Verizon revamps sports strategy, works with Paige Bueckers and NIL athletes

Summary

The Digiday Podcast: Verizon Revamps Sports Strategy, Works with Paige Bueckers and NIL Athletes Release Date: January 21, 2025

Hosts: Tim Peterson & Kamika McCoy
Guest: Nick Kelly, Vice President of Partnerships at Verizon

---

Introduction and Overview

In this episode of The Digiday Podcast, hosts Tim Peterson and Kamika McCoy delve into Verizon’s evolving sports marketing strategies amidst a rapidly changing digital landscape. The discussion encompasses recent developments surrounding TikTok’s potential ban in the U.S., Verizon’s innovative approach to sports partnerships, and the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) updates on children’s online privacy laws. The highlight of the episode is an in-depth interview with Nick Kelly, Verizon’s VP of Partnerships, who shares insights into the company's strategic pivots, including collaborations with Paige Bueckers and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) athletes.

---

News Roundup

1. TikTok's Legal Challenges and Future in the U.S.

At the outset, Peterson and McCoy address the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a law that could result in TikTok being sold or banned in the United States. [03:08] McCoy explains, “the Supreme Court has upheld the law that would require TikTok to either sell TikTok or for the app to be banned in the U.S.” However, the Biden administration has indicated it does not plan to enforce the law immediately, leaving the platform's future uncertain. [04:39] Peterson adds, “TikTok plans to shut down on Sunday in the U.S., now, whether that's because they just don't want to be fined... or if it's just TikTok being like, all right, you all really want this to happen, let's see what happens.”

2. Super Bowl Streaming on Tubi

The conversation shifts to the innovative move by Fox to simulcast the Super Bowl on Tubi, a free, ad-supported streaming service. [10:31] Peterson remarks, “It's interesting because it puts it on a free streaming service... This year you won't have to get a digital antenna to watch the Super Bowl.” He further explores the potential challenges Tubi might face in handling live streaming for such a high-profile event, including technical glitches and the ability to manage dynamic ad insertion. [12:22] McCoy notes, “There's a lot riding on this. What a time to come into live sports via the Super Bowl.”

3. FTC's Update on Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

Another significant piece of news discussed is the FTC's update to COPPA, now requiring opt-in consent from parents for targeted advertising towards children. [13:22] Peterson explains, “the FTC decided to update the Children's Online Privacy Protection act to now require opt-in consent from kids' parents for targeted advertising.” This update has far-reaching implications for both buy-side and sell-side companies, especially in how consent is managed on household devices. [14:26] McCoy adds, “that just muddies the water entirely,” highlighting the complexities introduced by the new regulations.

---

Main Interview: Nick Kelly on Verizon’s Sports Strategy

Background on Nick Kelly

Nick Kelly, with a rich background in PR, partnerships at Anheuser-Busch, and executive roles with Major League Soccer and the Carolina Panthers, brings a wealth of experience to his role at Verizon. His journey from PR to leading Verizon’s sports partnerships provides a unique perspective on the intersection of sports, marketing, and technology.

Verizon's Evolving Sports Partnerships

Kelly outlines Verizon’s comprehensive approach to sports marketing, emphasizing the importance of authentic and strategic partnerships. [20:45] He states, “it really is what is the message we're trying to deliver and who's the right person to deliver it.” Verizon’s strategy involves collaborating with both high-profile celebrities like Beyoncé and local NIL athletes to create meaningful and resonant campaigns.

Collaboration with Beyoncé at the Super Bowl

A significant highlight is Verizon’s partnership with Beyoncé for last year’s Super Bowl ad. [23:51] Kelly shares, “She is truly, like, you know, one of a kind. So it was a process.” The collaboration was not just a commercial endeavor but a genuine partnership aimed at amplifying Beyoncé’s new album launch. The meticulous planning and execution led to a highly successful campaign that elevated Verizon’s brand presence.

Shift to Local Partnerships and NIL Athletes

In response to a saturated sports marketing arena, Verizon is pivoting towards localized partnerships and leveraging NIL athletes like Paige Bueckers. [38:21] Kelly explains, “We wanted to tell stories and empower... we want to do something different.” By focusing on local markets, Verizon aims to create deeper connections and drive both brand loyalty and customer acquisition more effectively than broad, national campaigns.

Measuring Success Across Different Partnerships

Kelly discusses the distinct metrics for evaluating national versus local campaigns. For high-profile collaborations, success is gauged through brand awareness and sentiment. In contrast, local NIL partnerships are measured by direct actions such as retail traffic and data capture. [41:05] He notes, “the actual ability to see the value of local nil activation is far greater than some of these national things because it is typically very specific call to action.”

Future Plans and Super Bowl Fan Fest

Looking ahead, Verizon plans to scale its local partnership strategy with initiatives like the Verizon Super Bowl Fan Fest, a series of simultaneous events across 30 key markets. [44:02] Kelly describes it as, “We can provide greater value back to existing customers to invite them to this awesome super bowl event,” while also driving new customer acquisitions through incentivized campaigns.

---

Conclusion

The episode concludes with Tim and Kamika reflecting on the insightful conversation with Nick Kelly, highlighting Verizon’s strategic shift towards more authentic, localized, and impactful sports partnerships. As Verizon navigates the crowded sports marketing landscape, their innovative approaches, from collaborating with top-tier celebrities to empowering NIL athletes, position them uniquely in the digital age.

For listeners keen on understanding the dynamics of modern sports marketing and Verizon’s role within it, this episode offers a comprehensive and engaging exploration of the strategies shaping the future of brand partnerships in sports.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Kamika McCoy [04:39]: “Who the hell knows where this all ends up.”

