From Likes To Loyalty: Engaging Fans Beyond The Game

Meet Becky Kimbro, the Senior Vice President of Brand Engagement for the basketball team San Antonio Spurs. We unpack everything about the changing fan experience to social media's impact on the sports industry; plus, we get exclusive news on what's next for the Spurs. 

Have a listen.

Transcript

 Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode on season two of Parts of the Pros. Uh, for those of you just tuning in, uh, this is a podcast series where I sit down with some of the most talented and successful execs in sports entertainment, learning about their journey so far, the part of success and hot industry topics as well.

Today I'm sat with Becky Kimbro, the Senior Vice President of Brand Engagement for the San Antonio Spurs. Becky, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Good stuff. Like to kick off with a question, I always like to kick these things off with Becky. Um, how did you first get into sports?

Take us back to the start. Yeah, it was a bit of a non-traditional path for me into this industry. Um, I was spending the first probably 10 years of my career in the ad agency side, and the agency that I worked for had primarily political candidates as clients, so I spent a lot of time. Digging into voter strategy, voter messaging, and understanding how to target the right voter at the right time on the right channels.

Um, I, I quickly realized that politics really wasn't of as big of a passion for me as I thought it was. Um, and for a lot of personal reasons, um, politics just wasn't really. Um, making me as happy as I, as I needed it to be. So, um, the Dallas Cowboys became a client of the agency where I worked. We did a fair amount of corporate work alongside the political stuff.

And as soon as they became a client, I sort of had a light bulb go off in my head where I realized sports was actually the industry that I was acutely interested in working in. Um, so I worked with the Cowboys on the client side for a couple of years and. Pestered them essentially to consider bringing on a marketing person, me in house.

Um, it was around the time that they were opening at and t Stadium, then Cowboy Stadium, and they didn't really have, um, anyone that was solely dedicated to marketing, which is incredible to think the size of the Cowboys brand. Um, But you know, they had never really had a need in the past prior to the opening of the stadium, um, to really push brand marketing or even to try, um, ticket sales and, and conversion performance marketing.

So after, you know, some back and forth with them over a couple of years, they indeed did extend me a, a offer to be full-time. Um, and I worked there for a few years and all the while had been making some connections in the industry. Had gotten to know some folks at the Texas Rangers, um, and they reached out when their VP of marketing role opened up.

Um, and I, and I was fortunate enough to spend almost seven years working for the Rangers and the lead marketing role. Nice. And then, um, the role at the Spurs opened up about five years ago, and now I'm, now I'm here and could not be happier.

Nice. Love to hear it. Question I always like to ask again is, um, I feel like sports is one of those industries where once you're involved and you're kind of in the weeds of it, so to speak, it's there, there are moments where you kind of realize and you look around and you say, Hey, you know what?

Maybe not made it, but this is, you know, living the dream or this is exactly, you know, what I signed up for and this is why I do this. Um, when would you say was your first kind of pinch me moment where, you know, you almost had to take a bit of a step back and just say, okay, wow, this is, this is pretty fun. 

You're right, Samir. This, this is an industry where, for me, I feel like this happens every single day. And, and I also think that's like how I know that this industry is still where I belong. You know, I, I truly do feel this every time I walk into work. Or, you know, even when I'm having a bad day, there's this realization that I still get to do something that is completely unique.

It's genuinely fun, and at the end of the day, it, it matters to our community. And that to me is one of the most rewarding things about this job. I'll say, you know, some, some personal highlights of those sort of pinch me moments for me. Um, Early on in my tenure with the Rangers, they have a corporate softball tournament that they, um, they used to run at the end of every season and everybody in the company is free to sign up for it.

And at the time, Nolan Ryan was still our, our team president. Right. And I wound up on a softball team with Nolan Ryan and I, despite my love for sports, am not a talented softball player. So I. I drove myself to the batting cages every day for like a week and a half leading up to this tournament cuz I was like, I am not gonna be the weak link on Nolan Ryan's softball team.

So that was playing softball with Nolan Ryan was a, was a bit of a pinch me moment. Um, yeah, he was our pitcher. He did hit one of the batters on the opposing teams on accident with the ball. So that was like a really. Really funny moment for all of us. Um, and you know, here at the Spurs, I've had a million pinch me moments.

I, we recently celebrated our 50th anniversary season and we put on a game at the Alamo Dome. Thank you. It was a, it was such a fun season of celebration. Um, but we, we broke an N B A record for regular season attendance at the Alamo Dome and. Standing in the middle of that arena with 68,300 people just locked in on this game was such a magical pinch me moment.

