Soccer Revolution: Reimagine On-Field and Off-Field Entertainment with Creative Powerhouse Will Misselbrook
In this episode of the MVP Interactive podcast, our CEO, James Giglio, sits down with Will Misselbrook, the creative powerhouse behind the LA Galaxy, to explore the cutting-edge world of sports marketing and branding in the MLS. Will dives into his unconventional journey into the industry, revealing how the MLS’ innovative landscape fuels creativity and bold fan engagement strategies.
He breaks down how the LA Galaxy creates an entertainment experience that goes beyond the pitch—think immersive visuals, killer music, and interactive elements that keep fans hooked. Will also shares how data and analytics are transforming marketing efforts, helping the Galaxy differentiate themselves from other MLS teams, such as LAFC, requires strategic storytelling, unique experiences, and a focus on the local community.
If you’re into how next-level storytelling and smart, data-driven decisions are shaping the future of fan experiences, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.
Highlights include:
01:22 Will Misselbrook’s Journey into the Sports Industry
08:08 Transitioning from NFL to MLS
16:15 Challenges and Opportunities in the MLS
18:35 Differentiating the LA Galaxy from LAFC
21:45 Building an Entertainment Experience for Fans
28:51 Leveraging Data and Analytics in Marketing
35:08 Collaborating with Music Platforms and Expanding Reach
About Will Misselbrook
Will Misselbrook is a seasoned creative leader with over twenty years of experience in content, marketing, and branding across various industries and platforms. He currently serves as Chief Creative Officer and Chief Brand Officer for both the MLS team LA Galaxy and AEG.
Previously, Will was the Chief Creative Officer and Chief Marketing Officer for the NFL’s Washington Commanders, becoming the first-ever Chief Creative Officer for an NFL team. He led the team’s most successful rebranding effort, achieving 87.3 billion impressions and 65 million views on launch day.
Will’s career includes roles at prestigious agencies and media institutions such as Wieden & Kennedy, Saatchi & Saatchi, BBH New York, Coach, Condé Nast, and the Wall Street Journal. He has developed award-winning content and marketing campaigns for diverse audiences and clients.
Passionate about storytelling, innovation, and cultural dynamics, Will focuses on creating immersive and impactful experiences for fans, partners, and the community. His mission is to inspire and empower his team to achieve excellence and deliver concrete results.
Check out more from LA Galaxy
Entertainment: Docu-series Beyond The Galaxy coming out soon
Fashion: Retrograde Kit launch and our capsule collections with last year’s success with Menace.
Music: Vevo Collaboration, Sounds of the Galaxy
Podcast Transcript
**MVP Interactive (00:00.078):**
Hi everyone, this is James Giglio, CEO of MVP Interactive, and welcome to the MVP podcast. Our podcast will bring insight into a range of topics involving technology, consumer engagement, experiential marketing, and general business-related subjects. This show will host not only our great roster of clients from the professional sports world, along with Fortune 500 brands and agencies, but also other entrepreneurs and startups. We hope our podcast brings value, and thank you for listening.
For general inquiries or topic requests, please email mvppodcast@mvp-interactive.com, and please subscribe to our YouTube page and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and SoundCloud under the account name MVP Interactive.
**MVP Interactive (00:54.766):**
Welcome back to another episode of the MVP Interactive podcast. We have a very special guest today by the name of Will Misselbrook. He is the Chief Creative Officer & Chief Brand Officer for the LA Galaxy. Will is a seasoned creative brand marketer and leader with over 20 years of experience in content, marketing, and branding across various industries and platforms. Will plays a key role in the top leadership team, overseeing all aspects of the organization.
Before joining the Galaxy and AEG, he worked as the Chief Creative Officer and CMO for the Washington Commanders and began his career at agencies and media institutions like Wieden+Kennedy, Condé Nast, and The Wall Street Journal. Will, thanks so much for joining us today.
