the playoffs, especially when they involve his team, can be an exception to the rule.

“For something big like [the Luka Doncic trade], like that’ll show up on the regular news or my social feed will pop because I have friends who care more than me about it…But now it’s crazy that people would even think about spending that much time watching.

“You know, when the playoffs come around, I’ll get interested. I watched most of the Dodgers playoff games last year. Except, of course, the game they won the World Series, I was at soccer with the kids and they went down 5-0. I’m like, Well, I guess we’re not watching that game. We’ll just watch tomorrow’s game. And then on the drive home, they tied the game. But I watched the whole game one with the kids with the Freddie Freeman Grand Slam, so they all saw that.”

Takeaway:

When I worked on the team side, I often reminded myself that, as unlikely as it seems, some fans really were learning about big news for the first time from the team’s social posts or emails or text alerts. Don’t take for granted the median fan of the team is as informed as the top 1-5% who engage with every post and have their fandom listed in their IG bio. But do recognize, too, that less-engaged fans often still have avid, informed fangelists in their social circles or friend groups that are on top of things. They’re the ones pinging the group chat or whose posts make it to the Facebook feed of their friends and family; help those vocal fans be the messenger.

Sports are Social and Season Tickets are about Convenience as much as Benefits

There are lot of reasons fans decide to become season ticket holders across any professional or collegiate sport. Just as there are myriad reasons fans enjoy attending games. For Rich, going to Angel City games was not necessarily because his daughters, avid soccer players themselves, wanted to see professional soccer; it was a social outing with friends. For young kids, and by proxy their parents, sports are an early social vehicle (along with school, of course). Friendships are formed through playing sports, and attending sports events are great, novel ‘play dates,’ where friends can have new experiences and make memories together.

In addition, make special note of the difference Rich saw in the way his girls responded to Angel City (NWSL) and LAFC (MLS). It’s great that we tend to see both little girls AND little boys enjoy women’s sports, and interesting (and powerful) for little girls to be awestruck by seeing women as superstars, competing in front of big crowds at the highest level.

The decision to invest in season tickets ties together a lot of the aforementioned ideas in this piece — predictability, social, and convenience.

“We had gone to some LAFC games, me and the girls. We had friends that had tickets, so we would occasionally go with them on their tickets or buy tickets near them, and they liked it. I mean, it was neat for them. It was really interesting when Angel City came around, the same friend and another friend got season tickets and we thought, Oh, we’re not going to go to all the games, and then we went and the girls had a much better reaction to girls playing soccer than boys playing soccer, which to me, maybe it sounds obvious; I was surprised just because, like, I didn’t really ever think about it. We had pretty good seats. It’s a small stadium, it’s a nice, intimate venue, but you’re still like 100 feet away from a player. And if they do a throw in right underneath your seats; like, I can throw a baseball probably to the players that are closest to us.

“But [my daughters] really responded. So then we ended up getting [season tickets]…“There’s only like 10 or 12 home games, so it makes sense, once you start going to them. You can have your tickets that you want to have…We like to have the same seats, next to friends. The seats are good, it’s reliable, I don’t have to worry about going online. You know, Ticketmaster is still a poor experience to buy tickets. So it’s just nice to see, Okay. I have my tickets, I don’t have to think about it.”

Takeaway:

For many fans, sports events are a third place. It’s where you see or spend time with friends, sometimes it’s the only place you see certain friends. How can we better integrate this behavior into sports? Could purchasing tickets (especially directly from the team) be negineered to make it easy to be paired with another buyer or could we rethink what ‘group sales’ means when it’s 2-3 families instead of a company, church, or youth team? And while season ticket membership benefits are great (I spoje with Rich about some cool experiences on the field his girls get to have because of season ticket member or group sales benefits), don’t overlook the little things — the convenience, the reduction of stress, the reliability.

