The Future of Influencer & Athlete Marketing with Ishveen Jolly

Summary

Right About Now with Ryan Alford – Episode Summary

Episode Title: The Future of Influencer & Athlete Marketing with Ishveen Jolly
Release Date: April 22, 2025
Host: Ryan Alford
Guest: Ishveen Jolly, CEO and Co-Founder of Open Sponsorship
Podcast Network: The Radcast Network

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of Right About Now with Ryan Alford, host Ryan Alford delves deep into the evolving landscape of influencer and athlete marketing with Ishveen Jolly, the dynamic CEO and co-founder of Open Sponsorship. The conversation explores the transformative role of influencer sponsorship in modern marketing strategies, the challenges brands face, and innovative solutions to maximize ROI.

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Background: Open Sponsorship and Ishveen Jolly

Ishveen Jolly brings a wealth of experience from her decade-long journey in the sponsorship arena. Transitioning from a sports agent to founding Open Sponsorship, Ishveen has steered her company to collaborate with high-profile investors like Serena Williams and notable brands such as Walmart and Reebok. Based primarily in the US, Open Sponsorship boasts a network of over 19,000 athletes and influencers, facilitating powerful brand partnerships.

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The Role of Influencer Sponsorship in Modern Marketing

Ryan and Ishveen discuss why influencer sponsorship has become the "new word of mouth marketing." Ishveen elucidates, “It's the new word of mouth marketing” (00:08) and expands on how influencer sponsorship parallels traditional referrals but with a much broader and targeted reach. The integration of influencers into marketing strategies offers brands a way to connect authentically with their audience, leveraging the trust and relatability that influencers and athletes naturally command.

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Challenges in Influencer Marketing and Open Sponsorship's Solutions

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the hurdles brands face when engaging in influencer marketing. Ryan raises a critical point about the inefficacy of some influencer deals: “Why, why didn't you use it all over the place? It doesn't need to just live within the influencer's channel” (07:05). Ishveen agrees, emphasizing the importance of content amplification across various channels to maximize impact. She highlights Open Sponsorship's shift from a self-service platform to a full-service model, ensuring that brands not only connect with influencers but also effectively utilize the generated content across their marketing funnels.

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Content Amplification and ROI Optimization

Ishveen underscores the necessity of amplifying influencer-generated content beyond a single platform. She states, “It's PR channel. Like doing a podcast and sponsoring an ad read like, it's like paid editorial” (26:49). This approach transforms influencer collaborations into multifaceted marketing assets that can be repurposed for PR, websites, social media, and internal communications, thereby enhancing ROI. Additionally, Ishveen discusses innovative deal structures, such as combining upfront payments with royalty arrangements, to align incentives and ensure mutually beneficial outcomes.

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Measuring Success: Beyond Sales

The conversation touches on the complexities of measuring success in influencer marketing. Ishveen points out that not all influencer partnerships are geared towards direct sales, advocating for clear goal-setting from the outset. “If you like sales reels doesn't allow you to have a link. It's not going to produce sales. But if you want a brand awareness piece, stories disappear after 24 hours” (11:18). This distinction emphasizes the need for brands to define their objectives—whether it's brand awareness, content creation, or direct sales—and tailor their influencer strategies accordingly.

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Brand Retention and Customer Relationships

Shifting focus, both Ryan and Ishveen highlight the importance of customer retention over acquisition. Ryan mentions his book in progress, Lifetime Loss, emphasizing that nurturing existing customers is paramount. Ishveen adds, “It feels so good when someone tells us something worked” (24:32). This philosophy aligns with Open Sponsorship's strategy of prioritizing long-term relationships and client satisfaction, fostering loyalty and encouraging organic growth through referrals.

