Episode 246 Snippets: Alex Kopilow of MSG Sports (Knicks, Rangers, Madison Square Garden)

@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
On episode 209 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted
with Alex Kopilow, Senior Manager, Business Solutions for MSG Sports
(Madison Square Garden, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, more).
What follows is a collection of snippets from the podcast. To hear the full
interview and more, check out the podcast on all podcast platforms and at
www.dsmsports.net.
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 246: Alex Kopilow

Alex’s Career Path
“It has been a long, winding road in my career for sure. I went to school at Ohio State and
graduated in 2011 and jumped right into the broadcast journalism world. I was a sports
anchor for local news for about 5 to 6 years working as a one-man band shooting, editing,
writing and presenting on-air all my own stuff. That took me all across the country from
Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Lawton, Oklahoma, upstate New York in the Hudson Valley
and then wrapped things up down in Knoxville, Tennessee. So I was all over the place doing
everything from sports to news and really loved that. That was my dream for the longest
time.

“But then towards the end there — my wife and I had just gotten married and we really
wanted to be back in the big city. I'm originally from New York and she's from Chicago and I
decided to get out of the business and make a change and we moved to Chicago. So [at] 27
years old, I went from being a broadcast journalist and being on air to an intern at a PR
agency called Weber Shandwick. I think they saw my background and initially they put me
on the Big Ten Conference's work as well as the Cherry Marketing Institute's work, focusing
on how to publicize tart cherries and getting people to eat that, which was definitely really
interesting. But what was great [being in] PR because people just say, ‘Oh, you're a
journalist, go into PR,’ and that's honestly what I went off of, and I got integrated into a
sports partner as well as the cherry partner, which was really focused on influencer work,
and that was kind of my introduction into the fact that PR can be digital. So that was really
helpful.

“I got my first full time job at a different agency shortly after that and again, really was lucky
to have the opportunity to not only focus on traditional earned media, media pitching,
building media lists, writing press releases, which was not as much what I started to
gravitate towards, but really the influencer work and getting to hire influencers [and] build
out campaigns back in the days when we were hiring not only to post on Instagram but
literally write blog posts and we were monitoring web traffic. That's how how far influencer
marketing has gone. So that was a really great crash course into influencer marketing on the
digital side.

“Unfortunately I was part of the company's first ever round of layoffs. But in my next role, I
think that's where digital really started to take shape for me because I ended up at a paid
media agency focusing on paid social and it really started to make me think about objective-
based marketing and going, ‘What's your objective? What's your budget? What's your goal?’
And it really made me think harder about building strategies.
“Unfortunately I was part of the company's first ever round of layoffs. But in my next role, I
think that's where digital really started to take shape for me because I ended up at a paid
media agency focusing on paid social and it really started to make me think about objective-
based marketing and going, ‘What's your objective? What's your budget? What's your goal?’
And it really made me think harder about building strategies.

“So I went from a paid agency and then got to really do integrated digital strategy over at
Golan in Chicago for two years and was really in a good position to work with McDonald's,
which was outstanding to be with such a big brand and working on national and
international campaigns as well as the McDonald's All-American Games where I was
essentially the social media manager for those accounts and, again, getting to be adjacent to
sports in that way. So a really crazy run there. And then finally in 2021 I broke into sports. I
had applied for a job with the Chicago White Sox and was kind of the first person in the role
of digital partnerships. They had just launched their digital partnerships focus and really
wanted to build that up and drive revenue and I was able to jump over and break into sports
after a long road that way on the team side, and spent two seasons there before ending up
here at MSG Sports, working on digital partnerships for the Knicks and Rangers.”

On deciding to kind of start over in his late 20s
“It was a huge decision. I mean, it certainly was strange, right? My peers as interns were —
some not even 21 (years-old). We would literally go to a happy hour and some people
couldn't go to the bars. So it was a different stage of life. I'm here married at 27, being with
people who are, you know, maybe 21 or sub-21. So that was definitely a change. But
ultimately for me what I leaned on was the fact I don't know what I don't know and I've
never really worked in a corporate setting to that point. And while it was definitely a huge
change in terms of what my work life had been like, I'd never worked a 9 to 5 [job]. I had
never had nights, weekends and holidays to myself. I knew it was really important for me to
learn what it was like to work in that environment.

“I learned even just the little things that take you a long way in your professional career like
how to write a proper email, how to make sure your tone is conveyed properly in
communication, how to communicate with other team members and if you're struggling,
letting them know and saying ‘I need help’ and leaning on others and working together was
really important. I mean, I definitely struggled with that and learned that over time. I think
that was the most valuable piece was how do I learn to work in a corporate environment?
And then it also just exposed me to all these different pieces of what PR was and the digital
side of it as well.”

