Podcast Alert: Kimberly Bolt – Washington Nationals

Transcript

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Kimberly Bolt: [00:00:00] We could be not just patriotic and act with integrity, but also be playful in a brand that is fierce. A brand that can really unify the city, unify the region. Be proud to represent DC and to be proud to be playing the nation’s pastime and the nation’s capital.

Jeff Nelson: Hello, welcome to the Navigating Sports Business Podcast. I’m your host today, Jeff Nelson, the President of Navigate. We are a data-driven consulting firm guiding major strategies and decisions in sports and entertainment. We started this podcast to share the experiences and the stories of some of the amazing people we get to work with.

They’re not the star athletes on the field. But they are the most [00:01:00] influential people off of it. Hopefully you learn a little something about them and a little something from them over the course of our conversations

Today, I am happy to be joined by Kim Bolt. The Chief marketing officer at the Washington Nationals. I am really meeting Kim for the first time here, but the nationals have a very soft spot in my heart. I went to school in DC, Kim, and when I was a student journalist, I was covering at the time. Whether or not DC was gonna get a baseball team and whether or not they were gonna get the expos.

Wow. And I went to some like city council meetings and talked to people involved in the effort and wrote about it. And so ever since it was successful, I even back in the early days when I lived there, went to a few of the first games at like RFK. And [00:02:00] so I’m always keeping an eye on the nationals and I’m excited to chat with you about baseball more broadly.

But the nationals in particular, because it’s been pretty cool to see. What has been built there and now, the last few years, what you’ve been able to be a part of. So thank you for joining me.

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, no, excited to be here, Jeff. And I love that story. We’ll have to get you out to a game this season ’cause it’s our, uh, 20th anniversary of when the nationals came back to dc so yeah, gotta get you out.

Jeff Nelson: 20 years. That’s wild. I wanna start talking about marketing a baseball team at a macro level. A lot of good metrics for baseball. Since the new rule two years ago, attendance is up 11%. Sunday night baseball’s up 14% I think are, or no, it had its highest ratings in the last five years. Streaming is up 14% year over year.

At the team level, do you feel those tailwinds? Does it feel like [00:03:00] as you get ready now for what will be, I think your third season at the Nationals? Mm-hmm. Does it feel like there’s this great momentum that we see in some of the metrics that certainly we’re tracking?

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, a hundred percent. I think from a a macro perspective, it’s been awesome to see how each of the clubs works with the MLB as our league, how they’re really trying to grow the game of baseball worldwide.

In addition to nationally. And so I think a lot of their investments, particularly when it comes to some of their brand strategy and all that storytelling and the learnings that come across at the league level, certainly help impact the clubs at the local level. So their brand campaign last year was around baseball, is something else.

Really intended to capture the fact that anything can happen at a baseball game, unexpected moments. But at the end of the day, it’s all about this shared sense. Of community and it’s this dynamic and charming game where anything [00:04:00] can happen and so as they’ve invested in baseball as something else, I think it’s been really interesting to see how that’s just excited a lot of the fan base around some of the changes, like you had mentioned, the rules changes, and the fact that a baseball game now, it’s the fastest that it’s ever been played, and I think we are certainly lucky to benefit from some of those tailwinds as well.

Jeff Nelson: When you then look at the nationals in particular and some of the young stars you have Dylan Crews James Wood, CJ Abrams, an All Star.

How are you trying to take those tailwinds and now take the players that you have and bring it all together? And obviously Marketing Stars has been a very, much talked about subject in the baseball world for many years. How are you guys doing it at the local level with those kind of young, exciting stars?

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, a hundred percent. I think one of the major learnings that the league has also been very helpful in letting clubs [00:05:00] know about what’s best practices in terms of digital content, in terms of player related content. And one of the core themes is really around it’s not just the on the field moments that really capture the hearts and mind of the fan base.

Sometimes it’s even more, who is that person off the field? What are their interests? What’s their personality? It’s a delicate balance of really trying to be able to highlight exactly how hard this game is. Right? There’s 81 home games, 162 games total. The travel, the preparation, how hard it is to hit a fastball, right?

