Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
In Case You Missed It with Christina Williams is an
iHeart Women's Sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to another special bonus episode of In Case You
Missed It with Christina Williams here on Iheartwomen's Sports Network.
And I'm super excited because it's WNBA All Star week
and lots of exciting things happening in and around Indianapolis
this weekend, and so we get to talk to some
(00:34):
of the movers and shakers who are helping to bring
All Star weekend to life. In today's guest is Kate Johnson.
She leads Global Sports and Entertainment Marketing at Google and
she's been a big part of their investment in women's sports.
She's also a former Olympian, so I think that she
brings a very unique perspective to this conversation. I'm super
(00:56):
excited to talk to her today and we're gonna be
talking about Google's WNBA partnership, they're All Star activation, and
how she's helping to grow the game. So, without further ado,
please welcome Kate Johnson to In Case You missed It.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Welcome Kate, Hi, Christina. It's so great to be here.
I have been a fan, so I really am honored
to talk to you today.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
The feeling is so mutual, Kate, before we get started
with all things all Star, I like to start every
discussion with the guests asking what was a win of
the week for them? So what was a win for
you this week?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
So me personally or kind of like for the industry
or oh that's a great be either or you know what?
I think A win for me this week was I
got enough sleep. That is something I don't know. I
just like I'm never getting enough sleep, and this this
this week, I had like a pretty solid sweet start,
sweet sleep run. Granted it's Thursday, so there's still some
(01:55):
time to go, but that's a pretty good win.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Listen, that is a great win because you can't pour
from an empty cup. So I feel like rest and
recovery is very important, especially for an executive like yourself.
All right, let's dive into the conversation. You are a
former Olympian term sports marker. How did your journey as
an athlete shape your path to leading a global sports
(02:19):
and media marketing at Google.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Well, you mentioned it in the introduction. I am an
Olympic athlete. We don't ever actually say former. I competed
at the two thousand and four Olympics in Athens. And
it's interesting lately I've been reflecting, you know, a bit
more on just my journey to becoming an executive. I think,
you know, I'm on the board of the Women's Sports Foundation.
A lot of the statistics that are floating out there
(02:44):
as I watch kind of the NLI situation happening over
with the NCAA and the thread of Title nine. I
was a Title nine baby, meaning you know, when I
was coming up an Olympic sport, when I was getting
recruited to go and row in universities, I massively benefited
from schools that had added women's rowing to their list
(03:06):
of available sports. And the schools that were adding women's
rowing in particular were ones that had large football programs.
And the reason is because we were able to help
balance the numbers a bit on the men's roster women's
roster side of you know, available scholarships. And so I think,
for me, my entire executive career, I owe to coming
up in sports, you know, all the lessons. I did
(03:27):
an internal Google chat yesterday with one of our teams
that was having an on site and just kind of
shared with them the lessons that I brought from sport
into my career. And so, you know, my path into
this role that I have started at a very young age,
probably at the age of fourteen. You know, we know
girls are dropping out of sport at twice the rate
of boys. At fourteen, I was that young girl that
(03:49):
was kind of do I want to stay in the game,
And frankly was inspired at the time by a Nike
ad that ran in the mid nineties called if You
Let Me Play? And I think in that moment, both
you know, having a brand make me feel seen as
a young woman, inspiring me to kind of double down
on the sports path that I was traveling. Was kind
of when I made two decisions. One was to enter
(04:10):
into a career where I could inspire people. The other
was to keep going and pursue my Olympic dream.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
What excites you the most about working at the intersection
of sports, tech, and culture.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
I mean, honestly, I cannot imagine, like right now is
such an exciting time in all three of those things.
At Google, you know, the internal hallway conversations that we're
having and that we as Google employees, get to kind
of test and learn with a lot of the products
before we make them public. I get so excited every
(04:43):
time a new test and learn product kind of hits
the employee feed, just because I can imagine how this
will help us in the sports landscape, especially athletes. You know,
when I was coming up as a young athlete, the
most I could do to connect with my audience of
really just friends and family that were cheering me on
as an Olympic rower was via an email newsletter like
(05:06):
Facebook wasn't even around around the two thousand and four Olympics, right,
And when I think about how much this has progressed
to where we are today, what I love is, rather
than being at the whim or frankly at the decision
making of a broadcaster like NBC or ESPN to cover
your sport, the athletes have the power in their own
hands now to tell their stories. And so from a
(05:27):
technology intersection, it's not just about social platforms anymore. It
is literally around these tools, in particular AI tools. If
I leave people with one message, it's like you got
to lean in. The AI is here to stay. It's
not going anywhere. And I think if we can think
of these tools as enablement tools. How do they help
you tell your story? How do they help you so
(05:47):
that you don't need a massive production team following you around?
