May 29, 2025 • 16 mins
This bonus episode is all about innovation– that breakthrough that can change individual careers and even entire industries. We’re going back through the Math & Magic archives to hear from top innovators –from Blake Scholl, who is working to revolutionize commercial flights as the CEO of Boom Supersonic, to Gerry Laybourne who changed children’s television forever at Nickelodeon. You’ll also hear how OG influencer Paris Hilton turned the media’s obsession with her life into the first brand of its kind and an enduring career. Plus, Monumental Sports CEO Ted Leonsis shares insight into the future of how sports will be broadcast and followed by fans.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to Math and Magic. I'm Bob Pittman. On this podcast,
we've talked with dozens of guests, ranging from record executives
and CEOs to data strategists, musicians, and more. Much of
the success we've heard about stems from innovation, those times
when someone sees a gap in the market or a
problem with a business model and comes up the fresh perspective.
(00:32):
In today's bonus episode of Math and Magic, we'll hear
from those innovators, and they're incredible business breakthroughs. Blake Schol
is the founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, a company
building the next generation supersonic passenger plane. If you're unfamiliar
with supersonic flight, it's a marvel. I was fortunate enough
to fly on the famous Concord, which flew at roughly
(00:54):
twice the speed of sound and upwards of sixty thousand feet,
making it possible to travel from London to New in
under three hours. At the time, it was too expensive
to sustain the Concord flu its last route in two
thousand and three, and commercial supersonic flight was largely put
on the back burner. That's where Blake comes in. A
fellow aviation nerd. He honed his chops at Amazon and
(01:16):
Groupon before leaving to pursue his passion making commercial supersonic
flight viable.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I think there has always been tremendous consumer excitement and
supersonic The problem was that it wasn't offered at a
price or an experience that made it make sense. There
has always been consumer interest in more speed, and when
more speed is offered at a price point and in
locations that people can really afford, it changes where we
(01:49):
do business, It changes where we vacation, It even changes
who we can fall in love with.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I want to dig into some questions about the how
what were the big hurdles to get this thing started?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
The tail end of my time at Groupon, my VP
asked me to come and run a big piece of
the core business, and so I was running relevance and
email and a lot of what was the core of Groupon,
and it was so uninspiring. I was paid very well.
In my mind, I said, Okay, the money I'm saving
from this gets socked away in what I called the
fun fund, and in my head that was the buy
(02:19):
an airplane fund. I actually never bought the airplane, but
the savings for the airplane became the seed capital for BOOM.
I had had a Google alert on supersonic jets since
my mid twenties, and so I thought, Okay, take a
deep breath. I'm sure there's a really good reason why
no one's building supersonic jets, but I want to discover
for myself what that is. I kept finding a whole
(02:41):
bunch of stale, conventional wisdom that didn't stand up to
a fresh, quantitative look at what was really possible. Everyone
tends to assume everyone else has it and the right
people are already on the problem. And the bizarre consequence
of this is that really large of as things can
(03:01):
go unaddressed for long periods of time because everybody assumes
it's either impossible or the right people who are already
on it. I think supersonic flight was one of those
who wouldn't want a faster airplane. Literally everybody would benefit
from flights that are faster and more convenient. So there
was this implicit assumption that there had to be something
wrong with that idea, or else somebody would be doing it.
(03:22):
And then you could go on YouTube and there were
plausible sounding but not actually correct explanations. Like you know,
one thing that was said was you have to solve
the sonic boom problem in order to find a market.
Another was that when supersonic came back, you would have
to be a private jet for the ultra wealthy, not
an airliner. Another was that it would inherently cost more.
(03:43):
And it turns out none of that is true. And
you know, one of the lessons I learned from that
experience is never accept a qualitative answer to a quantitative question.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So let's go to the big question, why will you
succeed when the others fay.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, it's certainly not guaranteed that we'll succeed. There's a
lot of challenge ahead of us. Fortunately, there's also some
challenge in the rearview mirror. I can talk about why
I think the time is right and why if Boom
doesn't succeed, it'll be our failure of execution, not a
failure of opportunity. You know, fifty years after Concord was designed,
we've had both significant progress and basic airplane technology and
(04:22):
huge growth in the market. So imagine Concord twenty thousand
dollars ticket if airlines were charging a quarter of that,
say like five grand on our plan on overture, it'd
be incredibly profitable. And it has the legs not just
to do a couple of headline routes, but it's economically
viable one hundreds so not just New York London, but
Seattle to Tokyo and La to Sydney and Miami to Madrid,
(04:46):
just to give a few examples. And we're able to
go build that airplane using only technologies that have been
proven safe, reliable and efficient. So from a technological perspective,
this is at the same level as a gaboe in
seven eight seven, meaning it's a carbon fiber composite fuselage.
