Building Brand in a Competitive Sports Market – Jerome Elenez, FC Dallas

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

Sean (00:02.028)
Very happy to welcome Jerome Elenez. He's the Vice President of Marketing for FC Dallas. Jerome, welcome to the podcast.

Jerome Elenez (00:10.127)
Thanks, Sean. Thanks for having me.

Sean (00:12.47)
Not a problem at all. I always start off by asking how people got their start in sports. What about yourself? What was your first gig in the of sports?

Jerome Elenez (00:21.773)
Yeah. So I'm going to date myself a little bit. And, when I was, Enrolling in undergrad, it was about the time that Jerry Maguire had come out. and, I knew that I was going to get into business. I was still trying to determine which field or which specialty. but I had a call into marketing and specifically because of that movie, I was inspired by that. so I had played basketball at SMU, walked on.

And really wanted to get involved in that after I graduated. and I did what a lot of people do is, is they left, you know, I left my resume with the athletic director and the head of marketing there, and asked him if they had any opportunities or knew of anybody that was looking to give me a shout. and that worked out about a year later and, came back into the field and.

was an intern for SMU's athletic department and did that for about 18 months and had a fantastic experience, learned a lot. And then because of that, the Cowboys were calling SMU and TCU, the local universities here, looking for entry level salespeople. And so that was my first gig in professional sports. And through that made several connections.

I was selling media for the Cowboys. radio and television network and met with several agencies here in Dallas and across the country. And then that led to my future career with McDonald's Corporation for 19 and a half years.

Sean (02:01.858)
Yeah. So that's, I mean, it's a very common piece of that internship, networking really hard, finding those opportunities and then getting in that door. And a lot of, a lot of folk that I have had had on the podcast do started at sales space. And it's so important. If you can sell, you will find a home in sports. A lot of people will shoot for, want to be in a marketing role or I to run social or I want to run digital. Or it's like, you know, once you're in the organization, you can start, start seeing.

you didn't do that trajectory of working your way up at the Cowboys. went to McDonald's and were there for 19 years. So what were some of the things you learned from a marketing point of view working for McDonald's?

Jerome Elenez (02:45.293)
Yeah. So while I was with the Cowboys, I learned obviously the media side of the equation. but I knew that there was more, and I knew that there was more that I had studied in school, but that I was interested in learning more about the marketing atmosphere. and so when this opportunity came up with McDonald's, I jumped on it just from a long -term personal investment. and so, so I would say, you know, I got my degree in marketing.

But I really got my MBA through McDonald's and really in a general, literal and figurative sense because I did actually get my MBA as an employee for McDonald's and they had a great tuition reimbursement program. But learning about the business and how to manage a P &L and see the P &L through a franchisee's eyes, because every promotion that we would propose

They're looking at it from a different perspective. We're thinking it's going to be great. It's going to drive transactions. It's going to get people to the restaurants. They're looking at it from, well that's great, but how is that going to impact my profitability? Cause I still have these, these stables every day that I have to deal with the labor, food and paper costs and paying a rent and service fee to the corporation. so I've got to manage that. And if you're saying I'm going to have a sizable discount,

How many more hamburgers am I going to sell? How many more soft drinks am I going to sell in order to recuperate that quote unquote loss? So we, we had that conversation, I would say almost every month in my 19 year career with each of the franchisees. And it was such an amazing organization and it still is, but my time there, developing business and personal relationships with the franchisees.

I still have friends that are either part of the organization still today or that have sold their franchise and we get together and play golf still. So that's just the magic of the arches, I would say.

Sean (04:53.494)
And then so going from moving from McDonald's after a long career and working in corporate and again, you know, a lot of people confuse sports where they see big brand and which is, you know, alongside, you know, similar brands like McDonald's, but then sports has, you know, small teams, you know, you don't have the resources. What was it like going from McDonald's to, to, to the CMO of the Mavericks? What was that adjustment like?

Jerome Elenez (05:22.477)
Yeah, no, it was a sizable adjustment, financially speaking, and in terms of the number of resources. when, people see the golden arches, they think it's just a local hamburger restaurant. But there's so many parts and pieces that are involved, everything from the supply chain, which opens so many doors to, you know, where you get your, your bun source, the meat, the pickles, the ketchup packets.

