This transcript has been transcribed by Riverside.fm, no edits (please excuse any errors)

Sean Callanan (00:01.484)
Very happy to welcome Maggie Drish. She's the Director of Partner Activation and Service at the St Louis Blues. Maggie, welcome to the podcast.

Maggie Drysch (00:10.255)
Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm excited to see you again and talk about everything that we got to connect on at SEAT.

Sean Callanan (00:16.494)
Absolutely, absolutely. You know, we will get to see so no spoiler alerts, we're going to get we're going to get there. It was great to meet you in Nashville. I always start my podcast asking people how they got into the world of sports business. What about yourself? What was your first entry into the world of sports?

Maggie Drysch (00:20.379)
you

Maggie Drysch (00:32.667)
Yeah, so my story, I kind of jump around a little bit, so I'll go way back. It kind of helps me tell the story, paint the picture of where I got. So I was born and raised in California. Grew up in Southern California, but dad's work in high school moved us up to Northern California. So just outside of Sacramento.

Sean Callanan (00:38.669)
Yep.

Maggie Drysch (00:54.809)
paint the picture, I grew up riding horses competitively. And so that is how I made my journey to the Midwest of the United States. I got a scholarship. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Sean Callanan (01:02.936)
So when you say, I'm going to stop you there. So when you say riding horses competitively, in equestrian events and that kind of stuff or a style of that space.

Maggie Drysch (01:10.213)
Yep.

Yeah, so the hunter jumpers. So, a mix of the judge riding and then kind of what you see at the Olympics, the speed and height. so both of those events I've done, but it is a collegiate sport here in the U S not a lot of people know that. so I was able to get a D one scholarship, which it's not a cheap sport. So myself and parents were thrilled. but again, that's kind of what brought me to the Midwest. I rode at Oklahoma state university. So smack down in the middle of the country. And.

And unlike a lot of college athletes, our sports year round, because you're dealing with a live animal. So I wasn't able to take the traditional route of working in the athletic departments like a lot of university and student athletes and stuff did. But obviously had a lot of connection to it just working with different media, PR, digital people in the college athletic space. So kind of what opened my eyes to it, along with some classes I took at Oklahoma State.

But like I said, I didn't have time during the school year like a lot of kids in the industry do. And so my first internship, my sophomore year was with the USL club in Sacramento, the Sacramento Republic FC. Applied to a few internships near home in both the Bay Area and Sacramento and landed there.

Great experience every time I was home for the summer. That's where I ended up working, made some great connections there. And so when I finished up collegiate writing, I had an extra year of eligibility. So I started my master's program in Oklahoma State. So my second year when I no longer had collegiate writing, taking up all of my time, I was looking for an internship just to keep growing, knowing next step was jumping into my professional career.

Maggie Drysch (02:57.825)
my connection in Sacramento, hooked me up with the VP of corporate partnerships for the Oklahoma City team at the time. And so I finished up college just being an intern with them doing everything they threw at me and was fortunate enough to be hired on full time after I graduated in May. A fabulous human being named Danielle Mencel saw some skills in me that

applied when it came to corporate activation and service. She's more on the ticketing side, so she found a hole just in their organization of a spot needing to be filled. And that was me as their one and only corporate partnership activation coordinator. So USL is a smaller league. front office was tiny. So I did a little bit of everything, corporate partnerships involved and not anything from box office to

Sean Callanan (03:27.341)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (03:51.215)
throwing out field boards to driving gators to move sandbags, like you name it, I did it. Which doesn't sound glamorous, but super grateful for that experience because I think it's kind of just set me up for success for what was next. So, but in September 2021 ish, I decided I was looking for that next step in my career.

unfortunately hit my ceiling there. Again, not a glamorous role by any means, but I was surrounded by phenomenal people and got invaluable experience, but knew to keep growing, I was looking for that next step. And so,

applied to every job under the sun on Teamwork Online and an opening here for the manager role for the St. Louis Blues opened up. So I moved here in September of 2021 and yeah, that was my next step. And then this past November, I was promoted to our director of corporate partnership activation. So now I oversee our team here. We're small but mighty, but we have a really great group both on the sales and activation side and

didn't know anything about St. Louis, but I'm grateful I made the jump and have loved every second of it. It's been the right step in my career.

Sean Callanan (05:04.096)
And so, you know, I always, I always ask the how did you get here? Because it's all I always like all the different twists in terms of, of why you got to where you got to, especially like in the department, because you know, when you're coming out of college, or when you look at sports from the outside, it's like, that looks amazing. I don't work in it. And you actually don't know all the different functions and all the different different roles. You sort of found yourself into this partnership activation space. Was that something that you leant into in those early internships where you were like,

That's where you got energy from, that's where you had fun doing.