Like I think it'll democratize athletes abilities to tell their
own stories, sports leagues, teams, federations that maybe don't have
large production budgets to help tell their stories and to
scale their stories so that we're just not relying on
the traditional moticums anymore. To amplify sports, but especially women's sports.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
W NBA All Star is here in Google is doing
a very special activation that will essentially take fans through
the journey of the athlete. Tell us how you all
are activating here at All Star this year.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, So we have been a partner of the WNBA.
I'd love to share that the WNBA was really kind
of our first long term marketing partnership. We actually signed
with the WNBA before we signed with the NBA, And
you know, the insight at the moment at the time
was really around just you know, basically a very valuable audience.
(06:44):
Fans of women's sports are earlier adopters of technology, as
you all know, I'm kind of preaching to the choir here,
but you know, earlier adopters of technology tend to skew younger,
and you know, definitely sit at the center of kind
of the audience we're trying to target, and so for
Pixel in particular, Google Pixel and Google Search and frankly
(07:05):
all of our consumer apps that fall within the search banner.
Those are the product areas that are in the WNBA
partnership and that we're bringing to life here on site
at All Star Weekend. We have a very immersive experience
for fans who go through the WNBA Experience Zone. In particular,
like the idea is for Pixel, we're asking fans to
(07:26):
expect more from their phones, right, We want them to
level up, We want them to think about both in
the women's game. Fans of women's sports are demanding more
now of coverage, of commentary, of just the ability to
access the content and the information they want around women's sports.
We believe that Google and Pixel are the vehicle to
(07:48):
help you get that, whether that be via Google Search,
but certainly on the Pixel itself. Like giving people the tools,
you know, putting the power in the fans' hands to
navigate the women's sports landscape. That's what we're leveling up
within this experience, so fans will get to go in
they almost get to try on what it's like to
be kind of a WNBA player as they move through
our experience zone, which includes it starts with kind of
(08:10):
a digital ID where they're kind of brought into the
WNBA You're going to be a player. Now they go
and they get to experience kind of how Google lends
within the phone helps them try on new Google fits
where you know, Asia Wilson, Caitlin Clark's fits or or
Kelsey Plum and so a lot of what we're doing
is really about bringing the product features to life for
(08:32):
fans and then showing, you know, via a sizzle reel
at the end, that they get to take home with
them what that actually looks like. And we just hope
that like those tools are things that they'll realize they
can kind of play out in their everyday life as well.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
We mentioned is before we started recording, but you know,
I talked about how w NBA All Star is growing
and more brands have been activating year over year. How
would you say Google's relationship in partner ship with the
w has grown over the last few years. We talked
about the different touch points in terms of the products
and activations. But from your perspective, how has this partnership
(09:08):
grown and what does it look like more long term?
Speaker 3 (09:11):
You and I were kind of talking about it before
the call. When I step back and I think of
previous All Star weekends within the WNBA, even how we
were activating as a Google brand, Like I would say,
we always show up as the best version of ourselves.
But you you kind of have to meet also the
moment that you're in, and it finally feels like the
WNBA All Star Weekend is the place to be in
(09:34):
women's sports right now, Like this is a moment. It
is at the scale, it's at the professionalism of these athletes,
and so the way brands are activating and particularly ourselves,
I've been blown away by when I look at you know, listen,
when we started our partnership in twenty twenty one. Since then,
search interest in the WNBA has grown by two hundred
(09:54):
and eighty percent. That's in the US worldwide, And I
think this is an even more interesting stat is that
interest in the WNBA has grown two hundred and thirty percent.
So it's not just in the US that fans are
hungry for these players, the content, the teams, the drama.
I mean that just kind of says it all in
terms of the growth of the game. And I think
the way we've shown up within this a lot of
(10:15):
it is, you know, really trying to figure out how
do we intersect with the fan in powerful ways that
are additive to their experience. That's really, you know, is
the official fan phone of the wnbas as you know,
as the the search provider and really you know, partner
to the WNBA. We want to make sure that fans
have what they need at their fingertips. And it's it's
(10:37):
been fun kind of evolving with the w AS. It's
been meeting this huge, you know, movement of people finally
not just waking up, but like bringing so many new
fans into the game.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You talked about how the numbers have grown year over
year and how WNBA fans women's sports fans are a
unique demographic. Why do you think brands are hesitant to
learn to invest into titpole events like an All Star
or into women's sports weeks.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I just think like we just have to keep educating.
We can't take the foot off the gas on educating,
you know, I was. I was talking with another change
maker partner yesterday, Deloitte, and we were kind of we
were talking about both the internal selling that brands have
to do to bring executives on board, whether it be
to bring them into a campaign that we want to
launch around it, or actually at the genesis of the
(11:39):
deal itself, why women's sports? And so, you know, I
think even within Google, the conversation around why women's sports
has changed so much, and the beginning it was really
kind of this audit on ourselves of while we're spending
a lot in men's sports media, we're not spending a
lot in women's but oh, by the way, there isn't
actually enough inventory out there for us to spend in.
