August 31, 2026 • 25 mins
A Warner Bros. Discovery sponsor skipped the star player and signed a college basketball team manager to a brand deal instead, and it became one of their most talked-about wins of the year. Why did a school employee outperform a marquee athlete deal?
In this episode of The Money Signal: From Main Street to Wall Street, Jennifer Raulli, Senior Director of NCAA Partnerships at Warner Bros. Discovery, sits down with Tsvetta Kaleynska to explain how brand deals with college athletes actually work, why that team manager campaign generated a bigger return than most player deals, and how basketball sponsors quietly plan their marketing around a full academic year rather than just March Madness.
Raulli also breaks down the difference between measurable media ROI and the harder-to-quantify halo effect that brands get from sponsoring NCAA basketball, why sponsors increasingly care more about conversion than plain brand awareness, and how AI is already changing sports content production inside Warner Bros. Discovery's Atlanta studios.
Jennifer Raulli and Tsvetta also discuss:
- How influencer marketing shifted after the pandemic from a tactic sprinkled onto campaigns to the center of most of them
- Why oversaturation with influencers has made authenticity harder for brands to fake
- How NCAA basketball host cities see a measurable revenue boost in hotels, bars, and restaurants during the Final Four
- What basketball sponsors are prioritizing now that they were not five years ago
- Why a championship win or loss changes how fans spend money at the register
If you're interested in Warner Bros. Discovery, NCAA basketball, brand deals, influencer marketing, sports sponsorships, college athletics, March Madness, or the business of sports, this episode is for you.
🎙 Host:
Tsvetta Kaleynska — Consumer Data & Social Listening Expert
Peter Tuchman -- NYSE Floor Broker, "Einstein of Wall Street"
📡 About The Money Signal: From Main Street to Wall Street — founders, CEOs, investors, and Wall Street veterans on money, business, and what success actually costs.
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Episode Transcript
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Tsvetta Kaleynska (00:00):
Today I'm joined by Jennifer Rowley,
Senior Director of the NCAApartnership, the Board of
Brothers Discovery.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
How commuters will impact the NCAA?
I think they are looking forflexibility.
The media landscape is changingso quickly.
We see that a lot with thebrands that we work with.
They want to make sure thatwhatever they're committing to
now is still going to make sensefor them in three years.
How do those big sports momentumand moments actually influence
consumer spending, in youropinion?
(00:29):
The men's basketball tournament.
I mean, your team wins, and thatprompts you to go out and buy a
hat and a jersey and you knowevery piece of memorabilia that
you can get that says you're thenational champion.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (00:38):
I mean, thinking about the sporting
industry alone and how itimpacts the economy is just
mind-blowing to me.
Welcome to the Money SignalPodcast from Main Street to Wall
Street.
Today I'm joined by JenniferRaleigh, Senior Director of NCAA
(00:59):
Partnerships of Warner BrothersDiscovery.
Yeah, thanks so much for havingme.
Such a pleasure to have you on.
We have known each other for awhile because we're somewhat in
the same space.
I've always been fascinated bywhat you do at Warner Brothers
Discovery, especially when itcomes to NCAA, which sports are
not a language that I speak.
So I'd love to learn more alittle bit about you as a senior
(01:23):
partnerships director and uhmore about obviously Warner
Brothers Discovery and NCAA andhow everything ties together.
SPEAKER_00 (01:32):
Yeah, that's okay.
Sports is like the greatunifier.
So you can be a super fan, oryou can be a casual fan, or you
can just like to be in theatmosphere of live sports or a
restaurant or a bar or whateverit might be, and you're a sports
fan.
So it's okay if it's not thelanguage that you typically
speak.
I'm sure you're exposed to biglive sports moments many times
(01:54):
throughout your life that haveimpacted you probably in ways
that you don't even realize.
Um, so I, like you said, am thesenior director of NCAA
partnerships at Warner BrothersDiscovery.
I've been there for about 10years now.
Um, I mean, it's a great placeto be.
I get to work with some of thebiggest brands, you know, in the
country, in the world and touchthe NCAA and college athletics.
(02:18):
It's a group of people that, youknow, student athletes have this
passion that nobody else has.
It really can't be replicated inprofessional sports.
And it's, you know, somethingthat brands are able to tap into
and we're able to tap into, andit's just a great space to be
in.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (02:32):
And I think that the when it comes to
college and when it comes tobasically the audience that you
guys are tapping into, it's notonly the young people that you
really audience to or basicallypromote to.
You're actually promoting toprobably one of the widest range
of demographics when it comes towho's watching sponsorships at
NCAA.
(02:53):
So I the only time I've been uhremotely in the NCAA area is uh
this one project we actuallyworked on, which was to measure
performance for a brand that wasthe advertising of the NCAA in a
specific city, which I'm notgonna name where.
Um, but a lot of the consumerconversations obviously about
NCAA were very interesting andintriguing.
(03:15):
My job during the project wasactually to analyze from a
tourism perspective for thattown how has the NCAA promoted
the city, which is when I thinkabout it, when I think of NCAA
or sports, I don't really thinknecessarily the first thing that
comes to my mind is tourism.
But that actually tells me agreat story, which is that uh
(03:38):
college sports and sports ingeneral promote the economy and
they enhance our economy in waysthat we don't even think about.
You work with large brands.
I know that we can't name mostof them, but obviously
considering that Warner Bros.
Discovery pretty much works withevery brand under the sun, we
could just assume that you workwith the largest brands in the
world.
(03:58):
How are they promotingspecifically their products to
the audiences that they'retrying to reach?
And what are those audiencesspecifically with the NCAA?
SPEAKER_00 (04:11):
Yeah, I think like you said, we're reaching
demographics from, you know, youput a baby in a onesie that has
your alma mater on it.
So it's like you're coming outof the womb already rooting for
a team, and then it goes all theway through an alumni who could
be 80 years old and stillreligiously watches their team
(04:31):
that they love.
So it really runs the gamut oflike all of these ages, all of
these, you know, demographics,all different types of people
that come together to watch ateam that they love.