[Still thinking about the remark about the ‘different response’ his girls had to watching women play, too]

Accessibility is an Underrated Aspect for Kids Becoming Fans

Sports fandom has evolved in the last couple of decades, and many fans tend to follow athletes as much as teams. But, especially for kids at that vital age range (~ 8-11 years old, give or take), there is a greater correlation between proximity and their favorite players. There’s still a bit of magic for little kids to meet any professional athlete, they’re demigods even if kids don’t know their names. And while fans may follow stars like Messi or Ohtani or LeBron wherever they go, for little kids, it’s the star players they’re able to see IRL that have a higher likelihood of capturing their young hearts. With all that in mind, it’s worthwhile to note what Rich says about the flux nature of the Angel City roster and how that affects the propensity for the kdis to get to know players by name and, in turn, want to follow them (and the team) more avidly on and off the pitch.

“[The girls] don’t follow it like I used to follow sports, but they know the best players, like the main starting players. Angel City seems to have a constantly changing roster of players, so it’s been a little challenging to attach. But like, you know, let’s say Alyssa Thompson is their best or most notable player, like when we met her at the stadium after the game, they go down and try to get autographs, they’re really excited. Hannah recognized her and her sister at the mall, and we tracked down Alyssa Thompson at the mall…“But they probably couldn’t tell you 11 players on the team and we don’t really follow — like, Angel City has not been successful at winning soccer games. So we haven’t really been following their games that we don’t go to…

“[His daughters] get excited even when they meet [any] player. You know, they got an autograph last week at the game, and we don’t know who the person is. I have a picture of her, I have to figure out who it was. But she was excited, it was a former player who signed her jersey. So sometimes, if they go down to the field, they’ll get a signature from some of the other team, like the backup goalie from their team, but they’re still excited.”

Takeaway:

There’s not much we can do about the dynamic nature of rosters these days (incidentally, Rich also lamented his Cal fandom diminishing as the program’s top football players annually enter the transfer portal). The issue is a big one in sports — the dilution of unconditional love for a team, exacerbated by closer ties to individual players, the majority of whom won’t be on the team for their entire careers. But the good news is that because of that smaller world for young kids, when they’re at the age that their lifelong fandom can form, they’re more likely to latch onto the local team and its players. Make it easy for young fans to fall in love with the team, every last one of them. One of the best parts of women’s sports, especially, is before and after each game, a lot of the athletes (including the superstars) make time for kids, giving them lifelong memories and special moments that can form powerful connections. Give more kids more opportunities to make lifelong memories that involve the team, stories that’ll be etched in stone and in their hearts and minds for life.

A Couple More Quick Quotes

I wanted to include these additional quotes, but without extensive analysis.

The first represents the challenge of trying to balance sports participation for four kids. At a time when sports specialization is increasingly prevalent, and increasingly questioned, Rich’s girls have primarily stuck to soccer. Parents drive a lot of early exposure to sports and recreational participation, and it’s not easy when the kids and their social and sports and other obligations start to pile up. But also take note of another theme from my interview with Rich, how soccer has become a fulcrum for friendships. Specialization and playing club soccer and tournaments isn’t about just about playing more soccer, it’s spending more time with their friends.

“I don’t know how people do it with multiple sports. I mean, I know it’s probably better for the kids overall. It’s probably better for their sports. But at some point you have to say you gotta play soccer year round if you want to advance in soccer. Like, it’d be neat if you also had time to be like a swimmer and a volleyball player, but with four kids, it’s just not going to happen….It’s not really challenging because, you know, they are invited to play on an all star team and they get excited for that, and they generally tend to become friends with the other all stars. So it’s like you want to do more soccer with your friends? Of course.”

Rich has taken his kids to a handful of different sports events over the years, so we talked about the experience of being a parent and taking a young kid (or group of kids) to a game. What’s the right age to start taking them, how the kids experience it, and what their particular experience with Angel City is like.