Maggie Drysch (05:37.593)
Yeah, I always tell people this, like I speak to lot of students. It's kind of a passion of mine, I guess you could say. And they're always asking, you know, because the traditional route is starting and ticketing or maybe building operations. And I just got really lucky with it being my first thing and people seeing that.

characteristic of mine that kind of aligns with what corporate partnerships is, especially when it comes to activation and service. I think it really fills my cup just the relationship building aspect of it. You know, the people that are buying into the St. Louis Blues or the Sacramento Republic or the Oklahoma City Energy, you know, we're helping them meet their goals and it's no nothing against ticketing because what they are doing is just as important. I mean, we're the two.

if not biggest revenue generating departments. It just lines a little bit more with who I am and kind of how.

I tick. So it's just always been something that really helps me get up in the morning and be excited. I love the relationships with my corporate partners and what we're able to work towards and collaborate on. So I was again, really lucky because not everyone has a path that's literally in the same department through the whole way. Thankfully, I love what I do, because I'm not too late to change, but there's easier ways to go about it if I did change my mind. So

yeah, I'm kind of a unicorn like when it comes to that career path of getting into sports.

Sean Callanan (07:07.63)
And do you think like now that you're when you're in this space, but you're also working with people and managing people in this space, do you think that I guess that desire for relationships and problem solving is sort of the one word if I use a golf term, because I just watch how big you want to that you need, you know, in partnership activation.

Maggie Drysch (07:27.247)
Yes, I would say so. think that's probably the most important part of what we do, both with our partners, but internally. I tell everyone, I'm going to butcher this phrase, jack of all trades, master of none. My USL experience taught me, I think that's why I find that so invaluable. I learned a way to understand all the different goals of the department, of the organization that are

falling underneath the umbrella of the St. Louis Blues or whoever it is. And so my time in the USL really taught me that because we really were an organization that it was all hands on deck, whether it was in your job responsibilities or not. And so now as I've transferred into an organization with a little bit more access to resources and people and funds, that's really helped me as I build relationships, most importantly, when it comes to internal departments. Like I said,

I can't do my job without our ticketing team, our social team, our digital team. They are the experts in that space. And I truly believe the best activation managers, coordinators, whatever it is, the best ones are able to have that understanding of they are the experts in the space. And they have a similar goal at the end of the day. But our branding team or whoever it is, they're representing the Blue Note where I'm representing the Blue Note and Purina, Stiefel, Enterprise, whoever it is.

Me as an activation manager, I have to have a really great understanding of what they're trying to accomplish, as well as my corporate partners, and finding that perfect spot in the middle that appeases both side, I guess you could say, but helps both brands align and just create this perfect partnership, because that's what it is at the end of the day.

Sean Callanan (09:10.232)
And that's the conversation we connected on at Seat, like in the round tables, it always ends up being, you know, I've joked in this podcast of being a digital divorce counselor. I think it's something that you're probably familiar with in getting, you know, the digital team and the comms team and the marketing team overlawn on here's what the partner wants and it can be a win-win for all. What's that been like for you in both multiple roles, but specifically at the St. Louis Blues in getting that collaboration working?

Maggie Drysch (09:20.411)
you

Maggie Drysch (09:40.877)
Yeah, I mean, there's always things that we're human beings, right? There's always things we're never going to see eye or not see eye to eye on. I will say never because there's always a way to find a solution. But I don't think any of those relationships have ever figured out a way to be perfect. But I think we are really lucky here again.

having up the St. Louis Blues, like our teams here do a really great job and know we all have a goal at the end of day to reach. More specifically at current times, CAP is going up, so we need to make money and corporate partnerships don't have a ceiling when it comes to that. So we need to find ways and creative, innovative ways to sell. But one really simple thing that we've done and we've seen a lot of success with is…

It sounds repetitive and some weeks it lasts five minutes, some weeks it lasts an hour. But we just have a bi-weekly connect with our digital and social teams. And it's truly one of those things of what we bring to the table is up to us from both sides. If social is changing up how they want to activate an asset, that's the time to bring it up. If we're changing how we want to sell an asset, we're asking for their advice on that. As well as, hey, you know.

this credit union is looking for a way to do X, but they really are trying to grow their presence on social. How are you helping me accomplish? Like that is our platform to throw everything against the wall and see what sticks as well as use their expertise of like, Hey Maggie, this has been performing really well. I think we can alter this a little bit and put them on it. And they'll see a lot of growth and success with that. So it sounds really simple, but that's worked well for us. I mean,

Sean Callanan (11:04.77)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (11:21.433)
Maybe my digital and social teams will say something different, but a lot of good has come out of it. And we actually just at league meetings and that was a topic of conversation. And it maybe doesn't sound like everyone's doing that, but everyone has their own version of that, I think, without realizing it. Because unless you're really wanting to piss off your digital and social teams who do so much for us and we can't do what we do without them.

feels like everyone is or should be doing a version of that, just keeping them a part of the conversation, which is really important because again, at the end of the day, we all do have the same goal. We need to keep lights on, keep ice cold, pay players, pay staff, right? So, and so it's again, having that relationship with those internal teams.

helps achieve those goals as well as just that collaboration helps the partners succeed more. We want to give them more than what they paid for of what value is given back to them, whether it's in our control or just that organic content. So yeah, that's probably how we do it. And it sounds simple, but it works.

