****Please forgive any and all transcription errors as this was transcribed by Otter.ai.****

Travis Lamprecht 0:00

This is Travis Lamprecht from the San Diego Loyal and you're listening to A Shark's Perspective.

(Music - shark theme)

Kenneth Kinney 0:21

Welcome back and thank you for joining A Shark's Perspective. I am Kenneth Kinney, but friends call me Shark. I'm a keynote speaker, a strategist, a shark diver, host of this show and your Chief Shark Officer.

Kenneth Kinney 0:32

If you managed a pro sports franchise, then the marketing would be easy, right? I mean, the NFL, NBA and MLB have massive marketing power just in their overall brand. And for soccer, considering the amount of popularity in soccer worldwide even that should make the sell and buy in pretty easy. Or so it would seem. But a startup franchise in a new city can be tough, especially one in a sport that for the masses falls after pro football, baseball, basketball, etc. And it's even tougher when a noisy market includes beautiful beaches, lots of other tourist attractions and ridiculously good weather. Then how would you go about creating loyal fans and marketing as it's been described the beautiful game, I was blessed to present in a different type of lunchtime keynote, where we recorded this episode live on the mainstage in San Diego at the 2023 lead generation World Conference, you'll hear some of the noise of the ambiance from the great audience in the background. It made a great experience.

Kenneth Kinney 1:29

Travis Lamprecht is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at the San Diego Loyal Soccer Club, an American professional soccer team based in San Diego, California.

Kenneth Kinney 1:39

And on this episode, we will discuss marketing the beautiful game of soccer, competing against other sports teams and everything else, creating a unique experience, launching a brand during a pandemic, loyal teams and loyal fans and even fanatics, creating community social media, learning outside of usual places to learn, lead gen channels, bicycle kicks, Pele Landon Donovan, the World Cup, BBQ nachos and smashing guitars, Ted lasso, and a lot lot more.

Kenneth Kinney 2:06

So let's tune into a soccer star of a marketer with a shark who does love the beautiful game and beautiful beaches on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

[music]

Kenneth Kinney 2:19

So if you will, please give a warm welcome to the VP of Marketing at San Diego loyal Travis lambrick. No more than Luke Ward let's give him a warm welcome guys. Put your forks together as you're eating your your cod filets. Now, this is not Wilson, but it's close enough. You know, it's

Travis Lamprecht 2:42

it's it's on brand.

Kenneth Kinney 2:44

It's on brand. So tell us a little bit about your background. Yeah. In marketing in general. Yeah.

Travis Lamprecht 2:50

Yeah. So I'm from Queens, New York. went to LSU for college, majored in English to

Kenneth Kinney 2:58

then the obvious place for somebody from Queens to Correct,

Travis Lamprecht 3:00

correct. It started my track record of going to places where I didn't know anyone, and had to learn my environment quickly. But didn't major in marketing or anything like that. moved back to New York City, and started working in marketing in the events world. So experiential and Event Marketing, did that for a bit, then went in house to a traditional agency. And then kind of came to a personal crossroads. And I wanted to do something that I was somewhat interested in. And that's always been three things which is sports, politics and film. The first thing was politics. I was literally watching House of Cards when House of Cards is popular. And I made the decision. I was like I can I can play this game, if I can.

Kenneth Kinney 3:45

Kevin Spacey is not as popular as it used to be either.

Travis Lamprecht 3:47

Yes, yes. Now it's a little weird. That's the cards but bottom line, I applied for a job in this in New York City Council, which I like to say is the AAA to DC I did that very successfully. And that actually led me to my job and soccer my first job and soccer with the New York Cosmos who happened to be moving to a district where the councilmember I worked for a representative. So that started my ticket to sports. And now I've been in professional soccer for the last five years all across the country, launched a team in Memphis from scratch, and then joined the loyal about a year and a half ago. Club is you know, this is going to be the fourth season so yes, it's still like a startup and all those things, but I thrive off that startup environment.

Kenneth Kinney 4:35

So why soccer though? I mean, it's three teams now. You don't have a soccer background. I

Travis Lamprecht 4:42

don't have a soccer background didn't play soccer bicycle kick. Can't do bicycle kick. If I played soccer probably embarrassing to see. To be honest, it was my ticket into sports. I didn't really care what sport it was going to be could have been hockey because we know anything. And I've stuck with it. I've definitely grown to love the game. But I do have an objective approach with it. And I think that actually helps. I'm a huge Mets fan Giants fan. If I worked for those teams, I wouldn't be able to concentrate. Right. So I think I see I see the sport in a different lens, and also from the Civic and Community lens, which is so important that sports

Kenneth Kinney 5:19

well, many people know the giants are the worst team in football. Not only the cowboys were this weekend, but what was it like? Starting up? Really a business but a sports franchise? Yeah, cuz you started in 2020 here, right?

Travis Lamprecht 5:36

So I so I joined. So the loyal launched in 2020.

Kenneth Kinney 5:41

Starts out door in California.