“Probably around 6 or 7 [is the right age to start taking kids to games]. I mean, Leah will watch a whole game, but last game we went to, they wanted to go buy candy, and I’m like, there’s 20 minutes left in the game, you’re not going to go buy candy. You know, wander the stadium and go buy candy and miss the whole game. So you know, something like that…

“[Angel City] has a lot of stuff going on before the game, which is nice. The food options have dwindled as attendance has trailed off. They always have a local musical thing happening. They have some celebrity fans they highlight, which is neat. But they should focus on putting out a winning product on the field and that will kind of solve [things].”

Thank you again to my brother-in-law, Rich, for being a great dad to my nieces and nephew, and for helping us celebrate 12 years of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast by offering his experiences and opinions as a fan and father!

WATCH OR LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD SCHULMAN

READ THE SNIPPETS

Podcast Snippets

How a Father and Angel City STH Considers Sports Fandom

On episode 302 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Richard Schulman, his brother-in-law! He’s a lifelong sports fan, now a father of four and Angel City FC season ticket holder, answering Neil’s questions about how he follows sports, became an Angel City FC fan, raising his kids with sports, and more. His day job is the head of the Richard Schulman Team, a Keller Williams realty.

What follows are some snippets from the episode. Click Here to listen to the full episode or check it out and subscribe to the podcast via Apple or listen on Spotify or YouTube.

Podcasts

Episode 302: 12 Year-Anniversary Special! A Candid Conversation with Neil’s Brother-in-Law, Rich. A Father of Four and Angel City FC Season Ticket Holder

🎉🎉 THANK YOU FOR 12 YEARS OF THE PODCAST!!!🎉🎉

Watch or listen to episode 302 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast, in which Neil chatted with Richard Schulman, his brother-in-law! He’s a lifelong sports fan, now a father of four and Angel City FC season ticket holder, answering Neil’s questions about how he follows sports, became an Angel City FC fan, raising his kids with sports, and more. His day job is the head of the Richard Schulman Team, a Keller Williams realty.

66 minute duration. Listen on Apple, Spotify and YouTube

Listen above and watch below

Content Strategy, Fan Development

Brand Building and Cultural Creativity: How Animation is Used to Fuel Fandom in Sports

The goalposts keep moving for content in sports.

All-access and mic’d-up players are now a part of every team and league’s arsenal. 360-degree replays, video game-like mirrorless cameras, drone shots, aerial cams, POV views, net cameras, cinematic hype videos that could be mistaken for Hollywood trailers — the acceleration in content quality, diversity, and innovation is remarkable.

So how the hell is a team’s content expected to cut through, stand out, and grab a fan’s attention away from the screens and feeds vying for their eyeballs, minds, and hearts?

There’s no single right answer to the challenge (sorry!), but by breaking from expectations, telling deeper stories that feel made for you and command attention, and embracing novelty, there’s a chance to get fans to stop and engage.

Greg Walter and his team at 2Tall Animation aren’t trying to replace the incredible highlights and photos that sports produce. Those continue to play a major role in fan acquisition and engagement, fueled by the daily renewal of more eye-popping plays and moments. But there’s a reason animation is such a powerful complement for sports and sports fans. It can embellish the inherent mythology in sports and bring to life the legends with which fans already identify in sports. And animation can allow teams and leagues to explore and exploit unique places in storytelling, creating and capturing fan passion in the process.

“The way we think about sports media is 99% of it is photo and footage based, and it should be, because people want to see their heroes, they want to see the games,” said Walter, the Owner and Creative Director of 2Tall Animation, the animation production studio specializing in sports. “But what’s the other 1%? We feel like we’re the other 1% that somebody might grab onto if they want to do something completely different, or if they want to create some media where they can control it and go anywhere they want to, because you can go into any storytelling space, you can go into any visual space with animation.”

The versatility of animation means it can serve many masters and aim to achieve diverse goals. But the often-exaggerated nature of animated projects is more conducive to enhancing the avidity of existing fans. Consider those illustrations that leagues such as the NFL and NBA will put out around holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, full of exacting details that only the biggest fans will recognize and appreciate. It’s those types of ‘if you know you know’ elements that strengthen fan identities and lead casual fans to want to enhance their own immersion into the property.