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Future of Influencer and Athlete Marketing

Looking ahead, Ishveen discusses emerging trends such as the integration of AI in localized marketing efforts. She cites a case study involving Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hellman's Mayonnaise, illustrating how personalized influencer interactions at critical decision points can significantly impact consumer behavior. “It's PR channel. Like doing a podcast and sponsoring an ad read like, it's like paid editorial” (26:49), she explains, highlighting the potential for highly targeted and impactful marketing campaigns.

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Notable Quotes

• Ishveen Jolly: “It's the new word of mouth marketing.” (00:08)
• Ryan Alford: “Attention is fleeting. There's never been more things vying for our attention.” (29:42)
• Ishveen Jolly: “We're not influencer marketing, we're sports sponsorship.” (15:27)
• Ryan Alford: “If you're not in it to deliver wins, then I don't know what the hell you're in it for.” (25:52)
• Ishveen Jolly: “We do very, we basically do zero royalty only deals with no product.” (13:23)

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Conclusion

This episode of Right About Now offers a comprehensive exploration of the current and future states of influencer and athlete marketing. Through insightful dialogue, Ryan Alford and Ishveen Jolly illuminate the strategic importance of authentic partnerships, effective content amplification, and the critical focus on customer retention. For brands looking to navigate the complex influencer landscape, the insights shared by Ishveen provide valuable guidance on optimizing sponsorship deals for maximum impact and sustained growth.

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Additional Resources

• Open Sponsorship Website: www.opensponsorship.com
• Follow Ryan Alford: @rightaboutnowshow | @ryanalford
• Follow Ishveen Jolly: @ishveenjolly

Transcript

[Ryan Alford]

Why is Influencer sponsor the IT medium? For helping grow a brand of any size.

[Ishvin Jolly]

It's the new word of mouth marketing.

[Ryan Alford]

This is Right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month, taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now.

What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now. We're always keeping it right for you, you know. You know it, right? You know, I mean, the Website's Ryan is Right.com, you know, that's why I bring the best and the brightest from around the globe. Coming from London today, we're all over the planet. We got you covered, baby. We're talking all about sponsorships, Nil, if anybody heard of that. I'm going to go there with our guest. We're going to tell you what that means, but ultimately it's about getting value for your marketing dollar. We got Ishvin Jolly. She is the CEO and co founder of Open Sponsorship. What's up, Ishvine?

[Ishvin Jolly]

Hey, Ryan. Thanks for the intro.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, hey, we're. We're in this marketing game together. You know, we got to stick together.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Love it. I love it.

[Ryan Alford]

I know. It's a. It's a fascinating world out there, navigating new media, the. The new stars, the new spokesperson, you know, all the people you got, all the changing laws and rules with. What happened with Nil in the US I want to get down that path. But at the end of the day, it's about. I always say this as fiend. People have never been more aware they're being marketing to, you know, being marketed to. They know. And so you've gotta be more authentic and you've gotta use their peers to sort of get to them. That's what I really love about what you guys are doing with Open Sponsorship. Let's set the table for everyone and they can go check out your YouTubes and all the stuff. Ishvin's got all the accolades of the world, let me just tell you. I'll let her mention a few of them when she describes herself very accomplished and her journey stories are out there. So we won't go that. We want to keep it real raw and interesting about the topic. But Ishvain, do set the table and, you know, give everybody a little synopsis of Open Sponsorship and, you know, give. Give a little bit of the brag reel. Come on.

[Ishvin Jolly]

No, thank you. Well, I suppose very quickly because I do love the marketing stuff more as well. But started open sponsorship about 10 years ago. I used to be a sports agent. Prior to that, my background in sports, I played a lot growing up. I captained multiple teams while at university and then kind of fell into sponsorship and then fell in love. I just thought what a wonderful form of marketing. Of course, like sponsorship today. Is it influencer marketing? Is it affiliate marketing? Is it pr? There's so many kind of cross crosses with the other verticals. But really fell in love with sponsorship. The idea that like your brand could leverage another brand for one plus one equals like 50 kind of thing. And obviously the fact that the money goes into sports, which I'm very passionate about, or entertainment music, which I'm really passionate about. And so started that 10 years ago. Fast forward today. Very lucky to have received quite a lot of accolades. I suppose highlights are we have Serena Williams as an investor, one of our lead investors. We have 19,000 athletes and influencers today. We work with brands like the Wal Mart or Reebok or whoever else. And fabulous. We run a small team that's mostly all in the US and it's really rewarding. Yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

Where. What's the. What's considered the home base of open sponsorship? Is there one open sponsorship?

