Best of Sports Podcast: Eric Nichols on Digital Growth

Best of the Digital and Social
Media Sports Podcast
Episode 126: Eric Nichols
On episode 126, Neil chatted with Eric Nichols, Senior
Associate Athletic Director and Chief Marketing Officer for
University of South Carolina Athletics.
What follows are select snippets from the episode. To hear the
full interview, check out the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and at
www.dsmsports.net.
You can also follow me on Twitter @njh287.
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net

Attended Tennessee-Martin where he got his Bachelor's and MBA, while in grad
school, he also served as a volleyball coach
→ Spent 6 months with Nike in Oregon → A friend recommended a position at
Vanderbilt (to get back into athletics), starting out in the mail room and computer
hardware for the department. Eric also was a waiter at night and a club volleyball
coach – a hustle!
→ Later, Eric got into web design for the department, event operations, before getting
more in web design and finally Marketing Director → After 10 years at Vandy, Eric
continued ascending in marketing and moved to South Carolina Athletics, where he
has now been working 10 years and currently is Chief Marketing Officer there
Eric appreciated his experience in fan experience, user experience (design) each
leading him to marketing

On the growth of digital in Eric's time at Vanderbilt as it came about
“We were one of the first ones to have an Athletics website (in 1998 or
1999). Early years, it was hard-coded, later – ' fusion' [a Macro Media
product)...and later we went into the CBS/CSTV world. All of that time,
having the knowledge behind it allowed us to really maximize what the
tools provided...And I think that's what gave us a little differentiation from
everybody else [with cookie cutter]...We really wanted to add as much
content as we could for our fans on that websites, because in
Nashville...that was really the only place you could get solid (Vanderbilt)
content.”

Early 'objectives' of the website
“Even from the beginning, and it still carries true today, the primary function
is the stats/scores/roster/schedule....but the primary goal was to fill the
coverage hole that Nashville was providing for Vanderbilt (with their attention
on new arrivals the Nashville Predators and Tennessee Titans)....that was
what we were focused on – was trying to provide content that would tell the
story of the student athlete, the Vanderbilt brand, etc.”
“Email...that was where we started making some hay, with trying to collect
email addresses as often as we could, trying to leverage (web) traffic to
drive email; that was our primary KPI on the marketing side. But aside from
that, it was really tough to evaluate (ROI) beyond coverage.”

The relationship of Athletics' digital growth with the University side
[Eric talks about a new president while he was there eliminating the Athletic Director
role]
“We were all part of the one University, so we were forced into the university
communications role, which ended up being a huge blessing...That's what taught me
the value of working with the campus side and the resources they provide.
“At that time, they were building up their web presence, where we had contracted out.
So we were working with them on (custom) projects....”

When social media came in
“Right around the time I came to South Carolina was when
(Facebook) opened up brand Pages, and then Twitter
started out (Eric talks about his AD asking Eric about Twitter
and asking if they need to be on it)...We were mainly
focused on driving followers with both (Facebook and
Twitter)...At the time, we were equating follower count with
success.”

Demands for content as social and digital media grew
“Back then there wasn't a ton of photo and video integration. It
was primarily driving through contesting and then just sharing
game times and final scores, and links to the website. We
challenged everyone to come up with ideas...We would give out
cupcakes every time we (gained) 1,000 followers on Twitter...I got
really chunky that summer, I think, because it grew really quickly.”

Organizing the social accounts for South Carolina as it all emerged
“We started a handle for every sport except football...We wanted the average fan to follow
our primary account, so they would also get a little bit of other sport information. As we've
evolved and dedicated more resources to football, that didn't make as much sense. Early
on, wee were centralized and now we're less centralized.”

Balancing metrics, revenue, and covering all sports
“It is difficult and it really comes from the top – what is your department's philosophical
value? We value raw-based success, other schools might value football success only. It
doesn't mean football doesn't drive the bus here; they still do from a financial perspective.
“We try to share stories of the long-term brand play. Some of our biggest donors come
from the smallest sports. If they have an experience or if we treat an Olympic sport
differently than football, that may come back to bite you in a later fundraising effort. We
tactically approach each sport the same; obviously the momentum of each is different, the
resources of each is different.

“Where that really becomes difficult is, let's say you have a
graphic designer who puts together a really good graphic for,
say, volleyball, and it gets 35 retweets, to where you could
do a pretty poor job in football and you might get 350
retweets. It's difficult to manage that; I'm trying to figure that
out, quite frankly.”