Every little detail that goes into it, there's just so many hundreds of people and organizations that are involved in that. Going to a professional sports team, it's just your team. you know, I've been fortunate enough to work in the NFL, NBA, and now MLS. And sure, you do have support from each of the leagues and each league, I've noticed, handles that support differently.

But you're on your own and you're trying to string together whatever you have as a budget to make sure your ultimate goal is to get butts in seats, right? And I'm sure a number of your guests have talked about that. That's ultimately what you want to do, but you also need to manage that with building the brand and doing the things that you need to do to enhance that brand reputation or enhance that brand image and get people interested in coming and seeing it, seeing a match or a game.

Sean (06:43.694)
So I was lucky enough to have Mark Cuban on the podcast over 10 years ago now. What was it like working for him? What was his focus? Because he was really focused on the fan when he took over. When I spoke to him, it's always been one of the things he was always, yes, he wanted a terrific product on the court, but he wanted the best for the Mavs faithful. So what were some of the things that he was driving you from a marketing point of view at the Mavs?

Jerome Elenez (07:11.545)
Yeah, I learned a lot from Mark and I think, you know, one of his famous quotes is, everybody will get excited about a free t -shirt being tossed in the crowd, right? And so something as minute as that, that creates that energy can be replicated by a number of teams, right? But then also, know, also just his ingenuity and entrepreneurship, Mark is always looking for what is that big splash.

And so a number of things that he did early on in his career as the majority owner were tailored towards that. And I think really just reinvesting and supporting the fans as much as he did, that's what really led to a lot of their success. So I learned a lot from them on that. I will say that I learned just as much now working with the Hunt family. And it's a much more collaborative effort and supportive in terms of some of the ideas that we're bringing to the table, they're embracing and really trying to do things differently.

But I think it's just taking all the bits of information that I've learned throughout my career from working with Jerry Jones and his salesmanship is something that I've carried through my career working at McDonald's, understanding the holistic view of the business and getting multiple departments involved in decisions and how we bring about, you know, the cohesiveness to a, whether it's a marketing campaign or even just a promotional night, making sure that everybody's involved from operations to partnership to, to communications. There's so many people that need to be involved in those discussions early on. And so that's what we have at FC Dallas in it. And that's something that I really appreciate.

Sean (09:02.86)
Yeah, so you've jumped in there about about your role at FC Dallas. And you've got some really good knowledge of the you know, the Dallas sports market, which is a, you know, one of the massive sports markets in the US and working for, you know, what is known as America's team, the Cowboys and then the very successful Mavericks.

You know, what is it like working with FC Dallas in MLS, you know, soccer, as it is known in your in your part of the world or football as it's known globally, what are some of the opportunities and challenges around working in the Dallas market?

Jerome Elenez (09:40.793)
Yeah. So I equate it to, and, and, and my own personal experience. So I'm the youngest of five. And when, when I started with FC Dallas, I would look at my family's as FC Dallas is to the DFW marketplace at the time. But since then we've added the Dallas wings and now Dallas Trinity and women's professional soccer. So the family's growing, right? And we also have a professional cricket league here.

So now that family is grown to eight siblings, so to speak, and we're all screaming for the parents' attention who are the consumers, right, the fans. And ultimately, the older brother is the Dallas Cowboys, right? And it's not just Dallas Cowboys, but it's football. It's high school football, it's college football. That is what defines Texas outside of politics, right? And so that is where a lot of people's attention.

Sean (10:11.32)
Okay.

Jerome Elenez (10:39.073)
automatically goes to right now is pre, know, spring preseason training is kicking off, all the way through the Superbowl. Right. And so, so that's kind of the lead dog. And then you got the Mavs who made it to the NBA finals last year. the Rangers won a world series last year. And then you've got the stars and then us and the stars had a hell of a playoff run as well this past season and in the last two years. So these teams are naturally drawing a bunch of people.

And we've been around since 96. And what I mentioned in my interview with the Hunts when I was coming on board, I said, we have an awareness problem and we've got to address that. And we can't just focus on the soccer purists, even though is, DFW is such a soccer rich environment from the number of youth organizations that we have to our own academy.

