Human Centered

Title: Engineering the Fan Experience: How the Kansas City Chiefs Scaled CX Beyond the Stadium | Lara Krug
Host: Nick Brunker (Managing Director of Experience Strategy, VML)
Guest: Lara Krug (EVP & Chief Media and Marketing Officer, Kansas City Chiefs; President & COO, Foolish Club Studios)

Overview

In professional sports, customer experience faces a challenge unlike almost any other industry: you have more brand attention than virtually anyone on earth, yet zero control over the outcome of the core product on the field. How do you design an experience strategy that thrives through championship highs and rebuilding lows alike? And how do you scale that experience for the millions of fans who may never set foot inside your home stadium?

In this episode of Human Centered, host Nick Brunker sits down with Lara Krug—the first Chief Marketing Officer in Kansas City Chiefs history. Bringing an omnichannel brand perspective honed at L'Oréal and Anheuser-Busch, Lara reveals how the Chiefs engineered an end-to-end fan experience that bridges in-stadium tradition with global digital reach. She discusses how the organization redefined its customer segments—including a fanbase that is now over 57% female—the operational craft of live gameday CX, the strategic restraint required during historic cultural moments, and how content studios are redefining fan engagement outside the 60-minute game clock.

Key Takeaways & Topics Covered:

  • The Sports CX Paradox: Why sports breaks conventional customer experience models—and how to build lasting emotional attachment when the core product (winning on the field) is inherently unpredictable.
  • Segmenting the Modern Fan Base: Moving beyond the legacy season-ticket holder profile to design dedicated experience tracks for casual fans, millennial parents, youth audiences, and an audience that is now over 57% female.
  • Scaling Live Atmosphere to Digital Living Rooms: How the Chiefs productized their in-person tailgating culture into digital, interactive activations like the "World's Largest Tailgate" and "Tailgate Games" for fans around the world.
  • Content as an Experience Layer: Why Foolish Club Studios was built to extend the fan lifecycle through year-round, non-traditional sports content—from The Kingdom docuseries to Hallmark movie partnerships.
  • Operational Excellence & Gameday Logistics: An inside look at the cross-functional coordination required to orchestrate a seamless gameday journey for 70,000+ in-person fans while simultaneously managing live broadcasts and real-time social channels.
  • Brand Restraint as a Trust Driver: How protecting the fan experience—choosing authenticity over short-term monetization when pop culture arrived at Arrowhead—strengthened long-term brand equity and customer trust.

Creators and Guests

Host
Nick Brunker
Nick is a Forrester CX-Certified professional with a versatile portfolio including more than a decade of discipline in human-centered experience strategy, insight-based digital transformation, eCommerce & omnichannel planning. As part of VMLY&R’s CX practice, Nick is responsible for cultivating a deep understanding of customer motivations and business needs to deliver best-in-class experiences for our clients – and, as importantly, the people they serve. He collaborates with senior leaders to drive strategic alignment, push thinking into action, and helps architect CX measurement frameworks to achieve customer and business objectives. Additionally, he is actively expanding the agency’s industry footprint through thought leadership and IP development. During his career, Nick has partnered with various Fortune 500 clients across numerous categories, including Ford Motor Company, Google, General Mills, Fifth Third Bank, and Southwest Airlines, among others. He and his wife, Abbey, reside in Cincinnati, Ohio, with their children Nolan, Emma & Ainsley, and their ten-year-old pup, Bailey.
LK
Guest
Lara Krug

What is Human Centered?

At VML, it is our unique ability to integrate our BX, CX and Commerce practices - creating connected brands to drive growth - ultimately combining real customer benefits with a deep brand bond, consistently pushing to exceed customer expectations and deliver unique and generous experiences.

On Human Centered, we explore how brands – both large and small – are creating meaningful customer experiences, and discuss how professionals like you can tap into industry best practices to create value and gain traction in transforming your business.

Nick Brunker:

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Human Centered. I'm Nick Brunker, managing director of Experience Strategy at VML and your host for the show. Thanks for giving us a listen. Think about your favorite NFL team.

Nick Brunker:

You might see them in person 10 times a year, some of you never, and and you'd still describe yourself without hesitation as one of their fans. That's the strangest customer relationship in the business. And in the NFL, it runs at a scale nothing else can possibly touch. Last year, NFL games were 89 of the top 100 television programs in America, not sports broadcasts, programs, full stop. And the business matches more than $23,000,000,000 in league revenue with every single one of the 32 teams banking north of $450,000,000 in shared national money before it even sells a single ticket.

Nick Brunker:

Then there's what happens when a team stops being a team and becomes a cultural event. When people who couldn't have named a single player eighteen months ago are suddenly in your stadium buying and wearing your merchandise. That's relevance you didn't have to buy, and it's what every single marketer across all industries are chasing. But here's the part I can't stop thinking about. The person marketing one of those teams has more attention than almost any brand on earth, yet zero control over the product generating it.

Nick Brunker:

You can't market your way to a healthy quarterback. By design, half the league goes home disappointed every week. So what are you actually building, and what has to hold up in a championship year and one where you lose almost all the games? My guest today is Laura Krug, and she's gonna help us dig into that. She's the first chief marketing officer in Kansas City Chiefs history.

Nick Brunker:

She's the EVP and chief media and marketing officer as well as the president and COO of the team's studio, foolish club studios. More on that in a little bit. With a remit running from brand and content to consumer products in seven international markets. She came to all of it from beauty and beer, having never worked a day in sports. I'm so happy and grateful that she's here with us today.

Speaker 1:

Laura, thanks so much for being with us. Excited to have you on the show.

Lara Krug:

Thank you for having me. Happy to be here.

Nick Brunker:

I am so excited. And, but before we get into any of this, we we have to address the elephant in the room. I'm sitting here in Cincinnati. You're in Kansas City, and I'm fairly sure this conversation violates some sort of unwritten AFC code. So I'll...

Nick Brunker:

I promise I'll try to keep the Bengals talk to a minimum. No promises though. But we're recording in season, so I have to ask how are you feeling about where things sit right now? I know we're early. We're recording in late September.