Like I had this moment in the beginning of the game, we did this light show where fans got their cell phones and they were, they were, you know, putting their cell phones up and down with their flashlights and the arena was lighting up just with all these flashlights. And I was standing there thinking, This is a, this is a pinch me moment.

Yeah. Like this is exactly the stuff that you know, you do, why you do what you do, because you love those moments. Yeah. Um, and I could go on and on and on telling ridiculous stories about my career, so you just have to tell me when, when to pause. It's, it is one of those, I just feel like I always love to hear those stories.

Um. Everyone's got their own kind of, you know, unique story. You very, very rarely tend to hear the same thing, you know, by, by multiple people. Um, but genuinely I was just getting a bit of, kind of goosebumps and visualizing that whole moment of, you know, 50 years, 68,000 people. You stood in the middle of it, you're looking around and you know, the flashlights.

Everyone's having such a great time. It's, it's the reason that everyone signs up for it, right, and gets into the industry is cause they want not to only create those memorable moments for, for everyone else. Cuz that's obviously, I think in my opinion, any anyway, the reason that a lot of people get into it in the first place, but you don't realize the memorable moments of that then actually leads for you, as you know, as an executive industry, there's a creator of moments, but also creating them for yourself as well.

So, Always interesting to to hear those. Um, and I guess a question I had for you, um, Becky, you've obviously worked with most of the major properties I guess in in Texas. Have you found the kind of difference between, you know, marketing in each organization, the kind of brand engagement within each organization?

Do you find that there's a kind of similar trending pattern across, you know, each fan base? Or do you have to, you know, really identify the differences between them and, and kind of speak to the audience? That's a great question, Samir. And something I've had, you know, I have had the good fortune of seeing several different organizations and uniquely, I think within the same state, but in different leagues.

Um, certainly the N F L. And, and to be fair, I worked in the N F L over 10 years ago, so it's very different sort of landscape and fan engagement. Um, yeah. Tactics that are used now, but certainly the N F L is, is a spectacle with only, you know, eight or nine home games every season. You, you, you are solely focused on that spectacle of, you know, a hundred plus thousand fans.

Yeah. Eight or nine times a year. And it's, it's not really. A lot of opportunity for. Creative or different or unique sort of in game engagement because you have so few games you're just focused on, um, sort of this idea of perfect execution. Yeah. And, and really, um, in a sense less performance marketing, um, at least for the Cowboys at the time because their season ticket base was really, really strong.

Right, right. So there was less sort of single game group type marketing, um, you know, Looking at Major League Baseball with. 162 regular season games. There's, there is no shortage of opportunities, um, to try different things for each game, whether it be a different theme night or, um, you know, a different ticket sales promotion, or, Some sort of consistent ticket sales promotion throughout the season.

You really are more focused on performance based marketing than you are the brand side. Um, just given the amount of inventory that you have to sell. And I think oftentimes that is to the detriment of baseball teams. I think, um, you know, focusing a bit more on brand marketing could be beneficial. For those teams, but it's just a matter of resources at some point.

Um, so, and then I, I sort of joke, I'm like, Goldilocks, like, Football was too few, baseball was too many. And, and basketball truly does feel right to me. Um, it is the right number of games. Um, and it's also, you know, then you also look at different roster sizes, right? Like football has huge roster sizes. Yeah.

Um, baseball's, rosters are constantly shifting throughout the season just based on need or injury. And basketball's roster sizes are much smaller. So we not only get an opportunity to try different things with our games and our performance marketing, but we also get to focus on brand marketing. Yeah. And because of the size of our rosters, we get a chance to really do some deeper dives into player stories.

Yeah. And sort of how those players, um, build alongside of our team brand. I, I just have to piggyback on that actually. How, how. The industry's obviously evolved in, in all aspects. Right. And multifaceted, um, areas. Technology is obviously one, social media and I guess marketing in general has transformed immensely over the past decade.

Just playing on that kind of player engagement and let's call it athlete, um, engagement. How much of an impact do you think that, I guess, the development of social media has had, um, on the way that fans are now able to kind of engage and interact with, with, with players? It's changed everything. Um, and it has given fans an opportunity to connect on a one-to-one or seemingly one-to-one basis with their favorite athletes, and especially in, in this N I L era.

Now, the athletes are themselves talented brand builders. By the time they get to teams, they already have very highly established and engaged. Brands and fan bases. Yeah, so, you know, it, it truly has changed everything about the way teams and athletes themselves interact with and engage with fans. It has also created an expectation that there is this constant and engagement, which I think is largely a good thing.