**Will Misselbrook:**
No, mate, thank you for having me. And what an introduction, so I appreciate that. I’m actually super nervous and anxious now because I know some of the other speakers you guys have had on here have insane caliber. To live up to, I guess, but yeah. Well, that’s a good point, though, because, you know, the more that we do these, you know, we generally have C-list or C-executive suite colleagues working in professional sports. I always find it interesting how individuals navigate into a professional sports team, because what I’ve learned is a lot of times it’s by accident. Other times it’s like, “That was my career path. This is what I wanted to do.”
**MVP Interactive:**
So I would love to hear about your journey knowing that you’ve worked in the NFL and now at MLS. Please share with our listeners.
**Will Misselbrook:**
Absolutely. Honestly, I’m fascinated with people’s journeys into sports or actually any career, to be honest. I find myself doing a lot of reading on Wikipedia about people’s journeys. Yeah, sports is an interesting one. Some people have just started in this industry from graduating, and then others, like you said, just happened to. I’m a Brit.
I’ve been in America for 14 years now, I think, and 11 years in New York, and then I’ve been four years now in Los Angeles. I guess I’ll start with, like, I always find career choices and your next job role always an interesting strategy for anyone to go through because I always see it as almost a challenge. Like, you’re always trying to take a role that is outside of your comfort zone. Earlier in my career, I was advised by a mentor of mine back in the day, who said, “Never take a job you’re 100% qualified for. Otherwise, you’re never going to be challenged, you’ll probably get bored.”
That can lead to some complacency. So I’ve always tried to have that in the back of my head. And, you know, it’s not saying you can pick and choose your jobs, and they can come from any different angle. But having that as part of my thought process when speaking to a company or organization, I’m always thinking, “Okay, well, is this different from other stuff I’ve done? Can I apply a lot of my background into this? And again, is it going to be challenging versus something that is easy for me to step into and is going to be the next step?”
Yeah, I spent the better part of a decade in the creative agency space with Wieden+Kennedy, Saatchi & Saatchi, and BBH. That was, I mean, the best place to understand and sort of get a full grasp of the most provocative and impactful creative, from an advertising perspective. But you’re working across multiple brands. You are trying to convey an impactful and captivating story or piece of content in a short space of time from an asset perspective. I always think that learning how to build a craft in creative marketing or in advertising in that sense is like the best place to learn.
I loved it, and actually the BBH role brought me to New York, which was a dream of mine—to work in New York—so it was a great next step for me. Then, after about 10 years, I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to work brand-side. I actually went to Coach, the retail brand now in Tapestry, which was, again, I wanted to learn more about grasping the DNA of what a brand is versus when you’re working for a creative agency. You are working across multiple brands, and you’re not embedded in the soul of what the brand stands for. So yeah, I joined Coach as the Global Head of Creative Content.
I spent about three years there, and I loved it. Ultimately, they were looking to shift and change their perception of what their brand was to become a full lifestyle brand versus the women’s handbag company, which it was predominantly known as in the past.
My role there was to expand the brand into much more diverse categories, expand the audience reach, and ultimately make it appealing to a much broader consumer base, and I learned a ton. When you’re working inside the brand, you’re focusing on that one, and the strategies and the creative you’re developing are all rooted within that one brand versus, again, in the agency space, you’re working across multiple. I loved it there, and I think as marketing and advertising shifted over the years, there’s so much content out there—an abundance of it.
Ultimately, you’re trying to cut through the noise. I began to get the sense that brand content has a much bigger and more impactful meaning. You’re really trying to captivate people’s attention, to spend time watching it versus being forced to watch a piece of content. The old days of advertising and commercials have kind of gone, in a way that has moved to social media, I guess, in that sense. And that led me to Condé Nast and The Wall Street Journal after that, and going to the more media side of the business.
