Throughout his career, MediaLink Senior Partner ERIC FERNANDEZ has had the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the sports industry, and in particular the best practices and new developments within the sponsorship and technology spaces. Fernandez was formerly AT&T's Exec Dir of Sponsorships & Events, where he oversaw the company's global sponsorship strategy, including its partnerships with the USOC, The Masters, the NCAA, among many others. His current role at MediaLink, a small advisory firm, involves working with clients including MLS, 4Info and Unilever on various sports-related initiatives and aiding brands in navigating the digital media space among other responsibilities. As he was traversing the country on his way back from dropping off his son for his first year of college earlier this week, Fernandez discussed sports, sponsorships, technology and the future of the industry with Staff Writer William Cooper.
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| MediaLink's Eric Fernandez |
Favorite movie of the summer : "G-Force." I took my kids to see that. It was very cute, we really enjoyed that.
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| MediaLink's Eric Fernandez |
Web sites you visit daily : SportsBusiness Daily, ESPN.com, Yahoo.com and MarketWatch.
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| MediaLink's Eric Fernandez |
Favorite leisure activity : Golf. The lifelong quest to get better.
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| MediaLink's Eric Fernandez |
Thing you are most looking forward to this year : College football season. Q : What has it been like for you sending your first child off to college? Fernandez : It's fine. Obviously you reminisce, but I remember how much of a thrilling experience it was to kind of go off on your own. Just happy for him, but sad to see him leave at the same time. Q : What athletic event that you've had the opportunity to attend is the most memorable for you? Fernandez : There's a couple but The Masters for sure. It's an unbelievable experience, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I think what's combined with that is that I was able to attend it with my dad, so that made it extra special. And back from my AT&T days we were the title sponsor of the Cotton Bowl, and that just goes down as one of my all-time favorite events because the Cotton Bowl organization does an amazing job of putting on an event and creating a week-long hospitable environment for everyone involved. It's really one of the best, well-run events. They create great memories for the athletes and the fans, and I've always enjoyed that experience. But I'd have to put The Masters at the top of my list. Q : What excites you most about working in the sports industry? Fernandez : Obviously, the economy has made it more interesting. ... You really have to work harder now to make accomplishments just because of the overall state of the economy. I also really like where technology is going. Sports is such a strong consumer connection point, it's the optimal platform to really leverage a lot of the new working technologies, whether it's content-delivery networks or social media, whatever it may be. It's really the prime content to be utilized by these various platforms that are coming out. So it's really interesting to see what's unfolding over time. Q : What excites you most about the future of sports technology? Fernandez : The really interesting application is anything in the mobile space. By 2010, there's going to be four billion mobile phones globally, I think it's somewhere in that neighborhood, and that's almost two times what you have from a PC perspective. So you really see the opportunity, especially from a one-to-one communication standpoint, to really be able to personalize experiences in the mobile space. The second part is you look at anyone who is under the age of 28, 30 at this point doesn't really know a life without mobile or the Internet. Their expectations and their life experiences are very different. Q : What utilizations of technology in sports have been particularly intriguing to you? Fernandez : I admire what baseball, what BAM's been able to do in the digital space, in particular mobile. Last year, Apple launched the application store, and they launched the AtBat application and instantaneously had the ability to get in-game highlights, which I think is a really breakthrough application. It is really showing the power of not only mobile but video being the killer app within mobile, and really being able to show how you can provide real-time content to consumers. You take that further now where they are actually streaming live games via the iPhone app, I think that's a really cool indication of where the market is going. I think too you look at what the four golf majors did this year. They all had streaming video not only online, but had some really high quality. I personally at home have a 24-inch iMac, and I remember pulling up The Masters live-streaming their "Amen Corner" and putting it full-screen. And it looked essentially like I was watching a television. The content-delivery networks have gotten so far advanced, and they're even getting better. By 2012, you'll basically be able to pull a live stream of a sporting event on your mobile phone and look at it in a HD-quality format. That's what really excites me. Q : Where do you see corporate spending in sports going given the current economy? Fernandez : I think you're going to continue to see a bit of a correction through 2010. I think the major effect you'll see is I'd be surprised if we see a major naming-rights announcement like we saw in New York the past few years with the Barclays Center and Citi Field. I'm not saying that the days of 20-year, $400M dollar deals are over, but I really think you're going to see a step back from that and it's going to take years of recovery before you see the mega deals happen. It's part of this overall correction. Q : Are you sensing that properties are being flexible and allowing sponsors to adjust given the current economy? Fernandez : I think you are. But I think in some cases what you're seeing is that in areas they are being more flexible because they're seeing risk of total loss if they don't get flexibility. Especially categories like the autos and financial service. You see what the Detroit Tigers did this past year. Mike Ilitch I think made a really great gesture about certain high-profile inventory, not charging the autos for (signage at Comerica Park). In some cases we've heard about, deals are being maybe not restructured but teams are deferring some of the dollars, allowing them to be pushed out 12 to 24 months. I don't know about specifics, but you've heard a lot of rumblings about how the PGA Tour's been creative in helping out some of their sponsors by either helping them repackage deals or working with them on modifying the payment plans in order to help them out through the financial pressures. Q : What are some sports business stories that you are following closely at the moment? Fernandez : I'm interested in the new United Football League. Interested to see how that will fare. Obviously you've had a lot of others that tried to start up, and I think it's interesting because of the passion that Americans have for not only professional football but college football. Can a third entity survive, and in what capacity? I'm also a huge Formula One fan, and obviously they had a lot of turmoil earlier this year between the teams and the FIA. ... Probably two others would be the U.S. Olympic Network, whatever's going to happen there. Especially since it took them so long to get something up and running and now the latest news that they're going to delay it and work with the IOC. ... And you've got two fairly big new venues coming online with the Cowboys and the Jets and the Giants. What's going to happen with those two stadiums and finding a naming-rights sponsor, and what will those deals look like?
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| Fernandez Impressed By Tigers Offering Of Free Fountain Ad Space To Automakers |