• Nick Kelly [23:51]: “She is truly... one of a kind. So it was a process.”

• Nick Kelly [38:21]: “We wanted to tell stories and empower... we want to do something different.”

• Nick Kelly [41:05]: “The actual ability to see the value of local nil activation is far greater than some of these national things because it is typically very specific call to action.”

---

This detailed summary captures the essence of the podcast episode, providing listeners with a comprehensive overview of Verizon’s strategies and the broader digital landscape affecting brands, agencies, and publishers.

Transcript

[Nick Kelly]

Foreign.

[Tim Peterson]

Welcome to the Digiday podcast. My name is Tim Peterson. I'm the executive editor of video and Audio Digiday Media.

[Kamika McCoy]

And I am your co host, Kamika McCoy, senior marketing reporter here at Digiday.

[Tim Peterson]

How's it going, Kamiko? Have you joined RedNote yet?

[Kamika McCoy]

No, there's a flood. I, I, I'm about social media. Platformed out as a millennial, a geriatric millen will, I simply cannot keep up. Have you?

[Tim Peterson]

I have not. I also, like, kind of don't get the craze about Red. Like, are we just assuming any Chinese social media platform just has an awesome content recommendation algorithm? Is that the profiling we're doing of apps at this point?

[Kamika McCoy]

You know, to be honest with you, ever since, like with, with Twitter X, however you want to call it, when the showdown went there and everybody was like, let's go to Blue sky, let's go to Threads. I knew at that point that, that I simply was done. Maybe I should start reading more books again. You know what I'm saying? Go out and touch grass or something like that. This is getting too much.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, books are a commitment. I read A Hundred Years of Solitude. Finally, over the holidays, 417 pages. It was a slog. I forced myself to get through it, but it was a slog. And it was one of those things where, like, this is one of the, an awful thing to say, but it made me appreciate TikTok, where it's just like, okay, I'm in and out, let's move on to the next thing. Maybe I, maybe I just need to get into novellas or short stories.

[Kamika McCoy]

You know what? That's fair. I read a parable of the Sower over the break and I said, you know what? I gotta sit down for a moment, take a breath, take a beat. So maybe we, we, we, we kept. Well, I would like to say we keep tick tock, but no, as of Sunday. Yeah, let's timestamp this. We should timestamp this.

[Tim Peterson]

Mm. Yeah. So it is. We were recording this on Friday, January 17th. It is 7:46am Pacific Time here in California, where I'm at. So what we know so far is the Supreme Court has upheld the ban or kind of upheld the law that would require TikTok to or by dance to either sell TikTok or for the app to be banned in the U.S. we are going to talk a lot more about that in our news roundup. But we also have a guest this week. K. Who did you talk to?

[Kamika McCoy]

We've got Verizon's VP of partnerships, Nick Kelly, who sat down with us to talk about last year's super bowl, their big moment with Beyonce, who only comes out every once in a while to work with advertisers and kind of how that, you know, as the live sports and sports marketing arena gets more and more crowded, how Verizon is working to stand out and kind of what a national brand or looks like on a more localized scale to kind of own some more space there. So we talked about their partnerships, Nil's name, image and likeness, college athletes and whatnot, and kind of how they're, they're navigating this crowded arena. So that'll be a, a juicy conversation.

[Tim Peterson]

We got plenty to talk about TikTok, obviously. But then also, you know, you hit it with the Super Bowl. Fox is going to simulcast the super bowl this year on Tubi. It's free ad supported streaming service. And then the ftc, federal, US Federal Trade Commission just, you know, their final death rattle, their final. All right, peace out everyone. Decided to finally, you know, to finalize an update to the Children's Online Privacy Protection act here in the US and it's a pretty significant update. But for first, we got to talk about TikTok because it's felt like it's been so hard to talk about anything else this week. Kiko, where so we mentioned the Supreme Court upholding the ban or upholding the law. Where do things stand at the moment? Because like you, my mind's kind of just swimming.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah. It's a lot to think about because on the one hand, you know, the, it seems the final nail is in the coffin here. Right. But at the same time, you've got Trump administration coming in. So who's to say kind of where it's carried from then? Because four years ago man's wanted it banned, current day man has changed his mind. And you've got the CEO, the US CEO of Tik Tok, who is going to be at the inauguration, you know, well, co sitting next to some of the other big social media tech billionaires and things like that. But I think all of that to say is who the hell knows where this all ends up.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah. Yeah. So as of right now, again, Supreme Court has upheld the law. Last night, ABC News, NBC News, seemingly all of the like major broadcast news networks reported the Biden administration has said it does not plan to enforce the law because the law will be taking effect on Biden's last day in office. So they're just like we're not going to deal with that, that can be an issue for the next administration. Like you mentioned, incoming President Donald Trump has indicated like he doesn't really want to enforce this law. He would rather keep TikTok around it in the US because it was one of the factors that helped him get back into office. But the information had reported earlier this week before the Biden administration said it won't enforce the law before the Supreme Court voted to uphold the law. The information reported that TikTok plans to shut down on Sunday in the U.S. now, whether that's because they just don't want to be fined if the law were to be enforced, or if that's because maybe Oracle, which powers TikTok here in the US doesn't want to be fined for supporting it. Because that's part of this law is, you know, even if you're helping to power the platforms, you're subject to the law, whether that's the reason for it or if it's just TikTok being like, all right, you all really want this to happen, let's see what happens when it happens.

