Catching Up With Versus Senior VP/Marketing Bill Bergofin
 |
Versus Senior VP/
Marketing Bill Bergofin |
Thursday night's NHL Red Wings-Penguins Stanley Cup Finals Game Four marked Versus' final hockey telecast this season, their fourth since picking up NHL rights prior to the '05-06 season. Senior VP/Marketing BILL BERGOFIN arrived at the network shortly after that to oversee the creative services department, just three months before rebranding from OLN to Versus. Prior to Versus, Bergofin worked for creative agency Shepardson, Stern & Kaminsky, N.Y., where he served as VP/Marketing, and had previously served in the same role at Fox Sports. Bergofin sat down with Assistant Managing Editor Austin Karp to discuss the network's sports programming, thoughts on Twitter and justice in America.
Hometown: Oradell, NJ
Favorite sports movie: “Slap Shot”
Childhood sports idol: CAL RIPKEN
Favorite vacation spot: Seaview, Fire Island
Daily Must-reads: N.Y. Times, SportsBusiness Journal, SportsBusinessDaily.com, Creativity-Online.com
Gadget You Can't Live Without: TV Remote
Mac or PC: Both (PC at work, Mac at home)
Favorite NHL venue: Joe Louis Arena
Q: The NHL on Versus has seen some good ratings/audience success this season. How is that going to help going forward?
Bergofin: The great thing is that we’ve had an amazing partnership since we got together. I don’t know how to make the relationship better other than we continue to work closer and closer together and our strategy is in complete alignment. That makes it all the more easier to work together to promote the sport and grow the fan base and grow the TV viewing audience.
Q: You have a degree in Justice from American Univ. How did you get into a career in sports TV?
Bergofin: After four years of studying justice, I realized that there is none. Actually, I happened to get an internship in college for a guy who started a sports marketing agency and his first client was Home Team Sports. That was back in the day, where regional sports cable networks just showed games at night, and Home Team Sports was launching as a 24-hour sports cable network. And since then, I was just hooked.
Q: How would you best describe an average day for you at Versus?
Bergofin: Getting ahead and managing growth. Strategically and creatively, we want to keep pushing the envelope, but at the same time, we’re growing so fast that we have a best-in-class organization to continue producing all the great work we do.
 |
Bergofin Says IndyCar Similar To
Hockey With Its Tradition, History |
Q: What was the importance behind getting IndyCar for Versus?
Bergofin: I think it’s a phenomenal addition. It’s a very similar story to hockey. It’s a great American sport with a lot of tradition and history and some great personalities and the right story. Again, they’re great partners. It’s another sports league that just wanted to partner with us to grow both the sport and TV, so I think it’s just in line with us super-serving the passionate fan base of another sport and being able to grow together.
Q: There was a lot of buzz around HELIO CASTRONEVES winning the Indy 500. Will he be a major presence in your marketing during the second part of the IndyCar season?
Bergofin: Yes and no. Obviously you want to be using the assets that are best selling the sport. For example, last season we watched the NHL season with the unsung heroes and some lesser known at the time athletes. So we just try to use all of the assets that they have. DANICA (PATRICK), TONY KANAAN, who has been around for awhile, (SCOTT) DIXON, who won last year….so it’s no one thing. I wouldn’t pin it all on Helio.
Q: Versus is going to be airing weekly UFL games starting this fall. How do you plan to market a new football league to viewers in the middle of college/NFL season?
Bergofin: We’re just starting in the planning for that. It’s an exciting new product but we have a lot of stuff in the third quarter leading up to that. We’re launching into the Tour de France with Lance back in, college football on the heels and World Extreme Cagefighting which is just another growth vehicle on our air, huge fight this upcoming weekend. So, we’re sort of in the process of laying out all the plans for the balance of the year.
Q: The Tour de France on Versus is coming up soon, and we hear someone named LANCE ARMSTRONG might be returning. How much promotion will the network be doing around Lance?
Bergofin: It’s obviously not just him, and it’s a really exciting tour this year for cycling fans. There’s a lot of great stories but Lance is obviously one that’s going to appeal to a broad audience, so we currently have a creative running with Lance in it during the Stanley Cup Finals. We’ve been promoting the tour with a campaign called “Epic Cycle” the NHL entire season, just about the drama of cycling, the grand nature of it. We’re continuing with that campaign. Again, with the creative with Lance, it is very big and bold, it’s an aggressive campaign with different messaging. We want to get back to the sport. There’s a lot of great stories in this year’s tour with Lance being one of them and a couple of other champions returning so we’re focusing more on that this year.
Q: Can you talk about some of the original programming Versus has been rolling out recently?
Bergofin: In any new brand, defining your personality is just critical. We’ve certainly defined our personality from a live event standpoint with great brands like the NHL and IRL and college football and down the line, so as we develop our own personality, a lot of that is going to be through original programming and shows like "Fanarchy" and "Sports Soup" are uniquely our own and certainly there’s nothing else out there like it. In large regard, we’re as passionate about the sports as our fans. If you look at our programs, "Fanarchy" is about giving the fan a voice in the conversation and we think that’s important. The same with "Sports Soup," what would you say to your friend if you were watching something happen on TV and that’s hopefully what the show conveys, so it’s real exciting. That’s going to be a continued growth vehicle for us in our original programming and defining our own personality.
Q: Outside of Versus, what other network is doing something really innovative in sports television?
Bergofin: I think HBO has a very true sports brand. I really respect how they treat sports. Spike has a very interesting sports strategy and I think that they bridge the gap between sports and entertainment in an interesting way. And on top of that having UFC, I think it’s just a really smart move for them. Those are two networks that I admire how they’ve structured themselves around the sports that they have.
Q: What is your opinion of athletes using Twitter to communicate with fans? Have you participated yourself?
Bergofin: I follow Twitter. I’m an early watcher, late adopter. I think it’s great. If you look at "Fanarchy," the more connectivity there is between the sport and it’s fans, the better for all of us. Obviously in this new media world, everything happens in an instant. There’s nothing sacred. There are certainly perils in it, but I also think that it’s great and it’s honest and that’s the important thing.
Q: What is a sports business story you’ll be watching closely for the rest of ’09?
Bergofin: I’m not going to go with the economy, how’s that? But honestly, we're building our sports strategy, and we try to be the voice of the athlete and real competition and watching how the media continues to treat athletes. You talk about Twitter and the exposed nature of sports and everything that happens. You want to follow how athletes and professionals in sports media respond to the media now that everything is out in the wide open, and I think it’s going to hopefully have a positive impact on how people carry themselves.
|