On going from PR into social
“The way it really comes into play the most is kind of getting that earned media out of it, those
earned wins. Because as much as people would think when you go into a PR agency and you're
working for these big brands that they come with huge budgets — they don't. They don't come
with big budgets and you have to be really scrappy. So content, organic social — if you can play
that right, if you can do [it] really well and capture attention that way, it's very efficient for your
budget. So that's really great and it tends to be a little bit more authentic with your audience.
You're not buying that attention per se. You're really trying to build it off of those relationships.
“So it's really focused on those earned wins and how that content can come into play. And then of
course its audience reach, right? We talk a lot about influencer work already and where PR comes
to play. So it's really getting in with other people's audiences and making sure it's authentically
tied to the brand. Are they fans of the brand already and how can they communicate that on your
behalf to help build that affinity for your brand, drive sales and gather that attention as well?”

PR and social strategy for a major pro sports teams that also has a lot of third-party media coverage
“Working as a sports team, it's not all too much different from working on the agency or PR side. The
main difference is that the sports team is the influencer now. So when you're distributing content,
you're thinking of yourself as the influencer. You have the direct access to this highly engaged
audience that people want a part of. So you need to know how to leverage that.
“I think about what translates across any industry is whether it's organic content or branded content,
you really have to think in terms of strategy of matching the expectations of fans when they hit the
follow button. Why do they follow the White Sox? Why do they follow the Knicks or the Rangers? You
need to match those expectations with the fact that they want to follow to see what's happening with
players and coaches. They want to know the latest and greatest on the field or on the court and they
want to get that all access feel and they want to get to know the players. You can't just throw them the
latest sale that one of your partners has or, quite frankly, even ticket sales you have to be really
careful of like toeing that line. But it's all about matching expectations of why people are following
you in the first place and when coming up with any idea you need to keep that as your North Star
when building things out.”

On social fitting into 360-degree partner activations
“The short answer on one of the pieces is just like the 360 view, that's the ultimate goal,
right? Anytime you can build out a partnership that includes digital channels, things going
on in the arena, things going on in the community — if you can tie those all together, those
are the best kinds of platforms that really go far, not only for partners but for fans. But I
think, you know, a lot of part of my job is kind of education both internally and externally
around the value of digital and partnerships. It's not just, ‘Hey, let's throw it up on social’,
right? Like, just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should.

“I mean digital partnerships, their inherent value is that it's kind of advertising you can
touch. So you can buy signage in an arena and you can pull all the impressions that you get
from that, but with social content the big difference, the differentiator, is the engagement,
right? We have highly engaged audiences that are significantly higher than the median
against most industries that most brands are in and we have that engaged audience. So you
really need to show the value of the fact that you have an engaged audience where anytime
you have a like, comment or share, it's kind of confirming that someone's seen it. Whereas
an impression is like, well, it might have been halfway on the screen or maybe someone in
an arena looked in that general direction to get impressions, it's a little bit more clear on
that.

“But also digital is really an opportunity to advertise to fans outside of just your home games to
reach them because, even when you are in an arena, it's a second screen experience. You got
your phone out, too. The fact that you can target people via paid. There are just so many
advantages to having digital made within a partnership to really help businesses achieve their
goals.”
“I think the top version is always to be able to match [messaging across platforms], but I think
it's okay when it can’t. I think that a lot of people, when they're trying to build out partnerships,
they're trying to make every tactic accomplish every goal and I found the best way to kind of
build these partnerships is you should have kind of one tactic look to achieve one goal. So it's
really important to speak to your partners about what is the objective, how we're going to be
measured as well and trying to align the best tactic to align with that goal. You can use multiple
tactics to achieve those goals. It is best when like it's the same message throughout, but there
are ways where you can really crush those goals, but it's all about making sure that you have
the tactic aligned to the goal and it's just kind of one objective for one tactic.”

About the objectives partners can seek to accomplish with digital partnerships in sports
“We go throughout the marketing funnel, so you definitely have your awareness goals where
you have partners who just need brand recognition within your audience. So those are really
great for high frequency, you know, your starting lineups, your final scores, something that's
going to appear every single game day. Getting that high frequency and high engagement is
really crucial for partners. So we we still see a lot of that.
“I think a lot of partners now want to go a little bit deeper. They want to really push product
consideration and, you know, what are the best ways to show off your product? Is it the New
York Giants using a Pepsi Zero Sugar can and doing a can challenge with their players and
trying to roll it to the end of the table without it falling off and that's a natural integration? Or
is it the Los Angeles Chargers answering questions that they're pulling out of a Popeye's box?
Like, how can you kind of manipulate in a way that's still fan-forward to get the product in?
So I think those are some really good examples kind of in the middle of the funnel.