Walter discussed how thoughtful 2Tall is with its clients in identifying those brand elements and esoterica, which bring to life that community and identity.

“Usually it’s to take the current audience and take them to a new place. Like, it’s not necessarily to gain a new audience. It’s to double down on what the audience is already excited about,” Walter said about the nature of 2Tall’s objectives with clients. “Especially if we’re doing something in venue or we’re doing something on social media, what we really want to do is we want to create a piece that looks like it was made by a local for that team.

“And what I mean by that is we’ll dig into all the local Easter eggs. We’ll have a lot of creative meetings to figure out, Okay, where is the team? Who are the heroes? And more importantly, who are the fans? What is the culture around the team? And even more importantly, why do these fans love following this team? Besides geography, what about this team do they put their hopes and dreams in so that they would stick with this team when they’re good, when they’re bad? Is it a blue-collar city where it’s [about] grit and hard work? Is it a flashy city where you want to go big and lights and all that stuff? What’s drawing the moths to the flame?

“And then how do we show something interesting and new to this audience to get it even more excited and to see the team, the city, the franchise in an interesting new way?”

As Walter described the depth of exploration in their animation projects, it became apparent how powerful the animations can be to foment the brand — its messages, totems, tokens, and traits. One may not instantly think of a cool video board hype reel or an illustrative storytelling vehicle on social media to create a brand platform, but the degree of familiarity and fidelity built into the animations, combined with the unique visual appeal, can open (or create) new worlds to explore across mediums and touch points.

“More and more as we approach teams, and we’re creating videos for them, we’re also packaging up still assets for them, and we’re writing into the contracts we’ll also get you some still assets you can use over some looping assets that you can use on your boards any way you want, or in your merch,” said Walter. “And you can cross-purpose this stuff, so you’re not paying for something that’s going to show once or even once before each game. You’re paying for a package of other things that you can then give to your video team, to your merch team, and then they can recompile them in interesting ways.”

Whether animated or not, teams and leagues produce countless videos of varying forms that aim to stir emotion in their fans — at games in the arena or stadium, on social and mobile in the feeds and stories, and on countless other platforms. But while the social feeds may give you some semblance of performance through likes, comments, and shares, it remains difficult to understand when this content truly breaks through. The best content doesn’t inspire tapping a heart; it touches the heart, making the fan feel something, enhancing what it means to them to be a fan.

In evaluating the success of their projects, Walter and his colleagues and clients recognize there are variables they can and cannot control. If the team is mired in a slump or losing situation, that’s bound to affect how any content is received, animated or otherwise. At the same time, when the content does hit with its full intended effect, especially in-venue, there’s no easily quantifiable way to know it. So, for Walter and 2Tall, it’s part-art, part-science.

“You can’t measure ‘Did the audience get a little bit louder when they saw this thing?'” said Walter. “I will say that we did a couple of things for the Super Bowl this year. We did one for the Eagles and one for the Chiefs. The one for the Eagles played when the Eagles were really at their peak, and the crowd went wild for it. The one the Chiefs, unfortunately, played right as the crowd started realizing that this one was really getting out of hand, and it was a dead room, apparently. So it’s little bits of data like that that we can go on.”

Not all animation is meant to serve the same purpose or elicit the same feeling, either. If you haven’t yet gone and looked up any of 2Tall’s work, there’s no telling what you’re picturing as you read about ‘animation.’ Maybe it’s something akin to anime, or perhaps something resembling the Nickelodeon cartoons of the ’90s and ’00s; animation represents a vast spectrum, and to put animation in a single box is inaccurate. So, this whole conversation about animation in sports is multifarious, a menu within the medium that organizations should navigate with intentionality.

“There’s kind of a choice point,” explained Walter, who founded 2Tall in 2012. “Do I want to go into a lane that people already know and work within that, or do I want to use animation? That can be anything. You can go collage, you can go rotoscope animation, which is traced animation, you can do trippy, you can do photorealistic, you can do graphic novel, you can do street art. You can do a whole bunch of different things. You know, what satisfies the assignment the best?