Nick Brunker:

How how are feeling?

Lara Krug:

So far so good. Certainly starting a winning season so far, is a really nice feeling. The whole attitude and environment just feels a little bit lighter. But it's just... It's nice to be back.

Lara Krug:

It's nice to see Patrick back on the field and Travis and have some new faces and some old faces. So, yeah, I think you can feel the energy in Chiefs Kingdom.

Speaker 3:

Well, and it was fun when we were just getting this episode teed up. We text our global CEO, John Cook, and said, hey. Could we see if we can, you know, sync up? Because he's a huge Chiefs fan as... For those that listen to the show know for making the introduction and getting this on the calendar.

Nick Brunker:

So thanks, John, for... If you're listening, for getting this set up. And as we were talking, I sent the note to him and, you know, we got connected and we're talking about stuff, and obviously, he gives me all kinds of shit about, being a Bengals fan. Although I really do enjoy coming to Chiefs Kingdom. More about that in a bit.

Speaker 3:

But when we were exchanging notes, you and I, we realized that a funny coincidence came out. We both went to Miami University in Ohio. So love and honor. And what a... Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Love and

Speaker 3:

honor for sure. Like...

Speaker 2:

I know. What a very small world. And actually, we are, I don't know if you saw, but, next August, we're gonna be hosting Miami of Ohio, versus Nebraska football at Arrowhead next August.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

So you'll have to you'll have to come out, and at least be an Arrowhead for for a non Bengals Chiefs

Speaker 3:

game. No doubt about it. And and thinking back to those years, what do you remember most fondly about your time in Oxford?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I loved Oxford. I loved Miami. You know, I think one of the things when I went out to go look at the college coming from the East Coast, there was just something so, you know, classically college about the campus and the brick buildings and the small town. And having grown up next to New York City, it felt like the complete opposite of that and kind of what you were supposed to do for college. So I loved my time at Miami.

Speaker 2:

I think it's almost my twentieth.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we're getting close. We're getting close.

Speaker 2:

We're getting very close. So I've only been back once or twice since we graduated, so maybe we'll go back next fall. But no, it really, it left a pretty big imprint on my professional life as well as my personal life. It's where I met my husband as well. So hold it very dear in my heart.

Speaker 3:

That's awesome. Before we leave Oxford for one more beep, what did you have your eye on back then career wise? Was there any version of the college age Lara who could have pictured ending up where you are now?

Speaker 2:

No. I always say I wish I wish college Lara could see, non college Lara now. You know, exactly what I wanted to do. I did go to college for mass communications. I had interned at a magazine.

Speaker 2:

I had interned at NBC right before I graduated. I always wanted to do something in the media content, you know, marketing world. I thought it would have gone more of the direction of something like an NBC or that type of world. So I guess I didn't know it. I didn't realize that I would be here now, but it is when I do really think about it.

Speaker 2:

It is... It's somehow a little bit full circle. I'm now in a media and marketing and entertainment role just at a sports club. So that part I don't think I've thought about. But, yeah, I think hopefully college Lara would be pretty proud of adult Lara now.

Speaker 3:

I can only imagine. Before we talk about how you ended up in Kansas City with the Chiefs at least, so you kinda teed up how you you met your husband and he's from the area, I I wanna walk the road that got you there because I think the food line matters more than people probably assume. If I if I read right, you started in beauty, L'Oreal, then Avon. What were you actually doing day to day and what did that business teach you about people?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I actually started my career at a media agency. So I started at PhD when I first graduated college, you know, working as an assistant media planner, you know, first century kind of job and worked across a variety of brands. And I think that is really the start of it all. And in some ways, I loved brands, I loved the creativity on the media side of things.

Speaker 2:

You know, I never thought of myself as creative in that traditional sense of, you know, the actual creative agency side. But I loved audiences. I loved getting to know people and how do you connect the dots. And from there, went over Yes To Beauty, went to Avon first, worked in house really on their B2B side. Avon is a really unique business.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, things have changed quite a bit in the world that we live in now, but funny in some ways that, you know, human to human selling and interaction was what Avon's business was built on. It's It's it's still very relevant today. Don't know as much about their business now. But went over to Avon and did that for a few years, worked on the b2b side, moved over a little bit to the media side for their e commerce platform. So that's where I started learning digital and e commerce and not working just on the agency side, but now what it meant to be on a brand.

Speaker 2:

Spent some time then going over to L'Oreal. More beauty global this time, hair care, so learning all new sides of brands and marketing and how to then extract what a brand means at a global level. So how do you communicate something about a product to very different audiences and very different countries at very different life stages. I was also really fortunate at the time to work for the GM of the business who was a tried and true marketer, right? Could create magic of hair care products using the same ingredients as every other hair care product in some ways.

Speaker 2:

So really got to learn marketing, if you want to say it from that traditional scent. And then, went over to Anheuser Busch. I went from beauty to beer as I say, so very different, very different audiences, very different products. But you know, there were so many similarities in many ways, but also went over to a global role there and was in media and was in marketing and was given the opportunity to take over sponsorship, which I had known nothing about. And so again, how to learn connecting the dots between how do you find the right either sports sponsorship or music sponsorship or food sponsorship that made sense for the brand to communicate their message.

Speaker 2:

And then was fortunate to run some brands. And then ultimately five years ago was recruited over to the Chiefs and now in this phase of my life and phase of my career, which just got brought it to the next level.

Speaker 3:

I think you answered my next question was how did you first hear that the job existed for the Chiefs?

Speaker 2:

Well, the the real first way that I actually heard it existed is we had moved... My family and I had moved to Kansas City in 2020, for my husband's job, working on on the creative agency side of things. I was still with Anheuser Busch. My husband is a diehard Chiefs fan born and raised here. He actually...

Speaker 2:

The job had gotten posted, I believe, and he had seen it on some Reddit site or something like that. And I remember him saying to me like, you should apply. And I was like, well, I love my job and I'm sure there are a 100,000,000 people that are applying to that job. And so I didn't, and then don't remember the exact timeframe, but in April or so of twenty one, I was reached out to by a recruiter saying that the CMO of the Chiefs was a search and would I be interested? And so it went from being kind of a, like, you should do this to, oh wait, this isn't actually an option.