And to really highlight those phenomenal on the field moments. And the technical skill that it takes to play baseball, but also talking about who likes playing MLB, the show who likes fashion, right? And how do they get ready for a gala, for example. So we’ve had a lot of success in really trying to understand who each player is [00:06:00] as an individual and trying as much as possible when there’s a storytelling opportunity around their personal interests, to use our brand as a platform for that player to also grow their brand. And so an example of when we did this last year, CJ Abrams represented the nationals at the All-Star game and there’s a red carpet moment there and really trying to understand what was his process for getting ready for the red carpet because he’s interested in fashion.

And so to really try to do some deep dives into who players are, on and off the field has really been a core part of how we’re able to get the fans connected and excited about some of these young stars

Jeff Nelson: You made me think of with the comment on fashion and with what they’re doing and trying to allow your platforms to be a place for that.

There have been also players who aren’t stars, who are very good on social media, who’ve built a following in a brand. Are you and your [00:07:00] team trying to bring that out in some of the players on the team? What does the team do now when it comes to guidance or coaching or support for even the non stars?

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, so I think a lot of other marketing leaders at clubs and teams probably also go through this challenge where if you put too much of a spotlight on on one player, some of the other guys will also be like, well, hey, what about me? Right? And so I think, we are open to working with whatever ideas that the team has, whatever ideas players have, we’re always open for a discussion and I think it really does depend on comfort level.

And if a particular player isn’t necessarily comfortable with an idea that comes from our social team or our content team, that’s okay and we can work around their. Comfort level and familiarity with social, and then hopefully over time, I think everything is based around trust. [00:08:00] And if you can really showcase that you have that player’s best interests at heart and that your goal is to, at the end of the day, make him or her look good. Right. And that’s what our content team is here to do. That’s what our social team is here to do and striving for. Um, and that’s ultimately something that could help them grow their brands as well over time,

Jeff Nelson: Beyond just the player level.

We live in a mobile first world, no shortage of metrics to now show us that people are consuming more content. On a mobile device than the TV on their wall or any other form. I love the example of CJ Abrams and the fashion before the red carpet. On the team level, or more broadly across the season,

as you think about marketing campaigns, is there an example of a way that the nationals have created something in the digital world that’s exciting for fans, [00:09:00] engaging for fans?

Kimberly Bolt: Baseball itself as well as the nationals. We’re looking to expand our fan base into younger, more diverse audiences. And so a lot of what we do is really try to understand what are the trends and,

what are the behaviors, especially for certain demographics, right? And so if you look at Gen Z behaviors, right? Like 94% of Gen Zs are on social media and the importance of social media in their shopping habits, their entertainment consumption habits, right? And so one of the things that worked very well for me,

my prior role at, at Nat Geo was around using content creators and, and influencers to try and reach that younger, more diverse audience. And so baseball itself also skews a little bit heavier towards a, a kind of a male fan base. So last year we had a very specific strategy around trying to work with [00:10:00] more lifestyle type influencers that have like a heavier female audience, particularly amongst

gen Z and millennials and working with them to curate experiences that they could have at Nationals Park for one of our games, offering unique ticket codes and discount offers to their audiences, and then really trying to leverage their platform as well. So some of our content creators, we license their content and then would also run that back on some of our media channels.

And it’s a way to really connect with a broader audience besides who might already be following the nationals, and certainly a more diverse audience. And so combined with some of the other program changes that we invested into, for example. Post-game concerts. Last year was the first year in over a decade that we brought back post-game concerts to Nationals Park.

You could buy a ticket to the game and then stay for a [00:11:00] Flo Rida concert stay for Carly Rae Jepsen concert. And so partnering with these influencers to really showcase that baseball is exciting and you also get access to this awesome concert after the game. And then the food and the, the experience, the social elements, all of that really came together nicely for us to really try to offer that different type of digital experience that doesn’t necessarily come from our handles, but certainly supported by our game day experience.

Jeff Nelson: What was your favorite concert?

Kimberly Bolt: Oh gosh. Back in another lifetime. I was a part-time spin instructor and during that time, Flo Rida was like my go-to warmup artist, and so I definitely think Flo Rida was my favorite. If I had to pick just one

Favorite Flo Rida song,

My House was the, the one that I used as my go-to warmup song for, love it years and [00:12:00] years.

