Gahagan feels when college athletics do return, the fandom and fervor will be unprecedentedSPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL
Learfield IMG College President & CEO Cole Gahagan was promoted to his current position in early April after joining the company in January, and no one could have predicted the current crisis that he has had to face. Speaking at yesterday's CAA World Congress Comes To You, Gahagan said his company is "pivoting based on the new reality that we're living in and optimizing around it as best as we possibly can.” Learfield IMG College as it evolves will be rooted in data infrastructure. “Everything that we will do both on technology and talking to fans and in what ultimately becomes media and media distribution is going to be rooted in data mining no matter what,” said Gahagan. “We need to know where our fans are and what they care about." Gahagan said that Learfield IMG College can focus in on what the fans care to consume and engage with, which becomes the guiding light of what content they need to create. He added, “When you start to ... think about different initiatives that we want to take to market that have slightly different angles to them, like media, like digital marketing, then you focus more on what the important investments and actions are that are going to be resulting in the kinds of things that at the end of the day the audience wants.” Gahagan said that will help them put something out there that is going to be of high value to partners.
LOOKING AHEAD: Gahagan gave some advice to the rest of the industry. He said, "We still have to go do what it is that we do for a living to uplift the entire athletics department at the partnerships that we have. Let's stay mission-focused on doing that. Don't get distracted with too much need for creativity or too much need to go do something wildly different than what we've always done because what we've always done is going to continue to be important.” Meanwhile, college football’s season remains largely up in the air, but Gahagan remains optimistic. He said, “I do think we're going to see something in the fall, for sure. I think that football in one form or another is going to be back this fall.” He added that when college athletics do return, he believes the fandom and fervor for these properties will be like nothing he has ever seen.