So I think brands that we workwith are able to really tap into
a passion that fans have.
They're able to speak to them ina really authentic way, to tap
into things that matter to them.
(04:51):
I think in this economy as well,there are so many things.
There's politics, there are somany things out there that
brands maybe are want to shyaway from a little bit more,
where sports is kind of a safe,a brand safe space for them to,
you know, be a part of and speakto fans.
Um, I think that they're able tobe really authentic in the
changing space of NIL.
They're now able to also workwith athletes specifically.
(05:13):
So they could tie into aspecific athlete that has a
specific cause that they reallycare about, and then they're
talking to maybe a whole newdemographic of people that maybe
they wouldn't have had access tobefore.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (05:23):
And NIL stands for name, image, and
likeness.
Okay.
That's a very that's a that'sone of the marketing
abbreviations.
I I love marketingabbreviations.
SPEAKER_00 (05:31):
We use many of them uh in the NCAA.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (05:33):
You actually just touched on another topic
which I find so interesting forbeing in social media and social
listening.
Obviously, influencer is uhinfluencership and working with
influencers is just such aunique uh marketing strategy
that's really emerged in thelast 10 years.
But I would say post-2020, whenwe were all at home during the
(05:56):
pandemic and everything happenedat home, um, that's where I
think, at least in my space, wesaw influencers really explode.
And the whole industry mm wasmuch warmer to influencers.
If you think about how beforesome of the, you know, before
the pandemic, most of thecreators would share their
journey and share theirexperience, and we call them
(06:18):
micro influencers and macroinfluencers, and some would get
hired to come and be sprinkledon marketing campaigns.
Now the whole shift is reallytowards influencers, period.
And you sprinkle a celebrityhere and there, um, just because
they've become much moreattainable, they have many more
eyeballs that they bring andmuch greater conversion.
(06:41):
With an NCAA, I would love tohear more about the college kids
and again these players, thesesports players who, from a
regular kid, end up becoming aninfluencer and what they bring
with them for these brandsspecifically, and if you guys
partner with any of them.
SPEAKER_00 (06:59):
I think to your point, it's a great opportunity
for brands.
Obviously, there are some ofthose bigger brands that are
able to invest a ton of dollarsinto these huge marketing
campaigns and huge TV creativeand are able to pay big name
talent, and that's amazing.
And there are some smallerbrands that maybe in the past
haven't been able to invest inthe way those bigger brands
have.
So this is now an opportunitythat you're like, we can pull
(07:22):
all these influencers togetherthat have honestly like a pretty
big base of followers that hit,you know, exactly kind of who
they're talking to, you knowexactly what demos you're gonna
reach.
You're able to maybe go out andget, you know, a group of 20
influencers for what you mightpay to secure one person who's
maybe more of a more elevatedtalent.
So I think it just gives anopportunity to maybe brands that
(07:44):
weren't able to invest asheavily in the past.
Um, in terms of actually workingwith student athletes, it's
another huge opportunity wherethese athletes who are
performing and, you know, theirperformance is being monetized
in other ways.
So they're actually being ableto get paid now for all of the
great things they do, the moneythey bring into their economy,
(08:05):
the money that they bring totheir school.
Um, we've seen some uniqueinstances too, where like one of
the brands that is an NCAApartner worked with, you know, a
team manager, not a player.
And it was great.
It was like super buzzy, it gota ton of PR, a ton of social
exposure.
And it was honestly a lowinvestment for them, and they
were able to get a huge ROI onit.
(08:25):
So I think it just makes a lotof potential.
There's a lot of potential outthere and opportunities for
brands that maybe didn't have itin the past.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (08:31):
And when it comes to the ROI aspect, which
is the return on investment, sothe marketing money that gets
another uh abbreviation acronymin the marketing world, when you
partner with brands, and whenthe obviously Warner Brothers um
partners with brands, do youguys guarantee any type of ROI,
or are you selling themimpressions or basically
(08:55):
airtime?
Like, what is almost if you haveto think of like the product
that you're placing for thesebrands, is it the name, image,
and likeness, or is it all ofthe above?
SPEAKER_00 (09:05):
I think it depends.
I think there's a lot ofdifferent buckets.
Where I come from, it's themedia world.
So yes, like when you look atmedia, everything has a very
specific ROI.
There are media plans andthere's dollars attached to
everything that you're doingfrom a media standpoint.
Then there are some things whenyou look at partnerships that
ROI maybe is not as cut and dry.
There's not just an equationthat you can plug in to find out
(09:28):
what the ROI is.
When you look at something likequartzide signage at a
basketball game, there might notbe like a formula that gives you
ROI on that, but you know theamount of eyeballs that are
actually watching the game,seeing the quartzide rotational
signage.
Um, and then there's alsosomething we talk about
internally a lot.
It's called the halo effect.
So it's something that NCAAspecifically, and I think
(09:48):
college athletics specifically,is a feel-good moment for a lot
of people.
So brands that associatethemselves with the NCAA,
especially with the men's andwomen's basketball tournaments,
they get this kind of haloeffect that people feel good
about, you know, buying thosebrands, working with those
brands, supporting those brands.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (10:06):
And when it comes to the halo effect and
also the marketing campaigns,one of the things I've always
been interested and intriguedwith is so the sporting season
is very limited, right?
It only runs from specificmonths to there's an end date of
the tournament.
And then after that, it's almostlike the summer break.
(10:26):
How did the brands approach thealmost like on and off period
from marketing uh and strategy?
SPEAKER_00 (10:33):
I think for us, we look at it like an academic
calendar.
So you can think Septemberthrough June.
So it actually is a big chunk ofthe year.
And then really the summermonths are just used to recap
what's been done to honestlystart planning for the next
year.
So a lot of there is definitelya misconception that so much of
what we're doing because we'reso focused on the tournament is
(10:53):
in March, is in April.
But truly, these brands arebriefing over the summer, are
getting all their plans in placestarting in September.
