Podcast Alert: Amy Azzi – T-Mobile
Amy Azzi – Senior Director of Sports Marketing and Sponsorships at T-Mobile – describes the strategy behind the brand’s sports sponsorship portfolio.
She and AJ also look forward to 2023 to discuss how T-Mobile will be in a strong position to succeed even in the face of a possible recession.
Details:
2:55 – T-Mobile’s portfolio growth
6:55 – Looking forward to 2023
19:50 – T-Mobile’s MLB and Seattle Mariners partnerships
28:30 – Rapid Fire Questions
Transcript
+^Amy Azzi: [00:00:00] We’re fortunate to be in a business that is something people rely on day to day. So I think it does force us to just prioritize what we focus on. What are those things that can really make sure that they have the impact? And how do we make sure that we’re still investing in those things that are really important for the brand, building the business, building the network perceptions so that when people do make those choices, the coverage they need from a telecom provider and the value that they need, that they’re considering. T-Mobile.
AJ Maestas: Hello and welcome to the Navigating Sports Business Podcast. I’m your host, AJ Maestes, Founder of Navigate, a data-driven consulting [00:01:00] firm, guiding major strategies and decisions in sports and entertainment. We started this podcast hoping to share the interesting stories and experiences of the amazing people we get to work with at.
And even though they’re visionaries and famous, in many instances, their true stories aren’t often heard. Since they’re not on the playing field, our hope is you get to know them better and learn from them, as we have.
Today, I’m happy to be joined by Amy Azzi, Senior Director of Sports Marketing and Sponsorships at T-Mobile. Thank you for joining, Amy.
Amy Azzi: Thanks so much for having.
AJ Maestas: Yeah, I’m so grateful to be able to share you with the world just because well, we’re just really proud of you, your strategy and the work that you all do.
There’s not a lot of brands that truly authentically assess what’s right for the business. Truly try to invest on target at the right price, on the right strategy. I mean, really, it’s a very small subset of clients that we work with that are truly committed to that. And you are one of ’em. So glad to share that.
So excited to share that with everybody else.
Amy Azzi: Thank you [00:02:00] so much. Yeah, no, we, we appreciate, some of the work we’ve done together and just the ability for us to look at growth in areas of opportunity. We wanna be really smart about how we represent our brand and where we put our resources to do that as well.
So that’s where a lot of that comes in to play.
AJ Maestas: Well, you are smart, you got a great team and it’s just nice to be able to say to properties that want to do business with you say, here’s their strategy, very clear. If you don’t fit that, obviously everybody’s wasting your time. You can’t say that with so many brands because if they circumnavigate the agency and they get to a senior decision maker, they can get them buying something that makes no sense at all.
So anyway, you stay on strategy and I love that. So T-Mobile has become the number two brand in wireless, and I mean it’s neck and neck there, right? With number one, pretty unbelievable growth over a decade. Lots of organic growth and also inorganic growth, right? With the acquisition of Sprint. So this means your staff has more than tripled in size, which is crazy, right?
So what a new job, you’ve found yourself in here. Anyway, what has it been like to integrate all these new portfolios, new properties, new partnerships as you’ve been growing?
Amy Azzi: Yeah. I think since I started about five years [00:03:00] ago, even before the Sprint merger, we were a small but mighty team and we had a few things that really supported the brand in a big way.
And as we’ve had the merger but also had other business units, like we’ve added home internet, we’ve made certain elements of our metro business more important. And then looking at T-Mobile for Business and really the opportunity growth of that segment that we have as well post Sprint merger. We’ve really tripled the, the number of business lines that we’re looking at supporting, with our partnerships and how we have those help elevate.
So I think it’s, it’s been an evolution of the business as we grow with the merger. Of course, an exciting time for big milestones around coverage, distribution, growth, and then looking at how, partnerships can help support kind of the new T-Mobile and the new path with these new business lines that we have or the new focus on those business lines that we have.
It’s been an exciting time and I think we’ve had to grow the team to look at new opportunities to support that. And so it’s been great to really build a passionate group [00:04:00] of individuals to try to strategically look at the right places that we invest in those areas to support as we look at growth.
AJ Maestas: Yeah, that is. It gets complex real quick, when you think B2B, 5G some of the internet of things and it’s more complex than one might think from the outside is wireless. So can you share the process you use for determining what newly acquired deals you maintain versus which ones you move on from? I feel like folks on the outside of the brand world, it’s always just kind of a mystery, right?