Yeah, for me, that was the audience there. They are going to your platforms or your content because they are intrigued by a piece of content, be it a film or an informative piece of storytelling. The challenge there is you’re not advertising to someone; you’re actually trying to bring them into whatever it is you’re trying to tell and keep them there, right? So that, to me, was the challenge in that next step. I was like, “All right, I’m used to understanding the consumer base using that data. What are people actually looking for? What are they actually looking to read or consume via video, whatever it happens to be in terms of format?” And using a lot of that to then bring a story to life.
Even if a brand is involved in terms of sponsorship, you’re trying to make sure it doesn’t feel forced or like advertising. It’s actually branded content in the most organic or authentic way you can bring that into the piece of content.
**MVP Interactive:**
Now, when we’re listening to your accent, we may be able to determine that you’re not from California.
**Will Misselbrook:**
It’s true.
**MVP Interactive:**
Did you happen to have any agency or brand experience overseas, or has it been specifically here in the States?
**Will Misselbrook:**
Yeah, I started in production, actually. So my growth is not in traditional marketing and all that stuff. I started on the production side of music videos and commercials as a producer and then joined Wieden+Kennedy in London for a few years and then Saatchi & Saatchi in London for a few years. I then got approached to come to New York for the BBH New York role as their Head of Content here. That’s what kind of took me on that trajectory. Obviously, I was dying to move to New York, and the opportunity worked out with BBH, so yeah.
**MVP Interactive:**
You mentioned the agency experience, and I speak at colleges pretty often. One of the questions I get from the students is, “Looking to get into sports and the activation space, obviously the exciting marquee of working with a professional sports team is of interest to many young people and even adults.” But I’ve always said that my recommendation would be to work within an agency that works with those particular clubs because you can really be involved in so many facets of the business. Maybe I’m wrong—I’ve never worked for a sports team—but you have one brand, one mission, one initial goal. But when you’re working with an agency, you could be working with 15 brands, and each project has its own different sort of agenda or mission, I’d say.
**Will Misselbrook:**
Well, I’ll be honest, I never envisioned myself working in sports—really didn’t. I’m a huge sports guy, a fan, and played sports, but I never even thought about it, to be honest. But in hindsight, I’m incredibly happy I landed in sports because it is incredibly fun. Yeah, it’s a lot of work, but yeah. Well, I think to your point about working in agencies that work for sports, I actually don’t think you need to. Working in agencies is the best way to craft your skill set and your tools in impactful advertising or creative storytelling and marketing across every single touchpoint. So I think that’s a really great place to start
. When I was at The Wall Street Journal, I got a call from a friend of mine who had just joined the Commanders in the C-suite there—a really old friend of mine.
He called me out of the blue one day and was like, “Hey, look, I’ve joined this Washington football team.” It was at the time. He started to pick my brain on what they could do to evolve their brand—not just being known as a football team, but known as entertainment and media as well. So I started just giving him advice. I didn’t know what the inner workings of an NFL team were like.
It was more just like, “Alright, now this is how you should be looking to apply your brand. What kind of categories could you be going into to branch out in terms of a general content consumer base versus just your core NFL fan?” I sent him a few keynote decks here and there and had a few more conversations with ownership as well. Then they were like, “Look, can you come and do this for us?” I was like, “Alright.”
What I loved about it was that it was a different challenge. They weren’t going the traditional CMO route. A lot of CMOs are hired by teams, and they probably apply a lot of the similar strategies they’ve done with other teams, whereas I think where I appreciated the innovation or innovative thought process behind me was bringing on a Chief Creative Officer, which was the first in the NFL, which again was surprising to me when I was going through it at the time. Not having that traditional mindset of a CMO or marketer who has been with other NFL teams or even sports teams actually really helped me.
I wasn’t necessarily thinking about what they’d done two or three years ago, or what I did at the Dolphins or anything else. I was trying to come at it from a much different perspective and approach the content creatively in a way that was very different from what the team had done before. Some people were nervous about it, but at the same time, it was like, “We have to take these risks if we’re looking to cut through the noise, not follow what other teams are doing, and differentiate ourselves in the space as being a bigger brand than just the football team.”