I mean, there's so many kids and so many families that are involved in soccer that it is soccer rich. But as I said, youngest of five and now, you know, somewhat the middle child of eight. We've got to make sure that we're screaming for attention, doing things differently in terms of how we expect people to spend their disposable income. Why should you come and watch a soccer match if you're just a quote unquote average sports fan here in Texas, right?

Where you're naturally inclined to tune in for a Cowboys game, Mavs, Rangers, Stars. What makes us different? And that's what we've been trying to do over the last couple of years. And part of that is just really thinking outside the box and leveraging what most would consider a weakness and turn that into a strength. For example, we're an open air stadium and in the dead dogs days of summer,

Like right now it's 110 degrees outside. So trying to get people to buy into that is difficult, right? When you look at the Mavs and Stars play inside, obviously, so do the wings. But then you got the Cowboys and the Rangers have retractable roofs, but they're not opening the roofs right now. So we're flipping that script and we're saying, no, come out and see us because one, you're gonna have a great time. The soccer environment is just nonstop for 90 minutes

Jerome Elenez (13:04.143)
And then we'll have a drone show at the end of, you know, on pretty much on a monthly basis. And we put a lot of effort into these drone shows. The next one that we have coming up is our Star Wars night where we're going to have 750 drones flying, doing amazing formations of based on the Return of the Jedi episode. so and incorporating fireworks and light show into it. And so it's a family event.

And we're just hoping that all of these families that are involved in or playing soccer come to this and be like, you know what? That was a lot of fun. I want to come back. And it is just a great entertainment value that we're trying to get people to buy into.

Sean (13:49.912)
So you presented and you spoke about the drone shows at Seat in Las Vegas. And one of the questions I both said myself and heard from others is like, how does that idea get off the ground? Because it sounds amazing. we're all looking at for what's next in game entertainment and also driving in more casual fans and presenting your product as a sports and entertainment product.

And soon as you put up an IP like Star Wars, all the Star Wars geeks might be going to their first soccer game ever. But I just want to unpack a little bit of how do you get, you sort of said we want to show that point of difference, we want to flip a weakness into a strength, but how does that idea get off the ground and then more importantly, get sign off, become a valuable asset for FC Dallas?

Jerome Elenez (14:49.603)
Yeah. And so it comes back to what I was saying earlier in terms of, Clark and Dan hunt buying into and trusting the ideas that I brought to the table. and really trying to think differently instead of just saying, no, we got to go after the soccer purists and that's who we want in our stadiums. And really just taking a long -term view of like, no, if we can get families and kids involved in this, we can get somebody hooked now. That will be a fan. 18, 20 years from now and hopefully bring their kids, right?

So, but getting it off the ground took a lot of trust. It took some research and we looked at it from every angle, talked to several different drone suppliers, the company that we use, Sky Elements is an amazing partner of ours. And we actually struck a three -year deal with them where we invested some dollars so they could expand their fleet of drones.

And so that's what really helped us. The other thing is we've got the land. So we've got 18 Academy fields just north of our stadium where from an FAA clearance standpoint, that's what they're looking for. Cause you can't fly these drones directly over the stadium. So we have that other benefit of we've got all these land, this, this land north of us. We fence it off. Nobody can walk underneath the drones. And then each of the drones has a built in GPS sensor. it slightly gets out of formation, it comes back to its landing pad.

So there's a number of safety precautions. Sky Elements does a lot of the legwork in terms of getting FAA clearance and city clearance and making sure everything's ready to go. We work with them in terms of, I provide a storyboard with them. We talk about the timing with relation to music, any art that we have up know, we just choreographed the entire night and then they take that information and work with their programmers and they put together each drone. Each drone has a specific job in each formation that they're going to do.

Sean (16:58.88)
And so does that, I mean, you said it happens monthly. that affect Lee, you know, and we've seen a lot of sports to how can we create these tent pole games in our, in our calendar, whether it's a, a specific Jersey, our rivalry round, does that, is that now giving you, you know, once a month, there's a, there's a, there's a tent pole is a destination game. doesn't matter who's, you know, turning up on the park and the opposition. They are, I'm going, yes, I'm going for the football, but

You know, I've been the drone show is amazing. I'm a sales fan. I'm going to this game is as it's sort of given your ticketing, you know, given some, I guess some structure to your ticketing planning.