[Ishvin Jolly]

Like, so we headquartered in New York for the longest time until Covid. Very US focused. I personally just like to live in London, but the business is in the US I love working in the US market. Obviously I get to meet people like yourself with all your great energy. And so yeah, US is our base for multiple reasons. Love the marketing dollars, of course, the budgets there, but also just the willingness to try something new. And as a small company competing with bigger agencies, which I'm sure we could exchange notes like the American market is very much like, all right, we'll give you a little bit. If you prove yourself, you get more, you know, and it's quick turnaround. Yeah, I love that.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, it's a fascinating industry. I came up in marketing and sponsorship was part of what we did for Verizon and the NFL. Helped shepherd in that agreement. I was a billion dollar sponsor, not a big sponsorship deal. I worked on that one for about three years. And it is though a very fascinating and sort of. I don't know, I love what you said about the 1, you know, 1 and 1. You know, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. It's something like the amplification that happens when a great sponsor, a great brand and a great entertainer, athlete Influencer, whatever it is, comes together. It's like magic, isn't it?

[Ishvin Jolly]

100%. And I think the biggest thing is just like the extension of that piece of content or that partnership across all the other marketing channels and the sales channels and the impact it has on, like, your employee base or whatever else. And so, like, it's, it's the, it's the fact that I don't think there's anything like it where sponsoring an athlete, using an athlete. And today it's never been cheaper because you literally can pay them to do one Instagram story for a few hundred bucks, but then you can take that and suddenly scream and tell the world, this is what we do. And you put it in your pr, you put it on your website, you put it in your own personal LinkedIn. You tell your team members of this. And the amplification and the ripple effect of all of it is, is so huge.

[Ryan Alford]

Yes. And it's. I love. We're getting into really fast and nitty gritty, but I love it because this thing, you just nailed it. I've. We've worked with a lot of brands. You know, I've been on both sides of it. I own a digital agency on a podcast network, and then now, I mean, I hate even using my word in the name Influencer, but got a good following, good show. And so I'm on all sides of it. And pains me when we've, like, worked with brands and they don't atomize it and use it the way you just said. Like, I'm like, I just gave you gold or one of my clients or one of, you know, we gave you gold and you treated it like silver. Like, it's like, why, why didn't you use it all over the place? It's like, it doesn't need to just live within the influencer's channel. You got to amplify it. That's such a miss, isn't it sometimes 100%.

[Ishvin Jolly]

And this is why, you know, we talked about it slightly when we were kind of chatting before that we started off, you know, I created open sponsorship with my co founder as the LinkedIn, the Airbnb, the match.com of the industry. You know, we were like, right, we're going to help you find the person connect. Boom, done. And then we realized in the journey that if you're on like a dating site or like a job recruitment site or something, if you get the match, that's success. But we were. People were coming to us and they're like, great, you. You're great. But what the outcome wasn't, the ROI wasn't there. And I was like, shit, I need to start thinking about the ROI on these deals because otherwise we're just going to see all of these guys, like trying it once and leaving. And then we did what you did. We started trying to build into the. What you were saying. We tried to build into the platform. Have you thought about doing this? Have you thought about doing this and share this? And then we realized people just either don't have the time, the knowledge, or that whatever else. And so that's kind of why about three years ago we were like, you know what, we're gonna get rid of the self service. We're gonna be completely full service. We're gonna be like an extension of your team and we're gonna like make you. We're gonna, we're gonna do it for you. Great examples. Like, a few months ago I was speaking to my team and I didn't even know that they did this. But, like, they'll go to like a tool like Capcut and they'll put music overlay and the text overlay onto a video. And I was like, you do that for our clients. And they're like, yeah, but it's just like, it's harder to get them to do it and teach them and say, oh, this video would be so much more effective. They're like, we'll just do it for them and it'll take a few seconds. And so I think, like, what I've realized is it's whatever the brand's reason is to not do, it's. It's ultimately our problem. And so there's no point doing these partnerships if you're not going to make it happen.

