College Leaders | Catering to Wants and Needs of Fans w/ Eric Nichols

Making the Fan

English - September 07, 2021 13:00 - 51 minutes - 35.1 MB - ★★★★★ - 38 ratings
Business Sports customer experience sports business fan experience employee engagement corporate culture revenue generation consumer insights operations sportsbiz consulting Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed

Previous Episode: Studying the Subconscious and Emotions of Fandom w/ Peter Sorckoff

Next Episode: Making Your Customer Experience Remarkable w/ Dan Gingiss

Joining us on today's episode is Eric Nichols, the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Marketing and Branding/Chief Marketing Officer at the University of South Carolina. Nichols oversees Marketing, Digital and Social Media, and the University band and spirit programs as well as serving as the primary liaison for Licensing, merchandise sales, and outsourced entities including Learfield for multimedia rights and Learfield Ticket Solutions for outbound sales.

Eric and David discuss innovation around customer and employee experience within college athletics. From some of the changes South Carolina has been working on over the pandemic and are now launching this year at their football stadium, to renovated club areas and utilizing data and KPIs for your staff, Eric breaks down all the way in which he looks to innovate the college athletics space for his team.

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Show Notes

3:07 New Club Spaces at Gamecock Football Games

10:08 The South Carolina Tailgate Experience

13:04 Beer Caves and Convenient Store Concession Stands

17:17 How to Scale Empathy

19:22 Using Data to Increase Staffing and Resources

26:21 Setting KPIs and a Vision for Your Staff

31:43 Lessons from South Carolina Culture Surveys

35:10 Facilitating Teamwork and Rewarding Your Employees

37:12 Deepening Connections with Gamecock Fans

41:53 Bridging the Ticketing and Licensing Spending Gap

44:56 Eric’s Billboard

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For more information on topics covered in this episode:

Connect with Eric on Twitter or LinkedIn

South Carolina's Tailgating Experience
The "Cockabooses"
The 2001 Club
The Cockaboose Club
The Horseshoe Club
The Traditions Club

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Today’s episode was sponsored by CheckdIn. Delivering training digitally to better equip your staff for game day.

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Connect with Host, David Millay:
Connect w/ David Millay on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillay/
Follow David on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/david.millay/
Follow David Millay on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DavidMillay

Twitter Mentions

@ericnichols