Speaker 2:

And so yeah, I was incredibly fortunate to get the role And here we are. So I joined in July '21. So it's just I meant I've entered into my sixth season now.

Speaker 3:

So what do you think that they saw when, you know, obviously they're looking at you and saying, okay, she worked in beauty and in beer and she's had media experience. Did you like, get a sense as you guys were talking and you have to go through all the details of the interview process, but, what was that like as as they were kinda talking to you about kinda getting into this this world? Because obviously, as we'll get into, there's a lot of great obvious crossovers between the work that you've done and what the NFL has become. But tell me about the interview process and how they kind of were asking you about your experience and how it lined up with what they're looking for.

Speaker 2:

It's a great question. I think, you know, the Chiefs brand, and to the point in your question, had never had a formal CMO and marketing team. The brand is a legacy brand. And the brand has so many ingredients in it, both on the field and off the field and the heritage and the Hunt family and Kansas City. You really can't disconnect Kansas City from the Chiefs, all part of it.

Speaker 2:

They had so much opportunity, but I think part of it is just the life stage of businesses, right? At the time, five years ago, they had just won, their first Super Bowl in fifty years. So there was this spotlight, you know, on this organization, on this city happening. They obviously had Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes was certainly there and part of that obviously initial win, Coach Reed. But I think there was a lot of things starting to happen internally that led our chairman and CEO and president to make the decision to should we...

Speaker 2:

Do we need to find someone that can help move us to a space where you're moving from just being kind of a local hero and icon to taking advantage of the moment we are in? And so I think when they looked at me, I'm making assumptions, but a lot of it was, okay, she's someone that's worked on really important premium legacy brands, Sella Artois, L'Oreal, these are brands that have huge amounts of heritage that need to be handled as every brand, but really need to be handled with a certain respect and care from where it came from and not losing itself. It was also about acceleration, so I was in a position where when I came in here, this wasn't about a turnaround story, this was really around an acceleration story. So I'd had some of that experience as well at Anheuser Busch where not everything was a turnaround, some things was a slight tweak and a driving forward. And then I think the media side of it was also just on audience understanding.

Speaker 2:

International was kind of on the horizon here, which I had had global experience. So I think there is a combination of it. And then the intangible part, I had moved my family, we had moved to Kansas City because we wanted to.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2:

And I think that matters here. Right? It wasn't someone that was going to have to come in and, you know, be enticed to move to Kansas City or or sold to move to Kansas City to believe in what was going on here. We had already made that decision. And and coming from the outside in, I have a deep respect and love for the city and the organization, but I didn't grow up with it.

Speaker 2:

And so I think I was able to see it from being a business, but having kind of the love, if you want to say, in some ways, already built in.

Speaker 3:

What I think is great about that too is you mentioned coming in and they hadn't had this role historically. So instead of having to to come in and, you know, look at what was being done and, you know, shape it, I'm sure there was a part of that, then you could talk talk more about it. But you're kind of getting to start your own thing and trying to build it from the ground up. How how was that first week or first month or even, you know, first off season if you think about it at that point or you're halfway through the off season at that point? What was it like to be able to just come in and and start fresh?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I mean, I think I really took the advice of Mark Donovan, our president. He really told me, you know, spend as much time as you can. And my expectation is that you listen and that you learn. And I really took that to heart.

Speaker 2:

Because I remember being in other organizations where new people would come in or people change positions and there's a human innate feeling that you need to do things different. Like, you... Or you yourself. Right? You're in a new position.

Speaker 2:

You're in a... You know, just got promoted. You need to, like, prove that you're you're adding value. And he said to me, I know you will, but I need you to spend... You'll add value, but spend the time listening and learning first.

Speaker 2:

And so, you know, I really did try to do that. I spent as much time as I could in that first season getting to know every person on my team, as many people within the organization, understanding what was working, understanding where the opportunities were, and also trying to take the things that were being said that weren't on paper, if you want to, you know, say it's like there was a lot of, oh, what if we did this? Or we haven't really done that? Or we've always done this this way. And so, you know, I spent as much time as I could hearing and listening and just like experiencing.

Speaker 2:

I'd never worked at a sports team. Didn't know what it was like to put on a game. I mean, that is my team is the best at what they do. That's a whole different world. And then I, you know, was kind of taught along my career path that structure follows strategy.

Speaker 2:

And so for me, the first thing before we could even identify if there were new roles needed or people or putting people in different positions, we needed to have a strategy. And so, probably within that first, let's call it six to eight months is when I delivered what I believed was our strategy to deliver on the larger ambition of the organization.

Speaker 3:

That's so fun. And I... You started to go down this road with the the customer. Who is the customer actually? Because I think this is where sports breaks every model.

Speaker 3:

The the rest of us tend to work from. Right? It's... In in our worlds, in traditional marketing, we we spend careers and enormous budgets trying to manufacture a fraction of the attachment you you guys have because it is that legacy brand and it's obviously the NFL. So start me here.

Speaker 3:

Talk about the the customer and as your strategy was being developed, is it season ticket members in Kansas City? Do you get fans globally like Frankfurt who will never maybe even ever set foot in at Arrowhead? The person who came from a cultural moment, the kid inheriting from a grandparent, like, those are a lot of different cuts. Talk about the customer and how how you kind of look at it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. You're you're so right. The difference about working at a sports team versus any other industry I'd worked within at that point was loyalty and fandom. I had never worked in an organization where you had a built in loyal fan base. I'm sure you've worked on many different brands.

Speaker 2:

I have as well where we always at the time would use the fact that at Cellar Artois, at the time, 85% of the drinkers only drank us once or twice a year. Wow. It was like, so you were constantly in recruit mode and trying to retain even a fraction. I come over and I was... The gift I was given was loyalty, which is an amazing opportunity to have.

