Latest / The Breakfast Club / The Latest: Digital Transformation in Sports | A Conversation With Melissa Proctor

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The Latest: Digital Transformation in Sports | A Conversation With Melissa Proctor · The Breakfast Club

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Speaker 1: I'm a homegrow that knows a little bit about everything
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Speaker 1: and everybody.
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Speaker 2: You know, if you don't lie about that. Right, Hey, y'all,
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Speaker 2: what's up.
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Speaker 1: It's Lauren Rosa and this is the latest with Lauren
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Speaker 1: de Rosa. This is your daily dig on all things
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Speaker 1: pop culture, entertainment, news, and all of the conversations that
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Speaker 1: shake the room.
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Speaker 2: Baby.
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Speaker 1: Well, I got to recently be a part of another
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Speaker 1: conversation that definitely shook the room. I traveled down to
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Speaker 1: Atlanta to be a part of the Hope Global Forums,
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Speaker 1: which is an amazing, amazing meet up of so many
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Speaker 1: like minded people across various industries sports, entertainment, media, business, tech,
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Speaker 1: anything that you could think of. People were in the
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Speaker 1: room representing it. And not just people, I mean some
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Speaker 1: of the biggest and best minds in it. I got
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Speaker 1: to hear Byron Allen speak about his journey from just
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Speaker 1: being a young kid whose mom would take him to
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Speaker 1: work as she worked in television to turn it into
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Speaker 1: a billionaire TV mogul who owns so much of his
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Speaker 1: own everything. I also got to hear from owners of
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Speaker 1: some of the biggest sports teams in the world, including
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Speaker 1: the Atlanta Hawks, and hearing them talk about AI and
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Speaker 1: things that we should be leaning into right now made
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Speaker 1: me rethink because I'm not against AI, but I've never
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Speaker 1: been a person I was like, I want to use
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Speaker 1: AI so much for my businesses. If you guys can't
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Speaker 1: tell from all these conversations I keep having with the people,
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Speaker 1: I'm such a people person like I like to actually
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Speaker 1: talk to people, interact with people, see facial expressions and
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Speaker 1: body language and feeling and express emotion and key.
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Speaker 2: I just doesn't do that for me, but I get it.
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Speaker 1: I understand that as these new things come across all industries,
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Speaker 1: we have to adapt, and those who adapt the best
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Speaker 1: are heading up the conversations and heading up all of
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Speaker 1: the deals.
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Speaker 2: So it was great to hear and be in this room.
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Speaker 1: John O'Bryant, who is the creator of the Whope Global
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Speaker 1: Forums and his foundation and everything that he does with
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Speaker 1: bringing all these amazing people together, invited me down and
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Speaker 1: I actually was able to be in live conversation on
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Speaker 1: the main stage at the event with a black woman
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Speaker 1: who is when I say goals, she is out here
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Speaker 1: running it up. And I'm not just talking about running
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Speaker 1: it up in the sense of money, phones in your
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Speaker 1: ear and the pictures. No, no, no, no no. What
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Speaker 1: I mean is she is making real impact. She is
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Speaker 1: the chief marketing officer of the Atlanta Hawks. She's running
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Speaker 1: things over there also on the State Farm Arena side,
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Speaker 1: and she is a black woman who understands culture, people,
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Speaker 1: but also impact.
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Speaker 2: I got to have a conversation with Melissa Procter.
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Speaker 1: Let's take a listen, and it's very like I have
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Speaker 1: a friend here, Milona de Rouge, who I know, she
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Speaker 1: worked got to work with you guys as well. And
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Speaker 1: I think I tell people all the time that when
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Speaker 1: you get to get in these corporate structures and you
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Speaker 1: see how these teams are in and the investments and
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Speaker 1: all that, it just broadens your horizons. So talk a
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Speaker 1: little bit about your community footprint and you know what's
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Speaker 1: important to you, not Atlanta Hawks, but to Melissa personally.
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Speaker 1: What's important to you that each person in the community,
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Speaker 1: like a Milano de Rouge or whoever else, that they
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Speaker 1: walk away with when they interact with your program at
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Speaker 1: the Atlanta Hawks Stadium.