“Then of course lead generation. I think there's a lot of opportunity with lead generation
that can continue to be used throughout the industry to help generate leads for partners. I
think the teams have a lot to offer by way to get that information whether it's tickets to a
game, whether it's unique experiences that teams can offer, it really gets people to opt in and
be willing to pass along their information to the end goal partner. You see that a lot. We just
saw a schedule release for the NFL. I mean all the guess the schedule sweepstakes where you
had opt-ins for partners, that is a great way to do that. And that comes all the way at the
beginning of the pitch, right? That becomes, like, what is the audience crossover that we're
trying to hit, so those leads are a little bit more qualified when you pass them over. It's not
just getting them a ton of leads and then them not being really great. If you're doing the
right kind of partnership from the jump, that means there's an attraction to have that
audience and now you've generated it for a partner.”

On collaborating with a partner for down-funnel and other additional data to analyze ROI of
the partnership
“It's certainly a mixed bag. Sometimes partners are really game to give you the information
of what's on the back end and sometimes they might not be able to give it to you, and also
just being careful with whatever their legal teams say. But most of the time they're game,
you just have to be good and diligent about asking for that and kind of setting that
expectation from the beginning because ultimately it's all in the name of wanting to do
better for your partner. So it's really great for all parties involved when you can do that.

“I think the big thing when it comes to lead generation is it's a natural fit with sports partnerships. I
think where teams can go wrong is when they try to do that only via organic social media. They're
trying to drive lower funnel tactics with organic social, which is really not made for that. All these
social channels are really telling you ‘we want to keep you on the platform.’ Meanwhile, you're
trying to drive them off, right? So it's making sure, again, back in that beginning stage of saying
like, hey, if we're going to try to drive people to this website, we need to make sure we're [using] the
right tactic, maybe using paid media, maybe using email, SMS, using your app to really drive
people that way to make sure that you're achieving that goal.”
“Everybody wants the vanity of being on social, but then again that goes to the importance so much
up front of asking your partners what's their goals? How are we going to be measured? What's your
budget? Who's your target audience? Those are four key questions you can ask any partner that
should help shape that because when they say, ‘Oh, but we want to be on organic social’, it's like,
well, if you want to achieve this, here's why it works. And that kind of goes back to my agency days
of really showing how a strategy builds towards what their goal is, so it helps it sell it in easier.”

How social and sponsorship work together and where menus of assets come into play
“A menu of assets is incredibly important. It really helps prepare your sales team for what's
available and they can access that as they're talking to prospects, whether it's informally or
formally. They have a sense of what even can be offered, at least generally, there might be
more turnkey, maybe some more custom ideas, but it really gives them the lay of the land of
kind of what's available. But also I think it, kind of pulling back here, the most important
thing is speaking directly with your content team and being in lock step with them. You have
to be deeply ingrained within your content team to understand what are their brand
standards, what can we offer, how are they feeling about an execution and what's going on in
the market, right?

“If I'm talking to the content teams and they're saying, ‘Hey Alex, we're really loaded in the
pregame window and we feel like we have a ton of branded content there, can we kind of try
to shift priorities?’ That's something that we need to know and then I then need to
communicate to the sales team because while it might be on a menu, it doesn't mean it's
necessarily available. So it's really good to have just a view of what's available, but also it's
really important to have the details on that menu. What channels, what's the cadence, what's
the brand integration? Because the more you leave vague, the more that it's going to be
constructed without the content team in mind and partners might go and be like, ‘Oh, can
we have this or that and this?’ And then you end up with something completely different
than what you were trying to pitch in the first place.

“So a menu is definitely important to have and also important to have from an
organizational standpoint to see where are the opportunities, where do we have too much,
where do we have too little just to understand as you're going throughout the year. But then
yes, no matter what you do, you can have the best menu out there, there are going to be
opportunities where you have to come up with something completely custom and that's fine.
But now that you know you have the majority of stuff pre-built and have some flexibility
maybe in name or structure you can then build out the custom content as well. So there's
always going to be instances where you have to come up with something outside of that as
well.”

On developing the menu of potential digital assets
“It's really important to just kind of go through your natural flow because some of the best
branded content and honestly most of the best branded content is stuff that teams are
already doing. And not because it means that brands don't get much, but again to the point
of you need to match the expectations of your followers and why they follow you in the first
place. Like if you know that quote graphics that run roughly twice a month just crush
engagement, then that should absolutely be a part of your menu and that's something you're
already doing. But all it takes is pairing it with a Geico who offers quotes for things all the
time to make it feel a little bit more custom or inherent to their brand, right? Even just
tweaking the name of something can take it from what people might call a logo slap to
something that feels way more custom.