Travis Lamprecht 5:44

Yes. So to give context. So I wasn't on the ground when the club started. But I know a lot of that history in Memphis has started from scratch. But yeah, so like the club launched in 2019, the brand, didn't know what was coming right with COVID. So there was there was a first their first inaugural match, sell out. And then immediately after that was the COVID, you know, the height of the pandemic. So the rest of the season no fans, so the club had to maintain, you know, really digital engagement for a long time, until they were able to welcome fans back in the stance. And last year was kind of, you know, it was like an abbreviated season and you know, full capacity didn't happen until later on. Last year, though, felt like our first real year. So a lot of testament big testaments of the club of being able to maintain the attention with the fan base in the city while having no fans. And then last year, I feel like it really, we kind of we grew up right in a lot of ways.

Kenneth Kinney 6:49

Well, so when you have a brand like that, you know, we talked we talked about this before, because of where you lived in Memphis. The Kosmos compete against a lot of different teams and shows and everything going on in New York. San Diego's probably a good fitting market for soccer to see some growth. Memphis you wouldn't think of as the first market right smack dab in the middle of SEC country for for college football? How do you really approach how you either compete or align yourself with all the other sports teams, let alone all the other noise, then because you got to compete with these beautiful beaches, for sure. For sure. It's interesting trying to create that,

Travis Lamprecht 7:33

yes, balance, we always say that we really compete against outdoor activities, right, just going to the beach, like you said, going to the park going to eat right. But we pull you in once you once you come to a game, our experiences, you know, I might be biased, but it's unlike anything else in the in the sports arena in the city. And we try to also pull a lot of things from the city that's authentic to bring in not just a soccer fan, but everybody else. We want to be a source of civic pride, the club itself, we want to be a promoter of San Diego, almost like a tourism company, if you will. So I think we're clever in the way we approach everything we do. We tie in pop culture, things that are topical, for example, we just we just had our scheduled release. And we did it with the theme of white lotus, which is a show that everybody's watching, right, and we're able to connect, you know, things that are happening in pop culture tie into the city. So that's worked well for us.

Kenneth Kinney 8:37

So how do you how do I guess from a Major League Soccer standpoint? And I've heard this from other people in similar similar roles with other events as well. How much or little do you sort of live on your own island being the San Diego team versus having the larger Major League Soccer brand behind you? Because the NBA does their level of support? I know a lot of I've heard this from some NBA people in those marketing roles that, you know, for them, it's still guerilla marketing on the ground in their local market. They don't they can't just live off the NBA name alone

Travis Lamprecht 9:17

for sure. Yeah, we have to work a lot harder and smarter than everyone else. Yeah. Grassroots is a huge part of that the person to person interaction is still to me, the most important thing is essentially, we're running a campaign of our own right instead of trying to win, you know, get your vote. We're trying to get you to come to our game. So, grassroots is key to us. We have exciting projects coming up this year. We're gonna have some murals and things like that. But the ground game is always important and everything we do when we're creating contents, when we have club announcements, player signings all of that, we have to treat Everything as as as priority and to make sure that we're doing something different to create that attention, right. And so far it's worked. But but we can't ever lose our edge we have to keep coming up with, with ideas constantly.

Kenneth Kinney 10:16

So you mentioned experience earlier, and you thought it was one of the best. You know, if you think about where he were, when you were in Memphis, that stadium has barbecue nachos, and everybody knows that they're fed as Yes. What are the types of things you create from a customer experience standpoint, that helps people really remember what they're getting uniquely at a San Diego loyal game, for sure.

Travis Lamprecht 10:39

We take customer experience extremely seriously. So you know, there's a lot of touch points once you walk into the stadium, which is terreiro stadium, whether it's our security, our brand ambassadors, or even just members of our front office, fans are being greeted, being welcomed back. So those touch points are happening immediately. We have local food trucks, craft beers, we have local musicians, we do halftime concerts, try to inject literally the community into the game and into the team. Because it's also Yes, we all love soccer. But it's it's also a great thing to do for a couple hours on a Saturday night. Right? It's entertainment. And there's not a lot of different options like that in San Diego. So I think we offer something that's different fun. You don't have to spend, you know, I love baseball, but three, three and a half hours, right, you could do something before the game and after. But we have a lot of fun. Then we have our our fans, which in soccer, especially it's called supporter culture, which is this kind of rabid loud fan base that's standing in the entire time playing drums doing chance. A lot of people have never seen anything like that before. We've had people say, Hey, I just want to like come and sit next to that fan section, right. So that that's something that's different as well. So I think it's a combination, and the game is highly competitive, world class players. So there's a lot of different pieces, and they all intersect pretty well.

Kenneth Kinney 12:13

So speaking to the players in this, this leans a little bit into social media. How much with a sports franchise does social media play for you, as opposed to what you typically think of in other businesses that you work with?

Travis Lamprecht 12:28

Yeah, it's huge. It's the most important thing that we have. This is such a

Kenneth Kinney 12:31

softball question, because I know we I think we all know how important it is. But it's amazing how many of these players have big followings for sure.

Travis Lamprecht 12:39

Social media is the most important thing that we have. It's our mouthpiece to the content that we're doing our players signings. It is it is the way that people a lot of people find out about us, we do surveys, and we always ask How'd you find out about us? Social media is always number one. We try to treat each channel differently. Twitter, right is kind of your news breaker and maybe some of your banter and your voice. Instagram is your aesthetic, right? Do you want people to share that aesthetic on their account? So then other people find us through different ways? Facebook is kind of your community event space, right? We're going to be at this farmers market. We're volunteering over here. So we try to treat them all differently. But look, it's cliche to say content is king content lives on our social channels. people discover us through that content. So it literally is the most important thing.