**MVP Interactive:**
Yeah, and that brand quite literally was going through a new identity and many of these changes during the COVID era as well.
**Will Misselbrook:**
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I was in LA, having just moved there with my wife—not my wife at the time—and working for The Wall Street Journal. I had been in LA for about six months before I then joined the Commanders, the Washington football team. From there on out, there was a lot of back-and-forth travel. I can get into the reasons why I ended up leaving because of, you know, the travel was beginning to kill me a little bit since my wife’s job was based here in LA.
But yeah, after joining the Washington football team, I obviously knew about the Redskins and the history there, but the whole transformation was, you know, my job was to take on the entire rebrand. That was, yeah… I didn’t know at the time, but it was daunting. It ultimately felt like a lose-lose at the time because we were speaking to tons of our fan groups. They didn’t want to change the name. I totally understood why they didn’t want to change the name.
Ultimately, it wasn’t my decision to change the name, and even landing on the actual name itself was ownership’s final decision. But my job was to bring that entire rebrand to life, roll it out afterward, and make sure it had a voice and differentiated ourselves from where we’d been in the past, while also making sure we had the past rooted in everything we were doing. That was my job.
**MVP Interactive:**
So not only did you accidentally get a job, you were then tasked with one of the most daunting marketing challenges ever.
**Will Misselbrook:**
I guess maybe it was just being so naive and not thinking, “Okay, what am I actually taking on here?” Maybe it was really smart as well of the ownership at the time to say, “Let’s just give this rebrand to a British guy because maybe, you know, if it screws up, we can blame him.” But no, it wasn’t my decision to actually choose the final name, but I had to tell that entire story, from not leaking it to building out the teaser content and storytelling without obviously pissing off fans.
It was much more about bringing them into the process of everything we were doing, going behind the scenes of every step of this journey to be as transparent as possible about how this name change came about, how the logo started taking shape without giving it away. We were laying breadcrumbs, effectively, leading up to the launch itself, and making that as impactful and not as cheesy as possible.
And then it was like, “Alright, that was day one, and now we’ve got the rest of our lives to try and continue to build out this brand and story.” So anyway, this isn’t me just blowing smoke, but it was recognized by the NFL League Office as the most successful rebrand in any NFL team history, with about 83 billion impressions on launch day and 65 million people watching all the content on the day of the launch. So that was great, but at the same time, I know this was a lose-lose and a tough decision because a lot of fans loved the Redskins name, and I get it. I did too, and so it was just a very difficult thing to navigate.
**MVP Interactive:**
Yeah, but looking back, I feel like there’s always going to be that long history, and it’ll never completely go away. But as time has gone by, with the rebrand and the enthusiasm between the new look and the team itself, it seems like it’s become more accepted. I know there’s new ownership there too, and I’m curious if you think they’re going to restart this whole process again.
But the Commanders’ name seems to have stuck now, and I remember when the name change happened. The Redskins were long-term clients of ours, so I would have to bite my tongue trying to keep from referencing their old name. But now I realize I don’t have many of those slip-ups.
Obviously, the NFL and American football are generally considered one of our most popular and rabid sports that we as Americans buy into and are fans of. Transitioning that fanfare into a much younger league, one that’s still very much growing despite its popularity over the last decade, what have been some of the key challenges and maybe even rewards from your transition from an NFL team to an MLS property?
**Will Misselbrook:**
Right, football to another football. Yeah, left foot to right foot. I loved the Commanders; I wasn’t trying to leave or looking to leave in any way, actually. It was more of a life thing because I was having to go back and forth, and my wife was based in LA. So, the Galaxy, I was fortunate to get approached by them for this opportunity and to take similar methodologies to those I’d done at the Commanders. Not doing the traditional CMO role here, they had me come in as Chief Creative and Brand Officer to build. Like you said, yeah, we’re still in a young league. What I love about that transition, again, is the challenge because NFL is the biggest sport in America.
