Episode 53 of the DSMSports Podcast w/ Blake Lawrence of opendorse

Best Of... Blake LawrenceEpisode 53 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast

Episode 53 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast featured Blake Lawrence, founder and CEO of opendorse

What follows are some snippets from the episode. Listen to the full podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or at www.DSMSports.net

@njh287; DSMSports.net

http://www.DSMSports.net/


Blake's career path

“I think it goes all the way back to my roots...My bother and I played football growing up...I fell in love with the University of Nebraska.

[Blake started playing as a true freshman in 2007, then started at linebacker in 2008 before having to end his career due to concussions]

“Concussions, the epidemic, was fresh in 2009...I stepped away from the game and less than a year fter that I started a social media agency, Hurrdat...



On Hurrdat

We connected businesses and brands in the midwest with their customers through social media...a lot of social media content management, community management, and advertising.

“There was not a social or digital media agency in Nebraska...The market grew and we went from two employees to 25 employees and we sold Hurrdat last summer (2014)...We'd gone from two co-founders to 25 employees and 200+ clients around the world...”

[Blake started the business while getting an MBA at Nebraska]



“It's all about solving problems and trying to find when the time is right in the market and right for innovation...Find a problem that you're passionate about and solve it. That's what we did. We saw social media as a great way to market and [companies] didn't use it [effectively]...We discovered people with that challenge and solved their problem.”



“[Social media marketing] was a novel concept. We were writing Facebook content...images...and blog content. We would write thousands of copy or our clients every day...now it's part of the accepted norm to have a professional approach to managing social media.”

[Blake talked about experimenting tactics on social media working for a B2B company]

Using LinkedIn, especially groups, Blake helped drive huge revenue gains for the B2B company



“We were six months into Hurrdat and we're thinking our pro athlete friends have fans they need to connect with the same way businesses have to connect with their customers. So we started to help them maintain their social media presence, make sure they're saying the right things at the right time to build up their own audience...

Their fans are potential customers of our brand clients. To get a brand from zero followers online to 10,000 can take years...So we're thinking 'our athlete clients have hundreds of thousands of followers...'”



“We can borrow the influence of these athlete clients we have...so we started to pay our athlete clients to lift for return for investment for our brands. It was an instant access to the influence of these athletes and turning it to real business results.”



“The biggest problem that we had to solve was how long it took to have one athlete send one tweet for one brand. It was chaos. It would take us six weeks to six months to have one athlete send one tweet...you don't realize these athletes...it's still very traditional. Every deal brought to the table – the agency would treat it (like a larger, more complex deal).”

“Everyone was still on the hunt for that white whale, that six figure endorsement deal that is fleeting in the endorsement world today because of the power of digital...Even when it was just one tweet, the lawyer (still) had to (come in)...We had all these challenges and thought there has to be a simple way to have athletes share [brand] content on social media.”



“Some brands had started to think of influencer marketing...But for a lot of brands...spending on a lot of dollars on traditional sponsorships...and new-found digital presence to reach sports fans and they were surprised at the power and influence of professional athletes online. So we had to show the brands the power that a pro athlete could bring to their initiative and...to the metrics behind it.”



Endorsement vs. Advertisement

“The content can be left to the creator...the real problem we wanted focus on wasn't how to structure that message...it was just getting the message out. The process to do it, if you're not using a product like opendorse, it was text messages, emails, and dozens f back-and forth conversations for 140 characters. No matter what the content is, opendorse is about getting it done fast...



“The right content is powerful no matter what your social media strategy is. The right medium is important no matter what yo”ur social media strategy is. But the right time is probably one of the most important things in social media. And we're looking at an industry with the most important people in the world and you can't access (them) for six weeks...after tinkering, we got it down to six minutes.”



“A lot of our PR has been about how to value athletes. And that's another part. The conundrum is...how to really understand the value of an athlete online.”

“Everything is very subjective in terms of how athletes are compensated for traditional endorsements...

What's interesting is that the athlete in the traditional sense has no control over the size of the audience they're [reaching]...but with social media the athlete is both the athlete and the media...so that gives us a chance to think of (how) you value an audience as a marketer. What is an impression worth? And then putting a putting a premium on that because of the power of an athlete's presence and voice...”