Speaker 2:

I think one of the things that I saw very quickly though, and where I think we've grown over time is loyalty is an amazing asset and our fans are the best fans in the world. No offense to the Bengals fans.

Speaker 3:

Shots fired.

Speaker 2:

But they're amazing. But we were also thinking about the fandom really from the core product at the time, which was season ticket buyers, and those that were coming to the game, which is the the kind of head of our flywheel. Like that is our core business and it is critical that we retain and and we recruit kind of the next generation of season ticket members and and and ticket purchasers. The reality is though, the place that we were in, we needed to start understanding the rest of our fans because that recruit, that new fan coming in, you know, between five years and where we are now is very different. We are...

Speaker 2:

We now are the number one fan base within the NFL, which is crazy which to imagine coming from one of the smallest markets within NFL, but our fans are much more national. Our fans are much more international, as you mentioned, but certainly our national fan base is huge. We have a lot of what the league calls as casual fans. So fans that don't... That may not tick the box as we would have traditionally thought about fans as being season ticket members or or even ticket buyers, but these are fans that buy merch, that watch games, that millennial parents, right?

Speaker 2:

So you have a much more diverse set of fans. And the way we now think about our strategy is by no means, you know, rocket science, but we really think about it as how do we retain our current fan base. And that's not only kind of the traditional male season ticket buyer, right? We think about that millennial parents, which includes the moms and the dads, the trickle down to our youth audience, which is in growth and one of our strongest audience opportunities. But how do we make sure that those kids, let's call it from, you know, eight, nine to 16 when fandoms really solidified?

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 2:

How are we creating new products for them, flag football, you know, those types of opportunities. And then we really have gotten much better at defining our recruit fan. So these are oftentimes fans that are more national or regional, that oftentimes are not season ticket buyers, do not even oftentimes come to games for a variety of reasons, can be more female, can be more Hispanic. So how are we now thinking about new products, new passion points, new platforms that reach them in very different ways than a traditional, if you want to say, fandom was defined. So the league has been great partners with us on this, but that's where I've taken my experience from Anheuser Busch and L'Oreal of really trying to mature how we understand who these fans are and add the layers that that go beyond just kind of the basic male female age demographics, like how they interact with our product and where their fandom starts or engages has been a lot of work of of the team and ours on on that.

Speaker 3:

That's awesome. And I... You mentioned that there there's a high percentage of females in your fan Yeah.

Speaker 2:

We're over 57% female Which is

Speaker 3:

wild. And I think about like how that opens doors to partners that you may not have otherwise thought about. How how has that changed the game day? How it gets designed? How it's sold?

Speaker 3:

Tell me a little bit more about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It is... It really has changed everything. You know, I think if you've ever been to a game at Arrowhead and just talking game day, for example, I think we try to, again, and going back to one of your original questions, we try to preserve what is us, right? And I think that's really important for a brand like ours that is in such growth that has, you know, changed, if you want to say on the surface for the last couple of years.

Speaker 2:

We've tried to also maintain who we are because I think that's what makes us unique and I think that's what even a new fan wants to feel when they come to Arrowhead and engage with us. So from a game day perspective, you'll see still a lot of the same things as we've always done, but in some ways we've evolved pieces of it. So whether that's introducing our Kingdom Creators, which is our new creator platform where we're starting to introduce female influencers or food influencers into our game day experience, right? So like how are we bringing people, our fans closer to the experience through new voices? Or how do we think about the merch collections that we're having at our pro shop?

Speaker 2:

So, you know, how do we expand the types of product assortment that Aramark is bringing in at the actual pro shop so that this new fan or this youth fan may experience a different or may get something from the pro shop that they wouldn't have found before. So we've tried to find ways to enhance the fan's experience, whomever that fan is. And then at the larger level outside of game day, you know, it's about building out our fashion platform, right? And so how do we reimagine... We have a style...

Speaker 2:

We have an event called Style Lounge, has existed for fifteen years, and it's a fashion show and it's an event and it's a ladies night out at Arrowhead that we do in the fall. That is something that we believe that we could build out. How do we create content around that that lives year round? Or how do we bring in local vendors that can connect nationally? So it's really around taking what we have and then starting to stretch it.

Speaker 2:

And then certainly we do... We have introduced brand new ideas, you know, the relationship and partnership that we had with Hallmark and the Christmas movie, right? That just would not have been possible or not have been a priority, I think had the business and the audience not have begun to change so rapidly. We may have we may have chosen another creative idea if our audience looked different, but that's a good example of an... A creative idea that we prioritize because of the audience evolution that was happening on the brand.

Speaker 3:

I was gonna pull on that thread, later, but since you brought it up, thinking about content and studios and partnerships, you know, for those that have read about you or heard you speak before, you also kind of co run or president COO of Foolish Club Studios. Yes. And how that ties into what you were mentioning about Hallmark and the Christmas movies and all the things that that go along with the kingdom, the documentary series. Talk to me about the genesis of that. How did that start and, how how have you grown it over the years?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So content in general, I mean, in no surprise and the most buzzy of buzzwords of all time, right, is content is our lifeblood. Right? That really... You know, when you work in a business like I'm in now, it's an intangible product.

Speaker 2:

So unlike my time in Anheuser Busch and L'Oreal where you have physical products, I live in a world and my team lives in a world where you don't have a physical product, right? Obviously, Patrick is physical and Travis is physical and Coach is physical and the ball is physical, but people's interaction with it is not. And content is everything to us. Think it's how fans engage, it's how they fall in love with the brand, it's how they get mad at us when we don't win, right? It's all through the content experience.

Speaker 2:

And so we really have tried over time, you know, we have an internal production team run by Rob Elvarino, who's been within the league a long time, who's amazing at telling stories about the Chiefs organization and the football team and everything that we do both on the field and off the field. And what we found though is that over time, we needed to expand our content offering to meet the needs of our audience that has changed. And so it's not a or, it was definitely an and model, which was how do we continue to service our audience, our core audience with the stories and content through our social and YouTube channels that meet their needs? So the super fans, I'm sure the Bengals do the same in many ways for you. Right?