Jerome Elenez (17:36.345)
That's where, again, it comes back to kind of that partnership and working with other departments. So we don't get our schedule until probably December each year, and we've got to turn around pretty quickly. So I'm already working with my team on theme nights that we're going to look at for next year. And then once we get the schedule in December, I work with our VP of operations for the stadium, as well as our VP of ticketing.

And then we, we map out what games make sense where ticketing is looking at. This is going to be a harder draw. Then we look at probably adjusting and having something like a drone show come in to support that. Right. If we got, LAFC coming in, we might not need as much marketing support or effort and, really let the, the draw be the draw, you know?

And so we look at that strategically. said on a monthly basis, it works out to about you know, four to six weeks, but because we're looking at it very strategically and then really if we do them too close together, it, we're in danger of creating that burnout. Right. And so we want to make sure that they're special. They're intentional. If they make sense against like a rival, then we do it, you know, and we've done that in the past and we'll, actually do some things next year, with some of our rival matches, but we got to see how the schedule plays out. then we, we.

plug and play, so to speak.

Sean (19:05.23)
So one of the things when you are setting the bar high for terrific experiences, like I said, your fans start to expect it. And yeah, you don't want to be expecting a drone show every year because it'll just become a bit, I've seen this, that's okay. So what are some of the other things you're doing at Toyota Stadium to say, this is why you're coming to an FC Dallas game, yes. Success on the pitch is what we want, but also, we want you to turn up whether you're a like you said, a soccer purist or we're welcoming in new fans that go, this is a terrific entertainment option on a Friday or a Saturday night whenever you might have a game.

Jerome Elenez (19:43.183)
Yeah. Yeah. So, DFW is such a transplant city, or Metroplex, I should say. There's so many people that come to this, this market from whether it's another city in Texas or another city in the U S or internationally. Right. And it's thriving. It's growing. the city of Dallas proper over the last 10 years has grown population wise, about eight to 10%. the city of Frisco where we're our stadium is located, which is about 30 minutes north of the city of Dallas proper.

It's grown about 34 to 36 % in that same time period. So we're seeing tremendous growth in the population just continues to diversify. So my job is trying to find where are those new fans that we haven't tapped into in the past, right? So we've always on our organic social media celebrated all of the whether it's black history month, Asian American heritage month, any type of diversity group, we're celebrating that because that is our job as a community partner and a community leader. Right? Well, what we've done this year is we've taken a step further. We've never had, a black history month celebration in stadium because our games and typically start in late February. Well,

We went ahead and did that, even though our home opener was February 24th this year, we made sure that that was going to be kind of, it was a home opener, but it was also black history month. And so we reached out to, the Concord Baptist church in South Dallas and asked them to come and perform and, and do a pregame show as well as a halftime show. They killed it. They loved it.

We had actually had them come back on Juneteenth. had a game on Juneteenth and they did another like. just amazing performance. we've never done anything with the Asian community here at FC Dallas, in stadium. did a, South, Asian American heritage night in May, followed by a South Asian American heritage night, on July 31st. And so having those conversations with the Asian chamber of commerce and talking to them about being fully transparent, we were talking to you, not when we want your

Jerome Elenez (22:06.573)
your community to come and experience a game fully and full transparency. But on the flip side, I'm also talking to them about, Hey, did you know we have a homegrown partner program that is investing in local businesses, minority owned businesses that your people, your constituents within the chamber can easily apply for. They're like, we didn't know that. So it's a, it's a two way street. And, and so we're, trying to really foster those relationships with community leaders and making sure they understand like we're again, we're a younger sibling.

A lot of people have gone to all of these other games and all these other teams and they're amazing organizations. But we're saying, give us a chance, come out and experience what we have to offer and you'll come back, you know, and you'll continue to see what we do in the community that makes even more sense for your constituents to continue to support FC Dallas.