[Ryan Alford]

Yes. And what you realize is the total. I don't know, the total. Filling the entire circle in. Okay. Is not just connecting brand to influencer, it's all the magic in between. Making sure the content gets done. Making sure the content gets used. Make it, you know, all of you got to lead them to the water and make them drink it.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Yeah, yeah. Honestly. Yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

It's true. Because ultimately it's what makes it work. And the only way for it to keep happening and to have success is if it works, right?

[Ishvin Jolly]

100%. 100%.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah. I love that. And I. It's an interesting pivot. I mean, I've definitely seen with like the athletes especially, you know, they can get all these deals, they want the deals. But, you know, creating contents, like the hardest part, isn't it how many emails have been sent with. We gotta get content for this brand.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Yeah. I'm making it not look like it was like read off a script or.

[Ryan Alford]

That they do it.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Definitely a challenge that still exists. I think again going back to the point like what, who, what are you using them for? So if what you want is content creation and great UGC to put in ads, don't use that guy who never does reels unlike is a little bit stiff. But if what you want is to be able to say that you sponsor the quarterback of Clemson, then great, then you know, or whatever else then. But and I think that's the other thing is I realize that a lot of times when you and I do this as a CEO with a marketing budget, you conflate everything. You're like, you start off going I want, I want a testimonial. And then five weeks later you're like oh, but it didn't produce sales. And you're like well that was never the goal. And so I think it's really important again the benefit of being hand in hand is like you can keep saying remind that this is the goal of this campaign, this is the goal of this partnership. If you want to change the goal, we got to change the creative. We might need to change the person. We've got to change the deliverables. So it's like if you like a great example is if you want sales reels doesn't allow you to have a link.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah.

[Ishvin Jolly]

It's not going to produce sales. But if you want a brand awareness piece, stories disappear after 24 hours. Very, very different. Which one do you want?

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, that's. I'm going to go down that path with you here. But since you brought up Clemson, I mean, you know, it's a Clemson guy.

[Ishvin Jolly]

No, I didn't.

[Ryan Alford]

I graduated from Clemson. I'm a Clemson grad. Yes, Tigers. Kate Klibnick. Yeah.

[Ishvin Jolly]

See on your platform ask me questions about individuals.

[Ryan Alford]

I'm sorry, I won't go there. I know he should be. He's going the Heisman this year.

[Ishvin Jolly]

I'm going to say, I'm going to say the answer is yes because I have faith in my.

[Ryan Alford]

Yes, I have faith too. We'll get him on there. If he's not the. So I always have this trepidation so I want to see if you share it. You know I don't know about you but awareness is not free. And you know the age old influencer deals for affiliate deals for you know, percentage of sales is great. But what I've never understood about that whole equation as a marketer and an influencer is why the hell would you give away free awareness? You know like nobody gets to run get free awareness like Verizon and AT&T. You see those commercials over and over and over again and they don't know if they're generating sales. Television is not direct to consumer. Not, you know, but because they know they have to feed the top of the funnel to get to the bottom. But for some reason influencers and I'm sure you guys are working big athletes where maybe this isn't as big of a problem anymore but why the hell should I give you free awareness? And if only if I drive you a sale, do I get paid? Who made that rule up? And it's not the rule for everything. I know the big guys get paid, but you know what I'm saying. It just seems like that set a false reality of what you have to spend as a marketing and as a brand.