Speaker 2:

Mhmm. Telling the stories of the last game, breaking it down, you know, having Matt McMullen, our team reporter, talk about the ins and outs. Yeah. But then we needed to think about how do we engage service and engage or reengage an audience that that may not have watched the game the night before, or only saw the clip on New Heights, or only knew about us because of our famous friend, right? That's my opportunity.

Speaker 2:

Our opportunity and responsibility is how do you create stories or content short, medium, long that doesn't follow the traditional model of sports marketing. And so that's where the Hallmark kind of idea came. It started as a two minute trailer, which I've talked about before that we launched on our social channels. Hallmark came to us and they ultimately decided to create the movie with us. And now I think they're about to launch their third one with the bears, which is just so awesome.

Speaker 2:

So funny. As as an advertiser, I'm sure like yourself, and I'm sure many at the agency, to have an organic piece of branded content turn into an actual movie series.

Speaker 3:

Crazy and huge. Unbelievable.

Speaker 2:

Crazy and huge. Right? Branded content turning into actual content, I think is every marketer's dream. And so that along with the kingdom, as you mentioned, which was our first true part of Foolish Club Studios that we launched and sold to Disney, it really came from that same impetus, which was we need to be telling stories and we have an opportunity to tell stories that don't fit the traditional model of sports marketing. And to do that, we believed that in addition to our core internal organization that runs for the Chiefs, we wanted to launch a separate business

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Called Foolish Club Studios, which runs parallel to our core business, which allows us to tell stories of foolish dreamers on and off the field. Stories that bring in the ethos of Lamar Hunt, our founder. He was a foolish streamer. He was part of the original foolish club that that kind of made the modern day NFL what it is. He had a hand in many sports outside of even the NFL, like the MLS and the ATP and basketball and changing that.

Speaker 2:

And so those values we've taken and the studio now exists as a parallel to tell those stories of film and TV at a national level that do that. And it's a crazy endeavor. We're almost two years in. Myself, Mark Donovan, and a young woman on my team, Jealous Simina, are the only three that really work on that business. But it's something that I think opens a whole new set of opportunities and and, weighs in for our fans to connect with us.

Speaker 3:

It's such a brilliant way to to lean into what I think the the league has become overall, which is just an always on, you know, behemoth. And we can get to the the, you know, juxtaposition between, okay, you have these teams in the NFL that have their own marketing teams and their responsibilities to their their owners and their fans, and then you also have the league in totality. And I think you guys have... If if any team in the league has done it better, I... I'd be hard pressed to figure out which one it is, and that's coming from a Bengals fan that has become super relevant and, you for all the reasons that you would expect, not only have they they've been successful, but you're doing all the things you talked about.

Speaker 3:

And the NFL, I think, even when you expand into things like quarterback and receiver and the way they are keeping the league and its players and its teams relevant all month, every day of the month, all year is pretty remarkable when you think about the level of intensity. One thing I wanna pivot to briefly before getting back into to the football side and the other business side, the experience side, and you talk about it as your famous friend, but I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it, I'm so curious as a lead marketer where where your mind was at when it was I think the fall of twenty three, your tight end starts dating the biggest pop star on the planet. I'm curious what it actually looked like at the beginning from where you were sitting. So start at the beginning. How did you first hear about this starting to happen?

Speaker 2:

Yes. And I I use that word famous friend more as a as a colloquial. I I I wish I was her friend. I am not. I...

Speaker 2:

I've never met her, but she... I wish... I I hope she knows that I I obviously... We we adore her. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, the timeline is all a big blur at this point. I mean, we are all humans, right? And so, you know, we're hearing the same things that everyone else was hearing at the time. And I think everyone was like, is that real? Is that real?

Speaker 2:

So yeah, the actual inside story was it was about a Thursday or Friday before that first game and our president called me and said, listen, very confidentially, Taylor Swift will be coming to the game.

Speaker 3:

Uh-huh.

Speaker 2:

And, you know, I think for... I don't wanna... For that moment, you're just kind of in shock. And you can still even probably hear the shock in my voice a little bit. It was...

Speaker 2:

It's... You don't even know what to do to at first. You're like, okay. Uh-huh. Okay.

Speaker 2:

So

Speaker 3:

what now?

Speaker 2:

So what now? So it became real, obviously. I think from the pure business sense, when that news became real, as I'm just the steward of the brand, my responsibility is to make sure that we keep our fans first, that we keep the legacy of who we are intact. And so we did what we thought was the best thing to do, which was then allow her to be a fan. She's incredibly famous.

Speaker 2:

There's gonna be an endless amount of media as we all witnessed. I don't think anyone didn't witness that no matter where they were on this earth. But we, from a game day experience and from what I could control, which was our social channels and our YouTube channels and our production and brand, was we are going to treat her as a fan. She's a very famous fan, but we are going to treat her as a fan. And so we didn't show her on the boards.

Speaker 2:

We had actually never shown anyone famous, but we certainly were not going to then start with her. Right? We wanted to allow her to enjoy the game experience like every other fan did. We did not play her music. For most of that first year, I think someone might correct me, but there wasn't any nod to it.

Speaker 2:

I think maybe until the playoffs of that year where we maybe made a nod to one of her songs on social. Right? So we were really... We were trying to be really respectful. Obviously, that was when that two minute trailer came out before the Hallmark film.

Speaker 2:

There was a nugget there was a nugget in there. Right? Donna Kelsey was in there. But again, that's Travis's mom. So it's like

Speaker 3:

For

Speaker 2:

sure. We tried we tried to have fun with it where it was appropriate, but we tried really hard to not take advantage of it. And I'm proud of my team in this organization because I hope that she felt while the world was looking at her and doing it as a fan and as now part of this organization, you know, from Travis, you know, we we respected them and we respected it, and and let her truly hopefully become a a real Chiefs Kingdom fan.