It feels like politics and things like that. It would be amazing to share sort of your process.
Amy Azzi: We’ve got a pretty thoughtful set of filters we’ve refined over the years, and so I think for us, a lot of the things that we look at, of course, front and center is our brand and our customers. And so really making sure that that Un-carrier brand comes through with our partners.
And then making sure our customers are part of our partnerships as well. It’s always they’re always center to what we do and value we provide back. So a lot of times we’re looking for customer benefits we can provide back to customers, [00:05:00] but we also some of the key things around the assets, the opportunities that we look at, it’s looking at things that provide ownable equity.
Obviously everyone wants kind of that ability to put their brand stamp on things, but where do we really come in and add value to audiences? I always ask, when we look at partners, it’s, are we adding value as a partner here or is it if any other partner came in and you just kind of slap the logo, would this make sense?
And so we do try to find ways and some of those ways are through our network. So it’s looking at how does the ability of of our 5G network help a partner either broadcast something in a different way that they want to, like a SailGP that we worked with where we worked on a ship-to-shore communication system that allowed them to reduce their latency in the broadcast solution they had back to their London broadcast studio.
So how could we help the partner, uniquely help the partner with our service is central to these days, any kind of growth and evolution of our portfolio. And then of course there’s the things that we look at [00:06:00] like, does it fit a key audience for us? Does the geographic location make sense? You know, all of those things come together for us to evaluate a partnership.
But the, at the end of the day, the question we’re always asking is, how are we bringing value to this partner, this fan community, and what does that look like? Are we making it better as a result of our partnership? And that’s really important to us holistically.
AJ Maestas: Wow, that’s really cool. You know, honestly, there’s all kinds of cool research that I won’t bore everyone with, because everyone knows that’s what Navigate does.
But as far as being value-adding and the experience of a fan, helping them be a fan, helping celebrate, help ’em watch their favorite team. I really appreciate you saying that, because again, I think it’s a small minority of brands that think about elevating the sport, elevating the fan experience, and being a reason that it’s better.
Plus what a dream brand to work with, right? Because you’re aligning your mission and your objectives with obviously the property’s objectives. At the risk of flooding your inbox with thousands of pitches, what are you looking for next?
Amy Azzi: That’s a great question. We have a full suite of things we’re looking at for ”23.
Like I [00:07:00] said, we can do a follow up maybe later in early Q1 and talk about some of those things that we’re working on, but we’ve got a pretty full suite of things. I mean, if you look at technology deals, those are long-term discussions and builds and innovation conversations around what’s feasible and what’s possible and so we’ve kind of had some things we’ve had our eye on that we’re working towards that are really elevate our, our network in a unique way, but also help those partners. So those are the kinds of things we look at.
I don’t know that we’re looking for new things in ’23 necessarily, following us getting to a place of having our calendar filled for ’23. And we also have some incredible partnerships in our portfolio today that really give us some big moments to talk about the brand. And so we’re thankful for those and looking at ways to build upon that.
AJ Maestas: Okay. Well that’s fair. And how does budget look like? You know, I’m personally concerned. Interest rates rising. That is meant to intentionally, very intentionally, slow an economy. But by technical definitions, the economy has shrunk. GDP has shrunk two quarters in a row, so we might [00:08:00] not have announced that we are in a downturn, but we are in a recession.
So I know a typical corporation it’s gonna err on the side being conservative, right? And protecting cash you know, how are things going there? I’m hearing about layoffs from all these other brand clients of ours, hiring freezes. When you talk about all that full slate of ’23, do you, do you picture, is business still good, still growing?
Amy Azzi: I think it, it always forces us to be always smart and strategic about what we do. I think it just forces you to be that much more thoughtful about approach and making sure that the things you’re investing in are going to give you the right return and focusing on that plan. I think we’re fortunate to be in a business that is something people rely on day to day, communications is something that people have to have regardless of the situation.
Now that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect us. But I think that it overall just forces us to be smart with where we put our resources. So I think it does force us to just prioritize what we focus on, right? Like this idea of probably that gets said around the halls of like fewer, bigger, better.[00:09:00]
Like what are those things that can really make sure that they have the impact? And how do we make sure that we’re still investing in those things that are really important for the brand, building the business, building the network perceptions so that when people do make those choices right now looking at the coverage they need from a telecom provider and the value that they need from a telecom provider that they’re considering T-Mobile. So I think there’s a prioritization conversation in those times around what can we do? What do we need to make choices on? That just makes a lot of sense, but it forces some of those even more strategic decisions around where we should be investing the dollars that we have.