The fandom has been generations in the making, you know, like 90,000 people are always going to turn up to your stadium. Selling it is easier in that sense because of the legacy it has and the rich history. Whereas we’re kind of like the new kid on the block here with the MLS. We are. Obviously, Europe is completely different, but it enables us to take more risks and be more innovative with our content marketing and what we do because there’s not such a playbook in place. If we’re trying something, then people won’t say, “Look, this has been done for the last 40 or 50 years for this team.” It’s like, no, no, no, we’re new, and we have to try and make ourselves present and known.
So that’s allowing us to, for me, it’s like that challenge of making ourselves seen and heard within the greater landscape of sports and American sports, specifically the NFL as well. And that’s fun. I mean, it is scary, and it’s not as big as some of the NFL entities out there, but yeah, we’ve got to try these things now because if we don’t, when we’re new, we won’t succeed. We can be innovative in any piece of content we’re putting out there, or activation or experience, in order to cut through all the other sports leagues in America.
**MVP Interactive:**
Yeah, that’s great. With Los Angeles being obviously a top DMA across many industries, sports in particular, it’s also unique in the sense that it’s one of the few cities that has two professional MLS teams. Talk to us a little bit about any level of, again, maybe it’s opportunities as well as challenges, to differentiate your team, the Galaxy, against LAFC, who, as we all know, have a lot of celebrity to it and fanfare because they were the new team and such. But, you know, the Galaxy has a pretty interesting history, especially with David Beckham and those times when they were the first property to kind of bring an international star like that over. So yeah, maybe talk to us a little bit about that dynamic.
**Will Misselbrook:**
Yeah, I guess the frenemies, right? Exactly. DB is how we like to call him in England—David Beckham. He’s a legend with us. Actually, because I grew up in England following the Galaxy because of Beckham. LAFC, you know, their introduction to the MLS has been great for us. The challenge is the opportunity, right? It adds that level of healthy competition and allows us not to be complac
ent in Los Angeles and be like, “Hey, this is our town for soccer.” It just emphasizes and raises our game in every aspect, not only on the field but also off the field, because they’re the new team on the block, down the road from us, and they’ve got a cool brand, and they’ve been playing well. I was joined… LAFC has been around for a minute now, before I arrived.
But coming into this and seeing that dynamic and the healthy rivalry, like you said, I think it’s great because it keeps both of us on our toes. And also, I think it makes Los Angeles probably the biggest city in America now in terms of stature for MLS. We’ve got two big clubs, and we’re both at the top of the league right now, which is great. I love the guys there who work in their front office. I know them very well. The rivalry is…
**MVP Interactive:**
Ideal?
**Will Misselbrook:**
Yeah, exactly. For me, especially on my side with the brand and creative, you are kind of looking over your shoulder a lot, being like, “Alright, what are they doing? We’re not trying to replicate or do something similar to what they’re doing,” but you know, it drives us in many ways, both here with the players and also from a brand perspective. LA is also difficult because you’ve got eight other sports franchises here, right? So we are all competing for fandom and trying to get fans to stadiums to watch games. I love that.
Again, as part of my approach to any of the work, it’s like, “Alright, we have to attract new fans and audience members who will want to come to a Galaxy game, or even if they’re visiting LA, how can we actually find those people and attract them through storytelling to want to buy a ticket and come to our game?” The rivalry is great, and it’s going to continue. As long as we win the season, and we’re performing well, I’ll be even happier.
**MVP Interactive:**
The stigma has completely changed, but for many years, and I don’t know how privy you were to this in terms of the history of American sports, Los Angeles was always considered a bad sports town unless you were talking about the Lakers or the Kings because everyone’s a fair-weather fan. Maybe the Dodgers are an outlier as well. But compared to the East Coast, where I sit—I’m in Philadelphia, where our fans are…
**Will Misselbrook:**
Yeah, the Eagles.