Sean (23:03.116)
I mean, that's a real advantage being like you said, that younger sibling, you know, real that hustle nature of what you have to do when you're a challenger, you know, team in a market with with you sit like said, big bigger brothers, because they can't execute at that community level of grassroots because of this, this scale, both in market and nationally, it gets tougher and tougher to be able to, reach, you know, local communities that potentially price them out of market. So it's something that you can get deeper ties into space.

When you first got to FC Dallas, you're talking about awareness and sort of trying to build out that awareness piece. What have you done to, you you've done the drone shows that sort of give a bit of that sizzle and give a bit of difference in market. What have you done from a brand point of view? You know, we spoke about it at Seat, your Light the Match campaign. What were some of the things you've done from a campaign point of view to try to cut through some of the noise and get some visibility for FC Dallas?

Jerome Elenez (24:03.791)
Yeah. So, we've done a couple of things. One, it started with, with a marketing plan. And this is where my 19 years at McDonald's corporation in marketing helped in terms of the latter part of my career. it helped me understand the importance of making sure it is a thoughtful and data driven plan that is going to make sense to make your customer base, potential customer base react. Right.

So fortunately I've been in DFW on and off for 30 something years. know this marketplace like the back of my hand. and one of the assets that we have in terms of media and traditional forms of media is we are next to Atlanta. The, are the second highest penetration of digital billboards. So I look at that in our drive time in DFW. Sure. There's, other markets that have worse traffic nightmares than we do, but

We're in the top 10 in terms of drive time across the U S you couple that with our digital billboards that we have here. I see that as a post -it note opportunity for us to hit somebody on their daily commute, which is on average 20 to 25 minutes a day. That's, that's what mine is from, from Dallas to Frisco and everybody else coming from Fort Worth to Dallas or Arlington to, to DFW, whatever it may be. and so I'm trying to remind people, or at least educate them.

Hey, there's a professional soccer team here. and so that's where the awareness starts. And we do that in English and Spanish. funny thing we did for, our South Asian American heritage. And I, we actually bought some billboards that were, pretty centrally located to our Indian population up in Frisco. So we had four billboards and we had a rotation of English and Hindi and Urdu, ads running.

So we're, trying different things. We're trying to get, build that connection. Right. Again, just building that awareness. also, and when I got here, my first year, three years ago, we already had a partnership with our CBS or local CBS TV affiliate before we entered into a 10 year agreement with Apple TV, right? Where all of our games are being broadcast. So we had a local media partner that we were working with. And so we had that trade value to be able to get that broadcast by. So.

Jerome Elenez (26:26.541)
We leaned into that where it made sense. We also bought some additional packages and we bought the UEFA package on CBS three years ago and we bought it last year too. And that helped us connect our brand with the soccer purists, right? But we had to use all forms of media. We bought Connect TV and then we started looking down the lower funnel in terms of buying our paid social display and making sure that we're having that low hum

every day throughout the season. And that's something that we didn't have prior to me getting there. It was very, very spotty. was like, ticket sales are a little down. We need to go buy a billboard. And it just, the media landscape does not work that way. And you're not getting the best rate because what you're actually getting is the worst rate. You're getting the rate card rate when you're, making those reactionary media buys. So again, having a thoughtful marketing plan, having a thoughtful media plan that supports it, and then adjusting the creative. So

We have some talented individuals in -house, but together with an outside agency over the last couple of years, we've been able to transform our campaign that we can leverage and really have a unique spin that we traditionally didn't have, right? It was some lights and some smoke that we shot the players in and that was it. Now it's like, it's a high entertainment production value that we're doing. Last year it was light to match watch what happens.

We had an onsite location at a studio warehouse that we shot the guys in. This year we actually, for this year's campaign, we took the players up to Wichita Falls to Shepherd Air Force Base because our campaign this year is kicking the afterburner. So we leaned into that afterburner effect from a jet plane. so a lot of that imagery. people see that now and they're like, wow, what's that all about? versus just players in lights and smoke. it's just like, you know, that's just not going to get people's attention.

Sean (28:30.7)
And is it a little bit of, we're just gonna go stand next to the big brother. Like, you know, here's what the Cowboys do, here's what Mavs do, and you just come along and puff out the chest and show that high production value to sort of have the fans sort of sit up and take notice and go, FC Dallas are doing things.