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Speaker 3: You know, I mean, I think everyone gets to walk
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Speaker 3: away with something different. You know, a maid being from
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Speaker 3: Miami but now being in Atlanta, Atlanta means something different
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Speaker 3: to everyone, and you know, I love Even when I
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Speaker 3: met Milan we talked about our clothing line. She's like,
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Speaker 3: always want to do something in sports, and I think
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Speaker 3: the idea of you can't be what you can't see
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Speaker 3: is really important. I didn't know there was anyone who
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Speaker 3: looked like me that was a CMO of an NBA team,
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Speaker 3: even when I started working for the Heat when I
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Speaker 3: was in high school, right, but ultimately over time, now
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Speaker 3: that I'm in this position, I'm always trying to give
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Speaker 3: opportunities and help. You know, we do it a lot
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Speaker 3: with our community, bring in students to be able to understand,
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Speaker 3: here are people that work in sports.
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Speaker 2: This is you know, opportunities that can exist.
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Speaker 3: And so I think when we at the community of
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Speaker 3: through my lens, it's how do we do this in
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Speaker 3: the most credible and authentic way. We were able to
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Speaker 3: utilize all the resources and everything that we have to
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Speaker 3: help the community be better. And as an example, you know,
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Speaker 3: a couple of years ago, we had a city edition
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Speaker 3: uniform and it was the theme was Lyft as we fly.
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Speaker 2: You know the team they're dunk and they're flying.
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Speaker 3: We want to lift up the community as we do that,
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Speaker 3: and so we said every day at four o four
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Speaker 3: we had these amazing boards outside of our building, digital
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Speaker 3: big billboards. So we're going to highlight a local small
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Speaker 3: business at four to four every day and give them
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Speaker 3: platform that they wouldn't normally be able to have. Yeah,
4:35
Speaker 3: and it was and it was amazing for us. And
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Speaker 3: some of the businesses were like, oh my gosh, there
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Speaker 3: people were out there crying on the sidewalk, you know,
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Speaker 3: in and out stuff and sampling and it was a gesture.
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Speaker 2: But for us, it was connected to everything.
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Speaker 3: It wasn't just about selling jerseys or selling tickets to
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Speaker 3: the game.
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Speaker 2: It was really around how do we look.
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Speaker 3: At that and to the idea of future proofing, you know,
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Speaker 3: sports community for us has been one of the most
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Speaker 3: important things in how we look at our business in
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Speaker 3: the past and also going forward.
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Speaker 1: What do you think has been your biggest success in
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Speaker 1: really leaning into digital across the arena but also like
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Speaker 1: the team, what's been like one of your biggest success
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Speaker 1: points of like we did that.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I think we have so many different ones
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Speaker 3: because when you look at digital, it could be the
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Speaker 3: things that are consumer facing, but also a lot of
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Speaker 3: what we're doing behind the scenes.
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Speaker 2: Talk about that.
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Speaker 3: We have an amazing chief Technology and Innovation officer, Kim
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Speaker 3: Ramido who may be here, who's phenomenal, and I think
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Speaker 3: since she's come on board and really partnered with our team,
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Speaker 3: it was how do we look at all of our
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Speaker 3: data and our analytics and all of our information through
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Speaker 3: one pane of glass where ultimately everyone can understand and
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Speaker 3: see and get the information that we need in order
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Speaker 3: to make our business better, be more efficient, understand more
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Speaker 3: about our audience. And so I think sometimes it is
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Speaker 3: a technology you see outside, but now I mean we're
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Speaker 3: looking at AI in a lot of really interesting ways.
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Speaker 3: How can we predict behaviors for our fans in the future.
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Speaker 3: And so I don't know if there's any one thing
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Speaker 3: that we've done. What I really am proud of what
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Speaker 3: our social team does, it's how do we look at
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Speaker 3: our technology and even things like our social platform and
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Speaker 3: new and unique ways. So I do really good at that, Yeah,
6:02
Speaker 3: because I'm not like a big sports person, but like
6:04
Speaker 3: you guys pop up on my feed because it's very
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Speaker 3: like fresh you tap into like culture and pop culture
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Speaker 3: really well. Yeah, and for us it's always how do
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Speaker 3: we lean in, But we have to understand our audience
6:14
Speaker 3: and so even having people on the team that look different,
6:16
Speaker 3: this diversity across the WOARLD. While obviously Atlanta is you know,
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Speaker 3: a great city for many different audiences, for us, we
6:23
Speaker 3: know that diversity and inclusion is a really big part
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Speaker 3: of our brand and always has been and always will be,
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Speaker 3: and so we lean into that across. But i'd say
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Speaker 3: technology for us, yeah, across the board is consistently evolving.
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Speaker 1: Now. I know a lot of people there's been so
6:35
Speaker 1: many conversations across sports about ticket sales and getting physical
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Speaker 1: people in seats. I know you guys do a lot
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Speaker 1: of like initiatives to bring people into the you know, stadium,
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Speaker 1: But what has been you know, your strategy there with
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Speaker 1: just making people want to come out and actually sit
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Speaker 1: and see a game and not stream in and not
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Speaker 1: or and how do you lean in when they want
6:53
Speaker 1: to stream it and.
