Announcing our Fluid Fan Executive Network Class of 2022
The unique executive board program moves into its third year, convening the savviest forward-thinking executives from sport’s premier brands to determine how to win the “Fluid Fan” with a data-driven approach.
BOSTON, May 18, 2022 -- Sports Innovation Lab, a data-driven fan intelligence company, announced today the Fluid Fan Executive Network Class of 2022 (#FluidFan). This exclusive group of senior executives from across sports and entertainment will convene regularly to analyze the industry’s most valuable customer - The Fluid Fan™ - and steward thought leadership on staying ahead of evolving behavior.
The Fluid Fan represents the modern sports fan who is open to change, empowered to choose, and continuously evolving as a result of their relationship with innovative technology offerings. Introduced to the industry by Sports Innovation Lab in its report A New Age of Sport (2019), fully defined in The Fluid Fan is Here (2020), and central to a complete sports business model shift accurately predicted in The Fan Project (2021), the Fluid Fan is the current growth engine for the sports industry. Subsequently, because Fans of Women’s Sports (FoWS) exhibit the strongest alignment with Fluid Fan behavior tendencies, women’s sports are now the single greatest market opportunity for brands and investors today.
Meanwhile, Sports Innovation Lab’s proprietary data capabilities have established the company as the marketplace’s only provider of insights on Fluid Fan behavior.
The Fluid Fan Executive Network (FFEN) provides a platform for executives who believe in Fluid Fandom to meet and dive into data-driven trends, share best practices, and steward new research to stay ahead of evolving fan behavior. The FFEN Class of 2022 includes C-Suite representatives from sports, technology, media research, and consumer companies:
Cisco Systems: Ken Martin, Executive Director of Global Digital Transformation, Sports and Entertainment Consumer Industries
The Coca-Cola Company: Brad Ross, VP of Global Sports & Entertainment Marketing and Partnerships
The Coca-Cola Company: Daniel Dao, Senior Director, Strategy and Integration, Global Assets, Influencers and Partnerships
Extreme Networks: Wes Durow, CMO
FAST Studios: Stuart McLean, CEO
Intel: Rick Echevarria, VP, GM, Olympics and Paralympics Program Office
Jock MKT: Dave Isman, Co-founder
LiveLike: Miheer Walavalkar, Co-founder & CEO
Mastercard: Michael Goldstein, VP, Head of Sponsorships, North America
MGM Resorts International: Brette Sadler, Global Head of Corporate Partnerships, Sports & Entertainment
Movella Canada: Dr. Travis McDonough, President, VP of Business Development, Sports and Health
Nielsen Sports: Jon Stainer, Managing Director, Americas
Octagon: Lou Kovacs, President, Marketing & Events, North America
OnePlan: Paul Foster, Founder
Panini America: Jason Howarth, VP of Marketing
Rivals Media: John Cioe, Founder & CEO
Titletown Tech: Cordero Barkley, Partner & Director, Finance & Investments
UFC: Lawrence Epstein, SVP & COO
Venuetize: Craig Duncan, CRO
Wimbledon: Sheila Luke, Strategic Planning & Projects Lead
“Knowing your fans used to mean understanding their age, location, household income, and a few interests,” said Megan Perry, Sports Innovation Lab’s VP of Executive Engagement & Women’s Initiatives. “Today, that’s not enough. Sports brands need to know how their fans behave, and how technology is changing that behavior if they want to make business decisions that drive growth.“
FFEN members receive access to Sports Innovation Lab’s unrivaled fan intelligence, which also includes proprietary consent-based zero party data, account-level purchasing data, and mobile clickstream data, among numerous offerings. As the only company to bring these disparate sources of data together and view them through the lens of sport and fan behavior, Sports Innovation Lab is uniquely positioned to offer customers an inside look at how to generate growth in the sports industry.
Kristina Southam, Sports Innovation Lab Associate Director of Executive Engagement & Women’s Initiatives, added, “At its core, the Fluid Fan Executive Network exists to bring the smartest and most diverse perspectives from across sports and entertainment around the same table to discuss the most critical trends we’re seeing in our data.”
To follow the conversation around the Fluid Fan Executive Network on Twitter, follow @sportsilab, @angelaruggiero, @missmegs42, and #FluidFan.
About Sports Innovation Lab
Sports Innovation Lab is a fan intelligence and market research organization that helps the world's leading sports organizations understand who their fans are, and how technology is changing their behavior. We do this by collecting and analyzing data on what fans do, watch, and buy, and offering our clients such as the NFL, NHL, FIFA, Google, Facebook, Coca-Cola, Visa, and Puma analysis and strategic interpretation of that data.
Media Contact
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Athlete Strategies
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