[Kamika McCoy]

Exactly, exactly. I think what's interesting is at the same time that all of this is happening, you've got this next phase of the social migration that's happening. Right to our earlier conversation about Red Note, that's just one of the apps that there's being conversation about moved to Tik Tok itself has kind of been pushing Lemonade Lemon 8, however you say it, Lemon 8, it's sister app that functions more of like a Pinterest Instagram style app. But who's to say how this shakes out? Some people think that YouTube shorts could win here, um, given its algorithm. Um, I don't know anybody that thinks Instagram reels is going to win here, maybe advertisers, um, but we'll see kind of how this all all plays out, um, in terms of where audiences go in light of said ban.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, I think from the creator's perspective it seems like there is more of a lean towards Instagram reels because Instagram's a bit more of an established platform there. And also like YouTube shorts just hasn't really established itself for YouTube at least beyond if you have a long form YouTube channel, then it can be really helpful for growing a following, pushing people to those long form videos. But then it was interesting, you know, Crystal Scanlan, our senior platforms reporter, reported today the story went up on how YouTube and Meta are trying to win over advertisers from TikTok. And this was, you know, something I was Hearing about during CES as well is how YouTube as well as Meta have been offering advertisers kind of like sweeteners of spend X amount of money on YouTube shorts and we'll throw in, you know, Y amount of money worth of credits, which can be really valuable because these advertisers are buying on YouTube anyways. And what I was hearing is YouTube actually performs pretty well kind of across the board, including YouTube shorts. So seems like there is a case to be made there. But then Alex Lee, our senior esports and gaming reporter, talked to some Twitch streamers who are saying this is. This is. This is tough because TikTok's actually been really good at pushing people from TikTok to Twitch to follow people there because of clipping culture, as he said. And without TikTok, like YouTube shorts and Instagram reels, those haven't really established themselves as kind of this audience driver for these Twitch streamers.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah. So I guess ultimately depends on who you ask. There's also the case to be made, and I've interviewed a couple of creators on this topic, is the idea of, like, you're operating on rented space. Every social migration that happens, you know, it gets harder and harder to shift your audience from one platform to another amidst, you know, social fragmentation. And maybe we'll see more creators want to eye their own platform and owned media channels. You know, in light of that, I'm still making the case for the Fediverse, but that's just me.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, okay, you keep making that case. Those people can keep making the case for the creators to own their own platforms. That's really tough. Like, you have to be a big creator with like a solid library of content. Like the Try guys, for example, they have Second Try, their streaming service. They have years of videos at this point. And they also, like, put out. I think they're putting out like two or three videos a week on Second try.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah.

[Tim Peterson]

So, yeah, that's. They're kind of able to do it, but they're also like really big YouTube creators. So someone like Mr. Beast. Sure. Someone who has 500,000 subscribers on YouTube or followers on Instagram, maybe tougher for them to do that. Maybe they could do like a fast channel. But then you're still running into the situation of, like, that's someone else's platform.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah.

[Tim Peterson]

At the end of the day. So. But for all we know, all of this is for naught because next week or next month or sometime later this year, this may not happen. I don't. No one knows anything at this Point.

[Kamika McCoy]

What I do know is that you'll be able to watch the super bowl on Tubi. That is one thing I can say with from a definitive stance. So for, for this year's super bowl to be will be streaming for free on its platform, which is owned by Fox. Right. And I think what's interesting here is that you're seeing another streamer get into the live sports space now. This is year beat. So give me your thoughts.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, it, I mean it's an interesting move because it puts it on a free streaming service. Whereas in the past, you know, like when CBS has had the super bowl, you've been able to stream it on Paramount. Plus, for example, next year when NBC has the Super Bowl, I believe they've already said it'll be streaming on Peacock, or at least I assume it's going to be streaming on Peacock because they've streamed NFL playoff games on Peacock. But this is a big one because it's again a free streaming service. So in the past, if you wanted to watch the super bowl without a pay TV subscription, you would have had to get a digital antenna like one of the over air antennas for your TVs. This year you won't have to do that, which will be nice and could be a significant viewership bump for Tubi. To what extent Tubi will be able to hold on to that audience after the fact will very much remain be seen. I'm also just really curious how Tubi does from a live streaming capability perspective. Like we saw with Netflix and the Mike Tyson Jake Paul fight. There were technical glitches there and Netflix had a fair amount of experience at that point of doing live programming. Tubi executives have been very vocal about asserting Tubi is different from the free ad supported streaming TV services out there like Pluto and Xumo and all the others that the Roku channel, Samsung TV plus that have these 24, 7 always on linear channels. 2B is primarily for on demand programming. You know, Netflix, like Netflix, as opposed to Netflix, you know, wading into live. So while Tubi does run some 24, seven, you know, linear channels on the service, that's not the bulk of its programming, that's not the bulk of its business. And so is it going to be able to stand up to however many people stream the super bowl that day? Is there going to be a latency? Is it going to get cute with dynamic ad insertion to do more targeted ads or at least targeted creative in the stream? Is that that's high stakes to do a lot of these things. So we're going to find out in a few weeks.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah, there's a lot riding on this. What a time to come into live sports via the Super Bowl. No testing, just straight, straight into the biggest game ever.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, so we'll see. And then so our last news item of the week. There's a lot of news this week, but TikTok kind of overshadowed everything. But this feels like kind of it broke through a little bit. And I think should break through is the Federal Trade Commission decided to update the Children's Online Privacy Protection act to now require opt in consent from kids parents for targeted advertising. In the past it was consent was required for data to be collected and shared. Now it's specifically calling out targeted advertising, which is really significant.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah. Another brick being laid here in this foundation because that's been a back and forth in a while. Even building on, you know, Google's third party cookie advertising and things like this just, just seems to be building out this, this ecosystem here. Right?