“So it's sitting down with the teams and understanding what's the flow of a game day and a non
game day, what are we already doing and are we comfortable putting a partner on it and if so,
how? But then also making sure to stay close with your content teams about how they feel about
it. You know, just because it's on the menu — and this is what I tell my content teams all the
time — just because you've told me we can put it on the menu doesn't mean I'm just going to go
and sell it. Like at any time during the season if it's going to go in a pitch, I'm going to check
with them and be like, ‘Are we still good and are we still as constructed?’ Because things such as,
like — we had found at a point this year where the paid partnership tool [on Instagram] is
hurting performance or at least we kind of saw that and we wanted to start testing tagging in
copy instead. And if that happens, we change that right up and we can be flexible with that.
“So it's important to know that the content team, you know, by someone in this kind of position
has an advocate for them and someone who can help speak that language and then in turn help
empower the sales team to go and sell and make sure that performance is top of mind for our
partners and for our content teams.”

On activating beyond brand awareness to a partner’s marketing messaging
”It doesn't always work for everybody, but it's definitely doable. I mean, the Warriors, for
example, with Verizon, they do ‘Reliable Moments’ because [Verizon] has reliable coverage.
That's part of their messaging, right? So they tag Verizon in that, there's a hashtag
#reliablemoments, and then they get inclusion within those videos and they post that on
game day. So you can definitely take messaging and integrate that in and it's something that
I'm looking for when I'm building out partnerships. So not only am I going to their website
and seeing how do they talk about themselves, but also I'm going to the Facebook ads library
which is free and anybody can go and look at and seeing how are they talking about
themselves in ads that they're running on paid social and can I find a clever way to integrate
that in.

“Taglines can certainly work. You know I've done it on multiple occasions; with the White
Sox we had Rush Medical Hospital — they had an out-of-home campaign where they used
the word ‘rush’ in bigger words and then would bold the word ‘rush’ to make that part stand
out. And we saw that and they just so happen also to sponsor home runs in the ballpark. We
came up with a concept that was called ‘Crushed’. And in the creative the ‘rush’ was bolded
and it was all about serving the fan in terms of showing the analytics behind big long
distance home runs. So the distance, the launch angle, the exit velocity, I think that really
sang to really hit home on what ties into the ballpark, what ties into the way they're
marketing themselves, but most importantly what works for the fan and does it make sense
for the fan and building that out?”

On all the new stats and analytics in sports offering additional sponsored content
opportunities
“I think it's a really great opportunity and what I would tell anyone is it's honestly going to the
content team and seeing how accessible is that data in real time in whatever it is that you're
building out. I mean, if you're building out a platform that is more evergreen or can run on off
days then great, that's awesome. But it's all about setting the content team up for success. So
with the example of ‘Crushed’ for the White Sox, we knew that all those stats literally were on
the broadcast, you could find them on ESPN right away. And the first year that we did it,
which was last season, we'd have to look for that via the broadcast and on ESPN and really
kind of put those in. And now they've kind of taken it to the next level and have used Slate
templates and using that vendor to help making the inputs of that data even faster and
templatized it and make it look really clean. So it's really working with them on that.

“But I mean I've always had a goal of doing something like Kirk Goldsberry's content and
just creating very visual shot charts and things like that. I mean, he's kind of the gold
standard of visualizing data and making it really cool for fans. If you could replicate that, I
think you'd have really something strong on your hands and there are plenty of partners out
there that are focused on stats and data.”

About forcing new things vs. continuing to do reliable sponsored content franchises year
after year
“I think it's all about the data. You know, we do a good job of looking at what does the data
say? Does it say that there's a drop off? Are people not paying as much attention or are they
not going through the user journey that you want in selecting the first goal [in a first goal
prediction]? The [New Jersey] Devils do that with Jackpocket [lottery app]. They're driving
people to a website to enter to get some free lottery tickets and also win bigger prizes. If they
saw that traffic was really poor, it started to drop off because it's running every single game
— I am never shy to adjust based on results and data. I think let that tell the story. So if it's
saying [it’s] really great in the beginning of the year, bad in the back end of the year, maybe
it means reducing cadence. Sometimes it might mean leading a partner to say, ‘Hey, we are
not seeing success with this. Here is why.’

Show them the stats. But then I think the biggest part in making a change is just being
proactive with a solution. ‘Okay, we're changing this, but here's another option that really
helps you achieve this goal and here's how it's going to shift. Keep it fresh. We think it'll do
better.’ And as long as you come with that data-backed rationale and the fact of how it aligns
with their goals and their standards, I think anyone's always willing to shift. I think partners
are super amenable to that. Like, if you're just upfront with them of the why and the
rationale, why wouldn't they want to perform better? I think everybody wants the top
performance. So I think if you're doing a good job of that storytelling and presenting that
data, then you're really going to succeed.