And so, you know, starting with that as kind of
(12:02):
a is there anything we Google can uniquely do to
change the women's sports inventory landscape through the relationships we have?
That's really kind of where we began. Where we are
now is listen, the audience itself is, like I said,
so valuable, and so if we can really hit the mark,
you know, what I love about fans of women's sports
(12:23):
is that they're incredibly loyal. You know, they've been starving
for so long again to get the content that they
want to hear, the stories that they want that they
pay it back like they are aware. You know, we
have higher recall of our brand in the women's sports
space than we do in just the general sports landscape
with men's sports. And so while you might have like
(12:44):
way more reach and scale in terms of just sheer
quantity of fans in men's sports, I think the like
high touch, fan loyalty, real engagement is so much more
valuable on the women's sports side. And that's the story
that we are always talking about it, you know. I
think the magic piece of that is, again, how do
you also meet them where they're at? What are they
(13:09):
wanting more of? I think the thing this kind of
brings me back to the athletes side of it, is
like everybody wants to know these these athletes and know
more about them. And I think what the w NBA
has done, especially probably the best job at of any
women's sports team or league that I'm following, is they've
they've helped really amplify these athletes to make them household names.
(13:32):
And that's where the growth of the game is. It's
in knowing who these players are being emotionally invested in
them and if we can help do that, then we're
doing our best job.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
You mentioned how this experience at all start will help
to engage fans in a new way and how they
also will get to keep these members with them together
through the technology that Google has presented. What role does
immersive experiences like this one play and how Google shows
up in like culture through sports. I really hesitate to
(14:03):
just say like sports of sports. And that's again another
kind of internal talk track is you know, we can't
just bucket the WNBA into like sports.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
It is so much more than that. It is now culture,
it is fashion, it is it is trend setting, it
is you know, conversation making. So it's not as much
as it is about like, yes, what happens on the
court and the dynamic play and all of the drama
that exists there. It's also about you know, these athletes
showing up at the met gala like the Liberty did
(14:34):
in just like amazing fits. It's it's definitely the tunnel walk.
I mean, think about how much the tunnel walk has
changed over just the last few years. And these athletes
really like owning, you know, the fandom that they've earned, right,
what we're trying to do is make sure that look
like look, Google's products are amazing. I mean, you can
actually hold up your phone, your pixel phone, you can
(14:57):
zoom in on an athlete's shoes that she just dropped,
or the skirt that she's wearing, or the earrings or whatever,
and you can you can circle to search that within
your phone using Generator. You know, the AI within your
phone will actually help connect you to where you can
buy that. I mean, we're just making these athletes. Like
Google's job is to make the athletes more accessible in
non intrusive ways. We're doing that, you know, and we're
(15:18):
able to do that through the technology that we bring
to our fans and just basically our phone consumers.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
That was my next question in terms of how Google's
helping to elevate the players and meaningful and authentic ways.
But you kind of just touched on that. But I
guess when it comes to real world impact, how van
is Google measuring the real world impact with these types
of partnerships.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
In men's sports, You've got there's just there's so much coverage,
there's so much coverage, there's so many journalists in women's sports.
We're still we still need more right there. If forty
percent of professional athletes are women, yet the coverage is
only at fifteen percent, we still have a massive gap
to go in terms of the coverage of professional sports
(16:02):
for women. And so, you know, one of the things
that we're trying to do is make sure that we're
arming and we're building that generation of journalists to cover
women's sports. That's an incredibly important piece. One of the
things that we've We've had a recent partnership with the
Athletic which was all about elevating the coverage of women's
sports via that partnership and journalists through our partnerships. Now though,
(16:22):
what we're doing is we're also giving creators the ability
to kind of be on the sidelines. The access that
we give them through our partnerships brings creators on the
journey to be on the sidelines capturing content. And the
more content we can put out into the women's sports landscape,
the better for brands like us we can ever to
advertise against that content. You know, today we've added over
(16:44):
three hundred hours of coverage of women's sports, and that's
just in linear That doesn't even consider the amount of
just general content that we put into the space and really,
in my view, the only way we're going to write size,
you know, system visibility of women's sports, it's it is
all in content, which just brings me back to the
(17:05):
tools that I said. But I'm excited that athletes have
in their hands, fans have in their hands to tell
these stories.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I have to say that I definitely see that real
world impact as my peers are journalists who work for
the Athletic and a ton of my friends who are
creators they work with Google Pixel as well. So I'm
seeing it even in my sphere of influence that the
work that you all do and are making an immediate impact.