Sean Callanan (12:26.666)
But it is that, know, but it's having something that, you know, it's pinning something in the calendar, but having some of that constant, because I'm sure when you have some of those meetings, you'll have, because I've been in them the same, you know, the digital team said, we just did this. It's amazing. It's not yet branded. We don't have a partner. And you're like, cool. I'm going to take that back to that credit union. And likewise, that example you gave you, sometimes you just get those thorny problems from a, from a sponsor. They're like, you know, we're a bathroom solvent. We need to sell more bathroom solvent.

Maggie Drysch (12:54.093)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (12:55.788)
How can you guys help us? And it's a really tough solution and you actually need a few more brains and a few more ideas to go backwards and forwards and sort of getting, know, the Digi team starts helping with that. You definitely get better results down the path.

Maggie Drysch (13:11.961)
Yeah, definitely. I think having them involved in those conversations early to help everyone feel like they won. Obviously, we are selling it, we are activating it, but like I said earlier, we can't do it without them. No matter if it's our digital team, our building operations team, our ticket, like we can't, they're, they are the experts in that space. And so

Keeping them a part of the conversation early really helps too, because then when it does come to life, they've added their input and how they know it'll be successful. And then I'm able to add my input from the brand side of what they view as successful. And then you marry those two together. And that's how some of the best partnerships work, simple or overly creative and innovative.

Sean Callanan (13:54.062)
So from a process point of view at the blues, like what does that earlier process look like? Like, you know, a sponsor, a credit union or a car dealer or someone comes to the blues and says, we want to be partnered with you. This is, you know, what can you offer us? What are the first sort of steps that you and your team take, you know, whether it be with the sponsorship sales to sort of start that conversation on what you can offer them.

Maggie Drysch (14:16.304)
Yeah.

funny you bring this up because this has been a big focus of us this summer. We made a lot of changing roles and our team is now, we're small still, but full force both on the sales and activation side. And so this is something now that we have a full team of both sellers and activation people we've been focusing on. Again, I don't think anything earth shattering, but it's up to the salespeople to go out and kind of warm those leads and figure out what's.

worth kind of exploring and if there's really an interest there. And once it's gotten to a point of creating a proposal, mostly the salespeople are creating those, but we go ahead and sign an activation rep to that. I mean,

The sales team have a good pulse on what's going on, but the activation people, call them boots on the ground. We really know what's going on. We're in those daily conversations. And so we're not there to sell it, but truthfully, if you work in sports, we're all salespeople. So we all have that skill within us, whether you realize it or not. But having them involved at the proposal stage, because there's going to be things that salespeople aren't hearing on a daily basis that will add to what you're pitching to these partners. And so.

We involve them early so that they can be a part of that. And then once it comes to life, it's so easy for the activation person to hit the ground running and make sure we're starting off right on the right foot. And so I would say that's probably been the most helpful as those come aboard, as well as then the activation people looping in.

Maggie Drysch (15:48.603)
Obviously we have that bi-weekly meeting, starting those conversations early so people know what's coming, which is important. So nobody's caught off guard. And then again, as it comes to life, it's just everyone's involved. Everyone sees it as a success and nobody's rolling their eyes at the classic, what is corporate partnership doing again? Because they've been a part of the conversation.

Sean Callanan (16:08.952)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (16:12.562)
And I mean, you know, obviously my focus and, you know, lot of the conversation at C is around digital, but you've obviously got other strings to the bow in, you know, store activations, know, being done in stadium, things being done on game night, you know, so how do you sort of manage that mix of, you know, giving all the different options that they've got to deliver what the sponsor potentially wants.

Maggie Drysch (16:37.709)
Yeah, I think it comes down to just listening, opening your ears and understanding what they want. think we talked about this a lot on our panel in Nashville, just obviously listening to what their goals are and stuff. But sometimes it's just as simple as knowing their business. There's going to be businesses that certain activations work for and others don't.

You know, for example, some of our wireless communications partners are still trying to get people in stores, you know, trying to get bodies into their locations and using the St. Louis Blues to do so. Other businesses that doesn't apply. They've switched to a completely online model. Maybe they're trying to promote differently. And so I think really understanding how their business operates so that the goals, you know, because if the goals

or something you can accomplish, but it doesn't work with what their business model is. It's never going to be successful, even if it meets those goals. So understanding the goals, understanding the business, and then right off the bat, just being a people person, building that relationship, because it is really interesting to see how many corporate partnerships may not work out in year one. But since you have that relationship in place, it may come to life, you know.

three years down the road. Maybe they don't have the funds right now. And so as simple as it stands, building that relationship again, that is what we're doing at the end of the day here in corporate partnerships and understanding what it is they're trying to achieve and understanding their business model is probably the three most important things to bring those to life. And then that relationship obviously stands throughout their.

the whole entirety of the partnership and makes it just that much more collaborative.