Kenneth Kinney 13:32

So we have a mutual friend who just so happens to have a 16 year old yes that joined the low the loyal this year yes. Free what was that? Like? What's the kind of PR that can help you build awareness for sure because that's I mean, that's major I didn't know when I was floored when I found out big deal about DRAM for retail

Travis Lamprecht 13:52

is a special talents are and as a special talent. You know, the USL especially right we we the goal is the league brings professional soccer to markets that might not have it, right. And one benefit of that is literally scouting local talent. And literally creating that path to pro in a real way. Right. So Duran was in our academy. He is now on the first team. That is something that is very rare in this country. In terms of PR that is a story that everyone wants to read right hometown product, plays, develops and plays for his his hometown team. So that was a front page story and the Tribune. We got a lot of finances in the Sunday paper actually. And a lot of people that weren't following us reached out about the story, and just to say how proud they work because it also creates another source of civic pride. But it was huge for us huge for Duran you know, and hopefully Durant's not the last player right that that we develop and plays for For the first team, but storytelling is key. And that's just a great story.

Kenneth Kinney 15:04

So what's it like working with Landon? Donovan, who's, I mean, very arguably the greatest player this lived in the stats anyway.

Travis Lamprecht 15:12

Yeah. And I've had the privilege. I worked with Tim Howard and Memphis, right. And, and Landon and Tim are very different, but the like, in a lot of ways, it's shorter to Yes, yes, yes, yeah. But Landon is great. Landon is, you know, he is just as committed to the loyal as anyone else in our front office. I was just with him today, talking about player signings, he has full grasp on really everything that we do, you know, not just the player side, whether it's marketing PR community, he really he soaks it up. And then he also contributes, in a lot of ways, whether it's ideas or, or asking good questions, things like that. It's been great to work with him. Again, it I think, grew up a soccer fan, right. So like, you know, I knew of him, but I didn't know the impact. And then sometimes I see when fans are with him or somebody that's, you know, dying to me ever so long. I'm like, wow, like, I forget sometimes. But it's a privilege to work with him. And he is certainly one of the best in the biz and his role. And he brings a lot to our club, more than just the soccer side.

Kenneth Kinney 16:21

Like we need to give this ball away later as a raffle and sign Lena donathan. But I'll just spell it wrong. That would be so that way. So how do you go about now with a new sport? Not a new sport, but new and relatively new in the city? You're creating loyal fans? Yeah. What's loyal to the loyal?

Travis Lamprecht 16:41

Yeah. So?

Kenneth Kinney 16:43

Well, let me follow up one thing, soccer is one of those things that if you get the average Joe to pull in, I mean, you're a Giants fan. You live 3000 miles away from them, you're gonna hang on to them ride or die? Yes. That's for the most part. Nobody had that before a few years ago. Yep. And when you're trying to create some, a Dallas Cowboys brand when it's as a steamed but has sucked for 25 years? Yeah, it's hard to create that loyalty without having some mystery,

Travis Lamprecht 17:11

for sure. And yeah, we don't have a lot of history right compared to other teams. But what I think we have straight stay true to is again, embedding the community into everything we do. So one example of that, obviously, Mexico, right, that's those are across the border, those are our friends is our community, we have, you know, there's so much crossover, right between the two places. And we launched our third jersey last year, basically paid tribute to to Mexican and Mexican American heritage, right. And there's a local nonprofit here called the Chicano Federation, which I'm now on the board of which another privilege to be, and I've only been here over a year, but they are a nonprofit that really works on certain, you know, servicing impoverished families and youth. And we put them on the back of this jersey to donate 10% of those proceeds back to them. But overall, it was, you know, we put out a video storytelling of this truly authentic piece that the community just embraced. And you got young kids wearing the jerseys starts young. And that authenticity just will continue to grow. Right, and we see it happen. So in those moments, we're always trying to create special moments beyond the fields of play. And yes, it is marketing as well. But it doesn't mean marketing can also be community driven.

Kenneth Kinney 18:37

Right? Oh, 100%. No, it'd be communities. One of the last bastions of yes, that's cut through a lot of the other stuff for sure. I've seen a big number of superfans. Yes. I

Travis Lamprecht 18:47

mean, are so again, our supporters section, it's because he also you have to zoom out sometimes, right? That that there are fans and they're collecting everything, just like any other team. We have a podcast that has like 15,000 downloads, we launched it last year. There you know, we have super fans and it's and it's that's also a privilege because sometimes you everyone's

Kenneth Kinney 19:11

like comparable to where you come from, like the devil's fans where people are

Travis Lamprecht 19:15

painted in, full on everything face paint, tattoos,

Kenneth Kinney 19:20

thinking of accounting from Seinfeld, so

Travis Lamprecht 19:23

we've seen it yet we've seen it all we have definitely there's a diehard, very passionate fan base that, you know, they're super worried about our roster, right? And they're asking questions and player signings and things like that. But we're in truly lucky to have that right. And then you hope that just spurs other groups right to join in as well.

