Executives from the Philadelphia region's five major sports teams were a part of the panel at the Business of Sports event held at Xfinity Live! on Thursday morning to discuss topics including stadium projects, the impact of gambling, innovations in sponsorship activations and fan engagement, the evolution of social media marketing, and more.
Jen Kavanagh, the Senior Vice President of Media and Marketing for the Eagles, represented the organization. Among other panelists at the event were Dave Debusschere (Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Philadelphia Union), Todd Glickman (Chief Revenue Officer, Comcast Spectacor), Michael Harris (Vice President, Marketing and New Media, Philadelphia Phillies), and Lara Price (Chief Operating Officer, Philadelphia 76ers).
Philadelphia Business Journal Senior Reporter John George was the interviewer for the event which saw a solid turnout, filling up the whole Victory Beer Hall room inside the popular sports bar.
With the Eagles, Kavanagh is responsible for leading the club's global brand development, as well as audience growth and engagement across all fan-facing platforms, including social, digital, gameday, and events in the United States, Australia, Ghana, and New Zealand. Along with that, she oversees business and data analytics, which is responsible for the utilization and governance of data across the organization.
She also oversees the club's community relations efforts, where she has led initiatives such as the growth of girls flag football and the removal of barriers for girls to play through the distribution of sports bras.
She spoke about the team's upcoming trip to Brazil for the season opener against the Packers on September 6 and how they are looking to increase fan engagement outside of the United States.
"It's exciting, São Paulo is very unique in the sense that the population is quite large, about 23 million people. The game sold out almost instantly, which says a lot about existing fans in Brazil that had an appetite for this game and are excited about it," Kavanagh said.
The NFL will be holding five international games across three countries this season – Brazil, England, and Germany – and the game has grown internationally over the years with fans around the stadiums sporting more gear than just the teams that are out on the field.
The Eagles are looking to combine their energy with the local fans in Brazil as they look to continue growing the game outside of the country. Kavanagh will be making the trip with the team to Brazil in less than two weeks.
"What's more interesting to us is this idea that both existing fans and our fans who travel will be kind of coping together and it'll be this multicultural experience that's kind of unified by their love of the team," Kavanagh said.
"I think it's just another exciting step forward for the league and its potential to be an international sport."
The Eagles are known to have a passionate fan base that fills the stands of each game every season, but how does the organization continue to keep fans happy and coming back with their gameday experience each year?
"I think every year you're seeing new experiences that we're trying to introduce. Our objective every gameday is to create an experience that makes people feel like they're part of a really special community in addition to part of a fan base," Kavanagh said.
"We really start with the perspective of, let's throw a party and what does it mean to throw a great party. For us, it's a lot of conversation around, not just the flow of someone's experience from gate to seat, but also the energy during the game – what kind of music we play, who's in the stadium and how do we strike the right balance between what dad or mom wants to hear versus maybe what the 10-year-old or the 15-year-old might want to hear. For us, it's really trying to throw a great party and deliver on a great experience for our partners."
In the world of marketing, keeping up with the times and latest trends is essential in providing a good experience and connecting with fans.
As new generations develop and technology evolves, organizations feel the need to not only be up to date, but ahead of the curve.
"One of the big things that we'll have to be mindful of is this sort of rising generation – I'll use Gen Z as an example – and how much we understand about them, not just their behaviors, but their values, the things that they care about, and how those things may or not be different from the generation that preceded them," Kavanagh said.
"There very well will come a time when we're going to have to re-evaluate our approach and our methods in order to make sure that we are tapping into those things that we know are a priority for them, whether those things are their cultural values, personal values, how much they care about the environment, how much they care about diversity. Otherwise, we're speaking a foreign language at some point and our methods become obsolete."
When it comes to discussing Gen Z and evolving technology, the use of AI cannot go unmentioned, which is exactly what Kavanagh spoke about with her closing words from the event.
"Generative AI specifically is very interesting. We're all content creators up here. We are not going to stop creating content any time soon. It becomes even more important as our sport becomes international," Kavanagh said.
"There's only 70,000 seats in our stadium, so, what are we doing to keep the fans who are growing across the country and around the world engaged with us? Production is expensive, it's a high lift. We want to do more. I think things like Generative AI are going to give us the ability to scale premium content in a way that's going to be really powerful." – Written by Liam Wichser