It's got advanced turbofan engines, fly by wireflight controls. We
(05:10):
could keep nerding out about it. Every single thing on
the airplane has a precedent of flying on other commercial
airplanes and being accepted as safe by regulators around the planet.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
If Blake's business gamble pays off, he'll shape how people
travel for generations. I met my next guest during my
MTV days. It was the nineteen eighties, and we set
out to do something that hadn't been done before. Mix
television and music. My friend Jerry Laborn had a similar
idea Taylor television to kids with Nickelodeon. As the head
(05:44):
of MTV Networks, which owned Nickelodeon, I gave Jerry the
shot to bring her idea to life. And Jerry's approach
would prove revolutionary. And it all started with a love
and understanding of kids. I wanted to know where her
vision came from.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Well, it came from being a teacher and a researcher
with kids. I love kids. I'm a natural kid advocate,
and I thought that television routinely looked down at kids
and condescended to them and gave them subpar creators. And
I felt like if you listened to kids and you
treated them as if they were really smart, you could
(06:21):
do some pretty interesting stuff. If you remember, we had
no money. I remember that we couldn't do what anybody
else did. I would research everything that people said about
kids TV, like program only to boys, girls who will
watch anything, kids will only watch animation. I'm such a contrarian.
It's like, Okay, if everybody else is going that direction,
(06:41):
we're going to go this direction.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
We had just introduced the idea of a network identity
as opposed to a network delivering programs with the viewer's
affinity attached to just the program, and we decided that
Nickelodeon could do the same thing. How did you define
that and how did you make the big move from
a somewhat corny silver bouncing ball for preschool or Nickelodeon
(07:06):
to the cool new Nick you created.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Well, first of all, I just have to say we
never turned our back on preschoolers. We had the best
preschool programming ever, but we had to be very careful
to put it in its own bucket, so we called
it Nick Junior. Our target was ten and tween, so
that was a key thing because we were known for
being a baby channel. I think you know the story
(07:30):
of my son throwing his Nickelodeon hat in the closet
when he was five, sobbing, and I said, what's the
matter and he said, they say, Nickelodeon's a baby channel. Honestly,
my inspiration for Nickelodeon was Sam. He was the coolest
little five year old you ever saw, and we just
grew up with them. But I'd also say that I
(07:51):
was a student of what you were doing. I saw
how right it was that if you focus on the
audience and delight them and let the creative community do
their best work without man handling or woman handling them,
that you're going to get a really interesting result. That's
what we did. We created, just like you did, a
(08:11):
list of promises that we were the first network for kids.
We were completely on their side. We were going to
bring them the best creative we possibly could. One of
the things we did when we started taking advertising, we
would get buckets of mail. They would be decorated on
the outside with kids' own shapes. Because the idea behind
(08:33):
Nickelodeon is it's like a kid's mind constantly transforming. We
knew that if we took an envelope that was decorated
on the outside, we could take it into a sales
meeting and just let them open the letters.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And it worked.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
It worked, But that was a lesson from MTV get
identification that kids can make their own.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Jerry's vision changed children's television forever and for better. What
I love most about our interview was the simplicity of
her mission, listen to kids and create a brand that's unafraid.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
To grow with them.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
We'll be right back after a quick break Welcome back
to today's bonus episode of Math and Magic. Like Jerry Paris,
Hilton knows a thing or two about compelling television. When
her show The Simple Life debuted in two thousand and three,
(09:29):
it did so to record ratings, and the years since,
her media ventures have included reality shows, documentaries, books, podcasts,
and a successful career as a DJ, business person and CEO.
And she's just getting started.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
I just saw the value in having a personal brand.