So it it is a full yearcommitment for sure.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (11:04):
Yeah, that's I I mean, I'm sure that the
brands year-round are trying tokeep up with their audience and
obviously the message thatthey're promoting.
Do most of the campaigns thatget like run or run during NCAA,
are they specifically umtailored, if you will, for NCAA?
Or do brands use the generalalmost like messaging?
(11:27):
How do you how do they approachlike the creative strategy?
SPEAKER_00 (11:31):
It depends.
It depends on the brand, itdepends what their resources
look like for a given year.
We have some brands that willuse more evergreen messaging.
It's not NCAA specific, it'sjust the creative that they
might be running for the year,regardless of the property that
they're running it with,regardless of if it's in a
sports capacity or not.
And then we have some thatreally invest in making
(11:51):
contextually relevant creative.
Um, we do a lot of research,obviously.
We look at a lot of thiscreative and we look at
sentiment with consumers andviewers and how they're reacting
to the creative.
And it's always ourrecommendation to lean into
being contextually relevantbecause that just the retention
viewers are remembering, they'reacting, there's purchase intent
(12:14):
that comes with that.
Obviously, it's not alwaysdoable, but that's what we feel
like partners should strive ifthey're able to.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (12:20):
And do partners care about conversion
rates?
And obviously, you mentioned thepurchase intent or how uh the
consumer is traveling from thefunnel, top of the funnel to
bottom of the funnel, meaningfrom seeing the logo or
basically the brand advertisingthat you guys place and then
visiting the website, or maybefollowing whatever instructions
(12:41):
the campaign says, like downloadthis app or visit this link.
Do you see do partners likereally care about the
conversion, or is it more soabout just brand awareness?
It's the conversion.
SPEAKER_00 (12:52):
I mean, brand awareness is always great, and
like I said, the halo effect isalways great.
But if you're if you're nothaving consumers take that extra
step to purchase or sign up fora credit card or sign up for
your wireless service, that thatalways is the ultimate goal.
Um, so I think that that'ssomething that partners focus
on.
I think post-COVID, especially,the same way that every, you
(13:16):
know, everyday person feels itin their wallet and feels like
they need to be more strategicabout how they spend their
money.
I think brands are feeling thesame way where they're looking
at their partnerships andsaying, which ones do we need to
invest in?
What is our ROI on these, youknow, different partnerships?
What is purchase intent lookinglike?
Is this partnership worthpursuing?
(13:37):
Are people taking that nextstep?
So I think it's super important.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (13:40):
And I one of the things I've noticed recently
among consumers through analysisand through my work, my
marketing analysis that we'vedone, is that uh right now I
think brands are strugglingreally relating to audiences
because there's thatoversaturation with influencers
and with celebrities and justlike getting um back and and
(14:04):
really pounding on the samemessaging.
Uh, authenticity has come up asone of the key elements or key
struggles that brands are reallyfacing challenges with.
How do the brands that you guyswork with address authenticity
when it comes to that, whetherit's creative messaging or
addressing the fans in order tohelp them travel through the
(14:26):
funnel?
SPEAKER_00 (14:26):
I think our brands are able to see what are the
needs of the fan.
So whether it's if you're a cellphone company and your focus is
let me make sure fans have thebest kind of phone to watch a
game when they're on the go.
Or if you are a restaurant or aQSR, you want to make sure fans
have a place to go to watch thegame or a place where they can
(14:49):
order food from to have like agreat party at home while
they're watching a game.
I think brands that are able toreally find the needs of fans
and viewers and tap into thosefeels authentic because as a
viewer and a consumer, you'relike, okay, they're not just
trying to sell me something.
They're actually trying to makemy experience better.
So we've seen success whenbrands really focus on that.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (15:11):
That's so interesting.
Thank you so much for thiseducational element.
I love as a marketer myself,I've been in the industry for so
many years now, and I feel likeI constantly learn new things
just because marketing is such awide has such a wide range of
activities.
I've seen it from the media end,from social media specifically.
And I also have some mediaexperience where I know through
(15:34):
my work with brands, like everytime I'd hear impressions,
impressions, conversion,impressions, and these were all
to me buzzwords for so manyyears until I truly understood
what drove the you know interestamong consumers to then help
these brands get moreimpressions and more
conversions.
One of the topics I'd love toask you next about is actually
(15:58):
AI.
I love asking all my um podcastguests about AI and how that's
impacted their industry.
If you had to compare even fiveyears ago to today and the use
of AI, or even maybe analyticstechnologies and AI implemented
or data sets, have you seen anytype of shift?
(16:19):
And are you trying to implementmore AI or less AI into your
day-to-day?
SPEAKER_00 (16:24):
I mean, I think as a company and as an industry,
we're always looking for ways tobe more efficient with time and
resources, and AI is alwaysgoing to lead to that.
I think for us, where we've seenthe most impact is probably from
just a production standpoint.
So we have our studios inAtlanta.
I work on NCAA, but we work on anumber of different properties
and with a number of differentleagues.
(16:45):
But we also do a ton of customcontent for partners.
So we will act as their studio.
We will create their TV spots,we can create custom elements
that live in our broadcast.
So AI has been really beneficialin streamlining some
streamlining some processes forour production team.
I think that's where we'veprobably seen the biggest
impact.
(17:05):
And that I imagine that's onlygoing to continue to be more
impactful moving forward.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (17:09):
Yeah.
And are you currently, you justmentioned that you guys do a lot
of content.
Um, is that only tied to NCAA oris it more broad to other
campaigns as well that arenon-sports?
SPEAKER_00 (17:20):
Totally more broad.
Um the group that I work withmostly focuses on sports, but
it's a number of leagues, anumber of different properties.
Um, but yeah, we we really willthe team in Atlanta will does
anything for any brand.
So it's great.
They're a great resource for ourpartners to have.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (17:36):
I've I've learned so much about Warner
Brothers and the NCAA process.
If you had to guess, um, again,like with I think the creator
economy to me is fascinating.
I'm sure you're you know myco-host Peter Tuckman, also
known as the Einstein of WallStreet.
He's he's one of the largestcreators, financial creators
actually in the whole world.