AJ Maestas: Do you mind talking a little bit about small town, rural and some of your strategies there? Just because I think the generic perception of telco and, and you know, wireless business is, oh, young, urban, millennial, multicultural it’s cities, it’s Gen Z, it’s millennial, right? It’s heavy tech users.
And it caught me by surprise as I was onboarding and really learning your business that the priority you put around small town and rural. Why, how, do you mind explaining that a bit?
Amy Azzi: [00:10:00] Post merger with Sprint, one of the things that so smart of our leadership to do, and then the merger with Sprint was meant to also absorb some of these other bands of Spectrum that basically combine with our network to deploy a, call it a layer cake of all of these different bands of Spectrum that come together to make our 5G network the leader right now amongst the other carriers.
And what that did was enable additional coverage in rural areas and that we didn’t necessarily have that same differentiation prior. But we really, our engineering team has been fast at work, deploying a lot of spectrum that we got within the merger and then combining the two networks to just really grow the dependability and coverage and reliability of our network within rural areas. And so that is a big focus for us to then go out and say, hey, we are a great option for folks out in those communities. Our companies have a few programs where we’ve invested in some hometown grants to support different rural areas. You know, in addition to our [00:11:00] network, it’s also showing that we’re there to . Support them.
And so some of our approach with things like our Southeast Conference, and the SEC’s been a great partner. We’re in the second year of that partnership. It is really introducing ourselves to that audience and showing them who we are as a company, as a, as a network that can support them.
And making them aware that T-Mobile is an option for them that now has a very great coverage and a great value for our rural customers, just like we also have had for many years in urban areas. So it’s really part of looking at that growth and that’s how small towns and rural areas have become a focus for us to make sure that we are showcasing that we are an option for them.
They have more options when it comes to telecom coverage. And that includes now home internet as well. So in some areas, in rural places, it’s really hard to get solid wifi coverage. And now with the 5G network, they can get a 5G-enabled home internet solution. So, so many people are still, that’s a new product that we have in the last year, year and a [00:12:00] half. And so really the focus is around making that known to customers as an option for them.
AJ Maestas: I love the SEC stuff. I mean, the passion and the college space I think is just the passion relative to price, the freedom to activate as you wish. And there’s just some, there’s some really cool elements.
That 5G thing, by the way, just to clarify so people understand, you can wirelessly get 5G so you can get through T-Mobile at home, essentially same speed as wireless, if not better.
Amy Azzi: Correct. It’s a 5G-enabled wifi solution within your home. So it’s plug and play. My mom did it. She said it was great and so easy and so she was a new fan, but it’s really, it’s a new option.
It’s giving people choices and that’s part of what the Un-carrier does, is give people customer choice and giving additional value. So that’s been, that’s been also a really interesting one for the team to work on. And we’ve are starting to look at how some of that messaging comes into play and things like our [00:13:00] SEC partnership here soon to, to talk about that opportunity for customers.
AJ Maestas: It’s not where you would expect a Seattle-based business to be fishing, small town, rural, southeast, corner of the country, all this kind of stuff. But it’s cool. It’s cool and and it’s smart. Zigging while other zag, knowing your audience, right. Points of differentiation. These are pieces to the bigger story of why T-Mobile has so rapidly grown in market share beyond just acquisition. By the way, if you don’t mind me asking about sponsorships, is there an overreaching goal? Like, is there, we are in sports sponsorships and music and entertainment and you do a bunch of esports stuff, all that. Why do you do it?
Amy Azzi: Probably not too dissimilar from a lot of brands out there, but I think for us the key focus is gonna be really those brand and network equities as a main north star of like, we want people to consider T-Mobile. We want to bring people into that funnel, but we also wanna change network perceptions and continue to showcase our network to our customers. Within that, I think those are always the north [00:14:00] stars, the things we know that sponsorships can do really well, but we also use sponsorships in a way that drive really specific purposes. Like I said, for things like really showcasing 5G. We have partnerships with Sail Grand Prix, with Drone Racing League to really highlight some of those use cases of like making 5G real for people. What does this mean? And more ways that we’re working on to do that in even more sort of reach and impact ways.