[Ishvin Jolly]

I love what you say. We don't do as many of those deals to be honest because. But we also count. Product has value. So I'd say cash is king, product is second. Then really equity if you've got it and then it's royalty. Exactly what you're saying. So we do very, we basically do zero royalty only deals with no product. And when people say to us royalty, I say do a deal for product and if it works, if there's alignment, if you like their work, if they like you, then fine. Talk about a longer term deal with royalties. But the expectation that you're going to come in and get good things. Now let's talk about then why is it still, why is it happening? Well obviously TikTok shop is changing the whole game because they've got this whole thing. I don't think it happens that much on matter or wherever else it might be on Amazon. And if I was going to play like devil's advocate, like why is it happening? Why is it not happening to us so much? Is because athletes, this is not their primary job.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah.

[Ishvin Jolly]

But if you're a content creator, let's say on TikTok, firstly you need content to post three times a day.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah.

[Ishvin Jolly]

So if you get paid like 20 bucks for a video or like you're going to just generate a bit of sales like 1, 2, this is your job. So you need to figure out ways to. Because like those brand awareness dollars are drying up if you don't produce, if you're not, if you don't have a viewpoint. And that's why I love the space that we're in. Because, you know, I used to say, we're not influencer marketing, we're sports sponsorship. And then obviously I was like, all right, we're influencer marketing and sports. Yeah, exactly. Well, if you're the buyer and I. And you buy influence marketing, I'm here for it.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, exactly.

[Ishvin Jolly]

But I'd also say, like, with the rise of the athlete and the celebrity and the TV star all becoming better value, I think it's hard for someone who's not famous for a reason to make money from brand awareness.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah.

[Ishvin Jolly]

And they're probably the ones doing the affiliate deals.

[Ryan Alford]

I know. I just. And I understand it. I just. It. It more drives the shit out of me that. That brands sort of expected, like, more than they should, I think. And I get that the dollars have gotten to where and they want to look. We need outcomes. But if your funnel's not good.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

It doesn't have anything to do with how good my read is. And so if I do a read, how do we know that the vacuum cleaner I'm pushing doesn't get sold three weeks from now and I get no attribution for it? Yeah.

[Ishvin Jolly]

I mean, I wish they were more. And we've done a few of these. I wish the deals were, like, more creatively set up. So it's like, okay, what does your funnel look like? I can guarantee you this amount of traffic. Let's pay for that, and then let's do royalties on top of. So it de. Risks you. It gives me a bit of upside. But there's also, like you said, if your website crashes on that day, like, I shouldn't be held. And also, I say this to our brands, like, we're not in the business of understanding your competitive set. Your pricing, your packaging, like, your flavors. So we can't predict the success. But what we can. But I do feel like there's probably a mess that is like no guarantee or sales. Ideally, it should be like a guarantee of something within funnel.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah.

[Ishvin Jolly]

And that would be easy, right, Ryan? Because then you'd be like, well, if I don't hit it, I'll just do two extra ad reads for free. And if I do.

[Ryan Alford]

Exactly, exactly. We'll hit it.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Yeah.

[Ryan Alford]

You know, we'll deliver it. But it can't just be bottom line sales, but because there's just too many complicated. I mean, I'm not saying never depends on the. Like you said earlier, you know, trying to get an Instagram reel to drive sales. Good luck. I mean, you gotta have a really tight Funnel or like because you friction is the enemy of influencer deals. And, and what do I mean by that? From knowledge to click from from influence to sale has to be super clean.