I also think there is some, some negativity that can come with that. Um, certainly. I, myself, and I tell my team, you know, the comments are not where we spend our time. They are never read the comments. Yeah. Um, you know, they can be directionally helpful for understanding where fans are and what their sentiment is.

But generally, um, a lot of times you don't find a lot of happy things there and it can sort of create a, a, a negative impact on, on folks. Yeah, for sure. It's, it's not somewhere where you wanna spend the most of your time anyway as you're, as you're, as you're going about your posting. Um, but also quite easy to kind of get trapped into it, right?

Just interest, curiosity kicks in and you wanna know what's going on, but, uh, yeah, you're obviously saying and doing the right things there, but by investing in the kind of time and efforts into the right places that really gonna speak to the fans rather than fans' opinions or in a lot of cases, probably not true fans, uh, that, that have those opinions.

Yeah. I will also say too about social media, I think it's, um, we're, we're moving into this era where brands are realizing, um, at least team brands are realizing that social media, while an incredible engagement tool in some ways, is also. We're basically renting our audiences to these platforms. So there is a big focus now on pushing first party data collection.

Yeah. And on platform engagement, whether that be through team apps or team sites or team owned channels. Yeah. Um, because, you know, data privacy laws have changed and are continuing to change, and it becomes vital for us. To build these one-to-one relationships with our fans and not rely too much on the social media platforms and channels, um, to do that for us.

Because the reality is we don't actually own those in those audiences. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's always, uh, I think that the, the challenge that I guess the social media in general has is it's exactly that. That's one point privacy, I think. Another large topic that that is often discussed as well is, you know, the personal lives of, of not just athletes, but, but people that are associated with, with these businesses, ownership groups, that anything that happens and, you know, all it takes is one media outlet or one newspaper or one magazine to, um, to share something or to leak something that could or couldn't be true.

Um, and all of a sudden there's backlash. There's. There's too much going on in, in the kind of media for people to actually be able to, to, to, you know, put a button on it and, and try and put it to bed. Um, do you think, where do you kind of see the, the future there? Do you think there will, there will ever be a time where, I don't wanna say that those situations will never happen.

Cause I think naturally, you know, we live in a world where there's always going to be negative press as much as there is positive press. But do you think there's maybe anything that can be done to try and reduce the frequency of it or maybe anything that can be done to give those people athletes, business people are like, um, more of a kind of personal life where not every single thing that they do is, is branded out to, to the world.

Yeah, that's a great question. And it sort of gets to the heart of the ethics of social media. Yeah. You know, is it, is it actually okay to, to thrust people into the spotlight? And you know, I think you look at someone like Nicola Yoic, recent N B A champion Yeah. Totally off the platforms and seems. Great with that.

Yeah. Um, and that's just part of his personality and I think that's, I admire that in a, in a way, in a sense that he's just sort of thumbed his nose at, you know, the whole idea of trying to put everything out there and trying to be in the, you know, in the spotlight constantly. He lets his game do sort of all of the promotion that he wants and needs.

Right. Um, I think, you know, A lot of times when, when people find themselves in hot water, so to speak, with social media, um, it's oftentimes because what they're presenting is not truly authentic. So I think for brands, for athletes, for anyone on social media, the most important thing is to present authentically who you are.

And, you know, if, if that's the case, then you don't oftentimes have to walk back. You know, and, and go on an apology tour for something that's captured that wasn't authentically you a hundred percent. So that to me is, you know, authenticity has to sit at the center of every engagement, every, every piece of content that's put out into the world.

Yeah, yeah. Completely agree. Um, on, I guess, uh, a more kind of positive note that there's, there's obviously a, a huge impact that. Um, you know, the lives of, uh, of athletes and, and the fans that, that follow, these athletes can have, you know, to sports businesses and entities. Um, you know, I think about the likes of Leonel Messi recent example, you know, announced that he signed into, into Miami before he signed into Miami, had around 1 million followers, I believe it was, uh, on Instagram.

Um, today the team has got 8.3 million followers, and bearing in mind that this announcement was only made. A few weeks ago now, maybe a month or so, um, is is obviously huge, right? It's taken into Miami to a new level. Leno, Messey aside, you know, from a fan engagement perspective, um, you know, this is, is generated a huge influx of, of what can now be classed as fans, uh, to the team.

Um, what, what do you think the, I guess, teams or businesses, you know, need to do, um, when these mo big moves take place and happen? In order to be able to kind of keep up with the demand of, of the fans on these platforms. Cause it's, it's one thing going from, you know, 50 million to 60, 70 million, but going from 1 million to 8, 9, 10 is, is a huge jump.