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, yeah. And it's going to be interesting what this means. I mean what this means for all kinds of companies, buy side and sell side. But last year I did a video for Digiday looking at kind of how children's privacy laws complicate streaming's identity picture.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah.

[Tim Peterson]

And targeted advertising. Because the idea of this is a household based device. So a kit could be watching kind of at any time. And so how is consent going to be managed from that standpoint? Not only how is the consent going to be managed from that standpoint of like every time a connected TV is fired up, should it be asking if a kid is in the room watching and therefore collect that information, then pass those signals to all the different streaming services. Will streaming services have to do this every time they're fired up? But then also the data that's collected here because again it's a household device and it can get matched. You know, you have these audience graphs that are built so it gets matched with other pieces of data. Now knowing that like that can be in a way children's data because children can be part of the data set, does that just muddy the water entirely?

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah, waters that are already pretty muddied just continue scrambling. I think the, the timing of this is also interesting. It seems like the ftc, you know, the devil works hard, but the FTC works harder. Trying to button up a lot of things before this next administration comes, comes in.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, yeah. So because they had, I believe they had initially introduced this update for review or for comment like a year ago. I think it was January 2024. But now they finalized it just in time for the new administration. Now, whether the new administration, the new ftc, could or would want to repeal this, we'll have to see. But for now, it's pretty significant news in a week of fairly significant news.

[Kamika McCoy]

Lots of. I'm gonna put it in here. Juicy scoops.

[Tim Peterson]

There you go. And so document, you know, tell me more about this conversation you had with fries.

[Kamika McCoy]

Okay. Yes, this actually was an exciting conversation. Am I a sports girly? Not by any means, but I think what's interesting that's happening right now is that there is. It's almost like the floodgates have been open for sports advertising. Right. You've got women's sports Pickleball is seeing funding now. Yeah, you saw breakdancing at the US Olympics. Sorry, at the, at the Olympics last year. And so Verizon has been one of the biggest advertiser sponsors when it comes to sporting events. Right. You see their logo plastered everywhere. But as more and more marketers come into sports marketing, it gets harder and harder for a brand even like Verizon to stand out. So I talked to Nick about kind of the Dick Kelly, the VP of partnerships at Verizon, about what that then means for his job. Last year at the super bowl, they brought in Beyonce ink that deal. So, you know, going forward, do you ink more deals with the Beyonce's of the world? They're actually opting for a more localized level, working with Paige Becker's women's, you know, sports, women's basketball athlete and other nil players to stand out on a more local level in hopes that that kind of maintains that momentum and that's something that they can own. And in the sports arena as it's getting more crowded. So it's interesting to see kind of what that shift in that pivot looks like for them. And you know, 2025, I guess, is testing grounds for the working with the college athletes. So we'll see how this pans out.

[Tim Peterson]

Interesting. Yeah. I'm curious to hear more on that. Especially because, like, how much of that this is my cynical brain coming in of like, well, it's cheaper to do that because the cost of like the higher profile sponsorships are going up because from the rights holders perspectives, the Disney's and Foxes, CBS's, et cetera, it's getting a lot more expensive to have these sports rights. And so they got to make back that money somehow. One way is to charge more for sponsorships. Sometimes the sponsorship's on at the league level. So maybe it's also the league's just being like, look, we're getting more money from the rights holders, we're getting more money from everyone. And so if brands like Verizon are saying, yikes, okay, our budgets are maybe going up, but not that much. So where else can we spend this money that's a bit more cost efficient?

[Kamika McCoy]

Your cynical brain is my cynical brain. Because I did indeed ask.

[Tim Peterson]

I look forward to hearing. Thanks. K.

[Kamika McCoy]

Hello. Hello and welcome to the Digiday podcast. Thanks so much for joining us, Nick. Glad to have you.

[Nick Kelly]

Thanks for having us really excited.

[Kamika McCoy]

I like to start all of my episodes with a fun question before we get to the so called juicy scoop. I'm going to trademark that at some point, but you're a sports guy. Talk to me about your high school or college sport.

[Nick Kelly]

Oh, actually, so I played football in college and in high school I went to Marshall University and I didn't have one of the glamorous positions. I was actually a field goal kicker. So I was at college football player. And I'm probably still focused more on college football than any other sport.

[Kamika McCoy]

Now that begs a follow up question. Do you have any memorable moments from then?

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, I mean, I think that for me we, when I was a junior, we beat the number six team in the country in Kansas State. So, like, to be a part of that was fun. But yeah, I mean, just the whole college experience, you know, being on an athletic team as well, like, was really fun.

[Kamika McCoy]

I love that. I love that. Well, obviously what we're talking about today is sports. With Verizon one of the biggest sports advertisers, if not the biggest sports advertisers around. So I guess we can jump right into it. Sports marketing right now and sports in general is really having a moment, right? You've got the Netflix Christmas game, you got women's basketball, you've got pickleball, and the list goes on. Athletes are becoming celebrities in their own rights a lot. The Kelsey brothers. So how does this all impact your role as VP of partnerships?