“If you want to do street art, there’s a materiality about street art. You expect pavement, you expect walls. There’s a tangibility to it that we can work with to give something that’s got kind of a solid feel, where your feet are on the ground and you feel like you’re at ground level, or we can do something crazy and trippy that’s got lots of colors and it’s out in space.”

This article started out by lamenting the Sisyphean quest to produce content that stands out. There’s a perpetual arms race in content, not just in sports, but on every screen and frame vying for sustained attention. The velocity and volume may be greater than ever, but the cyclical, one-upsmanship nature of creative is simply part of the game. It’s a feature, not a bug.

Creative is a field that compounds. The evolution and innovation will continue because new ideas build upon existing ones. The roots of just about any creative field can be traced back centuries, so it’s not about eschewing convention, but veering just a bit, taking chances, and playing outside the lines of expectation. As Walter has survived and thrived amidst the accelerated timelines of creative trends and techniques, he welcomes the challenge of giving fans something different. Something that’ll make them stop, notice, and digest.

“People’s relationship with social media is very problematic, but it exists and we are existing to create content for that,” he said. “And people are comfortable with the thing that they like to go on and slide through. But I think people are hungry to be surprised. And anytime that you can give somebody a good surprise, there are bad surprises too, but a good surprise, that’s a little victory. That’s like a breadcrumb that can lead to other things as well.

“And that’s kind of how a lot of this churn happens. It’s like somebody does something interesting, you know, and then someone else sees it and they’re like, I can take that a little bit further, and then it churns into something bigger.”

WATCH OR LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH GREG WALTER

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Podcast Snippets

How Animation is Used by Sports Teams and Leagues

On episode 301 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Greg Walter, Owner and Creative Director, 2Tall Animation.

What follows are some snippets from the episode. Click Here to listen to the full episode or check it out and subscribe to the podcast via Apple or listen on Spotify or YouTube.

Podcasts

Episode 301: 2Tall’s Greg Walter on Everything You Need to Know about Animation in Sports

Watch or listen to episode 301 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast, in which Neil chatted with Greg Walter, Owner and Creative Director, 2Tall Animation.

87 minute duration. Listen on Apple, Spotify and YouTube

Listen above and watch below

Working In Sports

Building a Career in Sports: Taking Risks, Overcoming Challenges, and Growing Along the Way

A career in sports can engulf you. For most others, sports are the escape, not the job. The sports industry tries to work around the daily schedule; all the most important stuff happens on nights, weekends, and holidays. Sports are central to social lives, fuel and activate passion, and, for some, affect emotional well-being.

It’s also challenging and rewarding in all the best ways. All the conversations, engagement, relationships, experiences, and memories you can create. You produce content and promotions that are entertainment, you sell excitement, community, and (hopefully) joy. You analyze fan psychographics, study platforms, create feelings through content, manage massive projects, drive creative partnerships, manage a brand, and practice customer service.

Eric SanInocencio has built a career in sports, content, digital, and marketing. He has grown up in the industry, picking up all those skills and ascending to leadership roles in top-level organizations in college, pro, and amateur sports, along with a stint at Amazon. While working in sports is a dream job for many, and it is a heck of a lot of fun, make no mistake — it’s a business. It’s important to understand that as one embarks on a career in sports, it’s integral to connect all the thrills and emotions of fandom into meaningful business goals.

“Social and sports is almost always viewed through the lens of fun content to create and fan engagement,” said SanInocencio, who started his full-time career in the Gulf South Conference, a Division II NCAA conference. “The quicker that you can understand how this ties into the larger business objectives, the quicker you open the door for you to consider other opportunities that could be completely different and that might fit a timeline that’s better for you as you grow in your career.”