I think we also look at things, partnerships to solve specific needs around things like T-Mobile for Business and how are we looking at using our assets to drive customer hosting and engagement conversations. So there’s ways we’ve evolved our hospitality programs to take care of T-mobile for Business.
So I don’t know that there’s, I think there’s a few north stars but then there’s also some really targeted, focused ways that have worked really well for us to start to lean into as part of a broader strategy on those kind of things coming together.
You mentioned venues and hospitality, we’ve recently added, we’ve [00:15:00] had some venues for a while. We have venues in both of our HQ markets, T-Mobile Park, and then T-Mobile Center, which we took over from Sprint post-merger. And then we have a venue in Vegas as well, and our venues program has grown a little bit. We also have Distrito in Puerto Rico.
Each of those venues has meant really kind of an investment in those communities. So T-Mobile Park and T-Mobile Center, both to really commit our support of the community, where our home headquarters is and making sure that we’re part of that community. You know, supporting the Mariners, really hope they will, we’ll see how things are going in the postseason. But we’re really rooting them on. And you know, in terms of venues, I think, we are looking at those to be, not only they’re supporting those communities, but then there’s things like T-Mobile Arena in Vegas where we know is a national destination and visibility for some really major events that continue to come through there.
So I think that’s where venues have been important. And then hospitality is really an evolution of all of [00:16:00] these partnerships that we have across baseball, across SEC and venues. How do we use those hospitality assets and just continue to dig in? I mean, early when I came in, we have people managing spreadsheets of tickets and things like this, this can’t be good long term.
We need to figure out how to manage this well. And so we worked with a partner to pull that in to a system that then allows us actually to get a percentage of, we can go and see any percentage of which department internally is using it for reward and recognition. You know, from a T-Mobile for Business perspective, how are the B2B uses of this evolving, set allocation targets for different groups that we want to make sure we’re using our tickets to support. And so we’ve just been able to really go in and create kind of a center of excellence for how we use those tickets, and it just helps us maximize the value out of those other partnerships in the portfolio where we can reward employees, but also look at building business-driving conversations around B2B as well. So [00:17:00] have really just added some discipline to how those assets are managed over the last year and really proud of the team has built there.
AJ Maestas: Well, that’s really smart stuff. Honestly the, the abuse of tickets, how many tickets die in some assistant’s drawer, how many ends up in your neighbor’s hands. It’s just, it’s unbelievable. So good for you. I have a fun story on that front. Years and years ago with a client we’re working with trying to set up a similar model right, in tracking hospitality and tracking attendees.
And this has since been replicated time and time again, but it was an accidental discovery. Basically we had them start tracking with unique identifiers for the account they were hosting and have them identified as a prospect, retention you know, growth, whatever the account might be, why they’re bringing in the hospitality.
And it was months and months ahead of us actually being able to track, but instantly the number of decision-makers in the suite, in the seat, whatever it might be, doubled. It went from a third to two thirds utilization of the tickets, which if you’re using ’em smart and that would [00:18:00] ultimately double the business to business ROI, right?
So just the idea that people are being watched and that someone is recording who you’re bringing to find out if it was a useful and of course taking someone to a ballgame is not the only reason someone does business with you. But isn’t that great? You know, a classic example of people do what you inspect, not what you expect.
So yeah, you wanna double your ROI on hospitality. Just tell people you’re tracking it.
Amy Azzi: It does help. It does help. But yeah, a lot of, lot of good, I think we’ve seen a lot of good positive impact from employees being excited that they’re rewarded after a big project that they worked on. Or just building some of those relationships at a game and being able to talk about the network to a prospective customer.
And you know, we also have ways that they can go out and then then talk about some of the examples, like at MLB All-Star Week we hosted a B2B program there amongst all the other, some of the other activation that we have. You know, we host about a number of customers out at that event, can talk to them about some of the use cases that we do with baseball in terms of looking at different [00:19:00] network integrations with the MLB network from a broadcast perspective.
And so it’s helpful to sort of be able to showcase those examples and then go out to see kind of how that comes to life in action.
AJ Maestas: Well, speaking of baseball, you’re a pretty big partner of MLB currently, I think that’s up here for renewal. But you do a wonderful job honestly with the All-Star game, the ownership position you take of Home Run Derby.