Kenneth Kinney 19:43

They're probably going to start asking, you know, did the 16 year old How did he do on his English test? So it's coming in. So when you think about the World Cup and how that played in how did that help or fuel a lot of your growth? Well, I

Travis Lamprecht 19:59

think That's, you know, on par with this conference, we're talking about lead generation, right? So we actually have a lead gen tool. Yes. So we actually hosted along with the San Diego symphony at the rady shell, which is a beautiful venue here, downtown. And we hosted a two day World Cup watch party at this outdoor venue for the USA, England game and Mexico, Argentina. And so we partnered with them. And a part of that was you had to RSVP was a free event. But all those RSVPs were emails. And we had over 10,000 attendees over the two days. So from a lead generation perspective, it's exactly what we wanted. But it was also obviously just great to see the whole city come together to watch, you know, World Cup soccer and, and again, the cross border relations of seeing 5000 people for USA 5000 people show up from Mexico, it was a beautiful thing to see. But certainly, anytime it's a World Cup, it's an advertisement for the game. It's an advertisement for us that you could also watch your local soccer team right in your backyard. And it it no doubt helps.

Kenneth Kinney 21:12

Well, when you start thinking about because a few years from now, we're gonna have it here in the States. Does that come into your marketing strategy at this point? Is it for sure. Early to?

Travis Lamprecht 21:22

I mean, I feel like we've been talking about it ever since it was announced. You know, while it's at the league office or the other teams, everyone's always talking about 2026. Right? It says I think it's what every team in this country professional amateur, right? It's kind of like looking at is how can we leverage it? And then how can we continue to just holistically grow the game as well. But I don't think they're there. They're what there, it'll be the highest platform right that the sport has had in this country since I don't know that Sandy for when it really took a turn. And then he saw the evolution of MLS and all those things. We're excited about. We're all excited about it. And and certainly Southern California will play a play a big role in that.

Kenneth Kinney 22:05

So when you think about the sport as well, many women have had such explosive growth, because of how well they play. They dominated a lot of the conversation in soccer for a couple of decades, I guess ever since their big win, and they've also fought for a lot of equity in their pay. How do you sort of because you've got another team here, it's the wave of sanding away. Yeah. How do you sort of really, you know, compete against that because the women it's very odd in a sport where they would garner that much more attention. Yeah, anywhere and then a men's team.

Travis Lamprecht 22:39

Yeah. And I don't even think we don't really we don't look at them as competition. Yeah, right.

Kenneth Kinney 22:45

Do your seasons,

Travis Lamprecht 22:47

seasons? Do they do kind of overlap? I think we have seen very different fan bases for both Sure. We work together very well. You know, we co host events. They were at our the radius shell worlds cup of fans, we're definitely going to support them during the Women's World Cup this summer. Bottom line, all soccer is good. Yeah. rising tide lifts all boats. And there's never been a better time to be be a fan of soccer in San Diego, and support it as well. And it just it's, you know, it's more eyeballs on the game.

Kenneth Kinney 23:22

Exactly. It's I think from an education standpoint here in the US, you could you could not have a better opportunity to leverage a women's sport to help elevate for sure a men's sport and vice versa for sure. I mean, because I'm sure they're seeing growth because you have a team x well, yeah, just

Travis Lamprecht 23:37

feeds in about soccer. Yes. When they were launching, we were giving them you know, our our market advice right at the same time. And again, it's similar. It's you know, with saran you got a lot of young girls looking at it, they could play for their hometown team. Right. So it's a beautiful thing. That's big Shay, the beautiful game, right. But there's never been a time like this, I think in the country and San Diego specifically.

Kenneth Kinney 24:00

So when you think about that, we were talking about lead generation and all the things don't build the brand and help for you. At least I think some of that is putting butts in seats.

Travis Lamprecht 24:09

It's a lot of that's fine. The entire thing exactly.

Kenneth Kinney 24:13

Where's your biggest channel that you take advantage of when you know that? Hey, we didn't have enough people for last Saturday's game. We got a big payment coming up in two weeks. What do you do to try to help drive the numbers the most when you think of it from a higher standpoint?

Travis Lamprecht 24:30

Yeah, that's a lot of there's a lot of factors. We're at a ton of community events every week, whether that's your local farmers market or you know, a sponsored event wine and beer festival, right something like that. Getting leads at all these events obviously answer two wins. We have digital answer to win contests. We have giveaways that are games right? There are theme nights, not like minor league baseball per se, but similar Are to that right to entice people to come come out. But it's really just again, it's a constant campaign online and offline, right? We have to be at places where you think we might not be right to introduce ourselves to a new audience. For example, like we've been on NPR, we might not think of a soccer team to be on NPR. But that's a new audience. Sure. But it's just, it's a constant grind. And I say grinds in a good way.

Kenneth Kinney 25:27

A lot of those listeners weren't even familiar with sports in general, correctly,

Travis Lamprecht 25:31

right. So it's like, how can you tie in? There's always common threads, right? And how do we just tie them in?