Yeah, that has been fascinating just to sort of see how all of that has unfolded. Um, and I'll say there's a little bit of similarity, although, um, I think the follower growth for Miami has been just astronomical, but we've been fortunate enough with Victor Wema coming on board our team, um, not again, messy, has had a longer tenure, certainly in the global spotlight and has had a longer career.

Weby is at the beginning of his career. Messi has obviously had, um, a long yeah. Illustrious career, but I think there are some similarities here and for sure, and for us, it's, it's a few pillars that we're focused on. Again, I go back to authenticity over everything. Um, knowing who the brand is. Knowing what you stand for, what your values are, how you define and talk about your brand, that doesn't change with the addition of any one player or coach or personality to the team.

Um, that has to be sort of, um, The pillar that you build everything on. And it should be for most teams and brands, the differentiator. Yeah. Um, second. So authenticity over everything, I think is number one. The second thing I think is, um, this is an opportunity to engage fans now, but focus on keeping them for life.

Right. You know? This is now a luxury of prioritizing key audiences for growth that will sustain your business into the future instead of manufacturing interest. That sort of appeals to the widest possible base, right? So, You no longer have to sort of do stunts or you know, interest generating things because the interest will organically come with this player.

What we now have to do, and what I think Miami probably has to do, is focus on strategies for keeping those fans for life and specifically prioritizing. Um, Younger fans, international fans, fans who may not have already had, um, sort of any sort of interaction with the brand. Yeah. And that also in turn helps, you know, partnerships, the partnership groups.

Yeah. Um, you know, go to market with a more, um, built out story around how the brand is engaging with key audiences that are also important and appealing to partners. Yeah. I, I think you're a hundred percent right. I, I really like that second point. It, its something that, Converting those Leonel Messi fans to, into Miami fans or, you know, win Bema fans to Spurs fans is, is really the kind of key, the key, let's call it project or, or task of, of the marketing department or of the business really in general.

Um, and what that then means for, for the club moving forward. You know, you take the international, um, piece, uh, involved there, you know, you guys at the Spurs have now got France as a demographic to, to, to be going out at, out at, sorry. And, and targeting. Um, so I have a lot of opportunities for, for the wider business as well.

Yeah. You know, we were fortunate enough with Tony Parker and Boris Dio to already have kind of an established fan base in France and this. The addition of webe throws some gas on that fire, if you will. Um, so we're, we're thinking about, you know, the most effective ways to engage, um, that international fan base and, and keep them as fans for life.

I think there's also an a tremendous amount of importance for brand marketing teams who are telling team stories and player stories to be patient, you know, adding new faces to any team. Requires a great deal of team building and chemistry, building in the locker rooms of these organizations. Yeah. And having an, having a respect and understanding of what the sporting operations side needs in these transitions, I think is critically important.

Um, we're fortunate enough to have, obviously, an incredible basketball operations group, um, and, and, The conversations that we've had with that group have been so productive and helpful just in terms of understanding each other. Hey, what do you need to, to get your job done of building this team and what do we need, um, to do our jobs with, you know, that involve building the fan base.

Yeah. Um, Just having an understanding of both, both of those goals for the organization is important. And I think, you know, for us it's also about not putting these these players in a situation where we're promising anything to our fans. Our fans are obviously very excited and I'm sure Miami's fans feel the same way.

They see, they see rings and trophies and it's like, hold on a minute here. Um, These teams need time to develop. Yeah. And there is a lot of excitement and these players are incredibly talented and capable. But we also have to just pause for a moment and, and realize that these are human beings taking some really, really high profile new jobs that are moving to brand new countries where.

In sometimes cities that they've never even stepped foot in. Yeah. So understanding from a human level what these people need and not just what the business needs, I think is paramount Importance. Yeah. That transition is huge, right? You think about people moving anywhere, anywhere in the world, really. Um, the personal element that's taken into account there and the transition.

And more often than not, the change in culture, there may be a new language that you need to learn. Um, you know, there's all of those elements taken into account, which can naturally have an effect on, you know, someone's performance, someone's energy levels. It's really a nonstop thing when you, when you first make that move.

So having that taken into account, I think for the fans especially because you're right, I think fans hear of, you know, a we or a Messi and exactly that. They start thinking championships, they start thinking, um, you know, memorable winning teams rather than taking a time say, okay, cool, look. It's gonna take a bit of time for us to get up and running, but I feel good, I feel positive about this.

