In the second session on “Marketing from the C-Suite,” from the IMG Sports Marketing Symposium '12, Verizon Wireless VP & CMO Tami Erwin discussed new products, measuring ROI and the company’s deal with the NFL. Verizon is the largest single buyer in sports advertising, with approximately $345M spent in ‘11. Erwin said, “Every day I get questions from our COO asking, 'Is this the right way to spend money?' We can take the analytics out of aggregated, anonymous information to answer that question: Who am I reaching through those sponsorships?”
QUICK HITS:
-- On streaming NFL content over the network: “What we’ve got with the NFL RedZone is exclusive content, and our customers are valuing that on our network. I don’t know if I can directly say that content has affected [Verizon’s] girth.”
-- On whether exclusive mobile rights will make Verizon a broadcaster: “I don’t know if we’re going to be considered a broadcaster, but we understand the importance of delivering content to customers, whether it’s at home or on a tablet or on the phone.”
-- On which devices she uses every day: “I swap devices every week. I always have three to four at any time, I have a Samsung S3, an HTC device, which is [in] my wallet, an Apple tablet. I also have a BlackBerry at the bottom of my briefcase.”
-- On how foreign mobile users are ahead of American consumers: “From a mobile banking standpoint, the Europeans and Asians are ahead of us. We lead in terms of speed and feeds with 4G LTE.”