Speaker 3:

I I love the idea of just, again, treating her as as just a fan, just a famous fan. And I think as part of it, speaking of fans, you would, I I would assume, look back at those those first several months and probably even now to to present day, where you're you're gathering a brand new group of customers, a brand new group of fans who've arrived for reasons that have nothing to do with the Chiefs necessarily, the football team, more like, oh, I'm a huge T Swift fan. So I'm gonna, know, follow the Chiefs. And and I kind of imagine there's kind of like this balance of leaning into that and trying to bring that new group to the to the fold while also not alienating the the die hards. Take me through that juxtaposition.

Speaker 2:

It's so true. I mean, it goes back to their kind of conversation we were having on our fan rate. We've been in a fortunate position to have such a strong fan base for so long. We hadn't always been number one. We are now.

Speaker 2:

But it would do a disservice to our core business to now only focus on the new fan. Right? That does a disservice and is against I think who we are as an ethos of like, we are humble, we are hardworking, we're from the heartland. Chiefs Kingdom in Kansas City made this organization into what it is in so many ways. That also being said, it would be, I don't want say irresponsible, but as a business and as a brand steward, we also needed to acknowledge, to your point, that we had millions of new fans that were interested in our brand.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And so what we then had to make that those choices and that decision, how do we continue to engage them? And how do we... We actually did a ton of custom research to understand like, would those fans stick? Would they stay even if she wasn't here or the idea of her wasn't here?

Speaker 2:

And what we found from a lot of research was they would. They would because they thought our organization had the values that they connected with or were willing to connect with. Now, how they stayed was the question that we've always had to continue to answer. And that's why we've evolved our marketing plans to build passion points with food and with fashion and to understand how we build more youth programming because you had a lot of little girls very interested in... And boys, but very interested in us.

Speaker 2:

So our youth programming became more important... Even more important than it already was. Flag football and girls flag football had been a priority for the league and for us. But again, it's not that it became more important, but you make business decisions to prioritize platforms because of the audience that is there that you know that you can evolve. And so it was my responsibility and our responsibility to find a way to keep them.

Speaker 2:

And I'm really proud to say, you know, a couple years in, they have stayed and we've continued to drive our engagement and grow our fan base and find ways to to operationalize and commercialize brand with those audiences moving forward.

Speaker 3:

All right, back to the experience machine that is the Kansas City Chiefs. And I appreciate this one as a fan, but two as somebody who's worked in sports previously and it's you experience the game day and there are just so many things going on and you have done a remarkable job as somebody who's actually experienced the the Kansas City product in person for a playoff game no less to be able to see all the different nuances to how you make the experience from... I think even it was, was it the the home opener or was it a preseason game? Whatever. The the tailgate lots opened at, like, 11:00 in the morning for an primetime game and people are Yes.

Speaker 3:

Lined up around the block, literally.

Speaker 2:

The night before. They literally... Yeah. Great. The night before.

Speaker 2:

They... It's still happening. Yes.

Speaker 3:

And so we... I wanna talk tailgates in a minute and how you're experiencing that and how you think about, like, involving yourselves in that that pastime, if you will. But then there's also things in the stadium. Like, if I'm remembering correctly, you had the preseason finale last month and there's backyard football as a kind of a thing. Take me through the the process that your team goes through from something like that as an idea in a room to 70,000 people living it on a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon.

Speaker 2:

Yes. So first of all, I I I would be super remiss. I I feel like I need... The the team that runs our game day operations and the team that runs the stadium and and the ticketing and all of the partnership ass... Activations, it is a true machine.

Speaker 2:

And I say that that makes it sound cold. It's not cold at all. It is... It takes such an extreme amount of time, focus, and people, and energy to make what is very complicated seem smooth. And as I think you've been here, right?

Speaker 2:

Totally. That is an art that many people don't have, that we are able to... That our team, this team is able to do it outside of even my team. In terms of, I think, how we have started to think about evolving beyond just let's call it the core game day experience, is again goes back to the audience. You know, for example, a couple of years ago after we had won the Super Bowl in Arizona, as you may know and many people may know, when you win the Super Bowl, you were given the first game of the season.

Speaker 2:

So you're given the kickoff game. That was, I thought, such a unique opportunity because it was like, okay, all eyes are going be on us. No one else is going to be playing a game. At that time, it was on that Thursday night. I think this year is on Wednesday because of the Australia game.

Speaker 2:

But Thursday night, the whole world, if you want to say, a football standpoint, will be looking at Kansas City. And as we mentioned... As you started to mention, tailgating, if if you... If anyone hasn't been to a game at Arrowhead, tailgating is like the most amazing epic thing in the whole world. It's incredible.

Speaker 2:

It starts twenty four hours beforehand. The smell of the barbecue and the tailgate and the tents being popped up and the beers being cracked, all the things. And it's such a communal experience. I always joke like, it's basically a house party outside.

Speaker 3:

For sure.

Speaker 2:

For sure. With 72,000 of your closest friends. And so that was a great example where from a marketing and brands lens, we thought, well, how could you... If everyone's going to be watching on that night, there's going to be those that are here, but our audience is national and global now. How do you bring the tailgate to them?

Speaker 2:

And so we tested and learned a couple of years with an idea called the world's largest tailgate. And it was this idea of a live tailgate experience on the ground here at Arrowhead, but then finding a way through digital and through a platform to bring the tailgate to people around the world. So imagine everyone signing on at the same time being part of a closed environment that there was live and produced programming. People could interact with each other on the chat. So people could go to bars and do it.

Speaker 2:

So we were trying to find ways that how do you use digital technologies to connect this global audience that we had through something that was so us, which is tailgating. So that's... You know, and, you know, we tested and learned that two different years. One year we did it more as a live produced show. The second year we did something called Tailgate Games.

Speaker 2:

So it was like, okay, could we find gaming? And how do we bring influencers into the gaming? Is there like a trivia? So, you know, each iteration, I want my team to test and learn. Like these are things that we haven't done and a lot of teams haven't done before and we did not get it 100% right.

Speaker 2:

Right? I would be silly and no one would believe me if I said we did, but we had a lot of success and we learned. And what we found was like, okay, there is something in owning the tailgate, there is something in the food platform, there is something in content. We are hearing from brands like Anheuser Busch or, you know, Hy Vee, which is our grocery store partner. Oh, is that an interesting way that a partner could get involved?