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Speaker 3: Not sit in a physical seat. Yeah, I mean the
6:56
Speaker 3: world is changing very rapidly. And we'll say even with
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Speaker 3: the the way that technology is today, obviously the new
7:03
Speaker 3: NBA deal and streaming platforms, fans can watch games on
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Speaker 3: more platforms than ever before, and a lot of them
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Speaker 3: are looking more at sports personalities and folks who are
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Speaker 3: creating content to give them the play by pay of
7:13
Speaker 3: the game verst watching the whole game. So I think
7:15
Speaker 3: for our next gen strategy, it's very intentional because in
7:18
Speaker 3: order to get them to continue to come to games
7:19
Speaker 3: in the.
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Speaker 2: Future, we have to make it worth a while.
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Speaker 3: But I will say from a ticket sales strategy, the
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Speaker 3: NBA has done a lot over the past few years.
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Speaker 3: They've created the NBA Cup, which I know is currently
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Speaker 3: going on to try to get fans interested. Obviously for basketball,
7:33
Speaker 3: we know that once you know, Christmas hits and it's
7:35
Speaker 3: like all right, now we're all on to the second
7:37
Speaker 3: half of the season, getting ready for playoffs. Yeah, so
7:39
Speaker 3: the beginning of the season, we do a lot of
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Speaker 3: different things, whether it's you know, unique platforms, them nights.
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Speaker 3: We've always really leaned into what's really Atlanta HBC unit
7:47
Speaker 3: is one of our biggest knights. We're actually honoring outcasts
7:50
Speaker 3: at our game tomorrow night.
7:51
Speaker 1: Spires the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, all right
7:53
Speaker 1: for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Yeah, okay,
7:55
Speaker 1: after introduction and so like, we always are looking at
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Speaker 1: ways that we can connect to Atlanta the city, but
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Speaker 1: find relevance for our fans to bring them in and
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Speaker 1: really ultimately it's creating an amazing experience.
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Speaker 3: We do that better than anyone else. And so I've had,
8:07
Speaker 3: you know, folks that travel to different teams and they're like,
8:09
Speaker 3: when I come to Atlanta, it's a party, right, and
8:11
Speaker 3: we really want to look at how do we make.
8:13
Speaker 2: This the most Atlanta experience ever.
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Speaker 3: So we really really look at you know, consistently being
8:17
Speaker 3: number one and game presentation across the NBA is the
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Speaker 3: way to do that, and getting people indoor and having
8:22
Speaker 3: them want to come and experience it here because it's
8:24
Speaker 3: a great night out at the end of the day.
8:26
Speaker 3: Chef ge Garvin is our chef at the arena and
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Speaker 3: he's phenomenal, and so it's not just looking at it
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Speaker 3: through one lens, but across all. Now, you talked a
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Speaker 3: bit about the athletes becoming sports personalities. That has become
8:45
Speaker 3: such a big thing because people have podcasts and they're
8:47
Speaker 3: streaming and you know, all of these things. I know
8:50
Speaker 3: it can work really well for you guys, like when.
8:52
Speaker 1: Your teammates or their teammates are out and they have
8:55
Speaker 1: podcasts and people are coming on and it leads into
8:57
Speaker 1: ticket sales, but I also know it can put actually
9:00
Speaker 1: be crazy when they get on there and say crazy
9:02
Speaker 1: things and now the team has to answer for it.
9:04
Speaker 1: What have been some of your best moments and kind
9:07
Speaker 1: of like, uh, why do we have to deal with
9:09
Speaker 1: this when it comes to that. Just people being able
9:11
Speaker 1: to have their own voice on these platforms.
9:13
Speaker 3: You know, I think we've been really fortunate to have
9:14
Speaker 3: an amazing group of guys on our team that are
9:16
Speaker 3: high character. You know, I think our coaching staff and
9:20
Speaker 3: our gam we really recruit guys who are amazing, So
9:23
Speaker 3: we haven't.
9:23
Speaker 2: Had a lot of those like, oh, I wish you'd
9:25
Speaker 2: do this.