**MVP Interactive:**
I love you guys. But I flew into the airport just last week, and it was a Tuesday. I’m in an Uber, and the Phillies stadium was packed, like on a Tuesday. There was nothing special going on, and it was sold out. Man… Are you an Eagles fan?
**Will Misselbrook:**
You’re an Eagles fan though, right?
**MVP Interactive:**
I am, yeah. But I’m not a typical Philadelphia fan in terms of the stereotypes. I won’t say that, disclaimer. But I guess my point is Los Angeles has really become a sports town. And I think with the addition of SoFi Stadium, for example, and the Chargers relocating, which by the way, I did watch a game at your stadium when they played there for the short time. The first season that they moved, which was fascinating. But talk to us a little bit about how you guys approach the community, the fans. What’s it mean to be a Los Angeles Galaxy fan? Because I would probably guess it’s something different from what it meant 10 years ago.
**Will Misselbrook:**
Yeah, no, you’re right. We are in the entertainment center of, I guess, the world right here in LA. Where do I start with this? So yeah, I pictured this when we first… Well, at the end of last year, I oversee the game presentation. We work in entertainment, regardless. Soccer is a part of it, but ultimately we are in entertainment, and I call it emotional entertainment because we’re not… People are choosing to buy a ticket or watch a game because of their passion and their love for it, right?
So you almost have to start there, with the entertainment and emotional side as a core of, like, alright, we’re not selling deodorant; we’re not selling a product in the traditional sense. We’re selling the love of this team and that passion of fandom. But we have a small fan base, and we’re trying to continue to branch out.
I sometimes use my wife as a reference because she doesn’t like soccer. I was like, “Okay, so how can I start to elevate this entire experience so people want to come here two, three, four hours before a game versus just showing up for the 90 minutes and then leaving?” In the NFL, it’s different. And that’s what I learned from the NFL—people will get there at 8 a.m., they’ll tailgate, and stay for 15 hours. It’s like, alright, that’s an easy solution.
It’s part of the tradition. I was like, we need to evolve from just the game itself and make this the entertainment experience. One of the bigger things we’ve done is we built a music platform, we created this music stage at the stadium that has the accompanying lasers and light shows, and we upgraded the music side.
We brought in massive artists, some big names, some local artists within the community to perform before the game. So, you know, 30 to 40 minutes before, we have this whole music concert effectively going on. For the Miami game, we were fortunate to get Alesso, a massive DJ. And then we’ve, throughout each home game, been mixing up the talent, making sure that the genre of music is different and will appeal to a broader audience.
What we’re learning from that is you got followers or fans of these artists who are like, “They’re performing at the Galaxy game? I’d love to see them perform live.” And then you’re transitioning to new consumers or fans who want to be entertained and have a day out on a Saturday at a Galaxy game. So that’s been one aspect of it. Also, the visual aesthetic of the stadium as well. We spent a lot of time designing and redesigning so many areas of dead space around the stadium so it doesn’t feel like just a soccer stadium in many aspects. It actually feels like a new visual environment.
Like when you go to Disneyland, you kind of look around, and there are tons of different visual components that catch your eye. So that’s another element. The interactive components, bringing in AR photo booths for fans to take selfies, all those smaller tactical things. But ultimately, once we’ve got this component now of an entertainment experience at Galaxy, it’s then about how we start to tell that story to the wider world so people can be attracted to come to games. I also have this mentality, maybe from my days at Condé Nast or The Wall Street Journal, where I want people to start their journey a week or two before. We’re telling great content, quality storytelling, to get people excited.
That journey of two weeks leading up to game day, where they’re sharing their own experiences, and then afterward, you’ve got this journey of three weeks of storytelling. The game itself is a big part of the experience, but it’s part of a bigger whole.
