Lisa Bregman: Sports Marketing in the NFL – Work in Sports Podcast - a podcast by Brian Clapp - Work in Sports

Lisa Bregman, Seattle Seahawks Director of Marketing joins me on the Work in Sports podcast!Hi everybody, I’m Brian Clapp Director of Content for Workinsports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…Seattle sits in a corner of the country all by itself when it comes to the NFL.The next closest team, the Oakland Raiders, are 812 miles to the south… and they are leaving for Las Vegas soon. Head due east and the next team you hit is in Minnesota…1,674 miles away, head southeast and you’ll eventually hit the Broncos after driving 1,307 miles.To put that in perspective, the Washington Redskins have 16 other NFL franchises within 800 miles.This creates a completely different approach to marketing for the Seahawks.  There are no rival fan bases, no competing markets… the Seahawks own the northwest in pro football. They don’t have a situation like the NY Jets having to compete with the NY Giants, or the Redskins having to compete with the Baltimore Ravens for fan bases.But that doesn’t mean it’s easy – being the only game in the region, means it’s also hard to convince people the team is worthy of their time and money. In the ’70s ’80s and '90s the Seahawks were the Jeff Fisher of teams, hovering around 8-8 for three decades.In 1995, in the midst of another, you guessed it 8-8 season a local newspaper ran the headline: In Search Of An Audience Seahawks’ Ticket Sales Hit All-Time Low; One Longtime Fan Couldn’t Give Seats Away.It’s not enough to be the only game in town – you have to create an environment, culture, connection to the community and experience worth taking part in. The Seahawks learned this in the 2000s.I lived in Seattle for 10 years, the fan base is passionate, captive, starved, dedicated to their cause and come out in droves…IF they are nurtured. If they are treated well. If they feel respected and wanted and important.That is the key – the community of sports fans in Seattle is robust and as passionate as any, but as a marketing team in Seattle, you can’t take them for granted just because you are the only team within a thousand miles.You have to work at keeping them!No one knows this better than this week’s guest, Lisa Bregman Director of Marketing for the Seahawks – Lisa has worked in the MLS with the LA Galaxy and the Chicago Fire, she’s worked on the agency side with Wasserman, and she joined the Seahawks a little over a year ago.Her challenge now is to keep the fan base engaged, build that community, make them realize how important they are and to draw their energy into every event throughout the NFL calendar… and it sure doesn’t hurt to have guys like Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll forming a culture of excitement and passion.Here she is, my friend Lisa Bregman with the Seattle Seahawks…Questions for Lisa Bregman, Seattle Seahawks Director of Marketing1: Before we get into your background and role with the Seahawks – we just finished up the NFL draft, and since you and I had been talking about this interview for a while, I kept thinking…man for a marketer with an NFL team the draft has to be a very unique experience where you’re creative juices must be flowing – what was that event like for you?It’s not like you drafted a no-name offensive guard either – you drafted Zeus. I mean DK Metcalf is a beast – there has to be some excitement around that and other players coming to the team?1a: Sports Marketing is one of the more popular fields in the industry – over 25% of the available sports jobs we have on our website are related to marketing -- but it’s an extremely broad term, marketing covers a lot – we’ll get into your high-level experience soon, but to start I want to understand what someone graduating college and trying to break into...

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