I think it maybe just came from being brought up
in the Hilton family and in the hotel business and
seeing that as a brand, and then realizing that I
could actually turn myself into personal brand.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
How did you start on that path? What was the
first step that you began?
Speaker 5 (10:04):
Well, when I moved to New York City. Before that,
I'd lived a very sheltered life. But then all of
a sudden, I started getting invited to all these premieres
and events, and people started sending me products, And then
all of a sudden, they were paying me to wear
these products and the products were selling out. So I
just realized there was a power in that. You know,
(10:25):
this was way back before there was a name for
being an influencer. There was no social media. This was
more the traditional media. And then all of a sudden,
I started getting paid to go to parties, and then
I parlaid that into a huge business and then from
there the Simple Life, and then the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Let's look at the brands, Paris brand, how do you
decide what fits the brand and what doesn't fit the brand.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
What's fun with my brand is that I get to
do everything that I love, and that was one of
the reasons that we created eleven eleven Media because I
have just so many different business verticals of what I do,
everything from podcasting to music to film, television, building products,
the metaverse. I feel that my brand has so many
(11:16):
sides to it, whether it be the music side or
more of the business side. But my brand has definitely evolved,
you know. It all started with the character that I
built for The Simple Life, which kind of playing on
that blonde stereotype persona. Now ever since my documentary and
especially now with my memoir, people now see me as
(11:38):
a businesswoman and an advocate and everything else that I've built.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Growing up. Much of Paris's story was told for her
in tabloids and through the context of her family, Her
breakthrough came after she took control of the narrative and
turned her famous brand into a new business genre. Ted
Lee Ansis is a in a very different business genre.
He's a tech investor, a former executive and colleague of
(12:06):
Mind at AOL, and the CEO and founder of Monumental
Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals,
and Washington Mystics. Ted is nothing short of a magician.
He's an expert motivator who understands the importance of building
purpose driven businesses. Ted also sees things early and in
a way others can't. He's always innovating. Case in point,
(12:30):
as the founder and CEO of Monumental Sports, he's invested
in exciting technology that will transform both the player and
fan experience. Think listen, you know.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
I came into sports in nineteen ninety nine. Everyone lived
on Fax machines and we were the first team. At
least we gave everyone personal computers. I gave everyone email addresses.
It was basic connectivity. But then we started to say, hey,
(13:00):
this is a platform to launch a lot of new technology,
and then if it takes hold here, it can be
nested if you will within sports and arenas because we
touch so many people, and then move into general media,
and so the first big investments that were being made
(13:24):
were selecting of teams for coaching the players, and the
amount of work that was done in high speed cameras
and being able to create these heat maps on where
was the optimal place for the player to take the shot.
When you were playing defense, we would pixelate the floor.
(13:47):
And I remember once Kobe Bryant were playing the Lakers
and he was going to get the end of game
shot and was, well, if you can move Kobe two
pixels to the left, he shoots thirty eight percent. If
he's those two pixels to the right, he's forty four percent.
All you can do is get him to the suboptimized place.
(14:09):
And we're the most transparent of providing that data to fans,
to coaches, and now to sports betters. Right they have
access to more data, certainly than a Wall Street trader
has in trying to pick whether you should short a stock.
(14:33):
So I looked at sports as being the most data
rich side on the product. And now it's moved into marketing.
We have a database and monumental sports and entertainment that's
closing in on four million active records, where we really
know who's coming into the building, how long have they
(14:56):
been a customer, what have they spent, how do they
renew who do they give their tickets to, how far
do they travel? What are they're viewing habits? Are they
streaming now? Are they still watching games on cable? How
important is radio? One thing I'll say, radio and digital
(15:19):
radio and podcasting has become incredibly powerful and on trend again.
We have to innovate. We have to keep pushing the
envelope to build our audience and really be relevant. And
the only way that you'll be able to innovate and
provide those services and build value is to know who
(15:42):
they are, what they do in a real way.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Build value using data, then connect the dots for your consumers.
It's excellent advice for anyone looking to break through in
business and a through line for all the innovators we've
heard from today.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I'm Bob.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Thanks for listening to this season of Math and Magic.