9:25
Speaker 3: One thing I would say is, you know, during COVID
9:28
Speaker 3: and obviously in the summer of twenty twenty, there was
9:30
Speaker 3: a lot going on and it was really really challenging,
9:32
Speaker 3: and at the time, our head coach was very vocal
9:35
Speaker 3: and was going out and doing things in the community,
9:37
Speaker 3: and it was amazing for us as a brand because
9:39
Speaker 3: it was aligned with what we believe and so often,
9:43
Speaker 3: you know, not to just players, we have personalities that
9:45
Speaker 3: are doing things. For example, I was just selling the
9:48
Speaker 3: folks backstage DC Young Fly we did a podcast we
9:51
Speaker 3: created with him last season called Hawk's AF love that
9:54
Speaker 3: which is Hawks and Friends and.
9:58
Speaker 2: DC is we call them the Energy Coach.
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Speaker 3: You know, he is such a big, authentic Atlanta Warren
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Speaker 3: Hawks fans, Yes, and sometimes he gets really passionate, uh huh,
10:07
Speaker 3: and we're like.
10:08
Speaker 2: Okay, DC, Okay, that's great.
10:10
Speaker 3: But you know, you know, we're together in this, so
10:12
Speaker 3: we're doing But you know, this is our second season
10:15
Speaker 3: of Hawk's AF and it's amazing working with him and
10:17
Speaker 3: just seeing how much it's grown as a platform. But
10:19
Speaker 3: just you know, the love that people have, and so
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Speaker 3: sometimes especially in sports, there's so much passion, yes, Asso
10:24
Speaker 3: stated with sports, and you can't necessarily tell people to
10:27
Speaker 3: turn it up or turn it down. Yes, But I
10:28
Speaker 3: think allowing players to have their voice and use their
10:31
Speaker 3: platforms in their own way is truly important. I think
10:33
Speaker 3: we've worked with a lot of guys now that are
10:35
Speaker 3: doing so many great things in the community, and we
10:37
Speaker 3: try our best to help amplify the work that they're
10:39
Speaker 3: doing through our channels as well.
10:41
Speaker 2: I was watching a well ruffalo we should clap for that?
10:44
Speaker 2: Was that was good.
10:46
Speaker 1: I was watching an interview you did with the CEO
10:49
Speaker 1: of Revault.
10:49
Speaker 2: It was like one of the CEO conversations that he does.
10:53
Speaker 1: Tavio and you said, there are a bunch of questions
10:56
Speaker 1: that you always ask yourself when you walk into a room,
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Speaker 1: like what's the problem and how can I solve it?
11:01
Speaker 1: And what keeps you up at night? Yeah, so I
11:02
Speaker 1: want to end with two those two questions. So first
11:04
Speaker 1: question is what's a problem right now that you see
11:07
Speaker 1: as you are trying to take sports branding into the future,
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Speaker 1: and how can some of the people here solve it
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Speaker 1: for you?
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Speaker 2: Wow? Man, that's a really big question.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I think that there's a lot happening, you know,
11:18
Speaker 3: in the space and just with the economy and fans,
11:20
Speaker 3: like there's there's a lot in the world and that energy,
11:23
Speaker 3: and we talk about it internally, but you know, as
11:25
Speaker 3: we look to the future, I'd say the thing that's
11:28
Speaker 3: probably most in our mind right now is AI.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. And the way that people are consuming is so different.
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Speaker 3: So even if it's you in the past, you would
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Speaker 3: go and search something and go to Google and find
11:36
Speaker 3: a homepage.
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Speaker 2: Now no one is looking at a homepage.
11:38
Speaker 3: You're going you know, your chatbot or whatever you name
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Speaker 3: it is telling you exactly where to go, what to buy,
11:43
Speaker 3: and so needing to make sure that we are ahead
11:45
Speaker 3: of the curve in that way. So if you're even
11:46
Speaker 3: curious of, hey, what's the best event happening in Atlanta today,
11:50
Speaker 3: it's a Hawks game.
11:50
Speaker 2: Here's a like to buy a ticket.
11:52
Speaker 3: And so we have a great team of people that
11:53
Speaker 3: are actively working on that on a regular basis. But
11:56
Speaker 3: I think as we continue to look and how do
11:58
Speaker 3: we adapt technology and evolve as technology evolves, you know,
12:01
Speaker 3: getting in front of streaming, making sure that our young
12:03
Speaker 3: fans still want to participate with us and come to
12:06
Speaker 3: our games is something that we're always thinking about consistently
12:09
Speaker 3: and trying to find ways that we can continue to innovate.
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Speaker 1: So ari companies, streaming companies, listen, she got some plans.
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Speaker 1: I better help figure it out. And the last question,
12:18
Speaker 1: what's keeping you up at night right now? Like what
12:20
Speaker 1: are you trying to like actively get over to hump about.
12:24
Speaker 1: You know, I hav an eleven year old daughter, and
12:26
Speaker 1: on a regular basis, she's keeping me up at night in.