The differences between Vanderbilt and South Carolina, as it pertains to Athletics – goals, resources,
fan base, etc.
“The easiest way to say is at Vanderbilt you're trying to find and create fans, at South Carolina you're
trying to manage and monetize fans; two totally different things. Same job functions, but they couldn't
be more different. [For example] licensing and merchandise revenue at Vanderbilt was just not what
we spent a lot of time on because it didn't generate a lot of revenue, but here (at SC), it does...
“I think my eye-opening moment was [when] I got here, driving around looking for a house, listening
to sports talk (radio) and they said they were gonna go live to a press conference, and I'm thinking
'Who did we hire?' And it was an assistant baseball coach's live press conference, and I thought
Wow, this is different when they're going live to an assistant coach's press conference.”

Content strategy for Gamecocks Athletics
“For all sports that are not football we loosely have these external teams...In
essence, it's all your major departments that touch that particular sport...having
face-to-face conversations about what the current and mid-range opportunities are
and/or challenges...
“[For example], we had a National Player of the Year last year in women's
basketball – it's how do we manage that? How do we promote that? How do we
leverage that? Facilities is involved, ticketing is involved, etc. I think your teamwork
here is pretty remarkable across sports, and I'm so fortunate to say that.

“In football, with our recent investment in social and digital, they are a little bit segregated,
and most of their direction comes from (head coach) Will Muschamp and their team. But that
being said, they are very intentional about What do we do if they lose? What do we do if they
win? What if we get blown out, what if we blown out? What do we do if we lose our star
player? They're very prepared for every situation...Not just prepared from a text perspective,
but thinking ahead and capturing video for what may play well in every situation. And that's a
different skill set, you have to think differently.”

South Carolina's investment in digital and social media and what
went into it
“Ultimately, what happened was Coach Muschamp came along,
and he just has a different mindset for recruiting than (previous
coach Steve Spurrier) did. One is not better than another, they're
just different mindsets. His was very aggressive, high intensity,
high energy, and, with that, he needs some tools to recruit with.
And those tools, these days, are digital and social media.

“His first season, we had some, but it wasn't quite what he needed. And
then as other competition started getting noticeably better...We found
ourselves playing catchup. We don't like to play catchup, we like to be
leaders. So our administration gave Coach Muschamp the resources,
and we ended up hiring Justin King (who they remembered as a talented
student with content production going back almost 10 years)...
“He's really good at what he does, he's been doing it a really long time,
and, most importantly, he loves South Carolina.”

The ROI of their social media investment
“I think it's difficult to draw a straight line to it, because that would
be minimizing Coach's personality and his efforts. It's significantly
more than what one might see on the public handles. Ohio State
had a very good video recently about how they develop the brand
of their football players, and I thought they did a good job telling
that story. We're doing the same thing here, we just haven't told
that story.

“One of the things that Justin realized was...everyone loved to
have their picture taken, and they love to share that pictures. So
even as something as simple as setting up a work station where
all of our student athletes could come by and he could teach them
basic editing skills, whether it's a video or a photo, so that they
could share on their accounts. That made a big difference – letting
them under the hood and let them choose the photo they want to
share the way they want it, on their accounts. Because we're
trying to grow their brand.”

Helpful Tool: Unsplash – free stock photos, no login required, no
watermark

On what it was like transitioning to Coach Muschamp and coaches in general – particularly
messaging, content, and brand for South Carolina
“One thing where we're fortunate at this level, is by this time a high-level DI coach...they
know what they're doing, they know what their brand is, they know their own philosophy.
So there's no talking them into it, you're buying a package almost, and they don't change
much. So really it's asking them what do they want.
“We're fortunate that all of our primary coaches – if I were to draw out our brand attributes,
they line up perfectly to what the Gamecock brand is, and I think that's why we're having
some success...”

The challenge of trying to reach so many fans across age groups, among other
traits
“It is the most challenging part of marketing today...Segmentation – that's really
where we're spending a lot of our time, we've invested a lot of resources into it –
a data warehouse, so now not only is our data collected, it's analyzed and
evaluated, and we now know who the different personas are. (Currently) we're
figuring how best to talk to the different segments and what mediums they want
to be communicated on. We're by no means there yet, I think we're there on a
limited sense, but that's where we're spending a lot of our time now is trying to
talk differently to different cohorts.

On budget
“It's kind of different depending on the budget. For instance talking about an ad budget, our
ad budget is intended to generate ticket sales and ticket revenue. Well, ticket revenue
generally comes from the 45-55 (year-old) market, so that;s going to dictate where you're
going to spend some money – whether that's targeted social, which we probably spend 50-
60% of our budget on, or maybe lean more toward your local television, which we started
doing again this year.
“The baseline for us when we're making ad decisions is just value. To say that print is
dead...doesn't mean I wouldn't buy it if the price was right. You want to sell me a full-page
print ad for $10, I'm going to buy it. It's a value question, not a media question.”