And as someone who is a journalist or reporter or creator,
(17:31):
you know, I advocate for companies to invest into newsrooms because,
as you said, it's all about the coverage and that
offsets the marketing and visibility. I'm interested in hearing what
kind of feedback that you all are receiving from the
athletes that you are partnering with. How are these types
of partnerships resonating with them.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Well, you know, Asia Wilson Kelsey Plumber are two of
the athletes that we're really standing up at this All
Star Weekend in particular, have had long term partnerships with
both of them. You know, I think it's two things.
I think there's the athletes that have arrived and are
meeting their moment, and you know, certainly they're the ones
that just from a visibility point of view, brands will
(18:14):
want to partner with and we get great feedback, you know, Kelsey.
I think the thing I love about female athletes in
particulars they go above and beyond right, they like lean
into the partnerships. They're always willing to do more, and
I think, you know, it's on brands a to honor
that and like welcome that, but also like have respect
(18:34):
for that too and not push the boundaries too much,
because you know, these these are professional athletes. They have
to deliver on their game. And I think so I
say that in the sense that I think where women's
athletes have had to work so hard for their brand
partners previously, now they've earned the right to have brands
invest in them and to not have to. Like they
go over and above because they want to. And that's
(18:56):
the difference, and that's why I will always say that
like working with a with a female athlete pays itself
back in dividends. I think on the other side, what
we hear a lot from the up and coming athletes
is thank you for the investment. We know this matters,
you know. Can we learn from you? You know?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
You know?
Speaker 3 (19:17):
And I think there's things around bringing these athletes on
the journey of understanding how these tools can facilitate their
own reach and scale. That's an area that we have
definitely spent some time in with with younger athletes as well,
and kind of like rookie athletes coming in that haven't
necessarily earned the the household name status yet, like the
(19:39):
Asias or the or the or the Kitlins or the Kelsey's.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
You mentioned how in order for brands to start investing
into women's sports specifically, they need to be a little
bit educated on like what's happening and the fans. How
would you describe the shift that's been happening in how
fans and media ye are now valuing women's sports.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
What I've seen change are the conversations that people are
having around women's sports. I think, like I said earlier,
where you know, yes, it's about the performance and what
happens on court, but sport has always been about so
much more than just what happens on the court or
on the field of play. And I think the respect
of wow, these players are just magnificent athletes that is
(20:29):
now there more than it ever has been, and it's
bringing in audiences that maybe never would have naturally found
themselves like a fan. That's the piece where I just
see this like incredible acceleration and getting into kind of
the culture around sport more and more. I had a
young woman reach out to me because she wants to
start a podcast that literally is all about the fashion
(20:51):
around sports, and she's starting with she she wants to
focus on women's sports in particular because she she herself
was like I was not a fan of women's sports
until she's literally started seeing these athletes rock up to
the met gala with these incredible outfits and then she
started following them for fashion content. Like that's what gets
really interesting to me. And I think the more brands
(21:13):
can know that audience and know the athlete is a
multifaceted individual versus just outside the league itself and the
games that you know that we deliver against. Like that's
where the kind of multi platform, multi communication, full funnel
approach to sports gets really interesting, and if you're doing
it right, you're intersecting those cultural moments and those other
(21:34):
kind of ancillary engagement opportunities with your fan authentically.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I like that finding new entry points to engage new fans.
I really really like that last one before we let
you go, because I know it's a very busy week
for you. What's one hope that you have for the
future of women's sports that keeps you showing up and
doing this kind of work.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
I mean, my hope is that we don't have to
qualify it. I think, you know, for women's sports has
had to delineate itself from men's and you know, men's's
sports has just talked about sports. When it comes to
women's sports, we always have had to put a woman
or a female in front of it. And I just
I want a day where we don't have to do that,
where you know, when you ask who's the best tennis
(22:17):
player in the world, you know, Serena Williams falls off
the tongue as easily as Djokovic. That's what I want.
That's like the future that I want. I want like
collective household. And here's the thing, men's sports gets it,
Like the players themselves. The honor and the respect is
there amongst the players themselves. It's just the fandom around
(22:38):
it that needs to catch up, because you know, there's
just a real understanding of the athleticism it takes in
to be at the top of your game, and that
that should not have to be qualified by gender in
my view.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
On that note, I want to thank you so much
for joining us this week on In Case You missed
It with Christina Williams here on Iheartwoman's Sports Network, Kate.
I'm looking forward to experiencing all that Google has to
offer this weekend in Indianapolis at All Star, and I
appreciate you for coming on the show today.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Thanks so much for having me Christina. I'm excited to
see you out there.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
All right, y'all, that's gonna do it for this special
edition of the show. It's time for me to hit
some of these indie streets. If you see me out
at WNBA All Star, please please please walk up and
say hi, because I want to talk and meet with
some of you in person as well. Don't forget to subscribe,
rate and review this podcast. See you it else are.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
In Case you missed It with Christina Williams is an
iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.