Speaker 2:

So that's how that came to be with a lot of really creative people, mostly done in house. We do work with agencies for specific things, both local agencies like Barclay as well as national media companies. But then something like Backyard Spark came from our brand team. Lauren Denowitz on my team had a relationship with the team at Backyard Sports and youth is a huge audience. Preseason games are oftentimes 70, 80% families and oftentimes 70 or 80% fans that have never come to a game before.

Speaker 2:

Totally. Right? It's a different atmosphere. It's oftentimes during the day, during a Friday or Saturday or Sunday, the tickets are obviously less expensive. And so we thought, let's test and learn.

Speaker 2:

Let's use a nostalgic IP like backyard sports to connect to this audience in a way that it expands. And so for us, I love collaborations. Like I love doing things that haven't been done before, as you can see. And I love that my team is willing to bring ideas that... And our president and our owners and our founders are able...

Speaker 2:

Are willing to support ideas that don't follow necessarily the traditional script, but have unlocked a lot of opportunity. And I think you're seeing partners... We're hopeful that more partners want to come into this world with us, as a way to just really seem innovative, with sports.

Speaker 3:

Well, and it's great because it plugs right into the flywheel effect that you talked about earlier, the backyard football, just as one example of creating these generational fans and reaching people that, frankly, they may watch the games at home on TV, but now you're starting to immerse them in the experience of game day even though that, you know, historically, maybe they just either didn't want to buy the tickets or they, you know, just were not exposed to it just yet. So I think it's And I think, you know, the channels that you speak on and how you handle them, they seem to have a bit of a different behavior depending on which channel you're talking about, TikTok or YouTube, you talked about. Is is that part of your content or experience strategy? And alright, we've got all these different mechanisms, including now your production studio to reach people with really cool content. Do you have a really specific strategy for each of the channels or do you kind of, you know, see them as part of a hub and spoke model?

Speaker 2:

No, we do. I mean, would say our social team and our digital team, they're both great at what they do. I think we do have a very... We have a specific point of view. Our strategy from how the brand, Chiefs brand comes to life remains consistent.

Speaker 2:

But how we show up on those channels is definitely a bit bespoke, obviously based on the audience, based on how the channel actually, you know, works, the formats of the content that perform the best. Our social team, which is led by Alex Mary, is a whole... A full female team, which is awesome. You know, they think about the value of TikTok and we were one of the first movers on TikTok. And so for TikTok, the brand comes to life in a bit more of a fun way, right?

Speaker 2:

And that's because the platform allows for it and expects it and the audience there is wanting that. You know, YouTube became a huge priority for us. Why? Because it also felt like the one place that amongst the ever changing algorithms on all the other social channels, we have a, again, a built in audience, right? We have subscribers who are taking the time to say, yes, I want to subscribe.

Speaker 2:

I think we have... We are now still number one on YouTube with over 1,500,000 subscribers.

Speaker 3:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

Those are people that are saying, I want to see what you have to show and I will show up. And so that's, you know, we've really started leaning into YouTube in ways... That's also where we test a lot of what we call or what you may call like the nontraditional Chiefs content. So we have a series called Casey Wolf Jams, which is a six part, music based idea where it's really focused, on kids and it's these fun song jams. So one was called There's a Stain on My New Jersey.

Speaker 2:

They're like these little earworms... They're these little earworms, animated earworms that kids can learn valuable life lessons, which is your mom and dad and family and brothers and sisters is more important than your Jersey, but your Jersey is important or, you know, there's no cue in barbecue. So like teaching life lessons through music and through animation. So we test and learn in those ways because, again, content in our in our quote unquote media is the only thing that we have to connect. Right?

Speaker 2:

I can't... I can sell them merch, right? We can sell merch, but like a physical product. And so we spend all of our time thinking about how do we create content that reaches the right audience through the right channel, and ultimately brings them down the funnel to hopefully convert in a way knowing that a ticket may not always be it. But you know, we need to find ways to commercialize that that is every business.

Speaker 2:

There's just various different ways that you can do that and the ROI, looks different based on the channel, based on the audience, and based on the content.

Speaker 3:

A couple more things before we wrap up. I'm fascinated by... And you could speak on this briefly. You don't have to go super deep into it. But the connection points to how the league runs and then the individual teams run.

Speaker 3:

Because obviously, you have 32 teams that have their own, you know, mechanisms and, you know, traditions and all that stuff. Obviously, media and how you buy advertising is gonna be, you know, largely driven by the overarching league strategy. So as a a chief marketer, how do you integrate and interface with the NFL as the league while also trying to keep your your own brand succinct and and distinct on an... On a given Tuesday?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. You know, and that's probably one of the questions when you originally asked maybe why I was looked at for this role, I'd spent so much time working in both US and global roles where that dynamic, while different from the NFL, the league and the clubs, you know, may look a little bit different, that interaction with global team for those that have worked in that world. You... I'm sure you know, right? What comes from global, what's prescriptive, what's not?

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And I've been on both sides and I understood, I think, that balancing act. So for me, when I joined here, to me, I I love the league. I mean, we are a league team and and I work really closely with Tim Ellis and his organization at the at the league level because they are partners of ours. You know, one, there is a lot of, if you wanna say, the the back end that the league supports the club.

Speaker 2:

So yes, the global media deals and the global partnerships and that is how, you know, a big part of our business comes from the league. And there are a lot of like rules on how we manage that. Yeah. I'm a believer that working together is way better than trying to

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

Fight against it. Yeah. But I think they... Our relationship's so strong too because they do understand that we do have local goals. Right?

Speaker 2:

Our our ownership is our ownership of the Chiefs and and the Hunts have a specific set of goals that we need to achieve. And so, it's a balancing act. Right? It's it's finding ways to also push the league. And I think I would I would imagine and I think they would agree that they love clubs like ours that are willing to try and test and learn.

Speaker 2:

It allows them to pull it back up and give it to the other 31 teams. So, it's a... I mean, we talk daily, if not weekly, we exchange ideas. And then there are certain things we may not disagree on, but you know, how every team is often also not exactly the same. They're in different life stages or their ownership model is different or their city is different.

