Street & Smith’s SportsBusinessJOURNAL � www.sportsbusinessjournal.com JUNE 8-14, 2015 � 2 1

Opinion

“It has been said that next to hunger and thirst, our most basic human need is for storytelling.”

— Khalil Gibran

Coming out of the recent new-

front/upfront season, content in its many varied forms re-mains the almighty king, and its infl u-ence only continues to grow, rivaled per-haps solely by the emphasis placed on cross-platform distribution (the prover-bial queen) and data insights to inform how brands maximize that content. But it’s still all about the content.

Then why is it that the prevalent theme in our industry continues to be around selling vs. stories, or trying to master the art of selling to consumers, to clients, to properties, to each other, rather than striving for the mastery of content? The art of selling is funda-mentally underpinned by something far more lasting, far more compelling, far more personal and ultimately far more powerful, yet rarely given the same pri-ority: The art of storytelling.

I’m not simply talking Don Draper Kodak Carousel storytelling, but the im-mense power of sports storytelling. And I’m not just talking about the excellence

with which linear and digital networks broadcast to us as fans, but from the vantage point of how brands, through their sports invest-ments, can become better sto-rytellers

to ultimately better sell themselves to their respective fan base.

This is not a new topic. Scores of articles have been written about the importance of storytelling from a more traditional advertising standpoint.

“Story-selling” has come into our mar-keting parlance. But are we creating truly salient means to elevate brand storytelling through sports?

Storytelling was once the reserved province of the established editorial outlets and long-standing publishers (regardless of medium). It is now the most powerful currency we have as brand marketers to intrigue, engage, inspire and ultimately sell to our target audiences. The sale in some way, shape or form is still the end goal, make no mistake. But it should start with the belief that to be most successful you should “tell, don’t sell.”

We mentor our young emerging tal-ent that the best way to sell-in a concept to a client (or prospective client) is not actually a formal presentation. It is a wonderfully crafted, authentic story that displays the passion, creativity and insights you have in solving their busi-ness challenge.

The beautiful truth of our lives is that they are stories in and of themselves, crafted through a constant editorial and curation process. And there is no generation that lives its lives as story-tellers and expects to be engaged in a commensurate fashion as the millen-nial generation does. This is a group

that now represents the largest share of the American workforce and more than $200 billion in annual buying power .

It is here that sports stands unrivaled, without peer, without comparison in its ability to capture the hearts, minds and wallets. It is the original and ultimate social media — the ever-present drama and comedy with both back- and front-page potential (see any story on Defl ate-gate if you doubt it) and the commercial magnitude to truly affect the selling process. This is especially true when you start by creating a captivating story to emotionally engage the audience, not about you, but about them.

We strive to author a compelling nar-rative that places brands in a prominent role but still a supporting character role as part of a much larger and richer story. The affi nity the target has to his or her passion, not instinctively to the brand, is the power of the association on which brands must focus their in-vestment. The more successful brands understand that and allow the story to be the superhero and their brand to be the trusted sidekick.

With communication technology inno-vations putting full power in the hands of consumers, the path to creating and retaining brand relevancy is anchored in

crafting, curating and distributing com-pelling stories that trade on emotional connectivity, regardless of whether you do it in 140 characters or six seconds or less. Sports has long been unique because its commercial nature has been socially acceptable in our consciousness and it allows (actually inspires) a brand to create a direct and meaningful asso-ciation with fans of that respective sport-ing experience. We need to consistently scrutinize where the custom, relevant connection point is to leverage that ex-perience and craft the story from there and, ultimately then, the sell.

In the 1930s, soap operas were created quite literally because they were com-mercially funded by companies selling cleaning products. This evolved to those brands not just funding but actually producing the programming. That time has come and gone and the model has evolved, but we can extract from that premise putting the story fi rst and the brand in support of it. There remains immense potential to keep shifting the paradigm of brands “presenting” to actively “authoring” — further embed-ding themselves in the broader story-telling arc of the respective sporting passion to get closer to what matters most to their target audiences.

This industry has bestowed upon each of us an amazing gift of being part of something much bigger than any of us individually. It’s a story that keeps being written. So rather than just the art of the sale, let’s focus more of our efforts in further extracting sports’ immense po-tential in delivering the art of the story. Pretty sure it’ll be a best-seller. �

Bryce G. Townsend (bryce.townsend@espglobal.com) is CEO of ESP Brands (formerly GroupM ESP).

Opinion

BRYCE G. TOWNSEND

Using sports’ potential to deliver the art of the story

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The beautiful truth of our lives is that they are stories in and of themselves, crafted through a constant editorial and curation process.