Sean Callanan (18:25.624)
And I think that was a key tenant of the session, sort of the secret menu partnerships, like not just saying, here's the rate card, here's what our leaderboards are, and here's all the options, but actually, part of that relationship building is having the partner feel like, this is bespoke, this is for me, it gets priced differently, but also it's starting to get closer to their marketing goals, to what they do, because you're right, you can't just say, we're just gonna do this because you want…

Maggie Drysch (18:49.711)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (18:53.726)
they don't have an online store or they want signups, it becomes different. And so everyone starts feeling like they're getting the secret menu.

Maggie Drysch (19:01.273)
Yeah, no, I really is. I think…

That's what I really enjoyed about our conversation is, know, partnerships is getting so creative, you know, whether it's partnerships, whether it's venues, whether it's digital media, people are just getting more and more creative every single day, which is so fascinating. But it's also getting more and more expensive for the partner to have, you know, like something like exclusivity, right? So I think where there's an interesting opening for that is kind of creating that sense of exclusivity.

through these off the menu items, which sometimes don't even need to be as complicated as they may seem from the outside. But it just comes back to that knowing your partner, knowing their business. And, you know, there's a space to find almost that area of exclusivity for these partners, which they view as, you know, unique or exclusive to them. When in reality, it's just because, you know, you've really done your homework on the back end of it.

Because like I said, partnerships, like the things I'm seeing come out of these different teams and agencies that they're doing is so impressive. I mean, our team included, sometimes it's way beyond your reach to be able to do some of those things. so creativity means a little bit something different to both the team and their partners.

Sean Callanan (20:22.158)
And so one of the important things in your role and in that is the delivery piece. Because a lot of the time it is talking about the sales and landing the sales and bringing the revenue, but reducing churn and having partners come back and what does building on year two and year three look like? What are some of key things that you do from reporting and recapping and filtering that message, that information back so you do have a happy partner and you're not in that

You know, late, we all know that late season, my goodness, we haven't delivered, here come all the campaigns because we've got to catch up sort of mode, which you see sometimes, you know, late in the season that happens. How do you prevent that happening and sort of have that backwards and forwards, almost constant recap, but also figuring out how to do the reporting right.

Maggie Drysch (21:10.811)
Yeah, I mean, that's an ongoing conversation, feel like, especially in the NHL, but I'm sure all leagues were talking about that on a constant basis, especially with the introduction of digital assets like DED, those digitally enhanced dashboards, like how are we reporting on those so we're not shooting ourselves in the foot later down the road. So that's an ever changing landscape. But again, I think it comes down to if you have that strong relationship in place, like

almost like a friendship, you know, like I can go back to the partner and say, hey, this really didn't work this season. Like I'm going to make sure, you know, I've already done these things. I think that's something we do really well here at the Blues of like this didn't work. So we made sure you were taken care of here, here and here so that your brand is out there. You know, the classic word we bonus to you, which you don't want to overdo because it sets some expectations. But I think we do.

really good job of that here just so our partners know that we care about making sure they see the ROI whether it's working or not and so we can report on that at the end of season but it's also that collaboration piece of hey partner X you know this didn't we tried this we thought it was really creative it didn't really work here's some things we did to make sure that you were still receiving the same if not

more value, but let's reevaluate now that it's the off season. How are we going to change it up? that like, I think it's so easy to get caught up in the contract. Like word by word, this is what's written in the contract. At the end of the day, if you have that relationship in place, like, and you're able to show I provided this much value, plus it's hard to run into those issues as long as you're doing your job throughout the year, as well as.

over delivering on the relationship aspect of it. think again, that's where corporate partnerships is so unique that you have these strong relationships. And so for us here at the blues, like we're what I would call maybe a small mid market. But what's really unique about our market is

Maggie Drysch (23:14.435)
Our fans, obviously, are showing up good, bad, or ugly. But our corporate partners are also fans of the team. And so that's a really fun aspect of our business model is we're delivering on their assets. We're over-delivering, which is really important to us. But also just that relationship piece of having them out to games, unique experiences that they wouldn't get just as a normal fan.

helps them make a feel a part of it. And then again, back to those collaborative conversations, it makes those easier because they already feel a part of things here. They have a close relationship with myself and whenever a salesperson is designated to that account, they don't go away. They start to stay a part of the conversation. So they know they always have at least two, if not more people to, you know, run ideas by or ask for tickets or any of that. Like it just all kind of comes together to this perfect partnership.

Right? Partnership, not sponsorship. And so that's what I would say is a big part of that.

