Zack Sugarman, ”AI Powered Lead Generation”

The Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast by Marcus Luer

Zack Sugarman, deep dive into his 17 years with the Wasserman Group to his current role as Chief Strategy Officer at Demand Sports – an AI powered top-of-funnel lead generation tool for the sports industry.

If you are in sales you need to listen to this.

Key Highlights

1. From college to first role at Sportnet (Wasserman Media Group), doing business development – finance of action sports films in 2005 (skateboard.com, etc)
2. Deep dive into Wasserman group - from 70 people when he joined to 1,700 by the time he left recently (15 offices around the world)
   1. Global Sports Marketing & Entertainment company
   2. Helping client spend their marketing dollars wisely, negotiate, execute
   3. Maximizing revenue for teams/leagues (properties)
   4. Talent manage side – Jerry Maguire style (NFL to action sports)
3. Growth by acquisition – music talent, celebrity influencers, creating IP & content (UK based CSM, etc)
4. Acquisition of Brillstein – coming full circle (family history, Lew Wasserman)
5. Casey Wasserman – a bit about the man himself – Chairman of LA 2028 Olympics – his leadership style
6. His roles over the 17 years (2005-2022)
   1. Start of digital and social media era and developing a digital division to help monetize content
   2. Early days of live streaming – World Surf League – live webcast
   3. Properties – teams, leagues, federations, conferences, Esports teams,
   4. Develop products to offer these property owners – pre-sale and post-sale services
   5. NBA Jersey Patch, later NHL, MLB – one of the big projects – discussing deal sizes
7. Demand Sports – his role as Chief Strategy Officer
   1. How it works, background,
   2. Helping property rights holders – top-of-funnel lead generation, using AI to verify contacts, personalized emails
   3. Coordinate follow up and meeting times for the Property owner (all the upfront work to create warm leads)
   4. Demand Inc – tech companies, B2B business – Lasso tool tweaked to use for sports
   5. Bounce test to check emails are correct – in real time, etc
   6. Using AI to personalize emails, search web to create subject lines and hocks for a personalized touch to email
   7. Tool operates globally – language specific outreach examples
   8. 40 clients around in the US and around the world
   9. Fee structure and flexible model for Property owners
   10. Contact: [e-mail] - www.demandsports.co
8. US market – huge events coming the next few years from FIFA World Cup 2026 to Olympics 2028 and more… opportunities for brands and property owners
9. Final message on Artificial Intelligence (AI) – be curious

About

Zack has a proven sports executive with over ~20 years of experience in commercial strategy and revenue creation – focusing on business development, partnership creation, digital strategy, new tech integration, valuation, packaging, and execution of award winning campaigns and initiatives. Sugarman’s skills include business development (identifying, negotiating, securing new clients), strategy and analytics (fan insights, commercial valuation and packaging, opportunity targeting, partnership creation, and measurement), and relationships (understand the value of connections and have enjoyed consistent networking and having multiple long-term and repeat clients). Zack likes to connect the dots between partners and bring new perspectives together in an effort to generate new value, drive innovation and facilitate new connections across the sports and entertainment business.
Before joining Demand Sports, Sugarman spent 16 years in agency leadership positions at Wasserman, most notably leading the Global Properties division worldwide to help venues/teams/leagues maximize commercial revenue. At Wasserman, Sugarman helped drive millions of dollars in commercial revenue for clients including NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS, FIFA, USGA, UFC, NASCAR, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, LAFC, New York Islanders, Vegas Golden Knights, CrossFit, Drone Racing League and Salesforce. Sugarman was also instrumental in helping AEG land the largest Naming Rights deal in history with the announcement of the Crypto.com Arena in November 2021.
Zack is a true tech geek who makes it a point to stay on the cutting edge of emerging technologies and digital strategies; he also firmly believes that “Fútbol is life.”

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