You know, it really sticks out. Right? And T-Mobile has a history of this. I was always so impressed with your NBA partnership and you know, how it was vertically integrated getting down even to the youth and high school level. Do you mind sharing with us why you are currently so heavily invested in baseball?
Amy Azzi: Yeah, this is our 10th year with MLB and so I think this partnership has really evolved over time. We’ve looked at how this started before my time here in some areas to support our business and just the amount of growth we’ve had on how we deliver value back to our customers with things like MLB.TV, the ability to take some of those [00:20:00] audiences. I mean, one of the things, the audiences are also just a great fit for sort of where we’re looking to grow. But we also are looking at things that we’ve done to support very specific parts of sort of our business initiative. So things like, our military rate plan launch.
That happened a couple years ago when we created a moment and a campaign for that around Hats Off for Heroes, and recognizing military, which continues to be important with some of our team partnerships as well. You know, and then also ways to showcase our network through different network innovations AR, and creating our 5G BP programming and just really kind of testing and learning some new innovation components with baseball.
It’s all under the guise of this flexibility and the partnership that we have, and I think that’s one other thing for people. And part properties listening is that that flexibility and that partner dynamic to sort of grow a relationship. Some of these some of the deals in our industry that get set, we tend to do not quite as long term deals because we’re such a dynamic brand in terms of where things are going.[00:21:00]
And you know, some of those deal, the deals that get done the, the 10 plus year deals at times, there has to be ways for you to evolve because your business is going to change during that term. Right? And so I think baseball’s been been fantastic about us working with them to evolve how we go to market or things that we create in as part of their big moments and how we complement those with a moment for our brand. Things like Little League that we’ve partnered with them on building some really big assets with the Little League Home Run Derby or other areas, and then our T-Mobile Home Run Derby, which we’ve continued to evolve with them.
So I think it’s that flexibility in addition to being the right strategic place for us, the flexibility of the partner and being able to work together on some of those things is certainly critically important to being able to kind of build and grow over time with a partner that we have. And Baseball’s been been a good partner for a number of areas for us to do that over the years.
AJ Maestas: I’m so glad that they’ve been a good partner and I agree with you on those long term deals. I mean, think about 10 years ago, [00:22:00] what was T-Mobile’s business? Just your growth rate alone? I mean and then what triple the lines of business.
Amy Azzi: Yeah. It’s an interesting area when you look at like just sponsorships in general on some of the, the terms and, and how it works.
Different partners have different approaches to it too. I think it’s so important to be open to some of that evolution because we all know that change is inevitable in all of our businesses, and for those partners and you hope the partners that you work with. It’s also something where we look at with our partners.
We want them to be open to knowing that we are gonna wanna evolve some assets or we’re gonna wanna sort of shift some things around because we wouldn’t be activating in a good way if we weren’t right? If we were just saying, yep, let’s just sign in, let’s just do this exact thing that worked six years ago we have to wanna change and, and sort of push the envelope a little bit. And so obviously that has to work and be good for both partners. And that is a question we try to ask ourselves along the way. Like we said before, does this add value? Does the fan want it? But I think within that, if you can answer those questions and say, yes, it is important, [00:23:00] then the hope is that the partner is flexible and wants to work with you on the way for those assets to come together to support something new. And I think that’s really important when we get to know a new partner to find out ways to do that because otherwise that’s kind of the fun part I think too about this industry is kind of some of the growth and evolution.
AJ Maestas: Yeah. Well it’s good that you are that. That’s right. I appreciate you saying change is inevitable. So are you ready? Are you building flexibility? What are you gonna do about it? By the way, you brought up the Mariners, we had Catie Griggs on here recently. And obviously you’re a Seattle girl, or you are now, that’s home now,
Do you get out to many games? I mean, your name’s on the ballpark, right?
Amy Azzi: I do, and Catie is fantastic. Can’t say enough good things about the energy and some of the shift that I think that she’s brought to that team and the thinking have been really been fortunate to, to spend a little bit time with her and given our relationship with the Mariners.
And she came out and spoke to our team the other day as well and was just very well received. So I can’t say enough good things. [00:24:00] Very smart strategic leader that they have. But yeah, we get out to a lot of games. And it’s great. Some work and some fun. Brought the fam, got to bring the family out the other day and go to a game.