Sean Callanan (24:13.132)
Yeah, I mean, it's always one thing to be able to be reporting on media value and here's what you've returned. And if this was just pure marketing money, this is what you're getting. But it is that other piece of you don't get some of these access to these events or you don't get access to these players or your customers don't get access to these things that is harder to quantify. Like you've got all these things that can be quantified. And then on top of that, like actual their goals, know, store traffic, signups.

you know, data captured, those kinds of things that have a value as well. You touch there on the passionate fan base. That's another thing that they just don't have access to, you know, hey, we wanna grow our social. We don't have a fan base. You know, we wanna be associated with things. that is something that has to be built over time. You can't just turn up, you know, put a logo on a board or a social post and say, oh, cool, we're…

we're now associated with blues, that takes time as well, doesn't it?

Maggie Drysch (25:16.409)
Yeah, it definitely does. Yeah, it's just funny. It's an ever-changing landscape, how we're reporting and stuff back to partners. But again, that relationship's back in place and they're fans of you and fans of the team. That always helps. Not always a guarantee, right? We have some partners that aren't even based here in St. Louis or have any ties to the Blues. They're reaching a different media or marketing goal.

Regardless, you can still have that relationship in place, something to build upon, work with and collaborate on, as well as figuring out every single time how we're reporting back to partners, because it does feel like it changes every golf season.

Sean Callanan (25:56.172)
And so sometimes with partners that you just get the you know, the right partner and the right creative idea and the right execution. It seems to just go tick, tick, tick. And you want them all to go that. Have you got an example of one that has done that for you? And you sort of keep using that as a case study to say, Hey, this is what we, this is what we can do when we get all things to align.

Maggie Drysch (26:17.422)
Kind of like a favorite partnership activation, start to finish type thing. I've again talked about this at C. The Purina Doghouse was a fun one for me. They've been…

Sean Callanan (26:20.771)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (26:31.067)
They're based here in St. Louis. They've been a partner of the Blues since way before I was here, like way, way before I was here. And an incredible partner and staple here in the St. Louis community. It did feel like they've had done a lot of the same things year over year. They were just proud to be with us and we love them for that. But their team, last renewal period, which was three years ago, approached us and wanted to change it up.

challenges with a few different ideas of things they were trying to accomplish, just really leaning into unique experience for pet owners. The MLS team here in St. Louis, had built like a suite.

on the main concourse level where you could bring your dogs to the soccer game. So they were able to do some of those things with other teams around here. They do a bring your dog to the ballpark day with the Cardinals here in St. Louis. So we're a little bit trickier just because we're a hockey rink. It's indoors. Liability bring dogs on the ice. So we run into some hiccups there. So we just again.

collaborated, we sat around a big table in one of our club spaces and just everyone brought ideas to the table and we kind of hashed them out. And before we found one that really stuck and some great ideas came out of it. But the Purina doghouse was probably one of the more fun ones that I've had and a really well rounded idea. And it actually started before we even had that conversation. It started.

during the 2019 Blue Stanley Cup year, which if you don't know anything about it, it's worth to do the research on. But at that midway point during the season when the Blues were bottom of the NHL standing, like 0 % chance of making the cup run.

Maggie Drysch (28:20.441)
There was a viral video that went around of our new team dog running on the ice with one of the players holding his hockey stick. went viral. Randy, his owner here, who's our VP of Community Relations, he was on TMC with the dog. It was a whole thing. It was kind of the early era of pet or team-owned pets, I guess you could say. And ever since then, the Blues went on that historic run where they went on to

win the whole thing. so that's, Purina was already a part of the Blues organization at that point, but they obviously leaned in really heavily. Again, before my time speaking out of, not out of experience, but leaned in really heavy with their relationship there. Obviously team dog, natural fit. It has been since Barclay's been around. And so from that,

Well, I guess a little bit more context. Barkley was also a service dog trained by a local St. Louis organization. So important aspect of that. So have the Blues, Purina, and then an organization called Duo Dogs that Barkley's trained by. back to the Purina dog house, the idea there was home box was branded Purina, but a way box was branded the dog house. The idea there was every time an away player visited the Purina dog house, we raise money for Duo Dogs.

obviously tied to Purina, Barkley, and the Blues with the dogs. So that was a really fun one. We obviously had a lot of fun with that. Honestly, people love dogs, so organically that content, you see it in every league and every team. Dog content performs well. So we had a lot of fun with that. You know, I think Purina saw the success in it really quickly. They were getting calls left and right from different teams wanting to recreate that.

which I don't think they had the bandwidth at the time to do much outside of the St. Louis market doing that. that one was a lot of fun. know, it's kind of gimmicky, but it tied into what Purina was looking to accomplish. We obviously had a team dog that was kind of a given. And then it also gave back to a community, a community that, you know, Purina stays headquartered here for a reason because they care so much about this community. The Blues do as well. So whenever you have that community aspect tied in as well.