**MVP Interactive:**
Yeah, you know, that’s a really good point because you really only have 17 chances, right? In terms of an organization and the fans, with the season, that makes a lot of sense to triple that sort of fanfare. It’s not just about the game. That’s really smart. And it’s funny that you mentioned the music influence. I think when we initially met back in January, a colleague and I, approaching the stadium entrance, saw those hordes of people. I think there was a K-pop concert or something like that. I was like, “Are we outside? Where are we?”
**Will Misselbrook:**
Yeah, why not? Our grounds are incredible. Yeah, we’re in Carson, so it’s not like we’re in the center of LA city, but at the same time, adding that level of entertainment has completely changed our dynamic and the fans’ experience. They’re having a fun day out; they will want to come here for five hours versus, you know, just the 90 minutes. I remember when I started thinking about this, I was like, “Okay, I start my day at the stadium at 1 p.m., then 2 p.m., what am I doing? Am I going to the team store? What does the team store look like? How are we going to make that much more of a Nike store experience?”
Then 3:30, I go upstairs. What are the clothes like? What are the food stores and that experience? What are the games I’m going to be looking for at 4:35? So we started to map it out hour by hour, effectively, to identify where there are gaps and dead time. How can we fill that with something that’s actually going to be an entertaining experience for families and different age groups and demographics, leading up to the game? Yeah, so it’s kind of like a five-year plan, really breaking down the day hour by hour.
**MVP Interactive:**
Well, as we’re approaching the end of our time here, I specifically try to wait to speak about data, and that’ll…
**Will Misselbrook:**
It’s a very much community-oriented process that really goes into it, but it is so important. So, thinking about how you’re breaking down the calendar of events or the scheduling of events, all of that is very calculated. Maybe if you could talk to us about how your team or you leverage data and analytics to sort of paint the picture or at least help with your marketing campaigns and some examples that you’re able to share.
**Will Misselbrook:**
No, no, it’s fundamental to any campaign. I think I learned most of this when
I was at Condé Nast and The Wall Street Journal in terms of the data that was available to us about consumer consumption—what is trending culturally, what’s a social topic we could start to tap into. Being able to have that as part of a toolkit for a creative was really invaluable. And I’m not a traditional marketer. I didn’t go through that traditional CMO route where a lot of it can just be data-first and then the work second. A lot of it can be about how many impressions we can get and how many people we can push ads out to, effectively. So I think we flipped it in many senses.
If you put the creative first, the quality over the quantity, then you can start to see where the traction is working or where engagement is working versus not. Now, data, we use it in two parts, I guess. One is…
We look outside our organization. I tell my team every day not to look at what we’re doing. You can get stuck in your bubble a lot and don’t look at what other soccer teams are doing. Let’s look outside of all of this to see what is working or trending. What did you see that maybe, I don’t know, an insurance company did or a food brand or Nike, wherever it happens to be? What got your attention? Why did you engage with that? And it’s almost about doing it ourselves.
So you’re effectively looking at social trends, and you’re figuring out, “How did that get my attention? How can we start to apply some of that strategy to our own work?” So that’s part of it, I guess, being curious and then taking those risks by looking outside and seeing how you can bring some of that storytelling into our own methodology. The other side is, yeah, we have our own data team internally, who are fantastic. We have a social media, social data company as well who do…
monitor and track the engagement side of the work we’re putting out there. Again, I try to work in a way of building an ecosystem of content. If we have an idea, I don’t want it just to be put onto Instagram or YouTube. We have to create a video that you cut up into five different pieces and try to distribute on different platforms. You can already see that the data out there, which is just common sense, is that every platform is different for people’s engagement response, right? Instagram is more of an escapism, LinkedIn is more business-oriented.