So probably that one.

Jeff Nelson: I love it. When you talk about appealing to Gen Z and finding influencers, you made me think of something and, and this might seem roundabout, but I’ll, I’ll get back to the, the relevance here, but a friend and former coworker who’s at Nike was telling me that when it comes to the alternate jersey that they make, this is in the NFL.

Kimberly Bolt: But

Jeff Nelson: I think it applies to baseball too.

Kimberly Bolt: Yes. Yeah. We have the city connect jerseys, right.

Jeff Nelson: He was talking about the fact that sometimes they’ll go in and present it to a team, and one of the things they have to tell the senior executives of a team is, if all of you love this, we’ve done something wrong.

’cause you are not who we are designing this for. And oftentimes it’s the ones that maybe a lot of the senior executives. Don’t love that end up being the biggest sellers and the most popular because in anything, fashion, music, the things we’re talking about are not gonna be the same [00:13:00] for the age demographic of senior executives as at a team as obviously Gen Z or now Gen Alpha or Right.

The real target audience. And so where I’m bringing this back to, whether it’s. The jerseys or anything else you’re trying to do to market the Nationals. How hard is it to sometimes be designing something that you know, might not be something you would ever like, or your peers in the C-suite of the nationals would ever like, but you kind of have to.

Tell them like, we might hate this, but I think it’s gonna work.

Kimberly Bolt: Yes. Yeah. Oh, it’s, I’m sure like for any other executive, it’s a kind of a, a day-to-day challenge as well as opportunity, I think for me in my seat and what we’ve been trying to do here, rather than look at it from just pure demographics. The way that we like to think about what programs do we design, what campaigns do we [00:14:00] design?

What creative do we think will resonate? We’ve tried to pivot to more of a need. So for example, people come to a baseball game to be entertained, or they could be very diehard baseball fans. Right? And those are two different types of fans. The one that is more casual, that’s just looking for an entertaining social experience versus the one that is.

Sitting in the stands and scoring the game by hand, right? And so really trying to understand how are we doing with the needs of this type of segment of fans and in. The holistic view is this, our primary target? Is this our secondary? Trying to think through what are the needs? Where are we doing a, a good job in terms of servicing this type of fan and where can we improve?

And at the end of the day, it, it really has to be about both, right? Catering to that core fan who is really there for a different type of experience, but in order to be. A brand that [00:15:00] grows and continues to do interesting things, exciting things, you need to grow that top of the funnel, and you need to bring in some of those more casual fans that might have an entirely different need.

For what they’re hoping to get out of a baseball game. And so keeping an eye towards ensuring that you’re delivering a world class experience with that core group, but also that you’re designing some interesting tests or programs to eventually attract that outside of that core audience by looking at what types of things they’re looking for.

From your game day experience.

Jeff Nelson: We’ve had some clients and friends say to us that every time we try something new between innings that’s meant to cater the casual fan or whatever, during a timeout in another sport, there’s always some complaints. How do you manage that? Do you just go into it eyes wide open knowing, okay, we’re gonna do this, and there are gonna be some of that core fans that are going to vocalize that they don’t love it.

As long as we go [00:16:00] in eyes wide open, that’s just what we have to do. Or do you have to do a lot of, I don’t know whether it’s proactive or reactive messaging, or handholding, or how do you manage these different groups?

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah,

Jeff Nelson: when some of them are, no matter how well you do it, just knocking up,

Kimberly Bolt: they’re not gonna

Jeff Nelson: be happy and they’re gonna let you know.

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, it’s such an, an opportunity and challenge, right? Like many other things in the marketer’s seat, putting some data behind it. I’m a very data-driven marketer. I know Navigate itself is also very data-driven. The Nationals are also a very data-driven organization, and so what we make sure to do is.

We’re actually tracking leading indicators of how we’re doing as a brand game by game. The league actually helps us with this. It’s called Our Voice of the Consumer. We actually survey fans after every game about their experience and, and ask them all sorts of questions about their concessions experience to the in-game entertainment.