Kenneth Kinney 25:36

But yeah, so when you brought that up about baseball made me think as well. How do you really look to position the loyal again, because you lived in Memphis? You helped start up 91 FC. And you played in the baseball stadium, the trip where the AAA for the Memphis Memphis, Redbirds, AAA Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, there's so much that's similar in the in the marketing, but talk a little bit about what's similar. And then what's completely different. Yeah,

Travis Lamprecht 26:07

I think a good example would be in Memphis in soccer, especially American soccer, there are traditions that happened before kickoff. Sure, right. And I felt like we needed something in Memphis. And so we decided to have a Memphis celebrity. Smash your guitar before kickoff, right. Might seem minor league, but the city truly embrace it because of the people that participate in the guitar Smash. So we had John Marantz, we had Penny Hardaway, we had the Memphis football coach, and then the newspaper The Commercial Appeal, started to cover us game to game, but also because they were guessing who's going to smash the guitar this week. The guitar smash gets sponsored by Memphis travel, which is kind of like visit St here. And it was celebrated. It's a fun thing. It's still goes on now. But once the game starts, it's all about the soccer. There's not a lot of downtime to do what they kind of do in minor league baseball, right? There's always something going on between innings things like that. And the level of play when I tried it when you educate this when you try to say what's the minor league baseball in the USL, so it's not minor league. A USL team can beat an MLS team. Any day like that can happen. A triple A baseball team beating an MLB team kind of Farfetch.

Kenneth Kinney 27:35

Yeah, that makes sense. Where did you get all the guitars from?

Travis Lamprecht 27:39

We ordered them on Amazon? Oh, did you? Yeah, we want you to get it from Gibson. But I don't know what happened there a Gibson was like moving their factory. But yeah, Amazon.

Kenneth Kinney 27:50

Yeah. So when you when you compare yourself to other businesses that not in the sports world? What do you take from what other businesses do? That you can apply to sports? And vice versa? What do you take from the sports world? What advice would you give to people who are not running a major league sports? Marketing? Yeah,

Travis Lamprecht 28:12

no, I like I again, like pop culture music film, I read a lot. I like really try to absorb everything around me. And I'm always applying things that I read watch into what we're doing. And I'd say for anything write for no matter what industry you are. Definitely be doing that constantly or else you will be behind

Kenneth Kinney 28:38

them a little bit more. Yeah, I want to hear Yeah, type of stuff you're listening to and talking to.

Travis Lamprecht 28:42

Yeah, I mean, just just again, not to keep going on the schedule release for right like obviously, White Lotus popular show right now. Right? Everybody's talking about it. In San Diego, we're lucky to have a beautiful park called Balboa Park. We also have a beautiful museum, the senior Museum of Art, right? The aesthetic of those two things represent our city, but also weirdly kind of fit into that white lotus theme. Right? So we went out we took photos of Balboa Park to celebrate Balboa Park, we took photos of the standing of state San Diego Museum of Art. Then we took our photos of our games and we put kind of like a paint texture and then edit it into this mimic of of the White Lotus intro. Basically incorporating right the city with something that's topical, putting it together. And right now I think we're almost at 200,000 views on Twitter for a USL team. Like it's it's pretty, it's pretty amazing what you can do when again, something is authentic and you're pulling something that is topical, right. So I think that that's that's one example. Last year, we did match day posters for each game. And the theme was just different movies, whether they were old or new. People wanted to buy them. Again, you're just tapping into interests maybe beyond the field of play. But I'm always pulling, you know, for media and things that I see. And then how do we how do we apply it to what we're doing?

Kenneth Kinney 30:07

Yeah, and I don't think nearly you said it, you explain it better than the question I was gonna ask. I don't think nearly enough people really think through that because they listen to the bubble of all the yes, your typical noise, it'd be very easy for you to only listen to what every other marketing person at a Major League Soccer team said, or major league sports team said, sometimes it's good just to pick up Shakespeare or Yes, John Grisham or some or, or listen to Rihanna and watch her do a runway show or something and pull something that has nothing to do with your bid to drive leads, because that's at the retail level where most of your consumers are

Travis Lamprecht 30:45

100%. And as you know, merchandise plays a big role in what we do. And that's like you have to pull from outside sources, or else you're not going to sell and not move merch, right to different, different interests.

Kenneth Kinney 30:56

So what's the most important piece of marketing advice you've ever gotten an employee that worked? And what's the worst that you've learned from?

Travis Lamprecht 31:05

It's a good question. I will say, and maybe it is marketing. But the first agency that I was at, the CEO was a bit of centric, but but very smart. And he told me how to write an email, how to try to run an email just he taught, he basically taught me how to really write an email, like, Yes, I knew how to write emails, but like to get what I want to control whatever the situation was to communicate effectively, from whether it was the wording, or the, you know, how it's laid out. It is something that is that I have taken with me ever since then. And it might Smith's, you know, sounds small, but a lot of people can't write emails, write what you know, regardless of the subject, so I've taken that with me forever. And it's something that I also carry on to to my team that works for me as well.

Kenneth Kinney 32:05

So this is probably the most important question we'll cover. But how important is Ted last? So Ben,

Travis Lamprecht 32:11

it's interesting. What your second part of your question was, what's the worst advice? Yeah, I think sorry.