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting time to be in a role like mine because like you said, sports is really kind of becoming more the epicenter of culture because it is where all the music stars are showing up, is where celebrities are showing up. Athletes and their ability to transcend sports through their social and digital platforms now really has become an engine where There was probably 10 or 15 years ago a couple hundred brands that were activating and seeing value in the sports landscape. But now there's thousands and countless. So whether it's you know, the accessibility of local athletes through nil and college space or just big national platforms that as the media landscape shifts and the you know, attention TV and attention cultural moments, they almost exclusively revolve around sports because I think it's the only thing that is, you know, DVR proof or on demand proof. Like I think it really is the, the place that you know, if you're going to break through as a brand, you have to find a way to win. That's what you're even seeing now in the women's sports space and even in the tradition sports base a lot of beauty brands and what was traditionally female led brands that are showing up because this is the one place of we're all fighting for the same creator economy to break through. But like the one place we know eyeballs are for NFL specifically is 20, 30 million people. It's, it's hard to get that scale.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah, that's something that I want to double click into. But I want to backpedal just a little bit and have you describe because your VP of partnerships have a rise and kind of. What does that mean?

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, I mean so what I oversee on our side is all of our partnerships as it relates to sports. So that's teams, leagues, athletes. I oversee on the music side, everything that relates to festivals, artists, pre sales strategies, you know, select seed strategies. And then on the other side I work to oversee like the venue side of this, of how do we go out there and make sure that we are, you know, putting our technology and having our partners purchase our technology to really amplify these events. Because I think that it's a really hard story for us to tell that we care about and we make your experience better. But you're not using our technology. So it really is the true commercial partnership of give and take. And then on the entertainment side it's really just we've got some of the biggest partners, honestly in the world. Between you look at Apple and Google and everybody else, but our big customer and entertainment partners are Netflix. It's you know, Disney and how do we bring those things to life? It's a great job. Like look, I mean especially where the industry is shifting, where a lot more focus on breaking through and partnerships and finding a way to differentiate yourself. This has been a really fun space to be in and a company like Verizon where you can have 50 different things that you could be talking about, it makes it really fun.

[Kamika McCoy]

Now we can't talk about partnerships and entertainment without obviously talking About Verizon super bowl spot last year, which featured Beyonce. What's interesting here is that I feel like Beyonce has really relatively laid low for the past couple of years as it comes to, you know, ad partnerships and things like that. So it was a really big deal that she was in this ad. Talk to me a little bit about you. Were you involved in that? How did that kind of come together?

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, I mean, this process started last summer where we were looking at, you know, we wanted to do something iconic, something big that talked about the power of our network. And I think that what you can often find yourself doing is, you know, we always. I'm sure agencies across the country are always putting Beyonce or Taylor Swift or other a plus level actor, either actors or artists in their presentations of, like, oh, this is just inspirational, but we'll get somebody who is, you know, cheaper or more accessible for us or whatever. But, like, for us, it's part of the power of Verizon is, like, if we are going to talk about having the best network in the, you know, most powerful network, we can't have a, you know, the next Beyonce. We have to have her. Like, she is truly, like, you know, one of a kind. So it was a process. Like, I think that is your point. She's not out there doing a ton of brand deals. And so for us, it was a very big sales process. You know, our creative team led by Ricardo, the goal for him was, is we helped build the case of, like, why this helps elevate her, how this actually helps, like, amplify everything she has coming up. Like, that's also why we had, you know, basically, you know, working directly with her to unveil the first song off of Cowboy Carter. Like, it was like, hey, here's what else we'll do. We're going to have 100 million people watching. If you want to, like, unveil your first song off your new album, like, we want to be a part of that. So it became more of a collaboration after we sold in the original concept. But I will tell you, like, even on set, like, these are. It was a 60 second that turned into a 90 second, depending on where you watched it. And she was on set for far exceeding what was expected. She was one of the, you know, most professional people in terms of, like, making sure that everything was perfect. We got everything we wanted. Like, it was just one of those things that, like, you realize that, you know, she is where she is because of, like, who she. How she, you know, takes everything so seriously. So we are thrilled with the success, we saw that, you know, between winning awards and driving recognition in business. And to your point, like, we haven't really leaned heavily into big iconic names in a while. Like it's been, you know, we don't sponsor tours a lot. We were much more broad and is call it like teams and leagues and festivals. But like, so it was nice to get back in there. And because of that result, it also led to us, you know, reevaluate our 25 plan of like, what are those.

[Kamika McCoy]

Other opportunities look like you mentioned Ricardo who leads you guys creative team. Tell me, who's Ricardo?

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, Ricardo is, you know, our head of creative for Verizon across Verizon Business, Verizon consumer. So Ricardo Sprenzio, Chief Creative Officer and really like, it takes a partnership between us and our creative team to bring these things to life because we get so many inbound suggestions from agents across the world who are just like, you know, who'd be great, my artist or my athlete. So for us to actually bring the. And bring the idea, come up with the idea first and bring it to them has been most successful for us historically and even in the future, as opposed to taking inbound opportunities and trying to make the most of it.

[Kamika McCoy]

Actually, that actually brings up a really good point because I would imagine with all of the people that you could partnership, partner with. Excuse me. Right. It's no longer just like big name celebrities, big name athletes, now you've got influencers and creators that are also thrown into this space. And then with the nil deal back in 2021, now you've also got college athletes that are thrown into this space. So there's a lot to pick from. So how do you, in your role, determine which campaigns need big partnerships versus creators versus athletes? You know, that type of thing.

