Fandom is an attitude, so one of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about is I like this particular model called the tri-component model. It’s a model for how consumers form attitudes based on three things:
The rational attributes of the product: The play on the field—is it good, is it not—the cost of a ticket, the ability to get a Season Pass.
How it makes you feel: The stories we tell, the excitement on the field, the excitement you can see through the broadcast.
Actual access: Whether through social media, highlights, Season Pass or being able to be on the field.
What I think is so exciting about being here is that marketing in a league office can touch all of those three aspects of how you form a fan’s hopefully positive attitude. It is certainly a shared responsibility between the club and the league office, but yet you help people form a love for the game. We can do it in this very scientific, driven way that’s very clear and well-understood in pharma and finance, but less understood in the industry of sports.
What kind of advantages has MLS’s deal with Apple presented you as a marketer, and how can the league, its partners and its fans benefit from them?
l see two things: No. 1, when you think about that model for how you form attitudes, access is important, and access starts with knowledge—a game is on this day at this time. One of the things we’ve benefited from with Apple is that games are all in one place at a consistent, repeatable time. As a human, I need to hear things five times for them to stick. It is repeatable. It is very clear.
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The other thing is, as a marketer, I have the opportunity to work with the teams that created content—just a ton of digital content— and manage our social media channels. Part of this experience is about Apple, but part of it is about the whole ecosystem that MLS and the clubs create day in and day out. The volume of content that is created across the league, the clubs and with our partners like Bleacher Report and others is tremendous.