We'll be back with the new season soon.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That's it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening
to Math and Magic, a production of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is created and hosted by Bob Pittman Special Thanks
to Sidney Rosenbloom for booking and wrangling our wonderful talent,
which is no small feat. The math and magic team
is Jessica Crimechitch and Baheed Fraser. Our executive producers are
Ali Perry and Nikki Etoor. Until next time,
You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to Math and Magic. I'm Bob Pittman. On this podcast,
we've talked with dozens of guests, ranging from record executives
and CEOs to data strategists, musicians, and more. Much of
the success we've heard about stems from innovation, those times
when someone sees a gap in the market or a
problem with a business model and comes up the fresh perspective.
(00:32):
In today's bonus episode of Math and Magic, we'll hear
from those innovators, and they're incredible business breakthroughs. Blake Schol
is the founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, a company
building the next generation supersonic passenger plane. If you're unfamiliar
with supersonic flight, it's a marvel. I was fortunate enough
to fly on the famous Concord, which flew at roughly
(00:54):
twice the speed of sound and upwards of sixty thousand feet,
making it possible to travel from London to New in
under three hours. At the time, it was too expensive
to sustain the Concord flu its last route in two
thousand and three, and commercial supersonic flight was largely put
on the back burner. That's where Blake comes in. A
fellow aviation nerd. He honed his chops at Amazon and
(01:16):
Groupon before leaving to pursue his passion making commercial supersonic
flight viable.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I think there has always been tremendous consumer excitement and
supersonic The problem was that it wasn't offered at a
price or an experience that made it make sense. There
has always been consumer interest in more speed, and when
more speed is offered at a price point and in
locations that people can really afford, it changes where we
(01:49):
do business, It changes where we vacation, It even changes
who we can fall in love with.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I want to dig into some questions about the how
what were the big hurdles to get this thing started?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
The tail end of my time at Groupon, my VP
asked me to come and run a big piece of
the core business, and so I was running relevance and
email and a lot of what was the core of Groupon,
and it was so uninspiring. I was paid very well.
In my mind, I said, Okay, the money I'm saving
from this gets socked away in what I called the
fun fund, and in my head that was the buy
(02:19):
an airplane fund. I actually never bought the airplane, but
the savings for the airplane became the seed capital for BOOM.
I had had a Google alert on supersonic jets since
my mid twenties, and so I thought, Okay, take a
deep breath. I'm sure there's a really good reason why
no one's building supersonic jets, but I want to discover
for myself what that is. I kept finding a whole
(02:41):
bunch of stale, conventional wisdom that didn't stand up to
a fresh, quantitative look at what was really possible. Everyone
tends to assume everyone else has it and the right
people are already on the problem. And the bizarre consequence
of this is that really large of as things can
(03:01):
go unaddressed for long periods of time because everybody assumes
it's either impossible or the right people who are already
on it. I think supersonic flight was one of those
who wouldn't want a faster airplane. Literally everybody would benefit
from flights that are faster and more convenient. So there
was this implicit assumption that there had to be something
wrong with that idea, or else somebody would be doing it.
(03:22):
And then you could go on YouTube and there were
plausible sounding but not actually correct explanations. Like you know,
one thing that was said was you have to solve
the sonic boom problem in order to find a market.
Another was that when supersonic came back, you would have
to be a private jet for the ultra wealthy, not
an airliner. Another was that it would inherently cost more.
(03:43):
And it turns out none of that is true. And
you know, one of the lessons I learned from that
experience is never accept a qualitative answer to a quantitative question.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So let's go to the big question, why will you
succeed when the others fay.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, it's certainly not guaranteed that we'll succeed. There's a
lot of challenge ahead of us. Fortunately, there's also some
challenge in the rearview mirror. I can talk about why
I think the time is right and why if Boom
doesn't succeed, it'll be our failure of execution, not a
failure of opportunity. You know, fifty years after Concord was designed,
we've had both significant progress and basic airplane technology and
(04:22):
huge growth in the market. So imagine Concord twenty thousand
dollars ticket if airlines were charging a quarter of that,
say like five grand on our plan on overture, it'd
be incredibly profitable. And it has the legs not just
to do a couple of headline routes, but it's economically
viable one hundreds so not just New York London, but
Seattle to Tokyo and La to Sydney and Miami to Madrid,
(04:46):
just to give a few examples. And we're able to
go build that airplane using only technologies that have been
proven safe, reliable and efficient. So from a technological perspective,
this is at the same level as a gaboe in
seven eight seven, meaning it's a carbon fiber composite fuselage.