[Nick Kelly]

It's a great question. I mean, I think for us it really is, what is the message we're trying to deliver and who's the right person to deliver it? I think that when you look at what we're doing around NFL and Sunday ticket, it makes a total sense that we have an NFL athlete doing it. But when we have big iconic moments, call it super bowl, or when you start looking at big media moments like final four Oscars, things like that, who resonates with the audience that we're going to reach in those big broadcast moments probably drives it, number one. The second one is it has to be authentic. We wouldn't necessarily take a Beyonce, for example, and throw her in our NFL Sunday ticket. Like, it's just not it needs to feel like the fans of that actual artist, creator, whatever, this is authentic to something they would talk about, they care about, etc. Because I think that we aren't trying to win the, you know, the post of like, hey, we signed up and surprise, we have Beyonce or we have Jason Bateman or whatever. We've done this historically. It's like this makes sense for them to be in this situation or talking about this topic. That's the hardest part because look, we, I would say today it is a lot easier for brands to understand an athlete and artists passion points because of social media. Like, but it's just like you can say, hey, this person actually cares about cooking, this person cares about, you know, traveling because you can see that in, in their feeds. But you know, even more so it's like how much of this, when we actually reach out to the agent or engage with the celebrity is like, is this really a passion point or are your fans going to be like sniff this out quickly. Like the only reason you cared about this six months ago is because you had to deal with X, Y and Z. So that for us is like hitting the authenticity has been the most important piece. That's why creators sometimes actually are far more efficient for us because there are creators who just focus on one thing. So if we go to them to talk about that one topic, they have the built in credibility that we may be taking from because it's like, hey, we work with somebody like you know, a, a tick tock chef who does recipes all the time and we want to do a tailgate recipe. Awesome. So by us bringing them in, she already has the built in audience for that type of content and us associating with it and the role we potentially play. It's cleaner.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah. And I would imagine that there's cost efficiency, cost efficiencies. Excuse me. In here as well. No, as opposed to working with one really, really big, you know, mega celebrity, you kind of spread that out. So talk about kind of what that looks like for you.

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, we kind of look at our partnerships twofold. We have like partnerships that and we have very few and far between of like long term partnerships that they are. They embody what the brand stands for and what we want to do regardless of their career and their life journey. Like we want to be associated with that person. So have a musician or an athlete or whatever. The other side of it is, you know, very mutually respectfully is transactional. Hey, I got a kind of campaign. We're going to bring the new iPhone to market. You know, we want to do X, Y and Z. You love doing this. Like let's just do this together for six to eight weeks and do it that way. I think that that's where, how, how we've operated for probably the last four to five years is those two. We are trying to find some stuff in the middle, especially to your point on the creator side, it's the, depending on where we catch them in their trajectory, if we can catch them, you know, early enough to where they're getting some momentum and we can help empower them to go maybe get access to things or do things that could accelerate their career. There's definitely some a level of investment on both sides for us to make that, you know, this doesn't become transactional and may become a 12, 24amonth type of relationship to see how we can grow together. And that takes patience on both sides. Like because for us it's, we may need you right now to help us with this new campaign for home Internet and then we may, you know, send you the tickets or get you access to things and then call you again in November and help, you know, help us with holiday. In between those moments in time though, what we're trying to understand is like, how can we help them? Because it can't just be, I paid you X amount of dollars, you're going to post this many times, let's figure it out. So that's been good. It's helped our creator team. We've, we've built an entire creator strategy team that their whole job is to build that relationship and treat it like partnerships, right? Like that's kind of what they do is they're being, they have relationships with the agents that rep these creators, they have direct relationships with the creators themselves and that hopefully will start to break down the walls of this feeling. So transactional.

[Kamika McCoy]

I, I think it's so interesting because your, your background, right, you're, you had BP partnerships at AB and Bev, your CEO of the Carolina Panthers, right. And now you're VP of partnerships at Verizon. I'm curious kind of how all of those pieces come together to kind of, you know, help you do your job.

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, it's a great question. You know, my, my original background was, you know, I worked in PR for like 10 years. And I think that the reason that I've been able to be, you know, just operate maybe efficiently and successfully is, you know, when we have, we've got 80 plus partners and then internal stakeholders, we've got another, I don't know, 10 to 15 business units that move the needle for us. What's important for us is that communication because these are all very complex relationships. Complex. And we as a company sometimes are very complex organization to understand to how we communicate the key messages that we have. So, like I would say the original part of my background is starting in PR and comms has helped me communicate challenging things simply and to drive people to actually be able to do them. My background at Anheuser Busch helped because it really was my first, like, foray into the sports and partnership space. And they are. They're arguably equal to Verizon in terms of investment and number of parts, partners and everything else. And I think that it was good too, because we were, we were basically a challenger brand while Bud Light is not a challenger. Berlin at the time it was, you know, Bud Light was going through a lot of stuff that was like. We were almost wallpaper. We were everywhere, but nowhere. Like we were, you know, we were very much, you expect us to be there, but we weren't your first choice. So we tried to kind of find a ways to, to partner with our partners to elevate, you know, Bud Light to be a little bit more premium because it's associated with the Patriots or the Yankees or whatever. So that, that background allowed me to build strong relationships across all these people in the sports and music space. I was given the opportunity to go work for David Tepper when he was starting a Major League Soccer franchise. So I was the president of that franchise, went there as a startup. You know, first employees built in a professional sports team from scratch. You know, went over to help the Carolina Panthers and then, you know, learned a lot on the team side. Like, I think that the one thing that I realized while I was there is my ignorance. While I had. When I was on the, on the brand side, I thought that I knew what teams cared about and I thought that. And I can tell you all the teams guys think they know what the brands care about. And the answer is somewhere in the middle on both. And I think that to have that perspective now in the role I'm in helps a ton because it now allows me to be. To be able to go to teams and be able to speak with a level of credibility that like, I know what you need, I know what you. What's a priority because I've been in your shoes at the highest level. And on my side, it's the ability to then also drive revenue. Like, what's unique about my job today versus when I was in anheuser Busch is, you know, our job there was just to get beer and fridges in the hands of customers. Like, there was no. And that was. That was it for us. Now it's very much of providing the same type of value we did when I was at ab. We want to make sure that you can get tickets and things like that, but we help run a whole separate sales unit where, like, we're selling network solutions to a venue or a festival. And, like, we want your customer to our customer and your customer to have a great experience. So that part, for me, I wasn't prepared for. Like. And it's been, it's been, it's been a great learning curve. But, like, it also, it makes the story we're trying to tell that much more authentic. It allows us to go into each of these venues and say, as a Verizon customer, not only are we giving you upgraded seats and getting a chance to meet a player, but you're also going to make sure that you can facetime with your friends and everything else. So that part for us is really important, which was what's. What makes this unique.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah, you're. It almost seems like the battle here is twofold. Right. Because on the one hand, you've got a message that you've got to communicate clearly to folks. And then also to. Going back to what you mentioned earlier, you're having to break through and stand out in a sports marketing arena that's getting more and more crowded as advertisers are looking at this like the last bastion of monocultural moments. Right. So kind of what does that mean for Verizon, especially in terms of, like, costs going up, breaking through the noise and that type of deal?