So when you’re coming up with an idea, if that idea can’t be told in an agnostic way across platforms, then it’s kind of not worth doing. So that’s another way we approach a lot of our work. But yeah, we’re constantly tracking. For me, it’s down to the basics of engagement messages you see on Instagram—how are fans responding? Then you take that and either pivot on the fly if the work is not being received well or learn and then apply it next time. If you’re doing a player-by-player, face-by-face sort of campaign to build that rivalry and it didn’t work well, we won’t do that next time. The company we use is called Zoomph for a lot of our engagement tracking. We also have a media buying company we utilize, but…
Honestly, I think some of that is great for the hard facts in terms of progress with the work out there and how people are engaging and where the impressions are going. But you can’t discount human feeling or human emotion in terms of what you think is good and what you’re seeing out there. Then how can you almost become the data and analyze ourselves—what’s working—and then bring that data into our world? Then you’re finding ways to diversify your storytelling into different categories.
**MVP Interactive:**
Yeah, so it’s great to hear the name Zoomph. For friends of the pod, we’ve actually worked with them in the past. I have this joke that I call them “circuit companies.” There’s a handful of us that have been out on the circuit, and we run into each other a few times a year at conferences and trade shows. Zoomph is one of them. It’s always nice to hear, in practical terms, that you work with them.
We actually partnered with them on an experience a few years ago with the Tennessee Titans, where we had one of the first NFL augmented reality murals. It was really neat.
**Will Misselbrook:**
I saw that. Yeah, that was awesome.
**MVP Interactive:**
Yeah. Again, we try to bring as much value to our clients as possible. Understanding that when you’re building a web-based mobile application, some of that data and analytics is limited to what the user’s phones can provide, right? So we would have the folks scan a QR code, launch the experience, and make the mural come to life. But there really wasn’t much we could give to the Titans as a profile of an individual, maybe a series of iPhone or Android users and what the engagement times were. But we called our friends over at Zoomph and said, “Hey, we’re going to be doing a big press release with the team, and this is going to be a one-of-a-kind experience.”
Amir and the team jumped on it. It was awesome because the level of information in terms of the value and the earned media and publicity that the campaign created justified the expense—it was a drop in the bucket compared to the complete ROI. And even as I made this comment earlier today, we’re in the experience business, as you said, and sometimes it’s very difficult to quantify in a traditional KPI way.
**Will Misselbrook:**
100%.
**MVP Interactive:**
You know, an investment in an experience. So being able to provide real tangible information to say, “Hey, this campaign generated over $2 million of earned media just for the sake of launching this within the community,” was really fascinating.
**Will Misselbrook:**
No, you’re so right. I know we’re out of time, but yeah, we…
**MVP Interactive:**
We’ve been doing a few of those collaborations. We did one with Vevo, the music streaming platform, earlier this year—getting the players to talk about their favorite music artists. You’re finding that connectivity with something that has nothing to do with the on-field action. It’s much more about the preferences of professional athletes in terms of connecting it with music.
They have 150 million subscribers to their channel, so suddenly you’re going into a whole other territory. Yes, it was not necessarily about using this data just to show how many people have watched or been exposed to the Galaxy brand and content, but having that channel outlet into a whole new audience base is invaluable, like you said. The media you get from that is second to none.
**MVP Interactive:**
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, this has been fascinating. We like to offer our listeners the ability to contact you directly if you should be so willing, whether that’s on your social profiles, maybe your LinkedIn profile. If there’s anyone interested in speaking with Will Misselbrook, how could they reach you?
**Will Misselbrook:**
Yeah, I mean, look, my Instagram is boring, so don’t connect with me on that.
LinkedIn is honestly one of the best ways. I love LinkedIn. So yeah, it’s just my name, Will Misselbrook, on there, so you can find me there. Or you can email me at wmisselbrook@lagalaxy.com. Those are probably the two best methods.
**MVP Interactive:**
Well, there you have it. Thanks for listening, and until next time, thanks for joining the MVP Interactive Podcast.
**Will Misselbrook:**
Thanks.