How new ideas for sponsored content come about
“Definitely always sharing new ideas. I think I personally do it to an annoying extent. It's
something that I love to do, so I'm not shy about that. But you know, our team, you know,
you're using Slack, you're meeting in person. It's when you see something, say something,
right? Like if you see something out in the market that you really liked or something that
you can be inspired by, share that with your team because you can take that inspiration and
move it forward and kind of build out something bigger.

“Something that I've seen in the market that I'm really impressed by is the Warriors ‘Dub
the Vote’ campaign for their All Star voting campaign with Google Cloud. They've found this
massive platform that they can align with a stats-based partner and kind of align their All
Star content to get people to vote. So it helps the organization to get people into the All Star
game. They activate it not not just digitally but also in the arena and find all these different
extensions of it, and it's really those 360 campaigns that we talked about. So if I see that and
really like it, you know, I'm sharing that with the team, I'm reaching out to the Warriors to
learn more about that.

“Then also other people on the team are just bringing up what they love. And that's the best
thing, right? Because when you see someone from your creative team, your content team,
your PR team, they're really excited about something, you know that'll probably do really
well because they're motivated to do it. So I think it's always great to lean into what people
are excited about and sharing it and kind of creating the environment where you can just
share ideas and no shame if people are like, ‘Oh, that's not the best idea.’ I think it's more
about just getting in the environment of sharing and understanding that any idea can spark
an idea and it might be something completely different.”

On assessing new platforms or new platform features when it comes to potentially activating
with a sponsor
“I think for a new venture, I have mixed opinions on it. I mean, part of me is like, if you're
going to venture into something new like an Instagram broadcast channel — people are
really starting to jump into those now — part of me is saying let's see what it is first and then
go from there. Let's figure that out and see is our audience into it? What can we do about it?
That tends to be the right approach. Because selling something you don't know how it's
going to do is really difficult. It's really difficult to get a partner on board, especially if you
can't say here's the expected performance and things of that nature. But also for our brand
and our content teams, it's, you know, how is it going to do? Is it worth our time? Are we
stretching ourselves too thin? Those are important questions to answer. So I think that's
really something important to keep in mind.

“On the flip side, our team over here launched a podcast with Henrik Lundquist called Club
30. We worked on that and got Verizon to buy onto that starting from zero. And it's had
tremendous success in building up new social channels for that podcast and seeing a lot of
impressions and engagement come through there. We've seen listenership be pretty strong.
I think we were number one on the charts in the sports category, which doesn't mean you're
the most listened to to caveat that, but it does mean there’s interest there. So we've seen
some early success and I'm really even like that example. I'm intrigued by the podcast model
and starting [social] handles specific for that because you can, you know, with platforms like
Instagram reels, TikTok YouTube Shorts — you can pump out a ton of content and just see
what sticks and some things are going to pop off and some things might not do so great.
“So when exploring new new platforms, I think the most important thing is understanding
why you're doing it in the first place and be like ‘what is it that we're trying to achieve?’ And
in most situations you probably wait to monetize it. But there are certainly exceptions to the
rule.”

On measuring the value of engagement in line with the depth of engagement, demos, and
messaging
“I think it comes down to down way the team communicates that. I think it's really important
when you report on the back end to frame up the results in the way that's going to be
impactful. So what I mean by that specifically is instead of reporting on just total impressions
or just total engagements, it's an impressions per post and how does that compare to your
channel average or the way it went last year? Engagements per post, engagement rates —
what are the benchmarks you can compare that to? And then there's some in-depth metrics
that you can use if you're talking about a little bit more long form video content, what is the
average percentage viewed and how long are people listening? So if you're doing a good job of
that, it's like, hey, maybe we didn't have as many views, but if we have over a 50% average
percentage viewed on something that's five plus minutes long, that's pretty incredible; to say
that you've held attention that long, especially if the branding was on screen the whole time
with a watermark or something like that. I mean, you can really help tell that story.

“Then if you've done a good job in the outset of the partnership, aligning the content with
the right channel based on audience, again, to asking that what's your target audience? If
we're talking Gen Z, you might want to target an Instagram or a TikTok or a YouTube. Then
you know you're reaching the right audience as well. So think you can definitely use the data
points these platforms give you to do that. Then also it's important to benchmark to give
context around the results.”

About staying on top of new platforms and where responsibility lies
“With new platforms I think it's a team effort of who's involved in the content or marketing
teams and what comes about and again getting to that environment of just sharing new
things that come and you know what the plan of attack would be. But I think with any new
channel in the way I'd recommend going about it is like does it make sense for your team
and why and really be thoughtful in that process. Do you have the staff to extend yourself to
a Discord and manage a community? Being on there just to be on there is not going to help
you if you can't manage it and you can't do that.

