What if every fan interaction built momentum? A push notification. A highlight clip. A merch offer. A sponsor activation. Individually, they’re moments. Connected together, they become a growth engine. That’s the power of WMT’s Fan Experience Engine.

A call to action in this insight-packed post below! I got to speak with WMT Digital President Andy Zeilman and EVP/Chief Strategy Officer Chris Freet and came away inspired, informed, and invigorated about what innovation, strategy, and new, more modern ways of thinking look like in college sports, pro sports, and beyond. Some of the key takeaways from the podcast 👇 📊 The different types of data and having the ‘and then’ mentality. Data isn’t just performance metrics and form fields; there is also tons of passive data. That means granular content consumption, tagging different events, accounting for context, tying in other known quantities about a given fan (golden record). And then asking So What and What’s Next 🎯 Know the size of your *known* fan base. Measure the full funnel and build a strategy that moves fans and fan segments. It may start with a massive number of social audience and site traffic, but how are you converting them, identifying them, getting to know them? The bottom line is more closely tied to known fans. 🪃 An intentional O&O strategy, in juxtaposition with social. For years the playbook was centered around maximizing social reach and engagement. The new paradigm is to use social as the top of the funnel, and to boomerang fans back into your owned ecosystem, where you get the data, the relationship, and the dollars. Anchoring on rented real estate and borrowed audiences is a long-term liability 👥 Cohorts built from REAL behavior: what fans actually do, where, and when, not just the legacy buckets of old-school models. Hyper-segmentation drafting off behavior surfaces new segments worth testing in the real world. 🏟️ College doesn't have to follow pro. The ambitious schools connecting their data and owning their ecosystems are out in front. The tribalism, the complex webs of multiple sports, of sales and donations, the generational diversity — there’s so much complexity in college sports, and they stand to gain the most from a cohesive, non-siloed data strategy And the line that stuck with me, from Chris: your most valuable fan is still the 64-year-old who cuts the big check, but the 14-year-old who's never opened an email needs a path too. Now, we can start plotting that There's a TON more in the full episode: fluid fandom creeping into college, why innovation in college jumps laterally between rivals (FOMO is real!), and lessons from the diverse perspectives of these two leaders (Andy coming from outside the sports world, Chris a leader in the college athletics world before coming to WMT). This is a great one, very much worth your time!  (And timely with NACDA this week) → lnkd.in/gjPCewNG

Yesterday, we introduced WMT Fan Intelligence, launching with early access partners @BYUCougars, @12thMan & @GoAztecs. A big thank you to @tysonhutchins_, @TaylorMcGillis, and @AyoTaylorDixon for their partnership and collaboration in shaping the future of fan intelligence!

Excited to begin this journey and access valuable data to achieve our next-level goals #More2Come #GoAztecs #Sportsbiz #NACMA