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Speaker 2: A lot of different ways.
12:31
Speaker 3: But it's interesting because you know, I literally this morning
12:34
Speaker 3: she was looking at something on her iPad and I'm like,
12:36
Speaker 3: what is she looking at? What? Exactly is this what's happening? Yes,
12:39
Speaker 3: and that energy is so much more of what's happening
12:42
Speaker 3: in the world. Like I always am like, Okay, how
12:44
Speaker 3: do I stay on top of this?
12:46
Speaker 2: How do I get ahead?
12:47
Speaker 3: And obviously being you know, super busy executive, but also
12:49
Speaker 3: being a super busy mom. She's the thing that's keeping
12:52
Speaker 3: me up most at night, wanting to make sure that
12:53
Speaker 3: I can do a good job but also be able
12:55
Speaker 3: to balance and find harmony between being able to you know,
12:58
Speaker 3: be a great executive but also be a great parent.
13:00
Speaker 1: I know, marketing and strategy, but is there ever really harmony? Wait,
13:04
Speaker 1: we're clapping for that first Clairs.
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Speaker 3: I'd say there's never balance, But I believe you can
13:09
Speaker 3: find harmony because the idea of knowing that everything's going
13:11
Speaker 3: to be equal is probably not feasible. Right At some
13:14
Speaker 3: points you gotta work really hard and at some points
13:16
Speaker 3: you gotta live. And I think that, you know, being
13:18
Speaker 3: able to have that flexibility between the two and being
13:20
Speaker 3: aware of that is important. We talk a lot about
13:22
Speaker 3: mental health and wellness within our organization and with our
13:25
Speaker 3: teams and just making sure that we're able to support
13:27
Speaker 3: them and what they need because ultimately we can work
13:29
Speaker 3: hard every day, but we're people at the end of
13:31
Speaker 3: the day and we're all living.
13:33
Speaker 1: Yes, well, I've enjoyed the comment, y'all enjoyed the conversation. Yes,
13:39
Speaker 1: you are amazing, and keep doing the work that you're doing.
13:41
Speaker 1: Keep having boosy they're yelling, Okay, we'd be seeing it
13:43
Speaker 1: if we swag surface.
13:44
Speaker 2: Yes, and I would love to come to a game.
13:46
Speaker 1: And I don't know if there's anything that we haven't
13:48
Speaker 1: touched on it you think is important to get out
13:50
Speaker 1: in this room, But if so, we'll love for you
13:52
Speaker 1: to just put it out there right now.
13:53
Speaker 2: Or if I've got everything, let me know. I think
13:58
Speaker 2: you got it.
13:58
Speaker 3: But I really just appreciate the opportun being here, and
14:01
Speaker 3: I'm really excited for the next part of the Pannel.
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Speaker 2: I'm excited too.
14:04
Speaker 1: Well, y'all listen, she's gone into the future of sports
14:07
Speaker 1: and branding, not even going She's already there. She's already
14:09
Speaker 1: doing it. So let's celebrate her. Give it up for
14:11
Speaker 1: the conversation with Miss Midliss of concert. Thank you, thank you,
14:15
Speaker 1: give me up. Thank you guys so much for tuning in.
14:19
Speaker 1: I hope you guys got as much from this conversation
14:23
Speaker 1: as I got I mean in real time. I was
14:26
Speaker 1: just I'm always so fascinated to hear from people who
14:31
Speaker 1: actually care about people and not just care about people
14:35
Speaker 1: because their business or because they're in the business of people.
14:39
Speaker 2: I know how to use people a lot, but you
14:41
Speaker 2: guys get what I mean. I think a lot of times.
14:43
Speaker 1: You know, when you work in a more front facing job,
14:47
Speaker 1: you see a lot of performance.
14:48
Speaker 2: You see people who are very performative.
14:50
Speaker 1: So it is always very refreshing to be surrounded by
14:53
Speaker 1: people who actually have passion care but also really want
14:56
Speaker 1: to make an impact.
14:56
Speaker 2: And that's all these whole global forms are about.
15:00
Speaker 1: Figuring out a way to trickle down success opportunity, you know,
15:04
Speaker 1: finances and financial literacy to underserved communities and continue that conversation.
15:10
Speaker 1: So I'm just happy to have been a part of
15:12
Speaker 1: the conversation a Laura La Rosa. You guys could be
15:16
Speaker 1: anywhere with anybody talking about all of these things, but
15:19
Speaker 1: you choose to be right here with me every single episode.
15:21
Speaker 2: I appreciate you guys for that. I'll catch you in
15:24
Speaker 2: my next one.