“I think there's a lot of great teams out there that build secondary accounts that are outside
their team channels, whether it's community focused or alumni focused or historical
highlight focus. I think the best example is the Warriors doing their business focused TikTok
@LifeatGSW. That's great. I would love to do that. But is the staff there? Does it make sense
for you at that time? So it really should be team to team and making sure that whatever you
choose to extend yourself that you can actually go and do it and do it well because, you
know, there's plenty of opportunities even with just Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
TikTok…So I think it's always important to understand what kind of budgets and bandwidth
you actually have and do the things you do really well.
“And then when it comes to partner opportunities is what I like to tell our teams is
partnerships can bring in those dollars. So what couldn't you do that was restricted because
of budget? How can we help you get there? So that really can help extend things too and
bring you new opportunities. So partnerships is a really great way to help get the budgets
necessary to try new and big things.”

Alex’s favorite campaign he got to work on from his time in the agency world
“It was definitely the the anniversary of the Happy Meal. We got to do the 50th anniversary of the
Happy Meal, it was incredible. We brought back iconic toys from the past and were able to put
them in Happy Meals. It was a nationwide campaign, so a ton of time and a ton of planning went
into that. The better part of a year was spent planning that from creative to strategy to execution.
“And I'll never forget, on Halloween night I was out to dinner with some friends and before we even
got there I was late to that dinner because there was a leak of the campaign and what toys were
going to be released. So we had to adjust our strategy and how we were going to communicate
everything and what the news was going to be. But so much run from digital execution of what our
organic strategy was, we had paid in there, paid influencers, earned influencers — it really was just
everything you could imagine in terms of building out a digital strategy.
“But the opportunity to work across departments in such a huge national campaign was a ton of
work but I was so proud to see it come together. And everybody I worked with on that campaign —
we really were all dug in on it and it's just something I'll always remember.”

The most memorable day from Alex’s time doing on air work in sports
“There are a few. I mean, honorable mention to watching the South Dakota State
Jackrabbits make their first NCAA tournament when I was out in Sioux Falls, just an intern
there at the station KSFY. But I think my favorite moment with sports and my on-air career
was getting to cover the Army-Navy game when I was out at what's now Spectrum News in
the Hudson Valley. West Point is right there and getting to cover Army-Navy was a whole
different experience. You know, I'm an Ohio State grad, so I've seen Ohio State-Michigan
and what that rivalry is like — [Army-Navy] is completely different between the pageantry
and it's their last time on the football field before they have to go serve their country and all
the emotion that goes into that.
“And watching these two teams battle it out, the fans there and just the whole day leading up
from pregame to after the [game] they're singing their alma maters — it's something I would
recommend to any sports fan to go and experience themselves.”

A sports activation that Alex likes to cite as a best practice or something that was cool to see
“I definitely want to give some love to one that I worked on back in my time in Chicago. We
launched a documentary on YouTube celebrating Tim Anderson's time with the White Sox
TA7: The Story of Tim Anderson. We did that in partnership with Nike and I mean getting to
work with Nike on a partnership campaign is outstanding, right? Like that's something that
anyone would strive to want to do.

“But I think what was so much fun about it, other than the fact that it was incredible —
getting to work with so many different people within the organization from PR to marketing
to the social team to the video team, design and really being so thoughtful about how
everything would be communicated, key messaging around exclusively being available on
YouTube and trying to drive people there and drive subscriptions and drive viewership. The
fact that it was shown on MLB network, that MLB wanted to pick it up, so that was really
cool. [It] got some earned media and I think most importantly, just seeing the incredible
work that the social and video teams did around that. I mean I've worked with some really
talented people there and the fact that they got to shine in everything that they put together,
it was just such a pleasure to see that come to life, especially when there was a lockout.
“It was on hold so we had to wait for the lockout to end and then roll that out, so it definitely
made things tougher, but incredibly proud of that work and to see it go across so many
different channels and really have organizational buy-in and the access and see it come to
life is just something that I really loved.”

The most memorable game from Alex’s time as a student at Ohio State
“My favorite game actually — you know, I loved The Shoe (Ohio Stadium), got to go all the
time and I'll never forget it, but actually it was a game at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa. Ohio
State was playing against the Hawkeyes and it came down to the wire, huge catch in the
fourth quarter, I think by Dane Sanzenbacher and then drove for a touchdown late and I was
in that end zone. I'd been doing the the halftime and postgame shows for student sports
radio for Ohio State, so I was in attendance. I was right behind the end zone for the winning
touchdown scored in that end zone so it’ll always stand out to have been there.
“And honestly Kinnick Stadium is underrated and that was before the whole children's
hospital tradition [‘The Wave’] was there but that stadium is a great environment for college
football.”

