Sportel Educates Members on New Media Opportunities -- ATRadio

(ATR) The sports industry is learning that adaptation to evolving media trends can lead to large profit shares.

Many of these leaders gathered in Miami, Florida this week for the Sportel America conference held every other year. Representatives from International Federations, sponsors, marketing agencies and professional sports leagues met for two days of panels and workshops focusing on the ever-shifting media landscape.

Monaco Mediax – Sportel’s parent company – chief executive Laurent Puons tells Around the Rings that the future of media and that of Sportel itself will largely hinge on the increased prevalence of social media.

"The future of Sportel America will be influenced by social media because it’s important for the industry to work closely with the social media for the future," Puons tells ATR on the latest edition of ATRadio.

Puons and chief executive of Oceanworx (Sportel’s marketing agency) David Jones joined ATR’s vice president of sales Eric Moran during a break in the action of the two-day conference. Jones says that Sportel is beginning to introduce more technology exhibits in order to keep up with the evolution of social media and educate its members on the opportunities available there.

"This is one reason why we have our Sportel Tech panels, to educate the industry on opportunities," Jones tells ATR. "A lot of rights dealers are having difficulties understanding social media and the possibilities there."

Jones says the key to capitalizing on new media trends is to set up an effective marketing strategy for each platform.

"This is where marketing comes in, because marketing is essentially the glue that gets it all together and decides on how brands and events are communicated today," he says. "We are not just selling rights to television; we have to sell social media.

"You have different profit departments now – television, social media, etc. Each thing has its own value that you need to sell, it’s a profit center and you can set up sponsorships for each different one."

Listen below to hear more about Sportel’s role in the future sports media industry and the opportunities and challenges that will present themselves.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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