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, we have to, we have to find something that we, we can own. I think that the biggest challenge, and we. And we haven't solved it yet, we are very much in the position of all three of us in the telecoms communications category. All say the same thing. Best network, you know, lowest prices, best value. Like, what we. What we are right now in 24, where we made a lot of progress was when we did our whole rebrand as an organization, we focus much more of what do we give the customer? Like, how do we actually empower the customer? And so when we started to focus more on, you know, the experiences we can provide them, the access we can provide them, what we've started to do is, is our competitors talk about this as well, but what we are doing in our own channels as well as our partner channels is showing it like this is what you get. These are the types of experiences. This is the type of value, because we were all in the, as a category doing this at the same time. But then, you know, there's a lot of conversation of like, does anybody ever win? Do I ever really get this value? So it's really important for us to have a full blown strategy of amplifying the access and value we get. So that's part of how we break through is you can only get this with Verizon. The second part is, is the balance on the other side, which is a little bit less attractive, but is important, which is when you're sitting in a stadium. I'm in Miami right now, and I was at the Orange bowl last night. There's 70,000 people there. There is people FaceTiming their friends after Notre Dame wins. There is people, you know, out there, like, you know, trying to share on Instagram and everything else. Like, that wasn't possible three years ago. Like, that was one of those things that as the technology continues to evolve, we have to be able to explain. These amazing moments that you want to share around the world are only possible because of us. Like, and I think that that is the thing, is the balance of, here's what I'm doing for you tangibly right now to have a better experience, but this is what I'm doing for you to help share that experience with your friends, family, whomever. So that for us is just a. It's a fine line of us patting ourselves on the back, but it's important. That's why you have Verizon like you have Verizon. So you can do those things. You can't necessarily do that if you're with one of our competitors.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You guys have recently partnered with Paige Becker's star player for UConn women's basketball team. Right. And I wonder, does that kind of speak to those standing out efforts? So as opposed to showing up where everybody else is showing up, we partner, you know, with these nil players and things like that. Talk a little bit about that.

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, I mean, I think on the, on the women's sports side specifically is for almost a year and a half now, we were trying to figure out what is our way in that is authentic and that can make a difference. And we really struggled with the fact that there are a lot of brands who've gone and sponsored women's leagues and teams, and it's just they're all kind of doing the same thing. And for us, it became more of. We wanted to tell stories and empower, you know, athletes to go out there and do whatever it is that they're passionate about. We started with Paige. Obviously, she is, you know, one of the biggest names in college sports, period. Men's or women's. And I think that, you know, she became the more research we did, her choosing to come back for another year at school, her, you know, all the adversity she'd been through and really a lot of the philanthropic stuff she'd done, it's like, all right, like, this seems like a place for us to learn together. Like, she's got a great support team with her team at Wasserman. But, like, you did a very quick thing as we relaunched our brand of, like, these are the types of people we're going to align with moving forwards. But we haven't necessarily been silent. But we've been working with her team for, like, six months now. Like, all right, Paige has got some big moments coming up this week. Year. She's going to be in the NCAA tournament. She's probably going to be the number one overall draft pick. How do we show up in a meaningful way together as opposed to kind of what we talked about earlier? Like, hey, we've got an iPhone campaign I need you to post a couple times. Like, this is very much more of a, hey, I know what your roadmap looks like. You know, this is a brand association for us. And in the empowerment of. These are the types of people that we want to partner with. And it is a slow process. I will say that Paige is unique in the fact that she has a big support system as one of the top nil athletes in the country. We've also been working with a lot of, like, local nil athletes. You know, we did a pilot down in South Carolina with a couple, you know, women's basketball players. That was awesome. But we also have to balance the fact that, like, they've got school, they've got practice, they're oftentimes shooting this content themselves on their phone or with their roommates. So, like, this isn't the same level of professionalization as you deal with a professional creator, because their number one job is being a student athlete first and then helping us second. And we have to be respectful of that process and the quality of work we're going to get to. Not everybody's created equal because there's thousands of these athletes, student athletes out there trying to make money, and they just all have their own little nuance that we're appreciative of.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah. In that in that environment because like again, you've got the, the, the, the partners that you guys are working with are very different from one another. Where you've got, you know, athletes on the. Professional athletes on this side, entertainer professional entertainers on this side, and then you've got college level athletes, which again, student first. But how do you measure success there? Are the KPIs different? How do you know if something's working?