Maggie Drysch (30:39.919)
it's always a home run. So again, we had a lot of fun with that one. We're actually up for renewal with them right now. So we're all these things we're talking about of seeing what works, what didn't. I think they're shifting their focuses a little bit, not saying we'll move away from it, but we kind of have some other goals we're looking to accomplish. So it'll be interesting to see what fun dog related things we do for the next few years of our partnership.

Sean Callanan (31:07.95)
Absolutely. mean, if you're looking at what are key success factors of successful campaigns, if people are stealing your campaign and using it other markets, it's an absolute, you know, I use the phrase, deal with pride all the time. And like, that is the opportunity. You're always looking at other teams and going, how can we do it? If you see other, you know, especially if you see a brand go, well, we're going to go do that in Pittsburgh as well. You know, you know, you're doing something well.

Maggie Drysch (31:18.606)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (31:30.671)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (31:37.154)
based on your conversations at SEAT and at the league meetings, are there particular trends or things you see, I guess that sports partnership space heading?

Maggie Drysch (31:51.213)
Yeah, you know, that's a tricky one because, you know, it's just kind of like we were talking about earlier, like creativity is getting so impressive, just, you know, like talking about Jersey Patch partners like Travis was talking about. And there's just it's getting so creative in that space, you know, digitally enhanced dashboard, which is something some leagues have explored and just the capabilities there.

I think it's just really interesting seeing kind of where different categories are opening up that you maybe haven't seen before. It follows the trends of whatever various generations are interested in. So it's just always interesting to see season by season what the big hitters are in different categories or fan giveaways or anything like that.

Like for example, Hello Kitty is a huge giveaway for us. It sells an insane amount of tickets. If you would have asked, put a few up against the board and told me Hello Kitty was one of them, I would told you you were crazy. You know, I haven't heard that really talked about Hello Kitty since I was a kid, but it helps us not only reach some different demographics and people love it and are buying tickets. So it helps us sell tickets for some of those lower popularity games, which is awesome. And so, yeah, I just think.

Sean Callanan (32:57.805)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (33:13.379)
that's a part of this whole off the rate card or being creative is just being in the know on those trends, right? Not every partnership idea needs to be your peering a doghouse or your I always throw around Toronto's Oreo milk campaign. Another great one to look up. They did a phenomenal job with that. I still can't believe the creativity that they did with around that and how they implement it with their city and everything. But

Just staying in the know on those trends, think, is important, as well as just keeps you accountable and being creative and stuff. But also important not to get caught up in doing that every single time because you're just gonna burn yourself out really quickly. Sometimes it is just a media bite and that's okay. They're just as important. There's still a need for that or we wouldn't have TV spots or DED or any of that kind of stuff. So there's a place for both and yeah.

Sean Callanan (34:11.576)
Well, that's the thing. mean, if you get to talk to brands all the time, and I speak to people in sport, they go, sports really tough, it's hard work, it's all these long hours, I might go to a corporate marketing job. I'm like, well, you can, but that's really, really hard. Like you don't have a hat trick of goals and ice hockey plays and rabid fan bases. You've got to go find customers.

Maggie Drysch (34:28.09)
Mm-hmm.

Sean Callanan (34:37.042)
And, know, they've got a splintered media market and attention and not knowing, you know, where do they put their spend? You know, is it into traditional media? Is it all indigenous? So it's really hard for them. So, you know, I think there is a bit of a coming back to one sport has a really rapid fan base digitally, but then also that arena experience, you know, people want to be part of something and there is, you know, high value being part of that experience where you're seeing that both

in sport, then big music acts are a part of brands and being part of that because people want to associate their brand with that great experience. So I think to a certain extent, sports, in the same way that the only thing people watch on live TV is sport, becomes more valuable, but it still means every dollar is gonna be watched because it's really tough being a corporate marketer.

Maggie Drysch (35:10.447)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (35:34.651)
Yeah, no, and you know, I tell people this all the time. I'm like, how cool is it I get to walk into a hockey arena every day for my job, right? Like, I think that's some, it's easy to get so caught up in what we're doing on a day-to-day basis as far as, I mean, it is hard work. I'm working, you know, during the season, you know, I'm working long hours. Maybe don't get to see my family as much as I'd like, but at the end of the day, I do what I do because…

I love it and obviously hoping I can be a part of a Stanley Cup winning team as a part of the front office because everyone here in this office right now as well as our players and our hockey ops side all contribute to that. But it does come with that side of long hours and.

our offices are underground, maybe not as much sunlight as I'd like, but at the end of the day, most of my work nights include going and watching a hockey game and being with my corporate partners and talking about what's happening on the ice. Like there's nights we don't even talk about our corporate partnership. We're just there to talk about the grandkids or what's happening on the ice and oh my gosh, this player got traded or, know, oh, we can't wait for the winter classic. Like there's a special…

piece of that that you won't find outside of sports, maybe a little bit on the brand side or the agency side, but from a true team club side, that's a really, that helps with some of the long hours and the hard work that we do. But I also tell my team a lot, we're not curing cancer. There's always, if you have those relationships in place, like we talked about, there's always a solution. We can always make it work. It's, you know, obviously we're focused on.

meeting salary cap and all of that, but there's always a solution. What we're doing is fun and we are the fun things our corporate partners want to talk about and be a part of. And it's important to remember that and way more fun than a corporate job.