And my eyes have been openedthrough him on what it really
(17:57):
truly means, what's the power ofthe influencers?
Now, coming back to ourconversation about influencers
in general and NCAA, do you seein like the upcoming maybe short
term or near term or maybe evenseveral years from now, future
how creators will impact theNCAA?
(18:19):
And it could be in any shape orform, whether again, traditional
TV to some extent, in myopinion, is changing.
We're consuming media in so manydifferent ways.
Where do you see the sportsinfluencers impacting this
industry?
SPEAKER_00 (18:35):
Yeah, I think like we talked about before, I think
a lot of brands are able to tapinto influencers in general,
where they're able to bring inan influencer to, you know, work
with our production team to becourtside and get capturing
content on a, you know, a cellphone and using that as part of
a brand campaign.
We've done watch parties withdifferent different influencers
(18:55):
where we set up a couch in thestadium and they're able to like
talk live on one of ourstreaming apps about what's
happening in the game.
So it's another way for peopleto watch.
So I think there are ways thatbrands and Warner Brothers
Discovery as a company cancontinue to use influencers.
But then it's also the studentathletes that are now able to
work with brands directly to beinfluencers themselves.
(19:17):
So whether it's working with afood brand or working with a
technology brand, you know,they're able to tap into those
student athletes who maybedidn't have a chance to do
something like that before.
So I can imagine that's onlygoing to continue to grow.
You know, we've seen when NILfirst kind of like became a
thing that brands were able totap into, there was a little bit
(19:37):
of a hesitancy because you'reworking with kids that are 18
years old.
And we would joke that likeyou're only one bad crap party
away from blowing up, you know,a brand's message if you work
with somebody who, you know, is18 years old and in college.
So I think now we've seen somebrands have had real success
working with student athletes.
And I think it will just themomentum is going to continue to
(20:00):
move forward.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (20:01):
What are brands for NTAA partnerships
prioritizing now that they werenot five years ago?
SPEAKER_00 (20:08):
I think this is where like we talked about the
authenticity is coming in soheavily, where the space can be
really cluttered.
There's a lot of brands outthere talking to consumers in a
variety of different mediameans, like whether it's through
traditional linear, digital, onevery different social platform.
There are just so many ways thatconsumers are being fed
(20:30):
information.
So I think reaching people inthe right time and place and
also just getting them with theright message, I think our
attention spans are reallyshort, shorter probably than
they've ever been.
So brands have a really finiteamount of time to get a message
across and really, you know,catch the attention of a viewer
or of a consumer out there andactually get them to make a
purchasing decision based onthat really brief message.
(20:52):
So I feel like that's somethingbrands have definitely been
focusing on more.
I mean, think about just thesocial space five years ago.
It's changed so, I mean, youknow more than anybody.
Like it's changed so much in thelast five years.
Um, I think similar to how we'vealso talked about, there are
different means.
So whether it's working withinfluencers, things that maybe
brands didn't do before thatthey can begin to focus on, um,
(21:13):
I think that, you know, they'redoing that definitely a lot more
than they were five years ago.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (21:17):
Would you say that brands are more flexible
now that they were before?
SPEAKER_00 (21:21):
I think they are looking for flexibility.
I think because the medialandscape is changing so
quickly, we see that a lot withthe brands that we work with.
They want to make sure thatwhatever they're committing to
now is still gonna make sensefor them in three years, because
in three years, things can justchange so much.
Where five years ago that maybewasn't the case.
You had a little bit more wiggleroom where you're like, okay,
(21:42):
the landscape we're working innow might change slightly, but
overall it's not going to changetoo much.
Where I think, you know, we'reseeing it like year to year
changes.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (21:51):
Jen, one of the last few questions I wanted
to get to is actually how dothose big sports momentum and
moments actually influenceconsumer.
SPEAKER_00 (22:00):
Spending, in your opinion.
If you look at the men'sbasketball tournament, I mean
that is one of the biggest thechampionship game and the final
four in the championship gameare two of the biggest moments
in this country's, you know,sports landscape.
They're huge.
Um, I think it happens in a youknow variety of different ways,
whether you know your team winsand that prompts you to go out
(22:21):
and buy a hat and a jersey andyou know, every piece of
memorabilia that you can getthat says you're the national
champions, or your team loses.
So you're depressed and you'reout there, you know, retail
therapy shopping.
Um, when you're prepping towatch the game with your
friends, it changes how you'respending, you know, in the food
and beverage space.
(22:42):
Um, if you look at the actualmarkets that the event is taking
place in, that's huge too.
So we and Stable A has a biddingprocess for all of their Final
Four sites.
So we actually know the hostcities a couple of years out,
obviously.
The amount of revenue that'sbrought into those cities is
huge.
Hotels, you know, bars,restaurants, really any kind of
(23:04):
entertainment venue in thosecities is gonna see the impact
of the final four in thechampionship game being in their
backyard.
So it's happens in a variety ofdifferent areas.
Um, another one, you know, ifyou know a big game is coming
up, the final four is coming up,and you are not gonna be sitting
in front of your TV to watch it.
You might be making sure, like,oh, can my phone, do I have, you
(23:27):
know, the kind of technologythat I need when I'm on the go
to watch and make sure that Idon't miss a second of this
game.
So I think it's, you know, a lotof different industries and a
lot of different areas that areimpacted by these big sports
moments.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (23:39):
I mean, thinking about the sporting
industry alone and how itimpacts the economy is just
mind-blowing to me.
I was reading um a statistic andI don't want to butcher it
because I don't have it uh offthe top of my head.
But the sports fans, sports fansin general, basically convert at
a much higher rate than anyother industry and segment
(24:00):
that's from like marketing,basically, marketing insights.
Um, and as I mentioned in one ofthe projects that we did with
the NCAA, it wasn't with, pardonme, that we did that pertained
to NCAA and one of the citiesthat uh held the NCAA.
We specifically uh found outthat uh genuinely the whole
(24:22):
tourism, as you mentioned,hotels and bars and restaurants
were uh impacted in a positiveway, and it generated more jobs
for the economy in that specifictown or city, and it's just
fascinating.