My daughter loves the Mariner Moose. She actually likes watching baseball cause she knows mom goes to a lot of baseball games, but she also now loves the Mariner Moose, Mariner Moose is her big favorite. So it’s a lot of fun.
AJ Maestas: That’s great. It’s such a beautiful ballpark. It’s the best beer garden in Seattle in the summer.
Amy Azzi: Well, we’re gonna be inviting a lot of people to join us in July for All-Star Week in Seattle. So we got, we got some big things coming up there. It’ll be a lot of fun.
AJ Maestas: Yeah. I’m excited for Seattle to showcase itself to the country.
It’s just such a beautiful place to be in the summer months, and that’ll be really special. That’ll be really cool.
Amy Azzi: I still hear from some of our partners at baseball that the year it was in Seattle what is it almost 20 years ago, I think, is one of the favorites of all time, of All-Star Week.
So I’m excited to experience what everyone has talked about before and a lot of work on the brand side to get there and what we’ll have coming up, but we’re excited to to show off [00:25:00] T-Mobile Park during that time. For . Sure.
AJ Maestas: Right. And have them come to you, have them come to us, which I appreciate.
And in the West the last couple years, I appreciate the All-Star game staying out west. That’s good for me.
Amy Azzi: And I don’t have to travel. It’s kind of a nice change for an All-Star Week.
AJ Maestas: Well, one more question here on baseball, I promise. You provide free MLB.TV to your customers, you got a hundred million customers. I would love to know, and you don’t have to make it baseball specific, but how are credibility, benefit do you get when you think about you being one heck of a distribution model? Hundred million customers. I mean, that’s more than . ESPN now, right? I mean, that is not an insignificant audience that you have a handset with.
Amy Azzi: T-Mobile Tuesdays is the initial platform that really started kind of giving value back to customers and MLB.TV has, has come through that and now taken a few different forms. But what we have noticed is giving MLB.TV back to customers, it’s just some of the, some really strong scores that we’ve seen just around how customers sort of value that benefit and how they value being able to [00:26:00] have their telecom provider give them a benefit that maybe they didn’t realize, a little bit of the unexpected.
And, and so I think we have seen just a lot of good scores you know, from net promoter scores and looking at sort of how we’re looking at some of the data and those that have redeemed or even just aware of kind of the opportunity through our T-Mobile Tuesday’s platform and our T-Mobile Tuesday’s platform has been around for just about five, just over five years, I believe. But really a weekly engaged audience that comes and gets anything from Shell gasoline to a Booking.com travel opportunity. And so there’s a whole team that my peer that leads it, that they do incredible work in terms of what they give back.
And we’re happy to make MLB.TV part of the offering that we can give back to customers. And, a small part of what they do on a weekly basis to turn around offers on a weekly basis to go in and give away what they give away is pretty impressive for sure.
So the MLB.TV is a, a great piece of that calendar that they have every year for sure.
AJ Maestas: Yeah, for baseball for sure. And I [00:27:00] mean, baseball needs to get far more social, digital, mobile. Right, that like this is, it aligns well with them. And then you’re small town, rural, I mean, there’s a nice alignment there on what baseball needs and what you can provide.
I always just think about how much that could mean to so many other properties. Right. A hundred million customers. So, hey, we’ll end with a couple rapid fire questions. That good with you?
Amy Azzi: Yeah, absolutely.
AJ Maestas: Okay, good. Your favorite place to travel? Is this gonna be Tahoe?
Amy Azzi: I would say I have missed like a European vacation, so I was you know, definitely envious of your Naples trip.
But you know, Croatia and Spain have been really favorites of ours for years. We have not been out there in a long time obviously with everything going on, but the old world architecture, the culture, going to a soccer match in Europe is always an experience as well. And so last time I was out there, I think we saw FC Madrid, but you know, there’s just always things to explore, cultural history. [00:28:00] So yeah, that’d be my favorite.
AJ Maestas: Well, my trip just happened to coincide with some Champions League. We got to see Napoli play Liverpool, and they went up three zero pretty quick and it was just an electric atmosphere in this archaic, outdated stadium. And it was just what a cool experience.
And so yes, I did pull that off myself just during last week. So glad you go to Croatia, by the way, we took the whole company there a couple years ago and it was incredible. It was like going through time travel. There’s all these Roman walled cities and teeny little ports, and it was just, it was incredible.
It was like Italy before being trampled with tourism and all that stuff. Yeah, we, we love Spain and Croatia too. That Croatia trip, so special. So special. What are your top passions and hobbies?