“We had the fortune of having hundreds of clients at Hurrdat to compare what they were paying for CPM for online exposure...so we knew what brands were trying to pay to reach a thousand audience members and we used that formula to start to extrapolate what the value of a professional athlete is online compared to every other form of digital marketing.”



“There is a premium for organic content...where it seems like a natural part of your day. There is a premium you can put on that type of content. But, in general, we're looking at the value of that audience and engagement of the audience...At certain times, it's athlete-agnostic...the one that has the highest engaged audience should be the most valuable to a marketer.

The other side is – does it match with the brand's goals...the campaign timing...does the content add up?...For us, we can put a value on the engagement level of that audience and leverage that to assess that value.”



On Defining Engagement

“The way we define engagement is – on Twitter, a retweet, a favorite, a click on a link...how we determine the value o that engagement is we track 10,000 athletes worldwide across all sports, so it's all relative. If an athlete has a higher engaged audience, that means that across the board his per retweet per post is higher or lower than the average and that is how we can assess the value.”



I think the timing is right and the market is proving that. The challenge with any company is finding those customers that understand the value proposition...

We learned that you can put a value on a player...but it's interesting because they saw 'I'm worth what I will accept...every time we do a deal that is above or below what we estimated, it impacts the way we value every athlete in the marketplace. It gets closer and closer to what the market is willing to accept with every deal that we do.”



On using opendorse

“Opendorse is built to be a self-serve model (they also have a service team to help customers)...It has a similar feel to Amazon...you're looking for a professional athlete to match your campaign...you do a quick search and pull up a whole list of athletes (matching your search terms, based on keyword, location, price)...

[Blake goes on to describe how each athlete has highly detailed profiles about their previous deals, analytics of their social media followers, and more]”

After an order with a tweet is submitted, it is sent to the player's agent for approval and then it goes out with the content and time the brand submitted. Opendorse provides analytics to the brand on every order.



“The reception (from agents) has been mixed across the board. It's overwhelmingly positive once the message is understood of what we're providing...we can help them bring more deals to their clients...We have 500 agents that use our software every day and over 3,500 athletes that access the platform. That shows there is adoption in the market...It's free for agents and athletes to use.”



“The bigger athletes are looking for bigger deals...Certain athletes have thresholds and...will only work on long-term deals...But there is 99% of the market that would love have an extra buck. And social media has created a level playing field with their influence and marketability.”

“The main solution we're providing to marketers is the social media side of it. So even if they're doing bigger deals (with athletes), opendorse is handling the social media side of it.”



On getting PR and attention from influencers like Darren Rovell

“It's a very unique PR move...We put a value on an athlete's tweet. It's novel and intriguing to an audience...Last month, Darren Rovell shared some content about LeBron James's tweets being valued at around $140,000 for one tweet. Exposure went wild. We had twice the website visits that we (typically get) in a month in just 24 hours. We tripled the amount of businesses in our sales funnel pipeline...

It makes you curious why is it worth so much?...Once they get to peek under the hood, they realize that using the professional athlete...you have the power of their audience falling in love with your brand...We can make it happen faster than anybody.”



“We have this unique background (in content marketing) and it's really helped us have confidence in how we market our own brand...One thing I would advise anyone working in sports is to educate before you sell. People value learning way more than the value being sold to. It helps us establish trust in the market and confidence with our customers when we can provide thought (leadership) on these topics.”



On educating business on the ROI of pro athlete influencer campaigns

“(Relaying the words of University of Nebraska Director of Digital Media Kelly Mosier) Right now it feels like we're at social media 3.0...Social media 1.0 was 'are you on it?' Social media 2.0 was 'are you measuring it?' Three is about 'are you measuring return?'...

You're enabling communication among your audience...It's now about how you make that data actionable and that's core to opendorse. To understand the power of data and turn that in business results.”



Share-able Stat: 7 of the top 10 most valuable pro athlete Tweeters in the world are soccer players (source: opendorse)

Blake's comment: “Soccer is a global sport. We think Facebook and Twitter are only the U.S...but fans are everywhere. The value of these (soccer) athletes is they're multi-lingual...They can serve more types of consumers that just an (English-speaking) athlete.”

There's definitely international influence that marketers are trying to capitalize on.”



Is there such than as negative endorsement value?