Um, I love sports, I uh am notinto college sports just yet
(24:42):
because I just got intofootball.
Well, it took me a few years,but I'm incredibly excited uh to
have learned all of this newknowledge from media landscape
to NCAA and sports.
I wanted to thank you so muchfor coming uh to the Money
Signal podcast from Main Streetto Wall Street.
Hopefully, we'll have you backsoon.
(25:03):
Yeah, I would love to come back.
Thanks for having me.
Maybe for the next uh tournamentand championship, we'll we'll be
able to come back and actuallytalk more about the sports.
We'll do it from the game.
Yes, from the arena.
Love it.
I love it.
Thank you so much, Jen.
Pleasure having you.
Thank you guys so much for beingwith the Money Signal Podcast.
Make sure to follow our officialsocial media pages,
(25:23):
moneysignal.podcast, and checkout our website, moneysignal
podcast.com.
Stay tuned.
Today I'm joined by Jennifer Rowley,
Senior Director of the NCAApartnership, the Board of
Brothers Discovery.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
How commuters will impact the NCAA?
I think they are looking forflexibility.
The media landscape is changingso quickly.
We see that a lot with thebrands that we work with.
They want to make sure thatwhatever they're committing to
now is still going to make sensefor them in three years.
How do those big sports momentumand moments actually influence
consumer spending, in youropinion?
(00:29):
The men's basketball tournament.
I mean, your team wins, and thatprompts you to go out and buy a
hat and a jersey and you knowevery piece of memorabilia that
you can get that says you're thenational champion.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (00:38):
I mean, thinking about the sporting
industry alone and how itimpacts the economy is just
mind-blowing to me.
Welcome to the Money SignalPodcast from Main Street to Wall
Street.
Today I'm joined by JenniferRaleigh, Senior Director of NCAA
(00:59):
Partnerships of Warner BrothersDiscovery.
Yeah, thanks so much for havingme.
Such a pleasure to have you on.
We have known each other for awhile because we're somewhat in
the same space.
I've always been fascinated bywhat you do at Warner Brothers
Discovery, especially when itcomes to NCAA, which sports are
not a language that I speak.
So I'd love to learn more alittle bit about you as a senior
(01:23):
partnerships director and uhmore about obviously Warner
Brothers Discovery and NCAA andhow everything ties together.
SPEAKER_00 (01:32):
Yeah, that's okay.
Sports is like the greatunifier.
So you can be a super fan, oryou can be a casual fan, or you
can just like to be in theatmosphere of live sports or a
restaurant or a bar or whateverit might be, and you're a sports
fan.
So it's okay if it's not thelanguage that you typically
speak.
I'm sure you're exposed to biglive sports moments many times
(01:54):
throughout your life that haveimpacted you probably in ways
that you don't even realize.
Um, so I, like you said, am thesenior director of NCAA
partnerships at Warner BrothersDiscovery.
I've been there for about 10years now.
Um, I mean, it's a great placeto be.
I get to work with some of thebiggest brands, you know, in the
country, in the world and touchthe NCAA and college athletics.
(02:18):
It's a group of people that, youknow, student athletes have this
passion that nobody else has.
It really can't be replicated inprofessional sports.
And it's, you know, somethingthat brands are able to tap into
and we're able to tap into, andit's just a great space to be
in.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (02:32):
And I think that the when it comes to
college and when it comes tobasically the audience that you
guys are tapping into, it's notonly the young people that you
really audience to or basicallypromote to.
You're actually promoting toprobably one of the widest range
of demographics when it comes towho's watching sponsorships at
NCAA.
(02:53):
So I the only time I've been uhremotely in the NCAA area is uh
this one project we actuallyworked on, which was to measure
performance for a brand that wasthe advertising of the NCAA in a
specific city, which I'm notgonna name where.
Um, but a lot of the consumerconversations obviously about
NCAA were very interesting andintriguing.
(03:15):
My job during the project wasactually to analyze from a
tourism perspective for thattown how has the NCAA promoted
the city, which is when I thinkabout it, when I think of NCAA
or sports, I don't really thinknecessarily the first thing that
comes to my mind is tourism.
But that actually tells me agreat story, which is that uh
(03:38):
college sports and sports ingeneral promote the economy and
they enhance our economy in waysthat we don't even think about.
You work with large brands.
I know that we can't name mostof them, but obviously
considering that Warner Bros.
Discovery pretty much works withevery brand under the sun, we
could just assume that you workwith the largest brands in the
world.
(03:58):
How are they promotingspecifically their products to
the audiences that they'retrying to reach?
And what are those audiencesspecifically with the NCAA?
SPEAKER_00 (04:11):
Yeah, I think like you said, we're reaching
demographics from, you know, youput a baby in a onesie that has
your alma mater on it.
So it's like you're coming outof the womb already rooting for
a team, and then it goes all theway through an alumni who could
be 80 years old and stillreligiously watches their team
(04:31):
that they love.
So it really runs the gamut oflike all of these ages, all of
these, you know, demographics,all different types of people
that come together to watch ateam that they love.
So I think brands that we workwith are able to really tap into
a passion that fans have.
They're able to speak to them ina really authentic way, to tap
into things that matter to them.
(04:51):
I think in this economy as well,there are so many things.
There's politics, there are somany things out there that
brands maybe are want to shyaway from a little bit more,
where sports is kind of a safe,a brand safe space for them to,
you know, be a part of and speakto fans.
Um, I think that they're able tobe really authentic in the
changing space of NIL.
They're now able to also workwith athletes specifically.
(05:13):
So they could tie into aspecific athlete that has a
specific cause that they reallycare about, and then they're
talking to maybe a whole newdemographic of people that maybe
they wouldn't have had access tobefore.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (05:23):
And NIL stands for name, image, and
likeness.
Okay.
That's a very that's a that'sone of the marketing
abbreviations.
I I love marketingabbreviations.