Speaker 2:

So not everything is by any means a copy and paste, but I do think we're better together than if we if if we were apart.

Speaker 3:

No doubt. No doubt. Alright. Last thing before we finish out our time together, which has been just awesome. I'm I'm so excited for people to hear this podcast and learn more about you and and what you run at the Chiefs.

Speaker 3:

Actually, two things. One, just a PSA. As a Bengals fan who obviously was, you know, long suffering over the course of most of our childhoods. And to be able to get a chance to go to the AFC championship game and win against the Chiefs was really a lot of fun, obviously, for me. The lifetime of memories made in that, you know, five to six hour day, if not more.

Speaker 3:

But I'll tell you, the Chiefs' tailgate is no joke, number one. Number two, the other thing that I think it makes Kansas City unique, not only just because it's also Midwest, you know, from a cultural standpoint, the Chiefs fans couldn't have been nicer. And I think that's the one thing about, you know...

Speaker 2:

I'm so happy to hear that.

Speaker 3:

More rivals and, you know, obviously, born more recently than the longtime rivalries that the Bengals have with the Steelers or maybe the Broncos have with the Chiefs, but you gotta go to a game. You have to go to a game because it's just incredible. Alright. Enough of my PSA.

Speaker 2:

Anyone is welcome anytime. So please come in and come to experience it.

Speaker 3:

It really is unlike anything I've experienced. It was it was awesome. And it's just loud as hell. So it is awesome. Alright.

Speaker 3:

So some fast facts. We usually end our episode with some get to know you sort of rapid fire sort of questions. So run through a handful, and then we can, wrap up our time. First, what was the first team that you ever loved before any of this was a job?

Speaker 2:

The truth is the Yankees, I guess. Okay. Tell me.

Speaker 3:

I didn't grow up...

Speaker 2:

We didn't grow up as a huge sports watching family. I know everyone thinks it's so crazy. I grew up in Southern Connecticut. I'm right over the New York right over the New York border. It just wasn't ingrained in in me.

Speaker 2:

So Yankees, I would say. I'm I'm gonna say Yankees. And then, I will say Chiefs is second because I met my husband in college. So that was the the first game I ever went to at the NFL.

Speaker 3:

Awesome. Second, beauty, beer, football, you've worked in all of them. Which one has the best perks?

Speaker 2:

I mean, I've been fortunate to go and and receive two Super Bowl wings that my children, will inherit. So I I will I will have to say the Chiefs.

Speaker 3:

Alright. I I don't think anybody's gonna argue with you there. Alright. So Arrowhead concession order. What are you actually eating if you had a choice?

Speaker 2:

The chicken chicken fingers, obviously. Obviously. They're the best, and we always joke. I sit up in the 9th Floor on the press box during every game, which is a quiet... You you you don't talk.

Speaker 2:

You can't cheer. You you sit there with folded hands. And I always joke at halftime. I'm like, I just wanna eat my chicken fingers in peace with the winning game.

Speaker 3:

We can all hope for that on any given Sunday. Alright. Do you have any game day superstition and it had survived becoming an employee?

Speaker 2:

I didn't have one before as I mentioned, because I I wasn't a super fan of anything before. I do now. I have a very specific kind of run a show before the game starts of exactly where I walk and who I say hi to. And I sit next to Matt McMullen, our team reporter, and I joke that his arm might be bruised because I hold it so tightly sometimes during games. But yes, I do the same thing pretty much every game and I I think superstitions and rituals are great.

Speaker 2:

I think it's what makes it kind of fun.

Speaker 3:

You're going to a tailgate. You could bring one thing to the party. What is it?

Speaker 2:

I will give a shout out to my old my old crew. A a a 12 pack of Bud Light or McLeod Ultra.

Speaker 3:

Alright. Alright. I'm gonna be hanging out with yours. As long as there's barbecue there, I'm I'm there. I'm there.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. And they're

Speaker 3:

definitely... Joe's barbecue. Yeah. I'll have tell you a different story another day about some Joe's barbecue that John sent me, and that was that was my first experience. So good.

Speaker 3:

So good. Yeah. Alright. Last one. Off the clock.

Speaker 3:

What keeps you busy when you aren't thinking about how 70,000 people feel on a Sunday? What's your obsession right now? What what keeps you keeps you going every day?

Speaker 2:

On the work front, I am I am obsessed with figuring out... I don't know if I should say this publicly, but maybe I'm obsessed with figuring out how do we build a bit going with our studio. How do we build what, Georgia and Atlanta had done in terms of like a studio infrastructure? I'm obsessed with figuring out how do we do this in Kansas. I think there's such an opportunity.

Speaker 2:

It's become like a crazy obsession of mine. And then personally, I have a I have a seven and a nine year old who play a ton of soccer and they both play flag football. And I feel like that is just like a full obsession in our family now, like all day, every day. So I am a very busy, very busy person.

Speaker 3:

Well, Laura, I am so thankful and grateful that you were able to spend an hour with us talking about your experience. It's so fun that it is such a small world. And the fact that we both are Miamians and we were connected through through VML by way of John and and just the fact that, again, football brings everybody together. So I... I'm, again, super grateful for the time and, wish you almost all the luck, but not all the luck.

Speaker 3:

At least one time this year, against the Bengals. I'll be rooting for my team, but, thanks for everything and, good luck the rest of the season.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me, and and hopefully we'll see you on a cold January day, with with someone coming out with a big smile on their face.

Speaker 3:

Well, one of us, hopefully.

Speaker 2:

So much.

Speaker 1:

Likewise. And thanks to you guys for listening to

Speaker 3:

the show today. We'd love

Speaker 1:

to hear your feedback on Human Centered. Give us a rating wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, and so many more. If you've got a topic idea or just wanna drop us a line, you can connect with me on social media at Nick Brunker is the handle, or the show has an email address. You can send us one at HumanCentered@VML.com. Thanks again for listening.

Speaker 1:

We'll see you next time.