SanInocencio grew in his career by chasing new challenges, embracing the unease inherent to stepping outside one’s comfort zone. The willingness to run towards those opportunities is key to growth, not just in a sports career but in any career. The ethos has served SanInocenio particularly well, because he was treading a career path in parallel with the growth of the field. There was no such thing as a ‘Senior Digital Media Director’ at a sports team, a role SanInocencio held at the Houston Texans, let alone a growing team of content creators, strategists, and analysts fueling platforms and a paradigm that was evolving as SanInocencio was coming up. At every career stop, he continued growing by facing new challenges, living in that zone of discomfort, and coming out accomplished and better for it.

“It’s okay to feel terrified of an opportunity,” he told me during a two-hour interview discussing developing a career in sports, growing into a leader, and navigating the job market today. “That means it’s probably something that you need to go after. A lot of times…[it’s] ‘What’s the next step in your journey? How do you find it?’ Especially now, where there are so many people looking for jobs, it may be harder to stretch like that.

“But if there’s any indication when you’re signing up or contemplating a career change or a job opportunity, it should scare you a little bit. ‘Can I really do this?’ If it doesn’t, you’re probably selling yourself a little short.”

SanInocencio did just that when he went from the ACC to Amazon, where he was the Head of Brand and Content for the behemoth’s selling partner communities. Amazon is well-known for its distinct culture, and even an Amazonian language that SanInocencio says sticks with him to this day. It was fascinating to hear about the interview process for a leadership position at the multi-trillion-dollar organization.

SanInocencio indulged my interest, going into detail about what it’s like to interview for a job with Amazon.

“You go through that first interview, which usually takes about 45 minutes, because you have to respond in a way that gives context, clarity, action, and results,” described. “You’ll hear the term STAR method when people are interviewing. That stands for: Situation, Task, Action, and Result. That’s how they expect you to respond. They’ll say, ‘Neil, tell me about a time when you were working with Greenfly, when you had to complete a project that was going over budget, and you had to communicate to your leadership team that it was going over budget. What happened when you had that conversation?’ Then you, as a respondent, have to say, ‘The situation was a) here’s what I had to do, the task was b) here’s the action I undertook, and here was the result.'”

Going through the process, SanInocencio came to appreciate that his career in sports business had more than equipped him with the qualifications and skillset to thrive in any organization, including one of the world’s biggest.

“Imagine me trying to give this STAR kind of results and answer series based off questions they would ask me [and] all my answers are sports-related, to folks that have no idea what sports is,” he said. “So it challenged me as a communicator and as somebody who can advocate for myself to be able to explain why us drafting Deshaun Watson and not knowing that we’re going to draft Deshaun Watson makes sense for a leadership principle that’s ‘disagree and commit.’ I’ve got to do the work to say, ‘Here was the situation. Here was the task that was at hand. Here were the actions we undertook and why, and here’s the result.'”

By the time SanInocencio was ready to leave Amazon, lured by the siren call of getting back into sports, he was a seasoned leader. He had experienced leading a team, overseeing a budget, and driving brand and strategy for organizations that reached millions. The path to leadership is not linear, nor is it identical across industries. Many of today’s sports leaders have experience unpacking bobbleheads, cutting up highlights, helping tarp a field for a rain delay, or shooting from the photo well — some of them still do it even with titles like Director or VP.

Consider an NFL analogy. It’s almost a given that the hottest head coaching candidates are the top play callers, the most coveted offensive and defensive coordinators. But it’s not automatic that all these talented individuals will thrive in the head coach’s seat. SanInocencio notes the importance of recognizing the different skillsets required to be the best doer, a master of a certain practice, versus an effective leader of doers.

“Sports is a little bit different [than other industries]. Even if you’re the VP, you may get out there and shoot some content on your phone,” said SanIncencio, who started out in sports information at his alma mater, the University of Montevallo, before taking the initiative to start and grow in social media and content. “You may be writing an article. You may be hosting a podcast. But still, there’s a difference between execution and strategy.