Jerome Elenez (28:47.715)
Yeah, for sure. For sure. And, know, we've done other things inside the stadium to, just make the experience cool. It's like, you know, we, we had this large stage on the north side of our pitch that, we used to have seating there. We, we, we don't right now. And so it created this chasm and I'm just like, okay, we got to fill that up. And, so we had a local graffiti artists come in and do that back wall and add some.

some decorative vibe to it and then kind of that street vibe. And they also helped us with the tunnel that both teams walk out of. So you're getting that intensity brought to life. Then we added like a 50 foot shield of our logo that we shoot fire at the top of and it lights up every time we score. And, you know, we've got all this pyrotechnics. So it's like a rock concert show now every time we score. And so the stage is being brought to life. And so, yeah, it's like, we want to stand there and be like,

Yeah, we're holding our own and, you know, the kind of results are speaking for itself. You know, the first year I was here, we had seven sellouts. Last year we had 10. This year we've had 13 out of 13 sellouts and we'll likely sell out the rest of the season. So we're getting that momentum and it's exciting.

Sean (30:01.986)
So sort of to look back at your McDonald's career and you sort of, is a sort of similar structure where, know, big corporate and franchisees where MLS is effectively the corporation and all the teams are the franchises and the MLS is on a really good trajectory right now. You know, obviously you've got the Apple deal that's come in and then you've got, you know, players like Messi coming into the league and drawing more eyeballs and more attention to the league.

you know, what's your, you how is FC Dallas sort of taking part and also leveraging some of that, some of that growth of some of the new players and some of the new interests coming into the league.

Jerome Elenez (30:38.051)
Yeah, no, it's amazing. you know, the deal with Apple, I think when that was announced that that just solidified the legitimacy and the long -term plan for the league, right? Prior to that, it was, you didn't feel that. and, it's, you know, you can't go wrong with being partners with one of the best and brightest brands in the world. Right. and so that just gives you that multiplier effect of.

Not only are we now being seen internationally, if there's soccer fans that have, we got a couple of players, well, most of our team is international. So Alan Velascois coming back from an ACL injury. He's an amazing Argentinian soccer player, striker. And he impressed Messi when we played them last year in our leagues cup, which was just an amazing experience on its own.

Alan's play that night really got that respect from Messi so much so that I'm sure he advocated for him to be called up to the national team, right? And so that impact is not only for us, but it's also happening for our players. And then you talk about the viewership. So now it's like the St. Louis fans are watching FC Dallas play in St. Louis because they can.

And it's an easy flip of the switch, right? Especially with this leagues cup too. It's like, you're watching all these other teams that are playing that you probably never would have watched before, but you're watching them because we could potentially match up with them. that it's just, it's creating, it's this energy that's just happening on all cylinders. It's just really great.

Sean (32:26.254)
And then I guess the next step is, you know, what's coming down the pipe, is FIFA World Cup 2026. Dallas is going to be a host city. You know, the world's football fans are going to descend on the US for the games. It's a real opportunity for you to help identify more football purists that potentially in market, but then also, you know, a lot of casuals that will, you know, be swept up in the world of football when it is you know, when it is happening across North America, how are you both preparing for it, but then also preparing to take advantage for that, you know, festival to be in market?

Jerome Elenez (33:07.097)
Right, right. No, so we're excited, you know, in DFW, we're fortunate enough that we're going to host nine matches here for the World Cup, right? All the way up to the semis and that's going to be extremely exciting. We've been able to host, you know, and they'll be held at AT &T Stadium, right? Where the Cowboys play and, you know, we've had a Super Bowl there, an NBA All -Star game and we have the capabilities.

But we're really going to have instead of one Super Bowl, we're to have nine Super Bowls, which is exciting, right? We'll have a bunch of people coming in from out of town, from all over the world. And then for those local fans, and you think about this, you know, leading up to kind of the Apple deal, but you think about the momentum that shows like Ted Lasso and Welcome to Wrexham are doing, you know, it's getting those…watched the World Cup before.