Sean Callanan (37:31.342)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it is good advice to people coming into the industry. It does require a lot of hard work. It does require a lot of creativity and problem solving. taking those moments to just have some gratitude to go, yeah, I get to be here. I get to meet these people or I get to be part of these big moments, whether it be a big match or a big comeback or you see a corporate partner.

Maggie Drysch (37:48.921)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (38:00.248)
you know, absolutely kicking goals or, you know, scoring big with their, with their activations. And that's the piece where you go, that's why we do it. As well as, you know, wow. The confetti is falling and you've won a big game because you're part of that. You're part of that team. And that's, you know, that's the part where I'm always, you know, occasionally, you know, in that grinds, like just take a moment. You know, the puck is about to drop. You're not, you know, you're not, you're not in an Excel spreadsheet at that time, most of the time, but like, take it, but take that moment in the go. This is pretty lucky. This is pretty cool.

Maggie Drysch (38:24.633)
Yeah. Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (38:29.947)
Yeah, yeah, and I think that's a cool part of activation too is, you know, I tell people we're the boots on the ground, we're the behind the scenes people, like a lot of the stuff happening in game, it's easy to forget, but we're the ones that help bring that to life, right, which is really cool. So it's an important reminder just to take it all in. I also love our internship program for that reason they bring in such a fun energy because this might be the first time for them working in sports, right? And so

I always try to remind myself, see things through their eyes because every day they are truly that bright light of energy because they are so excited to be there. And it's easy to forget, but what we do is a lot of fun no matter what part of the business you're in.

Sean Callanan (39:15.192)
So you did say there in the partnership space, sometimes it is just a media buy. Sometimes it is a box ticker that, hey, they want some dashboards. They want to do a giveaway at a night and they want a couple of social posts. But then there are partners that do want to push you. How do you balance like that innovation and creativity bit to go, you you've got limited amount of resources and so you want to be doing some cool things. You can't do cool things for every single partner, for every single game night.

how do you sort of balance that piece of we always want to be innovative and creative overall for the whole season?

Maggie Drysch (39:43.28)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (39:51.917)
Yeah, I would say it kind of comes back to knowing what you do well and what your internal departments are really good at. You know, there's places where we're stronger than either NHL clubs and

places that are stronger than us, whether, no matter the department. So I think where it helps to find strength is knowing what your teams do really well. And when you have those partners coming back of like, we can't do this, this, and this every single night. Well, there's some things you do every single night and it loses value. If you're creating those, you know, high level innovative ideas, they lose that spark. If you're doing it on.

a cadence that's every single game. It's just like with social content, like some of that loses its value. So it's back to that creating that little bit of exclusivity, like keep them wanting more and coming back and engaging with that content. Similar with activations, you know, a brand that activates on the concourse unless they're really changing it up every single game and making sure because we do have, you know, more than I would.

venture to say more than half of our fan base are season ticket holders. We have the same people in the building. So unless you're really getting creative with that kind of stuff, every single night is a lot and it loses that excitement, that spark. And so remembering that as well as helping them understand, you know,

Sean Callanan (41:05.069)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (41:18.561)
I love when a partner comes to me of asking for advice on something because they know I know my brand that well because I can lean on my teams of like, okay, we can provide you this and we can promise we can execute this well versus this, you know, there are some things you get, hey, we're going to try it and make do our best to make it work. It might not work, but again, knowing what you do well and creating that.

keeping that excitement to when it comes to activation is how you're going to bring fans in and it's, you know, keeping life on social media and stuff like that. So not all partners understand that. A lot of the big brands do because they're partnered with so many different companies and, but.

Sometimes you do have to inform partners on that of you are the expert at the end of the day. You know, maybe not in all certain departments, but we're all informed well enough to speak on behalf of our social and digital teams and inform the partner to be be able to know what we're able to do is helping them at the end of the day, even though if it doesn't feel like it's on an every game cadence or this shiny, glamorous idea every single time, there is a perf, you know,

Sean Callanan (42:04.696)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (42:29.507)
There is a science behind it a little bit depending on the asset and it comes with some education piece to it for some partners.

Sean Callanan (42:38.478)
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Maggie, I really do appreciate you coming on the podcast and good to catch up again after seeing you in Nashville. I want to get to the Sports Geek Closing Five. Do you remember the first sports event you ever attended?