Let's be patient with it and, you know, let's see where it lands. So, um, I think that's a, that's a great point for, for, you know, people to kind of take into account and think about that. And fans shouldn't be rational, right? Like the, the whole point of us, a a personal fandom is passion. Right? It's not ration, it's passion.

Right. And, and you know that, and, and that's why we love our fans. And that's again, going back to like those pinch me moments of creating these, these opportunities for community to gather. Like we celebrate that, but it's our responsibility as a team to have, you know, sort of the full view and to really, um, Know what is appropriate for the human being, who's actually putting on the uniform and, and taking the field or the Yeah.

The pitch or the court every night, um, to, to, you know, pepper that into everything that we do. Exactly. Exactly. Uh, I just wanna say as well, you obviously mentioned it there, Becky, but congrats on the, uh, on the draft pick of obviously one of the most. Exciting draft, I think in n b A history, uh, and I'm sure a memorable, memorable day.

Sorry for everyone at the Spurs. Um, can you give us some insight into, I guess just the general mood and, and feeling from the business since the move? Yeah, I mean, since drafting Weby, really since lottery night, when we found out that we had the first pick. It has been all gas, no breaks. I'll say, um, you know, from, from that moment when it was announced, we had the number one pick to the draft party that we put on at the at and t center, um, to really a whole weekends worth of, of welcoming new players to the organization.

Um, it's been an amazing, amazing journey and it is. Incredible to see just out in the community, like the excitement is palpable. Yeah. Like you can actually almost feel it and touch it. Yeah. Um, fans have just gone absolutely wild and that's, I think, San Antonio and their relationship with the Spurs is unique in professional sports.

Um, certainly the long run of success that this team is fortunate enough to have had, um, created that bond and it created a multi-generational fan base. Yeah, which is really cool. Um, it's really neat to see sort of, you know, you're out in the community and oftentimes you will see. Three generations of, of a family wearing some sort of Spurs gear, and That's incredible.

It's amazing. Yeah. Um, and it's, it's again, like just one of those things where you're like, you wanna pour gas on that fire and, and help people feel that excitement and that energy and, and you wanna, you know, stoke that passion. And you also wanna say like, Hold on a minute, guys, like, you know, next, next season is gonna be amazing.

Um, but we're not promising anything and it does take time to develop and grow as a team. Yeah. Um, and oftentimes patience is, is important in that. Yeah, no doubt. Um, and I guess last question I'll leave you with there, Becky, what's, what's next for the Spurs? What, what else have the fans got, got to look forward to besides obviously, uh, this, this amazing draft pick.

Yeah. Um, we have a lot of exciting things that we're working on for the upcoming season. Um, certainly the debut of our new rookies is, is gonna be exciting. Um, you know, we'll have an open scrimmage, um, leading up to the, to, to off of the season where fans can, can come into the building and, and actually see weby for the first time.

That'll be very exciting. Obviously opening night will take on different importance this season. Um, And next season we're actually piloting a a fan membership program. So we're taking a little bit of a different approach to this using the theory that what sports brings to the table is indeed connection and.

And a gathering point for people. Um, we're gonna test it in a handful of markets next season, um, to do more of a localized fan club model with the team sitting at the center of that fan club. You know, this happens organically all the time and I think, um, Global football does this arguably better than domestic teams here do it.

So we're gonna take what we've learned from talking to our cohorts and and peers in global football and apply that to a test and see if there's um, you know, see if this is a sustainable model for us to continue to grow. But I'm really excited about that. Um, One because it will give fans of deeper, closer connection to the team in a, in a team enabled way.

Yeah. Um, and two, because just again, like it is why I do what I do. I believe in the power of sport to bring people together and I think, you know, to expand and grow on that is, will be a lot of fun. 

Yeah, for sure. Innovation is fine. I love it. And no one better, I guess, to be leading the. Uh, project than, than yourself, Becky, for sure.

So looking forward to, to hearing and, and learning more about that as when that kicks off. So, um, brilliant. Becky, it's been, uh, a pleasure having you on. Um, really, really enjoyed our conversation today. Uh, for those who are interested in learning more about Becky or I guess San Antonio Spurs and central opportunities within the business, feel free to reach out.

Um, she's a great person, great executive, and obviously very good at what she does, so, um, I'm sure Becky would be, uh, open to any of those kind of conversations as well. Always happy to connect with anybody in the industry or looking to get into the industry. Um, find me on LinkedIn. Yeah. Perfect. Thanks everyone for listening.

Um, been, uh, a great session today. Uh, looking forward to next week's episode. See you then.