“Any publicity is good publicity and will get a conversation started about that brand...We have actually been asked if a brand can pay an athlete ot talk negatively about a competitor. There are some smart marketers trying to understand the negative side of endorsements. But at the end of the day, an athlete speaking negatively about anything in a public forum draws publicity. And that publicity, no matter how you spin it, can sometimes lead to more business than a decrease in business.”



The best brand-endorser partnership that opendorse has put together?

Jordy Nelson and USAA for Veterans' Day

“USAA wanted to amplify their sponsorship with the NFL by working with players that played in cities where USAA had a strong presence...They worked with Jordy Nelson to create content...that was a real connection with the brand and we were excited to see it play out on social media.”

The best pro a



The best pro athlete endorser, in general, and why (most bang for buck)

“It's going to depend on your audience...One guy we love working with and seeing him rise is Rob Gronkowski. He transcends different audiences. Women are attracted to him. Young kids want to be him. Teenagers want to be a rebel just like him. Adults just admire that he's having fun. It's rare to ind a brand that doesn't want to work with him. He's turned his off-field personality into a business and it also helps that, on the field, he's very talented (too).”



The coolest athlete Blake has met or worked with

Aaron Rodgers (who he met at ESPYs) → “He's very approachable..He understands how to have fun, but also gets the job on the field.”



Blake's thoughts on Chris Borland and the recent headlines around concussions and the NFL

“Chris Borland was a talent and he proved that in one year in the NFL...My story was different, on a local level...I remember the impact (Borland retiring) had in the community and it was like 'wow, we should all rethink what concussions are...' For someone like Borland to step away, it really makes you think this is a game...

I respect Chris Borland. As much as he wants to step into that role, he can become the face of that education and awareness.”



“I think it takes one person to do it and be the example that it's okay to step away...(Describing his own experience affecting other Huskers players to step away) Once someone shows athletes that it's okay to protect your long-term health and step away from the game, I think it opens up more doors for others to feel comfortable with it.”



The biggest lesson Blake has learned as an entrepreneur

“It's a roller coaster. It's never as bad as you think it is and never as good as you think it is...People are crazy and crazily rewarding. When you want to build a company, you have to have great people around you...You never quite know how (others) will react in the face of adversity. You have to have people prepared to be on the roller coaster with you...

There are so many similarities between in a locker room and being in a board room. It's how you put on your game face and go after every single day.”



The most unusual pro athlete endorsement Blake can recall

“We had this company, “Hiney Healer” or babies to avoid baby rash. They had seen cyclists and football use it to avoid jock rash. We did a deal with Hiney Healer and (NFL player) Dwayne Harris...A professional football player talking about how Hiny Healer protects his bum from a rash. But it worked. People were buying the product from the website. Sometimes those abstract alignments are the most talked about.



The best food to get in Lincoln, NE

The raspberry beret burger at Lead Belly – peanut butter, rasbperry jalapeno jelly, bacon.

Medium grilled wings with Bleu cheese at The Watering Hole



Which happens first, University of Nebraska wins a B1G title in football or men's basketball?

“We (Nebraska fans) refuse to imagine a season that we don't start the year (thinking we will go) undefeated. So football, just by sheer brute force will find a way to win that thing.”

[But Blake says basketball will do it the same year!]



Blake's social media All-Star to follow

Lana Berry (@lanaberry) → “She gets it. She understands the power of humor in sports. And also is quick to cal out brands doing it right and doing it wrong and athletes doing it right and doing it wrong.”

[Blake also reveals the opendorse value of his Twitter!]


http://www.twitter.com/lanaberry


Where to find Blake and opendorse on social/digital

Find Blake at @Blake_Lawrence on Twitter and @blake_lawrence on Instagram (more personal stuff)

opendorse is at @opendorse on Twitter and opendorse on Facebook and their website is opendorse.com


http://www.twitter.com/blake_lawrence

http://www.instagram.com/blake_lawrence

http://www.twitter.com/opendorse

http://www.facebook.com/opendorse

http://www.opendorse.com/


Thanks so much to Blake for sharing his time, knowledge, experience, and expertise with the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast!

Listen to the podcast and find more episodes and content on iTunes and at www.DSMSports.net.

You can also follow me on Twitter @njh287


http://www.DSMSports.net/

https://www.twitter.com/njh287