[Ishvin Jolly]

I think also the other thing is, is like then what, like you said awareness or whatever else. What that also does is it like goes against everything we were saying before which is like the value is also in like using that ad read and putting it in paid ads, posting on LinkedIn, posting it organically, doing a marketing email and being like, hey, did you see us on this podcast? Like did you like, you know, or putting it like using it in pr. And so by trying to make it free you're basically saying it's got no value anywhere else other than the influencers channel, which is like the wrong way to think about it. So that whole thing doesn't really work. But I think what needs to happen is almost like this. There needs to be a very separated approach like your Mac, like, you know, like your macro and what does that look like? Or whether it's macro or micro or like strategies and buckets and it's like this is my royalty only people, but these are my people who do something else and these are my people and they've all got different goals. And that's what we've been trying to work on with our clients where we're like, your product only deal is for a testimonial review for you to use. It's not going to drive sales because they've probably got less than 5,000 followers.

[Ryan Alford]

Yep.

[Ishvin Jolly]

This person, you know, they're going to produce content that you're going to put in your paid ads that you're going to be proud of. You know, blah, blah, blah.

[Ryan Alford]

I think there needs to be a college course or a re education of the brand marketers out there. You know the course put on by Ryan offered in Ishvin Jolly, I love it.

[Ishvin Jolly]

And it's going to be royalty based only.

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah, exactly. Target Jolly, she's the found co founder and CEO of Open Sponsorships. Making it accessible to everyone. I think it's interesting serving the brand, serving the athletes. You got to serve both if you want to eat, you know, like it's. They're both part of the equation, you know, I mean they're both the main course. No, they're both equally important. Is it ever feel like you have to, you know, who am I serving first?

[Ishvin Jolly]

I'd say having been in the sponsorship game a long time, if you have the brand dollars, the right brand with the right dollars, you can make Any deal happen?

[Ryan Alford]

Yeah.

[Ishvin Jolly]

And so we needed enough base to say, like, hey, brand, become interested. But really, the last eight out of 10 years, it's been servicing the brand. But when we feel like we built a mobile app, and that was predominantly with the focus of the athletes and the agents, because we realized that they're on the go. They don't set a desktop all day. They want to upload content from their phone. You know, all of that stuff. Right. And so we've actually probably built more tech.

[Ryan Alford]

Not.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Well, the tech is 50 50, but the service is probably 75 brand, 25 athlete, agent. And it goes back to the fact that at the end of the day, well, one is, we work with a lot of agents, so they do part of the servicing. And two is, you know, we've had companies approach us for partnerships and they're like, hey, we've got this great business put in front of your athletes. And we're like, look, our athletes come to us for sponsorship, for marketing dollars. They're not coming to us for like a merchandise line or to launch a Shopify. Like, maybe we'd get there. But to be honest, if we didn't give them brand dollars, they'd be like, why am I here? Yeah, you know, like, you know why you go to Uber, you know why you go to Airbnb, you know what? So I think we've been very clean and clear that we're not trying to give you. We're not trying to do everything for you athlete and agent. We're trying to do this. And to do this, we need to have. Have the brands. And once we have the. And you know, right at the beginning, we had very small brands. You know, you're a smaller company. You don't have any notable names. They love it. Now. We just did a great campaign for Liv Golf in Miami. And they're like, oh, yeah, we want to work with Liv and we want to work with Western Union, and we want to work with John Colifan. And so they love it when we bring them better brands. They respect the fact that our job and we just give you great deals who do.

[Ryan Alford]

Like, who's the marketing funnel for Open? I mean, for you guys, like, are you out? You got to pitch both, right? You going after the athletes and the. And the brands, right?

[Ishvin Jolly]

Yeah, we, again, probably same thing. So dollars wise, we focus on the brand, and then what we tend to do is because we have, like, so many athletes now, you know, like, we've got like 80% of the NFL, we've got thousands of College athletes got loads of influencers. So when we need to fill a brand campaign that we don't have, like, we've now moved into different verticals. So we just ran a campaign with a Costco vegan parmesan cheese brand and they wanted foodie influencers who drive Costco sales. So like we'll go out and get new people, but to fulfill a campaign, kind of like what I was saying about podcasts. So like if someone one of our brands, like we're actually interested in podcasts, well, like, cool. We'll go out and get like opportunities for you in terms of our marketing dollars. I'd say very brand focused. But actually I don't know how you feel about this or what you, what you've seen on your side of the table. But we are more focused now on retain retention and growing our existing client base than new clients. Like, we've really flipped our focus because we would rather like completely service you and get more of your growing influencer budget outside of sports or get your podcast budget or get your events budget than having to sign another person and starting from scratch, improving ourselves.