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, very different. So basically when we're doing like a big national campaign, the Beyonce or even like the, the NFL stuff we do with Jalen hurts in the fall, it very much for us is driven more off national strategic initiatives and it is a piece of a broader marketing funnel. So like, it's hard for us to distinctly say that Jalen hurts. His participation in our Sunday ticket commercial drove X percentage Lyft. On the alternative side of it is a lot of the stuff we are doing in the nil space at the local level is very focused on, you know, our ability to drive retail traffic, our ability to have people enter to win. So for data capture, our actual ability to see the value of local nil activation is far greater than some of these national things because it is typically very specific call to action and our ability to track that is so much more real time. And that's where we're starting to see for us in spring, summer and the fall, where we scale up the campaign, you know, locally and everywhere else is extremely important.

[Kamika McCoy]

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. So talk to me a little bit about kind of how this sets us up. So you guys have been working with Paige for the last six months, kind of speaking to this experimentation with college athletes, right? Kind of. What do those investments then look like as we continue into 2025? Do we do more of these partnerships and spend more here?

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, that's a. I mean, it's a pretty much a ranged answer. Right. I think it very much for us is some of these local athletes who are, you know, big names in that community are, you know, single thousands of dollars and others range all the way up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. And it really just depends on the size, the scale, and more importantly, just kind of like the ask that we have from them. I would say that we are, we've been most effective just in the ability for us to move quickly and nimbly with the, you know, the, the more micro local market, you know, stars, especially in sports that are softball, volleyball, baseball that aren't basketball, football, their ability to just move and go has been awesome. And I would say that like, as. And we haven't, you know, spent a ton of time or money in the actual nil space for college football. That side is run a little bit more professionally where, like, those numbers are much larger. They're. They're run a little bit more like a pro athlete. So which is good and bad, like, there's some. There is something nice to have about like talking directly to a player and saying, like, hey, this is what we're looking for and answer it and go. And not having the middleman of like an agency. But there is also a lot of value that comes with having an agency sometimes to track an athlete down to help with production. So we see a lot. So both. Both in the ability to. To partner, but as well as just the ability to deliver and price and everything else.

[Kamika McCoy]

Yeah, that. That makes sense. Obviously, we can't end this conversation without talking about this year's Super Bowl. Right. Last year we partnered with Beyonce kind of what's gap for 2025?

[Nick Kelly]

Yeah, I mean, look, I think that's when we go as big as something as Beyonce for Super bowl. And, you know, having one of the, you know, more talked about commercials with arguably one of the biggest celebrities in the world, you know, it's not like we're ever competing, but I think it became more of a. What did this achieve? Which is a lot of things. And it helped us with brand aware, brand love, brand health metrics, it helped us with network messaging. But as our strategy changed of like winning locally, that wasn't what that was built for. And I don't know that a national TBC is necessarily built to help us win locally in a market. So it's an awareness point and everything else. So when we re. When we sat down in September, which was probably later than we would have liked, we started having conversations about what does super bowl look like this year? And we kind of walked down what it needs to achieve. And with the target being how do I Resonate in all 30 key local DMAs in the NFL cities, It was to say, you know, we had to activate local. And I think that that's really where we got to the point of creating Verizon Super Bowl Fan fest, which is 30 simultaneous parties and 30 markets. You know, we're inviting, you know, more than 150,000 people from around the country to come and attend. And these aren't parties at like, these aren't bar watch parties. These are bar. These are parties to. At SoFi Stadium, MetLife, Lincoln Financial. Like, these are at the places you would normally come watch an NFL game. You're going to come watch the Super Bowl. So that for us was all right, we can provide greater value back to existing customers to invite them to this awesome super bowl event. The second part was for us is that we can drive retail. We can drive people like, oh, you want to go to this? Great. Well, if you can convert to a Verizon customer in the month of January, you can be entered for your chance to come to the super bowl fan fest. So we can hit the loyalty play in a meaningful way on one side, and on the other side, we can drive new customers. So there was a very. It's a very simple concept, very complicated to execute, but it's like we're throwing a party. You gotta be a Verizon customer to come. And, you know, why do I want to come to the party? We'll have former players, we'll have local music, food, and you're going to watch the super bowl on the field from on a jumbotron that is typically inaccessible. So, like, that really for us was like, candidly, what was the hardest is. Was not over complicated. Like, it is very simple. And like, when we've been overwhelmed by the. Let's call it, coverage and conversation about it because it is easy to grasp and understand. So our focus now is, you know, we plan on, you know, probably running out of tickets within the. From launch to 10 to 12 days after launch. So which is good. So we'll move 150,000 tickets and then the focus is making sure they have the best experience. So it's definitely different. It's not like this is better than a Super bowl commercial. For us, it was very much just different. With our focus and strategy changing, it was, we want to win locally this year, and we'll be back and buying super bowl commercials in the future. But this year it was like we wanted to do something different.

[Kamika McCoy]

Absolutely. Listen, Nick, I can't thank you enough for spending some time with us today. Super excited for this conversation. It's been great.

[Nick Kelly]

Awesome. Thank you so much.

[Kamika McCoy]

Well, that brings us to the end of this episode of the Digiday Podcast. Thank you to everyone for listening. And please don't forget to share this episode with someone who you think would enjoy it. You can even rate us and leave us a comment on Apple Podcasts. We'll be back next week with another episode of the Digiday Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us.