SPEAKER_00 (05:31):
We use many of them uh in the NCAA.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (05:33):
You actually just touched on another topic
which I find so interesting forbeing in social media and social
listening.
Obviously, influencer is uhinfluencership and working with
influencers is just such aunique uh marketing strategy
that's really emerged in thelast 10 years.
But I would say post-2020, whenwe were all at home during the
(05:56):
pandemic and everything happenedat home, um, that's where I
think, at least in my space, wesaw influencers really explode.
And the whole industry mm wasmuch warmer to influencers.
If you think about how beforesome of the, you know, before
the pandemic, most of thecreators would share their
journey and share theirexperience, and we call them
(06:18):
micro influencers and macroinfluencers, and some would get
hired to come and be sprinkledon marketing campaigns.
Now the whole shift is reallytowards influencers, period.
And you sprinkle a celebrityhere and there, um, just because
they've become much moreattainable, they have many more
eyeballs that they bring andmuch greater conversion.
(06:41):
With an NCAA, I would love tohear more about the college kids
and again these players, thesesports players who, from a
regular kid, end up becoming aninfluencer and what they bring
with them for these brandsspecifically, and if you guys
partner with any of them.
SPEAKER_00 (06:59):
I think to your point, it's a great opportunity
for brands.
Obviously, there are some ofthose bigger brands that are
able to invest a ton of dollarsinto these huge marketing
campaigns and huge TV creativeand are able to pay big name
talent, and that's amazing.
And there are some smallerbrands that maybe in the past
haven't been able to invest inthe way those bigger brands
have.
So this is now an opportunitythat you're like, we can pull
(07:22):
all these influencers togetherthat have honestly like a pretty
big base of followers that hit,you know, exactly kind of who
they're talking to, you knowexactly what demos you're gonna
reach.
You're able to maybe go out andget, you know, a group of 20
influencers for what you mightpay to secure one person who's
maybe more of a more elevatedtalent.
So I think it just gives anopportunity to maybe brands that
(07:44):
weren't able to invest asheavily in the past.
Um, in terms of actually workingwith student athletes, it's
another huge opportunity wherethese athletes who are
performing and, you know, theirperformance is being monetized
in other ways.
So they're actually being ableto get paid now for all of the
great things they do, the moneythey bring into their economy,
(08:05):
the money that they bring totheir school.
Um, we've seen some uniqueinstances too, where like one of
the brands that is an NCAApartner worked with, you know, a
team manager, not a player.
And it was great.
It was like super buzzy, it gota ton of PR, a ton of social
exposure.
And it was honestly a lowinvestment for them, and they
were able to get a huge ROI onit.
(08:25):
So I think it just makes a lotof potential.
There's a lot of potential outthere and opportunities for
brands that maybe didn't have itin the past.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (08:31):
And when it comes to the ROI aspect, which
is the return on investment, sothe marketing money that gets
another uh abbreviation acronymin the marketing world, when you
partner with brands, and whenthe obviously Warner Brothers um
partners with brands, do youguys guarantee any type of ROI,
or are you selling themimpressions or basically
(08:55):
airtime?
Like, what is almost if you haveto think of like the product
that you're placing for thesebrands, is it the name, image,
and likeness, or is it all ofthe above?
SPEAKER_00 (09:05):
I think it depends.
I think there's a lot ofdifferent buckets.
Where I come from, it's themedia world.
So yes, like when you look atmedia, everything has a very
specific ROI.
There are media plans andthere's dollars attached to
everything that you're doingfrom a media standpoint.
Then there are some things whenyou look at partnerships that
ROI maybe is not as cut and dry.
There's not just an equationthat you can plug in to find out
(09:28):
what the ROI is.
When you look at something likequartzide signage at a
basketball game, there might notbe like a formula that gives you
ROI on that, but you know theamount of eyeballs that are
actually watching the game,seeing the quartzide rotational
signage.
Um, and then there's alsosomething we talk about
internally a lot.
It's called the halo effect.
So it's something that NCAAspecifically, and I think
(09:48):
college athletics specifically,is a feel-good moment for a lot
of people.
So brands that associatethemselves with the NCAA,
especially with the men's andwomen's basketball tournaments,
they get this kind of haloeffect that people feel good
about, you know, buying thosebrands, working with those
brands, supporting those brands.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (10:06):
And when it comes to the halo effect and
also the marketing campaigns,one of the things I've always
been interested and intriguedwith is so the sporting season
is very limited, right?
It only runs from specificmonths to there's an end date of
the tournament.
And then after that, it's almostlike the summer break.
(10:26):
How did the brands approach thealmost like on and off period
from marketing uh and strategy?
SPEAKER_00 (10:33):
I think for us, we look at it like an academic
calendar.
So you can think Septemberthrough June.
So it actually is a big chunk ofthe year.
And then really the summermonths are just used to recap
what's been done to honestlystart planning for the next
year.
So a lot of there is definitelya misconception that so much of
what we're doing because we'reso focused on the tournament is
(10:53):
in March, is in April.
But truly, these brands arebriefing over the summer, are
getting all their plans in placestarting in September.
So it it is a full yearcommitment for sure.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (11:04):
Yeah, that's I I mean, I'm sure that the
brands year-round are trying tokeep up with their audience and
obviously the message thatthey're promoting.
Do most of the campaigns thatget like run or run during NCAA,
are they specifically umtailored, if you will, for NCAA?
Or do brands use the generalalmost like messaging?
(11:27):
How do you how do they approachlike the creative strategy?
SPEAKER_00 (11:31):
It depends.
It depends on the brand, itdepends what their resources
look like for a given year.
We have some brands that willuse more evergreen messaging.
It's not NCAA specific, it'sjust the creative that they
might be running for the year,regardless of the property that
they're running it with,regardless of if it's in a
sports capacity or not.
And then we have some thatreally invest in making
(11:51):
contextually relevant creative.
Um, we do a lot of research,obviously.
We look at a lot of thiscreative and we look at
sentiment with consumers andviewers and how they're reacting
to the creative.