[Ryan Alford]

I have a book that's halfway written and you know how they. You know the old term ltv? Lifetime value? Yeah, it's the name of the book is lifetime loss. In a world hyper focused on growth, the customer you already have is the biggest secret to your success. You gotta nurture it. You got CRM, baby. I mean customer relationship management. Nurturing what you already have is the name of the game because you take care of them. There's always more budget, especially if it's a good customer. There's always referrals behind the door number two. And it's just, it's real damn hard to get a new customer and it's real damn hard to replace a great one.

[Ishvin Jolly]

It's also like, it just feels so good to produce wins for customers. Like I think about five years ago, it felt good to sign new customers that like what you're saying. The whole thing was like growth and customer acquisition and that's what the world is all about. And now it feels so good when someone tells us something worked. Yeah, I just love the feeling of being able to go like we actually produce something for that person.

[Ryan Alford]

I pivoted my whole company based on that. Like, I've been doing digital advertising, you know, advertising agency life for 20 plus years. Left that world because I got tired of the average hour. I was the creative account guy and I'm like, I don't. I'm gonna do my own thing and saw the video thing coming. And, you know, we did that successfully for seven years. But the last couple years, I've felt like no matter what we did, I didn't feel like the clients appreciated it or saw the value in it and. But we got good at the podcasting and we found something where I knew we could deliver wins for both sides. And that's exactly right. Like, it's, it's so rewarding and fulfilling when you deliver the wins. Like, if. If you're not in it to do that, then I don't know what the hell you're in it for.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Yeah, it's true.

[Ryan Alford]

It's true. And when especially, I mean, helping a young athlete who's getting it going, who's, you know, got some things going, they get a little money in their pocket, the brand sees results from it. I mean, ding, ding, ding, ding. Right?

[Ishvin Jolly]

100. I absolutely love it. Especially like we do, we do loads of, like, deals in, like, the health and wellness space and, you know, truly authentic. And so you' like, even if it is a small cash thing with a bit of product, like these, like, supplements are like hundreds of dollars. And if they're actually helping you achieve your goals, get help you get fit, or it's a product you used to use, that's like, the coolest thing we can do.

[Ryan Alford]

Tell me if I'm a listener out there. Ishvane, why is Influencer sponsor? Why is this the IT medium for helping grow a brand of any size?

[Ishvin Jolly]

I think there's a few reasons, given that it's having such a growth moment. I think it is a few reasons. So one is it's the new word of mouth marketing, essentially. Right? Like word of mouth marketing. Like you said, referrals used to be and still are technically the number one channel, but it's quite limited. And like, Influencer is like the new version of that. Fine. There might be people you don't know know necessarily that you follow them. So I'd say if you think word of mouth traditional. What's so word of mouth, it's the new version of that PR is still hugely important. But it is so like for us, when we had, when we raised our last round and had like Serena Williams and David Blitzer and stump it, like, getting PR was so much easier when you're aligned with a person. So like, we're all trying to sit there getting more pr. This is it. It's like the new version of that. In fact, you kind of don't even need the PR because it Almost is its own PR in a way. It's PR channel. Like doing a podcast and sponsoring an ad read like, it's like paid editorial. So that second, the third is, for better or worse, we have social media. And back in the day, the biggest thing for us is I. Back in the day, you needed to put a TV ad up. That TV ad was one spot, and it would cost a million bucks. Let's say you're not going to put a person in that ad unless it's a LeBron James or Tom Brady or someone big. But now you can. Literally, you don't even have to pay for production. These people are putting it out themselves. And so it's like buying a mill. Like, the one thing I haven't done that I really want to still do is super bowl do. Take someone's budget instead of a Super bowl ad on NBC, give it to us and let us do like, 500 NFL player deals across all and see what the return is. So I feel like that's another one. And then the fourth thing is around, like, the idea about localization and personalization. Like, I was at a talk last week, Advertising Week, and some guy was talking about in store retail and, like, how when you walk around the grocery store, there's so much inventory that. And they're going to start putting, like, digital banners and inventory, and that's going to be the place. And it completely made sense. And then they gave the one case study of the best case study, and it was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. On a little thing with Hellman's mayonnaise. And when you walk past, he would speak and go, how are you doing your mayo for 4th of July? And they were talking about the results of this. But let's be very clear, that is because it's him. It was local to that market. Where. Where was it? Probably India. I don't know, somewhere where.