Share-able Stat: -3%, the change in Snapchat Daily Active
Users for Q1 2018, dropping from 191M to 188M

Eric's favorite Vanderbilt tradition
“As any human or competitor, I get challenged when someone says you that
you can't do something. Vandy had a really poor tailgating reputation, and it
didn't really have any tailgating at all. And you knew being in the SEC that
we needed to correct that, so we manufactured something called Vandyville,
which still exists today. I'm proud to say it started with ten tents and I think
they're up to 55 or 60. Personal tents in the middle of the road and a big
screen TV to watch other football games. Nothing that's too novel today, but
back in the day when we were manufacturing it, it was rally difficult, so I'm
proud to say it has survived the test of the times,”

The metrics that Eric checks most often for Gamecocks marketing
Revenue and more specifically revenue for ticket sales
“We have a data warehouse that you can plug Tableau into. So
the fact that I can slice and dice whatever particular ticket plan
that we're promoting right now to see how it's performing and
tracking compared to previous years – I'm kind of a geek (with
that).”

Eric's favorite pro sports team on social media and why
Tottenham Hotspur (EPL team) - “Soccer is kind of a difficult sport, at least to me,
to translate on social, but they do such a good job on and off the field –
highlights, the different gear, the human element with their key players, lets you
behind the scenes. Nothing Earth-shattering, I just think they do what they do
really well.”

Eric's favorite piece of content the Gamecocks have produced in
his time thereafter
The video team did a sick uniform reveal for football (that
combined a bit of real video with illustration animation)
A microsite and full piece dedicated to a female student athlete
who was physically abused in high school and who wanted to
share her story with others

The most significant lesson Eric has learned in his career
“I think you need to be a lifelong learner, especially in
marketing. This role changes so rapidly and frequently, that
if you rest on what you learned yesterday, you'll be passed
tomorrow. I think constantly learning new tools, skillsets,
etc.”

The most impressive (freak) student athlete on the field/court and the most
impressive student athlete all-around on and off the field/court
Most freakish athlete – former football star Jadeveon Clowney, but also...
Most impressive athlete off the field [and on the field] – Marcus Lattimore – A
former standout running back and recruit, who suffered multiple injuries that
caused him to miss significant time, ended up getting drafted into the NFL,
but had his career cut very short due to injury, and returned to South
Carolina as a coach and active in the community

The most memorable game in Eric's time with the Gamecocks so
far
The first game he ever worked (Football)
But also – South Carolina vs. Georgia in 2012 [two top five
teams]: “We were fortunate we got some breaks early and ended
up winning by a lot. (ESPN College) Gameday was here,
incredible atmosphere, one you'll never forget. The stadium was
shaking...”

The best food to get in Columbia, SC (where USC is
located)
“I grew up in the south and grits meant one thing to me for
33 years, and now they mean something different to me.
Grits always used to be a breakfast item, but now they're a
dinner. Shrimp and grits, to me, is what you have to have in
here in Columbia.”

If South Carolina Athletics Marketing all of a sudden got a
big budget infusion, how would Eric spend it?
“I would spend it in fan experience – some combination of
WiFi/5G, restrooms, concessions, point of sales, things like
that.”

Which Gamecocks football star shoul dI bet my money on for the Heisman
Trophy – Jake Bentley or Deebo Samuel?
Eric goes with Deebo Samuel → “He's got these two dynamics – on kickoff
returns and wide receiver, the offense will be significantly different this year...”

Eric's Social Media All-Star to follow
Matt Howell (@NPDMattPowell) - “He has his own consulting group, but it's all
around footwear. He really evaluates adidas, Nike, Under Armour world; I find it just
fascinating a) how much we know his industry, and it's just an interesting subject.”
Also Jason Stein (@jasonwstein) – Former CEO/founder of Lanudry Service/Cycle
Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport)
Jessica Smith (@WarJessEagle)

Where to find Eric and the Gamecocks on digital and social media
@EricNichols on Twitter and @EricWayneNichols on Instagram
@GameCocksOnline for the main handle and @GamecocksMBB,
@GamecocksWBB, etc. for the sports on all social media
networks

Thanks so much again to Eric for sharing his time, expertise, and
experience on the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast!
Hear the full episode on iTunes, Stitcher, and at
www.dsmsports.net.

Best of Sports Podcast: Eric Nichols on Digital Growth

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