And it's always ourrecommendation to lean into
being contextually relevantbecause that just the retention
viewers are remembering, they'reacting, there's purchase intent
(12:14):
that comes with that.
Obviously, it's not alwaysdoable, but that's what we feel
like partners should strive ifthey're able to.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (12:20):
And do partners care about conversion
rates?
And obviously, you mentioned thepurchase intent or how uh the
consumer is traveling from thefunnel, top of the funnel to
bottom of the funnel, meaningfrom seeing the logo or
basically the brand advertisingthat you guys place and then
visiting the website, or maybefollowing whatever instructions
(12:41):
the campaign says, like downloadthis app or visit this link.
Do you see do partners likereally care about the
conversion, or is it more soabout just brand awareness?
It's the conversion.
SPEAKER_00 (12:52):
I mean, brand awareness is always great, and
like I said, the halo effect isalways great.
But if you're if you're nothaving consumers take that extra
step to purchase or sign up fora credit card or sign up for
your wireless service, that thatalways is the ultimate goal.
Um, so I think that that'ssomething that partners focus
on.
I think post-COVID, especially,the same way that every, you
(13:16):
know, everyday person feels itin their wallet and feels like
they need to be more strategicabout how they spend their
money.
I think brands are feeling thesame way where they're looking
at their partnerships andsaying, which ones do we need to
invest in?
What is our ROI on these, youknow, different partnerships?
What is purchase intent lookinglike?
Is this partnership worthpursuing?
(13:37):
Are people taking that nextstep?
So I think it's super important.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (13:40):
And I one of the things I've noticed recently
among consumers through analysisand through my work, my
marketing analysis that we'vedone, is that uh right now I
think brands are strugglingreally relating to audiences
because there's thatoversaturation with influencers
and with celebrities and justlike getting um back and and
(14:04):
really pounding on the samemessaging.
Uh, authenticity has come up asone of the key elements or key
struggles that brands are reallyfacing challenges with.
How do the brands that you guyswork with address authenticity
when it comes to that, whetherit's creative messaging or
addressing the fans in order tohelp them travel through the
(14:26):
funnel?
SPEAKER_00 (14:26):
I think our brands are able to see what are the
needs of the fan.
So whether it's if you're a cellphone company and your focus is
let me make sure fans have thebest kind of phone to watch a
game when they're on the go.
Or if you are a restaurant or aQSR, you want to make sure fans
have a place to go to watch thegame or a place where they can
(14:49):
order food from to have like agreat party at home while
they're watching a game.
I think brands that are able toreally find the needs of fans
and viewers and tap into thosefeels authentic because as a
viewer and a consumer, you'relike, okay, they're not just
trying to sell me something.
They're actually trying to makemy experience better.
So we've seen success whenbrands really focus on that.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (15:11):
That's so interesting.
Thank you so much for thiseducational element.
I love as a marketer myself,I've been in the industry for so
many years now, and I feel likeI constantly learn new things
just because marketing is such awide has such a wide range of
activities.
I've seen it from the media end,from social media specifically.
And I also have some mediaexperience where I know through
(15:34):
my work with brands, like everytime I'd hear impressions,
impressions, conversion,impressions, and these were all
to me buzzwords for so manyyears until I truly understood
what drove the you know interestamong consumers to then help
these brands get moreimpressions and more
conversions.
One of the topics I'd love toask you next about is actually
(15:58):
AI.
I love asking all my um podcastguests about AI and how that's
impacted their industry.
If you had to compare even fiveyears ago to today and the use
of AI, or even maybe analyticstechnologies and AI implemented
or data sets, have you seen anytype of shift?
(16:19):
And are you trying to implementmore AI or less AI into your
day-to-day?
SPEAKER_00 (16:24):
I mean, I think as a company and as an industry,
we're always looking for ways tobe more efficient with time and
resources, and AI is alwaysgoing to lead to that.
I think for us, where we've seenthe most impact is probably from
just a production standpoint.
So we have our studios inAtlanta.
I work on NCAA, but we work on anumber of different properties
and with a number of differentleagues.
(16:45):
But we also do a ton of customcontent for partners.
So we will act as their studio.
We will create their TV spots,we can create custom elements
that live in our broadcast.
So AI has been really beneficialin streamlining some
streamlining some processes forour production team.
I think that's where we'veprobably seen the biggest
impact.
(17:05):
And that I imagine that's onlygoing to continue to be more
impactful moving forward.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (17:09):
Yeah.
And are you currently, you justmentioned that you guys do a lot
of content.
Um, is that only tied to NCAA oris it more broad to other
campaigns as well that arenon-sports?
SPEAKER_00 (17:20):
Totally more broad.
Um the group that I work withmostly focuses on sports, but
it's a number of leagues, anumber of different properties.
Um, but yeah, we we really willthe team in Atlanta will does
anything for any brand.
So it's great.
They're a great resource for ourpartners to have.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (17:36):
I've I've learned so much about Warner
Brothers and the NCAA process.
If you had to guess, um, again,like with I think the creator
economy to me is fascinating.
I'm sure you're you know myco-host Peter Tuckman, also
known as the Einstein of WallStreet.
He's he's one of the largestcreators, financial creators
actually in the whole world.
And my eyes have been openedthrough him on what it really
(17:57):
truly means, what's the power ofthe influencers?
Now, coming back to ourconversation about influencers
in general and NCAA, do you seein like the upcoming maybe short
term or near term or maybe evenseveral years from now, future
how creators will impact theNCAA?
(18:19):
And it could be in any shape orform, whether again, traditional
TV to some extent, in myopinion, is changing.
We're consuming media in so manydifferent ways.
Where do you see the sportsinfluencers impacting this
industry?
SPEAKER_00 (18:35):
Yeah, I think like we talked about before, I think
a lot of brands are able to tapinto influencers in general,
where they're able to bring inan influencer to, you know, work
with our production team to becourtside and get capturing
content on a, you know, a cellphone and using that as part of
a brand campaign.
We've done watch parties withdifferent different influencers
(18:55):
where we set up a couch in thestadium and they're able to like
talk live on one of ourstreaming apps about what's
happening in the game.