“As you grow in your career, you have to let go of that execution side and focus more on the strategy, which is hard because most people who are put in management positions were great individual contributors. ‘Man, you’re our best videographer. Why don’t you run the video team?’ Those are two different backgrounds needed to make sure that those go well. That’s a different type of request that you’re asking of somebody.”

SanInocencio put his leadership and oversight skills into full gear when he went from Amazon to Perfect Game USA, taking on a VP of Social Media role with a remit to transform the organization in need of an evolution. That’s an exciting opportunity for anyone to step into such a leadership role with the ability to implement a big-picture strategy and operation. But it isn’t easy. Whether you’re ascending within an organization you’ve worked in for years or, like SanInocencio, arriving fresh from the outside, there’s the unique challenge of wanting to promise the world and envision the pinnacle, while understanding the realities of the limited budget and resources one has or can command.

SanInocencio discussed how he approached taking on the position with Perfect Game, which was a chance for him to get back into sports after his time at Amazon.

“It was like, ‘Here’s where I think is the maximum revenue. If you give me this amount [of budget], here’s how I would spend it,'” he said. “Each place is a little bit different. Most of the places you go will already have an established departmental budget that you have some ability to influence and make change. But PG was unique in that social media was considered part of all these different areas that were already in existence, and we were bringing it together.

He continued: “What I’ve tried to do is use the Amazon idea of working backwards. What is our goal as an organization, or what are the three goals that we have, and how, as a social content marketing department, can we influence the success of those goals? Then I want to build a team that feels personal ownership of those, so that I don’t have to tell them every single thing they need to do, they already know.”

SanInocencio talked about the operation he grew at Perfect Game, driving impressive growth across platforms as he learned about marketing to the young demos in PG’s target audience. After parting ways with PG, he finds himself seeking the next opportunity. And going through a job hunt in a tough job market, not just in the greater sports industry, is teaching him new lessons about himself, years into his career, and with an impressive track record on his resume.

“I think you’ve got to market yourself the way you would market a team or a star athlete,” he said, as we discussed the honest realities of a job hunt. “Sometimes that’s hard because that means we’ve got to put ourselves out there. Sometimes we feel like it could be a little cringey, but you have to stay top of mind for people. When opportunities do come, and they go look you up, there’s not just some static story about you. There’s an evolving story that they can read about, learn about, and understand.”

If you haven’t experienced a gap between jobs, you’re in the minority. At any given time, there are friends, family members, or professional acquaintances in your network seeking that next role. It was cathartic to discuss with SanInocencio as we both brought our own experiences to the table. The best thing we can do as a community, and for others, is to be proactive in lending support, picking each other up, and cheering each other on.

“Just know that whatever you’re going through, you are not alone. You’ve got a community of folks, and sometimes you just got to reach out to them,” said SanInocencio (I can confirm, personally, he practices what he preaches) “When you’re on the other side, and you’re in the job, and you know somebody is struggling or trying to find that next opportunity, it may not be going as easy as they would like. Be that person that reaches out to them.”

Aspiring for a career in sports feels like a dream when you’re young. The realities of working a job eventually set in, but the magic of sports continues to shine even as the day-to-day grind of project management, reports, and recaps persists. In reflecting on the past and the future, and all the lessons he’s learned about himself and in dispensing advice to others, SanInoncencio talked about the difference between a job and a career. We should all be so fortunate to have a job that’s gratifying and fulfilling. We can all still chase the dream. The path isn’t linear, and certainly not easy, but nothing worth doing is. It’s the challenges we face along the way that make the achievements matter more.

“If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re probably not big enough,” SanInocencio said, as we wound down our interview. “That’s, to me, where it all comes to. If you shoot for the stars, you may land on the moon in a different area. You’ve got to go for something. Because if not, that’s the job instead of career. That’s fine. If you just want to be this and that’s all, that’s great.

“But if you want a career, I don’t think you can limit yourself because you don’t know what the future holds for you. You just know that you want to chase something that you care about.”

WATCH OR LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ERIC SANINOCENCIO (there’s tons more!)

READ THE SNIPPETS