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| Source: UMBEL |
LISA PEARSON is the CEO of U.S.-based data management platform Umbel, whose European clients include League Championship side Fulham, Pro14 side Munster Rugby, AEG Presents and the Dutch FA (KNVB), among others. Pearson said that the company's partnership with Fulham came about after Umbel execs met the club's head of commercial development, PETER SPARTIN, at the '16 Leaders Sport Business Summit in London. Umbel, founded in '10 and based in Austin, Texas, currently works with a number of U.S. sports teams including the NBA Indiana Pacers, L.A. Clippers and San Antonio Spurs and the NHL N.Y. Islanders and Florida Panthers. Pearson spoke to SBD Global about the European market and Umbel's expansion efforts, among other topics.
On Umbel's goals for int'l expansion ...
Lisa Pearson: Umbel's intention, and our plan, and what we will do, is become the market leader in sports and data. And you can't be the market leader in sports if you're not strongly represented internationally. So, we have a very deliberate scaled rollout that is North America, EU, U.K., Canada and Mexico. Those are our priority regions and countries for now. We have customers in each of those geographies. ... We have a sales director, JOSH TINCH, who is spending the majority of his time in Europe, meeting with prospects and servicing the customers we have there. Our intention is to be very aggressive in that market. There's so much appetite for what Umbel can deliver, and this is not patting ourselves on the back, this is about the state of that business. There's so much pressure to build out social presence, there's so much sports fanaticism. ... We're compliant with all of the European security regulations. First-party data is a friendly for that market given all their privacy restrictions. There are a lot of things that converge that make it the right time for us to build out our international presence.
On European vs. U.S. sports fans ...
Pearson: I see more similarities than differences. You see more conviction -- just anecdotally, I don't have any way to prove this -- but you see more conviction around European sports with American fans than the reverse. I can walk into any playground on the weekend and see some American kid in Arsenal kit. You don't see that loyalty reciprocated. ... What is interesting for us is, because of all the privacy restrictions around third-party data and cookies and tracking all of that stuff, we feel like the European fan is really receptive to highly personalized, contextually relevant marketing because they are opting in to that data. ... The level of social engagement with the football teams is stratospheric. Real Madrid has 200 million fans on social. It's not like the U.S. is less sophisticated in using social media, they're not, but it shows the level of fanaticism in the EU.
On challenges breaking into the European market ...
Pearson: The challenges around business outcomes are no different. They want to sell tickets, they want to engage with their fans, they want to expand their social reach, they want to understand more about their fans. So there's not any difference in use cases or in desired outcomes that is meaningful. If anything, because of the restrictions around third-party data, the European market is even more primed for using first-party data. We're advantaged that we're in a space, as a first-party data management platform, that that market is really receptive to. ... The use cases are the same, the opportunity is primed, the sports market is vibrant, people are engaging with the teams on social in a robust way. All those things are really favorable for Umbel to come in and make a difference for the customers.
On the importance of building relationships with European clients ...
Pearson: What's different is just the way business is actually conducted. It's much more relationship-oriented, much more networked. People are going to events more and it's just more relationship-oriented. In North America, we may be able to call on a prospect through email and phone calls and a WebEx and do a demo that way, and go all the way through to the close of a deal without ever even seeing them, or maybe seeing them once. Whereas in Europe, you have to be there and present to be viewed as credible. There's probably some healthy skepticism, generally -- and I've seen this in other companies where I've worked -- if you don't really have boots on the ground. There's skepticism around North American-headquartered companies coming in and trying to do business in Europe. You have to really show that you mean it and that you're committed to learning about the differences. That's why we're investing so significantly in having our team really present there.
On what to expect from Umbel in the months to come ...
Pearson: What you will see from Umbel is a series of things which I can't fully explain yet because we're in the process of building them out. You'll see a series of products that exist on the team side and on the brand side to solve a problem around sponsorship. We've spent the last six months out in the market talking to brands, agencies, teams and leagues and the top attorney in the U.K. who negotiates all the multi, multi-million dollar sponsorship deals. What we've found is there is acute pain on the brand side around the value that they're getting for their sponsorship dollars. They really want more inventory than what has been traditionally offered to them. ... They're saying, 'We know that 95 percent of the fans of this particular team might never actually go to a game.' Everyone's cutting the cord, not watching appointment TV anymore. All those secular trends you see around consumer behavior shifting mean that the eyeballs and engagement that the brands could typically count on in venue or in broadcast, they're not getting anymore. So they're really putting a lot of heat on the teams to deliver more inventory, more digital inventory. So we're actively in market, building out more and more digital inventory that the teams can go bring back to the brand sponsors.
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