I've heard of soccer matches, but I've never been doing it. And now you've got people that are, you know, tuning in and watching. And for us, like, it could not come at a better time for us in terms of timing. The U .S. has hosted the World Cup before, but this is the chance for us. If we don't catch this wave and ride it like we should, and I know that we can,

And if it doesn't catch on this go around, I don't know what we're gonna do to ever get fans that excited with all this momentum that we have building up to it. to answer your question in terms of what we're gonna do, there's a storyline at least here in DFW and with FC Dallas. Our academy has produced so many players that have come through our system in some form or fashion and that have been called up to the US men's national team.

From Wesley McKinnon to Ricardo Pepi to Jesus Ferreira that's on our squad now, played in the last World Cup. So there's a story that we're going to be weaving in terms of how we present ourselves. And some of the things that I showed at the SEA conference was, you know, putting ourselves in non -traditional areas. you know, our partnership with Lovefield, the local airline, one of the local airports here, for us to have

Jerome Elenez (35:27.809)
Our graphics in one of their parking garages, an entire floor talking about FC Dallas and welcoming FC Dallas fans, that kind of thing. We're going to continue to build on those types of initiatives that are more street and grassroots and blow those up. But then we're also going to use traditional forms of media to really celebrate our kind of contributions to US men's national soccer team.

Sean (35:54.732)
Yeah, I mean, it will be an amazing opportunity to get more fans in market. know, someone that turns up to their first game is the World Cup experience and they want more. We're like, hey, guys, we're just here. Come on, come on down. But then that then that international player that like you said, the Apple deal opens up, you know, all these people come into the US, you know, go, will add MLS to my you know, to my leagues that I watch and it's a

Jerome Elenez (36:06.915)
Yep.

Sean (36:21.646)
I click the button and getting it and getting it on Apple. think it is. I think you're right. And, know, I didn't even think of the Ted Lasso, Rexam effect. Like all the things are there for the MLS and the US football market to US market to really embrace football or soccer. One thing I wanted to touch on before we sort of wrapped up. I've been asking recently, you know, the MarTech stack has grown year on year for the last 15 years. I think I.

Remember sharing infographics 15 years ago, it was like 400 different pieces of tech and now it's like 8 ,000. I wanted to get your perspective of some of the things that you're, some of the tools you're working with and then also comparing it back to, you know, your time at McDonald's and some of the resources that you might've had then. What are some of the tools that you work with on a daily or that are vital for your work at FC Dallas?

Jerome Elenez (37:18.863)
Yeah, it's funny going back to my McDonald's days, like, you know, our media budget back then, I would say it was about 90 % broadcast TV on a national basis. Maybe it was somewhere 85%. And then it, you know, we had a, maybe a 3 % towards internet advertising is probably what we called it back then and, and how, how things have changed. Right. And, and, and

Sean (37:41.037)
Yeah.

Jerome Elenez (37:47.663)
Even before I left McDonald's, we started to see that shift where it was more mobile. It was more paid social and that started to creep into that equation. And now I'm seeing, I would say it's almost flipped where I would say 65 to 70 % of our budget is towards paid social and display ads. And then we lean in on the rest with our traditional forms of media.

You know, but it continues to evolve and it's something that we got to continue to keep an eye on. you know, there's, I would say three years ago, we were able to track exact the, attribution to each ticket sales to, our digital efforts, but with some of the changes in the regulations in terms of, you know, the, information that's allowed to be gathered.

That makes things a little bit difficult for us, but we can still figure out just back of house, how many online ads or tickets that we're selling. So it's not a direct attribution, but we can get pretty darn close. But I think, you know, everybody's talked about AI. I think that's going to continue to play a role in everybody in some capacity,

Whether it's a thought of an idea that you could surface and get a perspective on, to actual copy that's written. Those types of things will continue to get ingrained in sports and specifically sports marketing. But you still gotta have that human element because it's the idea of, right, shooting the players, whatever environment that we're gonna put them in, you still gotta have that ability to edit.

And we got some great Videographers and editors on our squad that know the exact highlight to be able to slide into a moment within a commercial that really makes sense or they create that atmosphere inside the stadium that you're just not going to get from AI generated content, It's just, there's that human element is still going to be involved in that.