[Ryan Alford]

Probably where I'm at in South Carolina. Yeah, probably a lot of NASCAR lovers in North Carolina and South Carolina.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Exactly. So it was. It was a local store. And that is probably like, the cost of that versus doing a TV ad, which they might not have seen, which is not, like you said, not even connected to retail. So, of course, you walk past that, he interacts with you, and you use AI to do this stuff. So why Influencer? It's not do. I don't think that Instagram reel is the answer. I think it's the integration of people who influence you at points where they can make an impact for you at values that you could never have got them before at.

[Ryan Alford]

There you go. There's a little study called ZMO T. Zero moment of truth. That's what that is, is when in the store walking by Google put that on now you're truly a billion dollar study on consumer behavior and the moment of truth. And when you hit the decision points in that and that's what you're talking about. Hey, they're in the freaking grocery store walking. I mean, you know how many people are putting that in the cart? Shopping cart. That's the zero moment of truth right there. And leveraging it across. And look, attention is fleeting. There's never been more things vying for our attention. That's number one. And number two is our attention is not where it was 10 years ago. It's not on linear TV. It's not. It's barely on radio. It's like it's on these social media channels. It's on podcasting. 1834 year olds listen and watch podcasts more than they do television. That genie's not going back in the bottle. And so you have to be. And it's so funny. Ishvi, you and I think a lot alike. I use that exact word of mouth thing. The other day. I was trying to describe it. This is the new word of mouth. It is. And because it's more authentic and it's more on that local granular. Authentic, authentic level. Especially when done right. And that's the key. That's probably the hard part, you know, of your job. I'm sure that balance of, you know, you got the right brand, you got the right athlete, like, but bringing all that magic together.

[Ishvin Jolly]

100. Yeah. It's super fun.

[Ryan Alford]

It is fun working everybody keep up with everything you're doing. Learning more about open sponsorships and open sponsorship and yourself.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Yeah, well, come check us out online and sign up for a free account play around www.w.opensponsip.com and then if you want to have a chat, we, we love kind of any brand and they often there's a lot of brands who are like, yeah, but it's athlete focused. And you know, I'm like, give us, give us your category and we'll find a fit for you. There's, there's literally not a, there's not a vertical or a type of brand that there isn't like a fit to some sort of retired, younger, older US international athlete. And so we love making those matches happen. So yeah, come find us on LinkedIn or wherever else.

[Ryan Alford]

It's been a lot of fun talking to Shfane. I like to do it again soon.

[Ishvin Jolly]

Thanks, Ryan. Same to you.

[Ryan Alford]

Hey guys, today's sponsor is the Radcast Network. If you're out there listening, thinking about starting a podcast, already have one growing. We're here to help you guarantee growth, guaranteed monetization. And look, we got top 30 shows left and right from using our formula. We're ready to help you. Go. Go to the radcastnetwork.com hey guys, appreciate all our sponsors. We appreciate Ishvin. You found all our [e-mail] highlight clips, the full episode and links to open sponsorship. We'll see you next time on RIGHT about now.

This has been Right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast network production. Visit ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.