So it's another way for peopleto watch.
So I think there are ways thatbrands and Warner Brothers
Discovery as a company cancontinue to use influencers.
But then it's also the studentathletes that are now able to
work with brands directly to beinfluencers themselves.
(19:17):
So whether it's working with afood brand or working with a
technology brand, you know,they're able to tap into those
student athletes who maybedidn't have a chance to do
something like that before.
So I can imagine that's onlygoing to continue to grow.
You know, we've seen when NILfirst kind of like became a
thing that brands were able totap into, there was a little bit
(19:37):
of a hesitancy because you'reworking with kids that are 18
years old.
And we would joke that likeyou're only one bad crap party
away from blowing up, you know,a brand's message if you work
with somebody who, you know, is18 years old and in college.
So I think now we've seen somebrands have had real success
working with student athletes.
And I think it will just themomentum is going to continue to
(20:00):
move forward.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (20:01):
What are brands for NTAA partnerships
prioritizing now that they werenot five years ago?
SPEAKER_00 (20:08):
I think this is where like we talked about the
authenticity is coming in soheavily, where the space can be
really cluttered.
There's a lot of brands outthere talking to consumers in a
variety of different mediameans, like whether it's through
traditional linear, digital, onevery different social platform.
There are just so many ways thatconsumers are being fed
(20:30):
information.
So I think reaching people inthe right time and place and
also just getting them with theright message, I think our
attention spans are reallyshort, shorter probably than
they've ever been.
So brands have a really finiteamount of time to get a message
across and really, you know,catch the attention of a viewer
or of a consumer out there andactually get them to make a
purchasing decision based onthat really brief message.
(20:52):
So I feel like that's somethingbrands have definitely been
focusing on more.
I mean, think about just thesocial space five years ago.
It's changed so, I mean, youknow more than anybody.
Like it's changed so much in thelast five years.
Um, I think similar to how we'vealso talked about, there are
different means.
So whether it's working withinfluencers, things that maybe
brands didn't do before thatthey can begin to focus on, um,
(21:13):
I think that, you know, they'redoing that definitely a lot more
than they were five years ago.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (21:17):
Would you say that brands are more flexible
now that they were before?
SPEAKER_00 (21:21):
I think they are looking for flexibility.
I think because the medialandscape is changing so
quickly, we see that a lot withthe brands that we work with.
They want to make sure thatwhatever they're committing to
now is still gonna make sensefor them in three years, because
in three years, things can justchange so much.
Where five years ago that maybewasn't the case.
You had a little bit more wiggleroom where you're like, okay,
(21:42):
the landscape we're working innow might change slightly, but
overall it's not going to changetoo much.
Where I think, you know, we'reseeing it like year to year
changes.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (21:51):
Jen, one of the last few questions I wanted
to get to is actually how dothose big sports momentum and
moments actually influenceconsumer.
SPEAKER_00 (22:00):
Spending, in your opinion.
If you look at the men'sbasketball tournament, I mean
that is one of the biggest thechampionship game and the final
four in the championship gameare two of the biggest moments
in this country's, you know,sports landscape.
They're huge.
Um, I think it happens in a youknow variety of different ways,
whether you know your team winsand that prompts you to go out
(22:21):
and buy a hat and a jersey andyou know, every piece of
memorabilia that you can getthat says you're the national
champions, or your team loses.
So you're depressed and you'reout there, you know, retail
therapy shopping.
Um, when you're prepping towatch the game with your
friends, it changes how you'respending, you know, in the food
and beverage space.
(22:42):
Um, if you look at the actualmarkets that the event is taking
place in, that's huge too.
So we and Stable A has a biddingprocess for all of their Final
Four sites.
So we actually know the hostcities a couple of years out,
obviously.
The amount of revenue that'sbrought into those cities is
huge.
Hotels, you know, bars,restaurants, really any kind of
(23:04):
entertainment venue in thosecities is gonna see the impact
of the final four in thechampionship game being in their
backyard.
So it's happens in a variety ofdifferent areas.
Um, another one, you know, ifyou know a big game is coming
up, the final four is coming up,and you are not gonna be sitting
in front of your TV to watch it.
You might be making sure, like,oh, can my phone, do I have, you
(23:27):
know, the kind of technologythat I need when I'm on the go
to watch and make sure that Idon't miss a second of this
game.
So I think it's, you know, a lotof different industries and a
lot of different areas that areimpacted by these big sports
moments.
Tsvetta Kaleynska (23:39):
I mean, thinking about the sporting
industry alone and how itimpacts the economy is just
mind-blowing to me.
I was reading um a statistic andI don't want to butcher it
because I don't have it uh offthe top of my head.
But the sports fans, sports fansin general, basically convert at
a much higher rate than anyother industry and segment
(24:00):
that's from like marketing,basically, marketing insights.
Um, and as I mentioned in one ofthe projects that we did with
the NCAA, it wasn't with, pardonme, that we did that pertained
to NCAA and one of the citiesthat uh held the NCAA.
We specifically uh found outthat uh genuinely the whole
(24:22):
tourism, as you mentioned,hotels and bars and restaurants
were uh impacted in a positiveway, and it generated more jobs
for the economy in that specifictown or city, and it's just
fascinating.
Um, I love sports, I uh am notinto college sports just yet
(24:42):
because I just got intofootball.
Well, it took me a few years,but I'm incredibly excited uh to
have learned all of this newknowledge from media landscape
to NCAA and sports.
I wanted to thank you so muchfor coming uh to the Money
Signal podcast from Main Streetto Wall Street.
Hopefully, we'll have you backsoon.
(25:03):
Yeah, I would love to come back.
Thanks for having me.
Maybe for the next uh tournamentand championship, we'll we'll be
able to come back and actuallytalk more about the sports.
We'll do it from the game.
Yes, from the arena.
Love it.
I love it.
Thank you so much, Jen.
Pleasure having you.
Thank you guys so much for beingwith the Money Signal Podcast.
Make sure to follow our officialsocial media pages,
(25:23):
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