Maggie Drysch (42:53.275)
I, my dad didn't call me back on this one, but I'm pretty sure it was an Anaheim Ducks game. We had season tickets when I lived in Southern California. So I'm pretty confident it's that, if not an Anaheim Angels game time. So one of the, yeah, don't scroll my Facebook.

Sean Callanan (43:08.054)
It's all right. It's not an answer that can be Googled. So it's okay. There are people that get really stressed out about that question and think I'm going to do a public tour, raise, find out and find out you went to something else. No, I'm not. I'll take that as an answer. It's a quite valid answer. You would have been a bunch of different sports events in your time. Do you have a favorite food or a go-to food at a sports event?

Maggie Drysch (43:21.989)
Perfect.

Maggie Drysch (43:31.255)
I love the classic popcorn. You can't go wrong. You can snack during the whole game or event. Yeah, popcorn.

Sean Callanan (43:39.882)
Absolutely good one. What's the first app you open in the morning?

Maggie Drysch (43:46.637)
Again, probably not the answer you're looking for, but I got my aura ring on, so I got to check my sleep score, my readiness score, which it was not great in Nashville, I will tell you with our late nights. So Travis, Mr. and I had… Yeah.

Sean Callanan (43:53.398)
Yep. Yep.

Sean Callanan (44:01.39)
Well, I mean, I had jet lag and all of those kinds of things. So you don't want to check my scores, but it is quite funny that now these days we, you don't ask someone, did you have a good sleep? You go, sorry, I've got to check my score to find out. that not a problem at all. Is there someone that the podcast listeners should follow and why?

Maggie Drysch (44:12.303)
Gotta check my app. Yeah, so that's the first one.

Maggie Drysch (44:24.521)
Ooh, podcast.

Sean Callanan (44:26.75)
It doesn't have to be a podcast. can be an author. It could be someone that you follow on social or somewhere along those lines.

Maggie Drysch (44:30.436)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (44:35.235)
again, probably not an earth shattering answer, but I love front office sports. feel like they do a great overview, both Instagram or wherever you choose to follow them, as well as the newsletter, just kind of helping you. Like we were talking about earlier, staying informed, on different leagues, teams, abroad in the States, whatever it is for your situation. and then sports business journal, obviously you got to give them a plug, but their podcasts do a great job as well.

Sean Callanan (45:04.94)
Yep. And lastly, I'll ask you this from a personal point of view, and then you can put your activation hat on and which one's working best for you at the blues. But what social media platform is your MVP?

Maggie Drysch (45:17.867)
Ooh, for me, I've been a big TikTok person recently, personally, you know, after a busy day being able to get some giggles out after work and just whether it's goofy content or helpful content, know, self-improvement content, whatever it is. And then I think for me, Instagram, I know that's probably used a lot. It does feel like a lot of partnership content.

performs well there. It has to be done correctly and done right between stories and posts and as well as aligned with our social teams goals. But that one just feels like a classic and it's been a consistent over the past couple of years. And TikTok's a tricky one in that space for us. So Instagram's my answer for that one.

Sean Callanan (46:04.568)
Well, it is a tricky one. I mean, we still don't know whether it's going to be around in the US. You know, they keep extending the deadline. There's a few sports teams and leagues that are, you know, built out good audiences there. And, you know, it's a bit unsure, like, especially from a partnership point of view, you can't go and say, hey, we're going to do something on TikTok. You can't deliver it if the platform is not there. So it's a bit of a weird space to be in.

Maggie Drysch (46:10.597)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (46:21.007)
Yeah.

Maggie Drysch (46:29.765)
platform, right?

Sean Callanan (46:34.612)
in your market.

Maggie Drysch (46:35.193)
Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Sean Callanan (46:38.126)
Well, Maggie, thank you very much for coming to the podcast. I always ask the listeners to reach out and say thank you. Where is the best place for people to reach out and say thank you on?

Maggie Drysch (46:44.771)
nice.

Maggie Drysch (46:49.179)
hmm, well, let's see, where's the best place to reach me? Probably my email. Yeah, LinkedIn. That's probably a safe answer, huh? Thank you. Yeah, you can find me, Maggie Drish. Yeah, LinkedIn is a great spot. Last name's tricky, D-R-Y-S-C-H, but yeah, I love to talk to anyone.

Sean Callanan (46:55.586)
LinkedIn.

Sean Callanan (47:01.101)
That's right.

Sean Callanan (47:11.726)
Well, thank you. Thank you very much for coming to the podcast. I will put a link to your LinkedIn in the show notes. Really do appreciate you coming on the show and then hopefully I'll be in St. Louis sometime to catch a blues game. I would love to do that.

Maggie Drysch (47:14.853)
Yeah.

You

Maggie Drysch (47:26.531)
Yeah, you're always welcome. We'd love to have you.