It's got advanced turbofan engines, fly by wireflight controls. We
(05:10):
could keep nerding out about it. Every single thing on
the airplane has a precedent of flying on other commercial
airplanes and being accepted as safe by regulators around the planet.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
If Blake's business gamble pays off, he'll shape how people
travel for generations. I met my next guest during my
MTV days. It was the nineteen eighties, and we set
out to do something that hadn't been done before. Mix
television and music. My friend Jerry Laborn had a similar
idea Taylor television to kids with Nickelodeon. As the head
(05:44):
of MTV Networks, which owned Nickelodeon, I gave Jerry the
shot to bring her idea to life. And Jerry's approach
would prove revolutionary. And it all started with a love
and understanding of kids. I wanted to know where her
vision came from.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Well, it came from being a teacher and a researcher
with kids. I love kids. I'm a natural kid advocate,
and I thought that television routinely looked down at kids
and condescended to them and gave them subpar creators. And
I felt like if you listened to kids and you
treated them as if they were really smart, you could
(06:21):
do some pretty interesting stuff. If you remember, we had
no money. I remember that we couldn't do what anybody
else did. I would research everything that people said about
kids TV, like program only to boys, girls who will
watch anything, kids will only watch animation. I'm such a contrarian.
It's like, Okay, if everybody else is going that direction,
(06:41):
we're going to go this direction.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
We had just introduced the idea of a network identity
as opposed to a network delivering programs with the viewer's
affinity attached to just the program, and we decided that
Nickelodeon could do the same thing. How did you define
that and how did you make the big move from
a somewhat corny silver bouncing ball for preschool or Nickelodeon
(07:06):
to the cool new Nick you created.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Well, first of all, I just have to say we
never turned our back on preschoolers. We had the best
preschool programming ever, but we had to be very careful
to put it in its own bucket, so we called
it Nick Junior. Our target was ten and tween, so
that was a key thing because we were known for
being a baby channel. I think you know the story
(07:30):
of my son throwing his Nickelodeon hat in the closet
when he was five, sobbing, and I said, what's the
matter and he said, they say, Nickelodeon's a baby channel. Honestly,
my inspiration for Nickelodeon was Sam. He was the coolest
little five year old you ever saw, and we just
grew up with them. But I'd also say that I
(07:51):
was a student of what you were doing. I saw
how right it was that if you focus on the
audience and delight them and let the creative community do
their best work without man handling or woman handling them,
that you're going to get a really interesting result. That's
what we did. We created, just like you did, a
(08:11):
list of promises that we were the first network for kids.
We were completely on their side. We were going to
bring them the best creative we possibly could. One of
the things we did when we started taking advertising, we
would get buckets of mail. They would be decorated on
the outside with kids' own shapes. Because the idea behind
(08:33):
Nickelodeon is it's like a kid's mind constantly transforming. We
knew that if we took an envelope that was decorated
on the outside, we could take it into a sales
meeting and just let them open the letters.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And it worked.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
It worked, But that was a lesson from MTV get
identification that kids can make their own.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Jerry's vision changed children's television forever and for better. What
I love most about our interview was the simplicity of
her mission, listen to kids and create a brand that's unafraid.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
To grow with them.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
We'll be right back after a quick break Welcome back
to today's bonus episode of Math and Magic. Like Jerry Paris,
Hilton knows a thing or two about compelling television. When
her show The Simple Life debuted in two thousand and three,
(09:29):
it did so to record ratings, and the years since,
her media ventures have included reality shows, documentaries, books, podcasts,
and a successful career as a DJ, business person and CEO.
And she's just getting started.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
I just saw the value in having a personal brand.
I think it maybe just came from being brought up
in the Hilton family and in the hotel business and
seeing that as a brand, and then realizing that I
could actually turn myself into personal brand.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
How did you start on that path? What was the
first step that you began?