Kenneth Kinney 32:17

I think I don't have like one thing, it's probably gonna be the same answer for the Titleist cyclist. Yeah.

Travis Lamprecht 32:21

And I would say in general terms, I just, I don't always follow the rules in terms of like, you know, you have to post sleep, it's a bad thing. It's a good thing I'm saying I said to say the, the bad advice of like, follow all these rules, right, like, posting something at this time, you're gonna get this engagement. Like, I don't believe in that necessarily, even email marketing, like, you know, open rates are at this time this, you got to know your audience and learn from what

Kenneth Kinney 32:46

has to be good. And your content is because it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Yeah, rapid ad.

Travis Lamprecht 32:51

Totally. So that would be my one piece there. Ted last so you know, what, what

Kenneth Kinney 32:56

effect is that had at least for helping get people to talk more about soccer in even the local community?

Travis Lamprecht 33:03

Yeah, I think we saw especially during the pandemic, right, that's when the show I think really reached its all time popularity. Again, it was, it was pulling in people that really weren't soccer fans, right? They're playing on the emotive part of it. He's a nice guy, right, and all the all the sweet stories throughout the seasons, right. And I think people overall were looking for a happy ending and a nice story, especially during that time. And I think we try to do the same thing in terms of just playing to emotions, right? How do we, whether it's, you know, a player announcement scheduled release or home open or whatever it is, how are we making you laugh, cry moves, hyped up, whatever it is. So playing to those emotions, that's what said last so did.

Kenneth Kinney 33:47

So explain something to me about soccer because I played soccer and I played football as a kid. Why isn't that even a whiff of air knock them over? And they go through Shakespearean drama in theater presentation on the stage and fall down and then they get up they're fine. Two seconds later,

Travis Lamprecht 34:06

like soccer as he's kind of just alluded to soccer is an art that is that is a part of the arch right is

Kenneth Kinney 34:14

holdest I was bringing up elaflex nila card

Travis Lamprecht 34:18

I mean but yeah, you know it's it's a part of the game it's obviously leveraged for the situation right to get the call on your side. But I think it's part of the player and the drama and the art of it. I think it's it's getting like the NBA has started to crack down on that on flopping right. But it's never gonna go away and soccer and I think it's, it's a part it's a part of the game that that that is maybe you don't like, but the strategy behind it. It's weird because

Kenneth Kinney 34:49

when we watched the World Cup, they would fall and you would see them kind of like looking at is the rest of the camera on me. Cry and it's the game within the game. And then you see something happened like Damar Hamlin, and you know, it just stops you? And you know, it's really Yes, yes. And it should be shown to every soccer player. So that does it. I mean, people want to jump up and they've got concerned for the player. Yeah, they twisted a toe or something. So they're amazing athletes, though, and it's a lot of running. A lot of running. Yeah. And you get to watch. Yes, watch fine run plays for me post this on Instagram. Well, they're now there. Yeah. So what do you have the most fun with with your job? Because it is a it's a dream job. I mean, there, it's, you're so incredibly Yes. It's crazy.

Travis Lamprecht 35:34

Yes, it is a dream job. I am lucky to have this job. My team, I have extremely talented individuals, doing video graphics, photo, social media, writing, copywriting, all those things. Every day, to be honest, coming in, no matter how I'm feeling, I am happy when I walk in the building. I get to work with this great group, we get to tell stories, we get to think of ideas and then actually do them. There's so many, you know, if you're working at a bigger team, per se, right, a lot more red tape to get an idea across are, we truly do whatever we want to do in terms of the creative side. So that's a joy for me. And hopefully I'm doing this for a long time.

Kenneth Kinney 36:25

Yeah, so Well, what do you see as your biggest challenge, and biggest opportunity over the next few years, because I know as the team continues to grow, there's still plenty of noise. There's still a Lego Land and a SeaWorld and beaches. And people gonna drive me to California, it's a different environment,

Travis Lamprecht 36:48

no doubt, awareness. I

Kenneth Kinney 36:50

don't know if that's the biggest challenge or no money or campaign,

Travis Lamprecht 36:53

I'll just say awareness, awareness will always be a challenge just period. Right? So and you're never satisfied, right? Like, it's never enough for like, we need more, you know, articles in the Tribune, we need more social media engagement, and we need more ads, you know, on the public transit, whatever it is, right? But we, you know, we don't we can't operate on a budget that's like an MLS team or anything like that. So you have to continue to be crafty with what you're doing. And, but awareness is always the biggest thing, right? It's just like you said, there's so much so many other things to do, whether it's free or ticketed, right? How do you make somebody wants to spend their disposable income on the sending of the oil? Right? So that's always the challenge. And I think we do a good job, but we need more, we need more people knowing about us, we need more people coming to the stadium. And that's just that's a never ending battle. Right? So that's, that'll remain, even at the highest level, that'll still be the challenge.

Kenneth Kinney 37:48

It's so funny, because it's the same problem. Every business has the same problem. Just people talking about as much What do you see as the biggest, you know, opportunity,

Travis Lamprecht 37:57

biggest opportunity for us is growth. continuing to grow, we have a lot of I wish I could share more, but we have a lot of aspirational goals that are that are coming up, whether that is the future of the club, to the development side. And and you know, we can never we want to be the best USL championship team we could be and the best professional soccer teams represent the city. But we're always gonna want more.