Sean (40:03.468)
Yeah, I see AI in a lot of instances, especially that content creation space as a productivity tool. How can you shortcut some pieces? And it's just another tool in your toolkit that can accelerate and, I guess, increase the volume that you're producing. And a smart content team will be able to take those efficiencies to work on other things. But again, you still need the verification and the final touches and picking of the right thing or… realizing where AI hasn't got the pick right. But it is interesting to see how it will be used more advantageously going forward.

Jerome Elenez (40:45.433)
Yeah, for sure.

Sean (40:47.374)
Jerome, I really appreciate you coming on. I want to get to the sports geek closing five. Do you remember the first sports event you ever attended?

Jerome Elenez (40:57.871)
Yes, Harlem Globetrotters in El Paso, Texas in like 19 something or other. It a little child.

Sean (41:06.094)
I don't need to ask if they won, obviously, but definitely one of the, I guess one of the franchises that really did focus on that entertainment piece, Groundbreakers in an instance. So everyone sort of moved into that direction. You would have been to a lot of sports events in your time. Do you have a favorite food memory or a go -to food at a sports event?

Jerome Elenez (41:20.367)
See you soon.

Jerome Elenez (41:32.087)
so, and we just went to Texas Rangers game, Monday night. It was actually a FC Dallas, Texas Rangers game. but I remember, their hot dogs. and, and I've been to Dodger stadium and had a Dodger dog and I was blown away by that. but the Rangers have a, a bratwurst that is unbelievable. And so that was the one that I remember going to in my, when I was in my early twenties.

And I went and sought that out. was the first thing we hit when we got to the stadium on Monday.

Sean (42:06.811)
Yeah, an absolute staple at a ballpark. What's the first app you open in the morning?

Jerome Elenez (42:10.511)
Thanks.

Jerome Elenez (42:13.996)
The first app.

Sean (42:15.415)
Yeah.

Jerome Elenez (42:18.031)
so it, know, unfortunately it is Facebook. and then, I do carve out some time. I have a faith app that I pop in and I listened to and on my, my drive to work every, every morning.

Sean (42:34.094)
Terrific. Is there someone that you follow? It might be someone you follow on social media, an author that the listeners should give a follow to and why?

Jerome Elenez (42:47.585)
media, somebody I follow on social media or just.

Sean (42:50.902)
Or someone you follow could be a colleague, it could be an author, someone that you follow for either inspiration or information.

Jerome Elenez (43:00.267)
No, well, I mean, when I guess I got the thought on social media, there's a guy that Manolo teaches golf that is very entertaining. And I'm a golfer. so I just get a kick out of some of his quips and whatnot. it's and he actually gives great tips too. But he does it in a very funny and enlightening way.

Sean (43:07.83)
Okay.

Sean (43:26.766)
Absolutely terrific. Lastly, what social media platform is your MVP? And you can answer this personally, but then also from an FC Dallas perspective.

Jerome Elenez (43:39.469)
Yeah, now for sure. It's definitely in meta right now professionally in terms of what we put our dollars against. It helps that we've got access to Instagram, which is a younger user versus Facebook. So that's where I'm falling in that older group. But I'm turning that on to see if our ads are being delivered. That's why it's one of the first ads that I or apps that I opened up in the morning.

But yeah, I would say meta is definitely top. X, we don't really advertise, we, utilize our social media team does utilize utilize X a lot. and, but those would be kind of the top three.

Sean (44:21.742)
Well, Jerome, really appreciate you taking the time. there are people that have listened and enjoyed the episode, which is as well as I have, what's the best way for them to reach out to you and say thanks or ask for some advice?

Jerome Elenez (44:38.905)
Yeah, on LinkedIn for sure. I'm happy to connect and provide any additional texture or answers and answer any questions and help any way I can. Happy to.

Sean (44:52.934)
I appreciate it. I will keep an eye out for some shots of the next drone show, the Star Wars one. You know, I'm a Star Wars fan from way back. So I'll definitely be, that would be one that I would tune in for or attend. Yeah, thank you very much for taking the time and hopefully I'll catch up with you soon.

Jerome Elenez (45:06.531)
you

Jerome Elenez (45:12.003)
Yeah, sure thing. Thanks, Sean. Appreciate it.