What would White Sox brass want fans to say about why Chicagoans should cheer for the White Sox
instead of the Cubs?
“I think the important thing is that it's not just north side-south side. Everybody thinks, oh, north
side [is] Cubs, south side [is] White Sox and there's a ton of White Sox fans that are on the north
side; of course [and] the south side as well. I think they do a really great job of representing the
market and really celebrating the fact that they are part of Chicago, they are part of the South Side.
So they do a great job of celebrating their community and bringing representation from that
community into what they do. So it is quintessential Chicago…
“You got two great products in Chicago. I mean, ultimately you've got two great options there. The
same way right now in New York, you got the Mets and the Yankees. You can't go wrong. I mean, I'm
a Mets fan, so maybe you can go wrong, there hasn't been a lot of winning. But ultimately it's just a
lot of great baseball happening in Chicago. And you know, just because you're on one side doesn't
mean that you're experiencing worse baseball. I think they both had their successes and struggles.
But the White Sox certainly have a lot to offer and more than just for people on the south side.”

What are the questions that typically come up or metrics from prospective partners?
“I think it's all about what it is that they want to achieve, but I think average performance or
expected performance. Obviously impressions is something that people are always going to ask
about whether it's expected impressions or or estimations; on that front engagements is always
good to to share as well. Again, that goes back to the value prop of digital.
“And then just like any more insight you can give into an execution, right? If you are running a
sweepstakes and you average 10,000 entries and the opt in rate for partners is 70%, that's
incredible. That would that would really help sell something home. So I think it's just being good
about putting data forward, contextualizing it with benchmarks and making sure it really fits the
goals and their target audience. So it's basically showing that you listen to the partner when they
said, ‘Here's what we want’ or ‘here's what we want to achieve’, right? If you want to hit men aged
25 to 34 and you're recommending Instagram where maybe there's a low percentage of that, you
haven't listened and you need to show that the data represents that you've listened to the partner
and why you’re recommending something.”

“…On follower counts, I think people still really want to know like how many followers you have,
but that's why a role like [digital partnerships] is so important to be able to kind of speak this
language because [for] your TikToks, your Reels, your YouTube Shorts, follower count doesn't
matter. And they have said that, you know, specifically with TikTok, they have said your follower
count does not matter in terms of success…[A high follower count] is great to have, but if you can
tell that story and saying on average this is how many views we're getting, this is how many
engagements regardless of followers, I think that's really important.
“Then again, a good way to contextualize results is where do you stand in the league? Where do you
rank in these metrics within the league and how can you say this is how we set ourselves apart? I
think that's also really good in supporting that. Even if they're asking for your follower count. Be
transparent, I mean it's public information. They can go find how many followers you have, but you
can definitely share information on why you don't need to focus on that as much, especially because
ultimately I think people need to understand that you don't reach every single follower you have. In
fact, it's a very small percentage of the followers you actually have and you have a better chance of
reaching a larger chunk of that audience the more engaged your audience is.”

Alex’s favorite campaign he has gotten to work on or collaborate on at MSG so far
“It's been a really good time here, just the size and scale of getting to work at MSG. I think
some of the best work we did this year was working in in collaboration with Delta, some of
the custom content that we did with them. On the Knicks side, we did a really fun version of
The Newlywed Game and called it ‘Wingman’. Great tie in to the brand there, but also
something that I really love that it did is it uncovered moments of the camaraderie between
the team and really just showcased player personality.
“Like the first episode of that series was [with] Jalen Brunson and Ryan Arcidiacono and
their time at Villanova and how well they knew each other. Those are some great moments
that you can only get from from that kind of access and being able to make such a strong tie
to Delta not only just with the name but the graphics package that we used and the way we
integrated into that content series I think was very strong.

“Then on the Rangers side, a truly unique offering that we had Delta work with us on was
the Dads trip. There's a weekend every year for the Rangers where all the dads come out and
are with the team and get to see their kids go out and play at the professional level. So the
kind of the all-access feel of that, a natural integration because it's on the road, you're flying
in a Delta plane, and for [Delta] the importance of making connections — connections is
really important to them. Being able to showcase that, it really delivered and our content
team did an outstanding job of bringing that to the forefront and pitching that to the partner
and saying ‘These are your goals and this perfectly aligns with it, but also this is something
our fans love,’ and having those synergies was incredibly important. So the the custom
content we did for Delta this year I think really hit home.