Kenneth Kinney 38:31

What's the most well known of a soccer team of all the soccer teams here in the US, like just as a whole as a as a particular side,

Travis Lamprecht 38:40

I would say right now lafc They're killing it up there,

Kenneth Kinney 38:45

the cosmos to just because I suppose

Travis Lamprecht 38:46

the brand name, but I think that's even starting to waver a little bit. But in terms of like a team that is doing it right on and off the field. lafc has, you know, and they came in, for Galaxy, we're a household name. Right, right. They came into the city and then almost kind of pushed them over a little bit. But they've done everything right from community to on the fields. And they're they're a team obviously, that that we look at a lot to emulate.

Kenneth Kinney 39:15

So let's say the clippers and the Chargers moved back here. Is that a threat?

Travis Lamprecht 39:21

I would love to just work together and work together. Yeah, I love we have a good relationship with the Padres the wave. I would love more entertainment because it's honestly it's more it's more touch points for all of us. And I would hope that they would want to work together with us as well. But again, rising tide lifts all boats, more entertainment there is yes, yes, there is a competition factor. But at the end of the day, we're pulling from the same people all right, so why not have same people know about all of us.

Kenneth Kinney 39:52

So if you were playing the Padres in baseball, do you have a shot of getting once

Travis Lamprecht 40:00

One run. If we're playing What do you mean the Loyle? are

Kenneth Kinney 40:03

playing the Padres? Do you have a shot at getting one right?

Travis Lamprecht 40:06

I would say, No. Padres

Kenneth Kinney 40:09

if the Padres were playing the loyal to they have a shot of getting one go.

Travis Lamprecht 40:13

There are a couple players on the Padres Fernando Tatsu. Nice. Yeah, jerk sopro far I don't know if he's, I think he might still be a free agent. But he was actually on our podcasts that are big soccer fans and definitely play I think there'd be a more likely chance of a Padres player scoring and golf and scoring.

Kenneth Kinney 40:30

So if you could change one thing about the sport itself, what would you change? Would it be more scoring with bigger goals and nets? Would it be?

Travis Lamprecht 40:42

I'll tell you the one thing I just don't want I'll never understand is how stoppage time is really not like a calculated thing. And it's just kind of whatever the referee lets there's something that there's no way

Kenneth Kinney 40:55

there's a dramatic pause. Let's

Travis Lamprecht 40:58

not that I don't know if I would change that. But it's just one thing that I'm like, it's amazing that that exists in the most popular sport in the world. Something that is basically isn't measurable and kind of made up. But yeah, that's always thinking about that. I'm like, there's no like calculation of how it's happening. Maybe there is but

Kenneth Kinney 41:16

well, so most most industries you know, don't have video games to support them. I'm playing a lot of European League on Nintendo Switch right now. It's my son's fun. How much is working with in that mix in conversation? How much the video games help support?

Travis Lamprecht 41:35

Yeah, I think we're awareness. Great example. Our front of kids spots are last year it was Rocket League, which is a vehicular soccer video game cars playing soccer, basically, so front of kids sponsor. And we you know, we tapped into a market that definitely did not know about US national national scale. And then the USL is actually in a football which is kind of like a FIFA game. So that also helps. So say we're actually more more ingrained than I would have even thought into the video game world and Rocket League was definitely a boost to that. But it's something that we got to pay attention to. Elsewhere, we'll lose your son won't be interested.

Kenneth Kinney 42:17

I think it's fastly. I've always loved soccer. I remember one of the best experiences ever in my life was in Brazil. At the championship game at Morumbi Stadium, there were 150,000 people that are, you know, it's a religion in Brazil. I remember you know, not that long ago and Pele died how many people had the last name Nascimento? It was a religion it was it like it was so such a beloved figure down there. And I'm hoping that develops, but I will say there's so many other sports here that take place. I'm a big MMA fanatic, and pro football fanatic. And in between the two the thing, especially during the pandemic that grabbed my attention was Ted lasso, playing a lot of video game soccer. Getting outside and playing at home and stuff like that. Yeah, well, but it consumed a lot more. It helped drive me a lot more to look at the sport then for sure necessarily thought about in the World Cup, I was already going to watch anyway. And I'm not a more than a casual fan, but there is there's so much opportunity to grab.

Travis Lamprecht 43:23

Yeah, it's another example of just pop culture pulling you in a different way. So it's pop culture is a tool that no matter what business you're using, you should use

Kenneth Kinney 43:31

well so you know diving in Baton Rouge LSU. And that part of the world the waters nasty down in New Orleans anyway. But I came in two days ago to go diving. And I was messed up with this weather going on right now. So there was no diving, but I asked this of all my guests. Okay, what is your favorite kind of shark and why?

Travis Lamprecht 43:53

Favorite kind of shark? I might not be that sophisticated with my sharks. My gonna go cliche and just say the great white because it's scary. And, you know, I don't know what I would do if I saw one. But anything big right? It's a spectacle. But yeah, I got the great one.

Kenneth Kinney 44:14

All right. Well, Travis, it's a special time to show you ready for the five most interesting important questions that you're going to be asked.

