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People and Pop Culture

Plugged In: Craig Howe, Rebel Ventures

Craig Howe has been involved in digital media for nearly as long as there has been a consumer-facing Internet. After more than two decades in digital marketing and consulting roles, Howe early last year formed Rebel Ventures, a Los Angeles-based firm aiding sports organizations and early stage technology companies with their digital and social media strategies for engagement and monetization. Clients have included the Boston Red Sox, San Francisco 49ers, Chicago Bulls and Real Madrid. Howe also has been active in advising and investing in a variety of technology startups.

It’s healthy that sports tends to overindex in just about every facet of digital consumption. Supply is definitely increasing to meet fan demand.


Photo by: REBEL VENTURES
On the digital engagement challenges that teams and leagues face: For a team, it’s figuring out how to tell one story in 30 slightly different ways across digital channels, live venues and sponsor-integrated channels every week. For a league, it’s figuring out how to prioritize and equally support 30 team storylines and narratives across all digital channels each week. They are the same core problems with different variables.

On the opportunity in e-sports: It’s absolutely massive. E-sports tournaments are already selling out professional sports arenas, and video game footage is generating colossal numbers on YouTube, Twitch and countless other networks. It’s hard for the average person to understand what it’s like to survey a defense like Cam Newton, but it’s easy for anyone that has an Xbox One to immediately relate to the professionals.

On the venture capital market for digital sports: The problem is that most sports organizations are getting bombarded with meetings and demo requests at every level and they simply don’t have enough staff, time and bandwidth to handle the volume. I think it will start to level out over the next couple of years as a few core winners in each category begin to emerge.

On his own social media usage: Personally, I love Instagram because it tends to be a pretty clean visual experience. You can communicate so much emotion in just a single image. I also like Snapchat Live Stories because being able to make you feel like you were at an event through a two-minute montage of videos and images is pretty amazing.

— Eric Fisher

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