Amy Azzi: We, let’s see, over summer, of course Pacific Northwest, paddle boarding, kayaking.
Love to get outside and then like to try and make sure I can keep some zen in this crazy schedule with yoga on a regular basis. And spending lots of [00:29:00] family time outside of the travel and everything else that we do.
AJ Maestas: Good for you, Good for you. Here’s one where we’re gonna help you solve this one.
This is what is your bucket list sporting event that you have not attended, And then hopefully within a few days of this going public, we’re gonna solve that for you. But well, yeah, Bucket list sporting event?
Amy Azzi: You know, been able, been very fortunate and appreciative to attend some really cool ones and spent some time at the Olympics and Super Bowl, World Series, FIFA World Cup I think someday is one that when it comes through in ’26, you know certainly one that I want to attend, of course, tuning into the US Open. I’ve not been to a US Open and was really wishing I was out in New York to see Serena play most recently. So that might need to go, that one definitely needs to go on the list for sure.
AJ Maestas: Did Seattle win to be one of the World Cup host sites? I hope so.
Amy Azzi: They did. Yeah. And Kansas City. So it’s gonna be gonna be great to see that [00:30:00] come through town. So yeah, lots coming.
AJ Maestas: Kansas City, being Sprint’s headquarters for so many years since acquired by T-Mobile. I didn’t realize kansas City is a host site. That is something else.
Blows my mind, Chicago didn’t even bid.
Amy Azzi: I mean, think about all the teams they have. They have the Chiefs, they have the Royals, they have Sporting KC, they’ve got a women’s soccer team out there now recently started up as well. So it’s quite the sports town. Kansas City is, quite, got a lot of good fans out there for sure.
AJ Maestas: No doubt. It’s just not one I would’ve, I just wouldn’t have thought. No Chicago, yes to Kansas City. Just some surprising things. What advice would you give to someone just starting out their career with a desire to work in sports marketing?
Amy Azzi: I would say when you’re starting out to try to work in as many different areas of the industry as you can.
I always think it’s interesting to have a lot of different perspectives. Agency, property brand. I think it can be valuable to gain those different perspectives and then also to kind of determine where you enjoy most. But, the [00:31:00] perspective that each of those brings when you sit in any of those roles I think is really helpful and can be helpful to sort of appreciate what perspective someone might have on the other side of the table that you’re sitting from.
So I think that’s always something I tell people to get some experience in some different places while you’re young.
AJ Maestas: I know we met when you were working at Visa, and given our work there and all that, but you’re a rare example of someone having started in collegiate athletics and ending up big agencies like GMR, but you know, just being on the brand side, I can’t name another, to be perfectly honest. So I appreciate that perspective. I wish we had more people who had actually been in collegiate athletics and had sort of bridged that gap.
Amy Azzi: It was a fun place to start out. Learned a lot in some different places and game day operations at Stanford football games to, you know what we do now.
It’s been, it’s a fun ride.
AJ Maestas: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you’re a Bay Area girl, right? So Berkeley too, right? Stanford and Berkeley?
Well, it’s good to be in your hometown too, which is pretty cool. I am super grateful for you taking time [00:32:00] to join us like this. It’s really fun to share you with the outside world.
I meant what I said at the top there just aren’t a bunch of brands that have this large of a team, quality of a team, thinking strategically doing the right thing, activating so well. The All-Star game is just one example. You know, the MLB relationship is just one example, one of many. But super happy to be able to let the rest of the world meet you in this sort of format.
So thank you very much for joining us here.
Amy Azzi: Thank you so much. I’m one of an incredible team that I represent. I will call that out, that does all of these things. So very happy to represent for them today as well, and appreciate the time.
AJ Maestas: Yeah, it’s a hard working team too. There’s no question.
Great team, hard working team. Well, if anybody has any questions for Amy, don’t be shy about reaching out to me. My email’s AJ@NVGT.com. You can also connect with us on my personal LinkedIn page or the Navigate page. We’ll pass on questions to Amy in sort of a bundled fashion for those who aren’t satisfied, aren’t satiated with the time we just spent with her today and the questions I asked.
Again, this is AJ Maestes with Navigate Joined [00:33:00] by Amy Azzi. Thank you for joining us on Navigating Sports Business.
Amy Azzi: Thanks so much, AJ.