Travis Lamprecht 44:20

Let's do it. I hope I hope I'm saying clean.

Kenneth Kinney 44:23

Alright. Pele was the the goat or not the goat.

Travis Lamprecht 44:31

So our club president is resilient. And I've had this conversation with him especially with Messi right winning it this year. I will say he's the goat and I will connect it to pop culture real quick.

Kenneth Kinney 44:43

Victory. He is in the movie.

Travis Lamprecht 44:45

Right? So I think he is so the soprano is the sopranos is the to me the best TV show of all time. The Sopranos laid a lot of groundwork and examples of what you could do with TV. I think Pele did that for soccer. So when you see now Whether it's Messi or whoever they're doing the things that Pele did a long time ago. Same thing with TV shows now like a white lotus. If it wasn't for the sopranos, they're not doing what they're doing. I was so

Kenneth Kinney 45:09

prepared to pull the yellow card in case you said but Pele was the Muhammad Ali. Correct. In three World Cups. Messi is amazing. But he won one. Correct. So Pele is the Go Bailey's to go in. I just remember not that long ago, the movie victory was Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine. In Pele,

Travis Lamprecht 45:28

I have to rewatch that it's

Kenneth Kinney 45:29

a good movie. It's the allies in prison and in a Nazi camp and they want to take the soldiers to take the inmates. I looked it up it's like 40 years old. This this I think was pretty rocky even Wow. But but they ended up playing the German national team. And it's a yes, it's a it's an allied France. Again, humiliate the the allies, but it's actually a decent movie. Cool. All right. Number two. If you were going out to eat I have this question last night. Would you rather go to hang out, get some culture grab a good meal, the Gaslamp district or Little Italy?

Travis Lamprecht 46:10

Little Italy. I'm biased. I live in Bakersville. I live close. I have to say that the Italian food in Little Italy is actually good. I'm from New York. I might have you know, been a little bit worrisome about that. But I would go to that.

Kenneth Kinney 46:25

Alright, number three, greatest coach of a soccer team that you've ever known. Landon Donovan, or Ted lasso. There's a little bit of Ted last so inland and DynaMesh. And I don't think landed would be offended if you said Ted because it's a ridiculous go.

Travis Lamprecht 46:47

And Landon, Landon Landon. Landon brings a lot more experience since head last exactly the experience

Kenneth Kinney 46:53

you gotta believe. All right, number four. They're coming to town. Would you rather see the New York Giants? Or the New York Jets? If they were you know, I mean, back that up? Would you rather go see the New York Giants if they were playing a game in San Diego and San Diego or let's say you were in LA up the street, or maybe LSU playing USC USC or UCLA because your an LSU grad?

Travis Lamprecht 47:26

I did go see the Giants play the charters last year and they got destroyed? I think LSU USC actually wouldn't be more unique.

Kenneth Kinney 47:34

If it's a nighttime game. It's a party.

Travis Lamprecht 47:37

at the Rose Bowl like I've never seen that. So I'll go LSU USC.

Kenneth Kinney 47:42

Alright. Alright. Right number five and the most important question that you're going to be asked today is biscuits or cornbread. Biscuits, Cajun food. Biscuits. Yeah, biscuits are pretty hard to be. I'm always intrigued so So Travis, where do people find out more about you keep up with the club and yeah, and a lot lot more.

Travis Lamprecht 48:04

Yeah. Just go at San Diego Loyal. Find out more about at..... And find out more about San Diego Loyal. Follow us on social SD low.com season tickets are on sale right now. Group tickets kick off March 11.

Kenneth Kinney 48:18

It's going to be the best year yet and you've promised everybody in here free tickets for a year.

Travis Lamprecht 48:22

yes let me know shoot me an email Travis L at SC loyal dot com. (laughter)

Kenneth Kinney 48:26

Awesome. Travis, thank you so much for being with us on A Shark's Perspective.

[music]

Kenneth Kinney 48:36

So that was my conversation with Travis Lamprecht, the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at the San Diego Loyal Soccer Club, an American professional soccer team based in San Diego, California. And this episode was recorded live in San Diego at the 2023 lead generation World Conference. Let's take a look at three key takeaways from my conversation with him.

Kenneth Kinney 48:57

First, community is extremely important for many to most businesses. lean into it, grow it whenever you can, especially the pros they've learned to do community well.

Kenneth Kinney 49:07

Second, learn as much as you can outside of your bubble. Don't just listen all the marketing nerds learn and pull from as many sources as you can watch some pop culture, read some of the classics be brought in your thinking for greater wisdom.

Kenneth Kinney 49:20

Third, doing this episode live on stage was a lot of fun. And I really admire the conference organizer because it gives the audience something different than a regular Keynote or regular panelist V for example. Travis was awesome. Again, I highly encourage you to check out Lead Generation World in your future.

Kenneth Kinney 49:36

Got a question? Send me an email to Kenneth at a shark's perspective.com.

Kenneth Kinney 49:40

Thank you again for the privilege of your time. I am so thankful to everyone who listens.

Kenneth Kinney 49:45

Underwater soccer? Now there's an idea but my team gets to be the sharks. Okay. Join us on the next episode of a sharks perspective.

(Music - shark theme)