Speaker 5 (10:04):
Well, when I moved to New York City. Before that,
I'd lived a very sheltered life. But then all of
a sudden, I started getting invited to all these premieres
and events, and people started sending me products, And then
all of a sudden, they were paying me to wear
these products and the products were selling out. So I
just realized there was a power in that. You know,
(10:25):
this was way back before there was a name for
being an influencer. There was no social media. This was
more the traditional media. And then all of a sudden,
I started getting paid to go to parties, and then
I parlaid that into a huge business and then from
there the Simple Life, and then the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Let's look at the brands, Paris brand, how do you
decide what fits the brand and what doesn't fit the brand.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
What's fun with my brand is that I get to
do everything that I love, and that was one of
the reasons that we created eleven eleven Media because I
have just so many different business verticals of what I do,
everything from podcasting to music to film, television, building products,
the metaverse. I feel that my brand has so many
(11:16):
sides to it, whether it be the music side or
more of the business side. But my brand has definitely evolved,
you know. It all started with the character that I
built for The Simple Life, which kind of playing on
that blonde stereotype persona. Now ever since my documentary and
especially now with my memoir, people now see me as
(11:38):
a businesswoman and an advocate and everything else that I've built.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Growing up. Much of Paris's story was told for her
in tabloids and through the context of her family, Her
breakthrough came after she took control of the narrative and
turned her famous brand into a new business genre. Ted
Lee Ansis is a in a very different business genre.
He's a tech investor, a former executive and colleague of
(12:06):
Mind at AOL, and the CEO and founder of Monumental
Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals,
and Washington Mystics. Ted is nothing short of a magician.
He's an expert motivator who understands the importance of building
purpose driven businesses. Ted also sees things early and in
a way others can't. He's always innovating. Case in point,
(12:30):
as the founder and CEO of Monumental Sports, he's invested
in exciting technology that will transform both the player and
fan experience. Think listen, you know.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
I came into sports in nineteen ninety nine. Everyone lived
on Fax machines and we were the first team. At
least we gave everyone personal computers. I gave everyone email addresses.
It was basic connectivity. But then we started to say, hey,
(13:00):
this is a platform to launch a lot of new technology,
and then if it takes hold here, it can be
nested if you will within sports and arenas because we
touch so many people, and then move into general media,
and so the first big investments that were being made
(13:24):
were selecting of teams for coaching the players, and the
amount of work that was done in high speed cameras
and being able to create these heat maps on where
was the optimal place for the player to take the shot.
When you were playing defense, we would pixelate the floor.
(13:47):
And I remember once Kobe Bryant were playing the Lakers
and he was going to get the end of game
shot and was, well, if you can move Kobe two
pixels to the left, he shoots thirty eight percent. If
he's those two pixels to the right, he's forty four percent.
All you can do is get him to the suboptimized place.
(14:09):
And we're the most transparent of providing that data to fans,
to coaches, and now to sports betters. Right they have
access to more data, certainly than a Wall Street trader
has in trying to pick whether you should short a stock.
(14:33):
So I looked at sports as being the most data
rich side on the product. And now it's moved into marketing.
We have a database and monumental sports and entertainment that's
closing in on four million active records, where we really
know who's coming into the building, how long have they
(14:56):
been a customer, what have they spent, how do they
renew who do they give their tickets to, how far
do they travel? What are they're viewing habits? Are they
streaming now? Are they still watching games on cable? How
important is radio? One thing I'll say, radio and digital
(15:19):
radio and podcasting has become incredibly powerful and on trend again.
We have to innovate. We have to keep pushing the
envelope to build our audience and really be relevant. And
the only way that you'll be able to innovate and
provide those services and build value is to know who
(15:42):
they are, what they do in a real way.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Build value using data, then connect the dots for your consumers.
It's excellent advice for anyone looking to break through in
business and a through line for all the innovators we've
heard from today.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I'm Bob.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Thanks for listening to this season of Math and Magic.
We'll be back with the new season soon.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That's it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening
to Math and Magic, a production of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is created and hosted by Bob Pittman Special Thanks
to Sidney Rosenbloom for booking and wrangling our wonderful talent,
which is no small feat. The math and magic team
is Jessica Crimechitch and Baheed Fraser. Our executive producers are
Ali Perry and Nikki Etoor. Until next time,
Host
Bob Pittman
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