The best meal to get in Chicago and where to get it and
also the best meal to get in New York and where to get it
“I'll start in New York. And while I grew up here, I have
less experience as an adult. But Xi’an Famous Foods are
outstanding. Their spicy cumin, lamb noodles, I mean
to die for. And Scarr’s Pizza is currently my favorite
slice of pizza in New York. So definitely two spots to
check out. Chicago I'm much more up to date on. I used
to have a running list of rankings of Chicago. Favorite
spots — Bavette’s if you want a good steak, if you want
great cocktails and a great Aba in the West Loop —
outstanding. And if you want the best burger, The
Loyalist in Chicago is where you got to go. But if you
need any recommendations, I've got plenty.”

How does Alex keep up with the industry, with what teams and leagues and are doing, and how
partners are activating
“What I'd recommend is making secondary accounts on social media for yourself. So I have a
second Instagram account, Twitter account, Facebook account, and what I've done is I've followed
every major sports team via that account. So a little bit tedious to do all the follows and of course on
something like Instagram, they will flag you as a bot if you're following too many people at once, so
you got to be really careful and patient with that. But I follow every single person there and then
every weekday — I give myself the weekends off — but I dedicate time each day to scroll the feeds.
“I typically prioritize Instagram. I find that the most interesting ideas come from that platform or
at least I tend to be most inspired there. But I go through IG stories, every single one that's active
that day. I'll scroll the feed for five minutes and then hit save on any and then screenshot any IG
stories and then at the end of the week I'm going through my archives and putting them down on a
list that I have that I can kind of pull to the forefront and make sure, if I'm inspired by something, a
name, an integration, a cool content series — not only am I sharing that, but keeping it in my back
pocket for later.

“And then I found Twitter is super effective for this because [with] their advanced search
you can search for a brand or a keyword and see what everybody else is doing because you
can filter by people you follow. So now you can see everybody in sports and what they're
doing with a certain partner, as long as it's mentioned in the copy. There are other vendors
that can help you do that, someone like a Sponsor United, but I've really found that while it's
a manual process, while it's a little tedious, it's always really good to stay up to date that way.
“Then of course, you know, following people like you, following people like Jess Smith, Amie
Kiehn — people who are sharing things with the community is always a good way to stay up
on the latest and greatest and just being curious when something stands out to you.”

In Alex’s lifetime, who is on the the Mount Rushmore of Ohio State football?
“It's a tough one. A lot of talent. Go Bucks. But my Mount Rushmore, I would go with
Ezekiel Elliott, part of the national title team. He was just iconic [during] that run. Have to
go with him. Joey Bosa, got to be there. A ton of great guys on the D-line that I could have
chosen there. But Joey Bosa just was a force to be reckoned with and I loved watching him
play. Going back to my time actually in college, Beanie Wells also at the running back
position. I mean, that guy really just made the offense go, especially when we were back in
the old Big Ten days where [there was] not a lot of speed and really running the ball a lot.
And then I really liked Malcolm Jenkins, a personal favorite of mine, a cornerback and then
I loved watching him with the Saints and all those great defenses and then of course with the
Eagles. So that would be my four. I think if I had to add a fifth, it'd be James Laurinaitis. I
still have his jersey.”

Alex’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
“I'd recommend following Emma Kramer on Twitter (@EmmaCKramer). She's the senior
digital director over at Real Salt Lake and and now the Utah Royals as they get an NWSL
team. But I think she does an incredible job of highlighting the efforts of her team, all the
creative things that they're doing, giving credit to all the hard work that they're putting into
what they're producing from a digital perspective. But in terms of a leader, you know and
who you'd want as a manager and leading a team, she does an incredible job of just giving
credit to people, shining that spotlight and showing you how things are made, taking you
along for the journey and kind of showing how something is being built.
“So I think she does an incredible job and would definitely recommend giving her a follow
on Twitter.”

Where to find Alex on digital/social and all the properties he works with at MSG
Alex is @AlexKopilow across platforms
“I'm the most active on LinkedIn. When I see some great branded content, great tips and
tricks that I see — I mean, I saw Red Bull racing recently using the renamed audio [on
TikTok] to push calls to action. Anything I find I'm posting on there and it's for fun for me
but also maybe I find out who else is working only in digital partnerships, a position that
was kind of like a role and responsibility for social media directors that was just kind of
thrown in. If you work in this space, I would love to hear from you.”
MSG consists of New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Westchester Knicks, Junior Knicks,
Junior Rangers. Knicks Gaming. The Rockettes, the Garden, the Sphere

@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
Thanks again to Alex for being so generous with his time to share his
knowledge, experience, and expertise with me!
For more content and episodes, subscribe to the podcast, follow me
on LinkedIn and on Twitter @njh287, and visit www.dsmsports.net.

Episode 246 Snippets: Alex Kopilow of MSG Sports (Knicks, Rangers, Madison Square Garden)

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Episode 246 Snippets: Alex Kopilow of MSG Sports (Knicks, Rangers, Madison Square Garden)