[00:17:00] We’re looking at this on a game by game, home stand by home stand year over year basis, as well as some of that open-ended feedback to understand, okay, is this a problem that potentially impacts just 1% of people? 2%? What’s the scale of it? And if that’s the case, then that is something we absolutely will action against.

But like many other things, it’s like there’s the data and then there’s also the art behind some of it as well, which is as a brand. We want to be doing new and exciting things. I think the Nationals are very family friendly and wholesome, which is great, and based on our fan research, that’s a great spot to be in.

But we also would like the fans to feel like we’re an exciting brand to watch and we’re an exciting team to watch and that we’re doing new, fresh things. That are fierce and that can really capture the hearts and minds of not just core baseball fans in the market, but basically anybody looking for a great experience.

They have a, a [00:18:00] place within Nationals Park. And so understanding when we’re able to take a little bit more of that risk because it has implications on some of the broader RAN perception, knowing that the data might come back a little bit more negative or not in our favor. Sometimes that’s a, a blend of art and science, is to really figure out like, where are we willing to take a little bit more risk and have it show in those numbers.

Jeff Nelson: I obviously love hearing about the use of data, and I plan to ask you how you, so you, you’ve answered it. Yeah, it has a big role, but this is probably a tough question. I’ll put you on the spot and see if something comes to mind. Is there a case where you got the data and it surprised you and that led you to do something different than you planned to do, or maybe stop doing something that you were excited about?

Any moments that you can think of where the data kind of opened eyes and and led to a decision?

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, I think that’s a great question. This past year we tried something new in [00:19:00] terms of our promotional strategy with our theme night. So for example, I. In prior years, we did a Star Wars Day. It was a single day where we had a Star Wars promotional item and really activated the entire ballpark around Star Wars theming.

This year we decided to actually make it a Star Wars weekend. We went in very hard with three days of Star Wars related programming to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And so looking at the data between how we did when it was one day versus how it was when it was three. That actually was a surprise to us in that okay, maybe three days was a little bit too much.

And so that has actually led us to really think very critically about what is the growth and kind of headroom for a segment of the fan base and. Do we think three days of programming is too much or should we keep it with one? That’s certainly an example of how we leverage the data to [00:20:00] make some strategic decisions about the type of programming we do for our theme nights, as well as the length.

Jeff Nelson: Yeah, that’s really interesting. Star Wars doubleheader.

Kimberly Bolt: Yes.

Jeff Nelson: This is probably a good moment to take a step back and talk about your career because when you say that you’re a data-driven marketer, you have worked at places where I imagine data is very influential in in decision making, so. Going in reverse order.

You came to the nationals from Nat Geo, where you were the head of growth, which I do wanna ask you a little bit about what exactly what does the Head of Growth mean, that that seems like a lofty title, but under the Disney umbrella before that, head of Marketing Connected Fitness at Under Armour and roles before that at Lyft and Google.

Any sponsorship director, as I’m saying, all this would dream of having Lyft, Google, under Armour, Disney net Geo. You’ve worked at a lot of places that look great on a website or on a [00:21:00] resume, but you could have so easily gone in any direction with that kind of resume. And so I am curious, how do you end up at the Washington Nationals?

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, so it’s really interesting, I think how I wound up here in my career in general, it’s not simple and it’s not linear. I don’t think I ever would’ve imagined myself in this seat. In the sports industry, but I’m certainly happy to be here. I’m a very growth-minded person. I’m very curious about why things work the way they do.

It’s why I majored in psychology and college, and so finding opportunities that give me the chance to work for a mission-driven brand, a purpose-driven brand. That’s always been a lot of how I’ve navigated my career. And then on a more personal note, I’m very into fitness and wellness and health, and so when the [00:22:00] opportunity came up to be at the Nationals and to be in the sports industry, it seemed like a great fit.

And then specifically the role at Nat Geo and the challenge and some of the marketing tactics and strategies I was working on over there were surprisingly. Very much so parallel to what I’m doing here at the Nationals, the idea of trying to reach a younger, more diverse audience or fan base. That’s the goal here at the Nats, and that was the goal at Nat Geo.

Wanting to know a little bit more about that Nat Geo role. 130 year old print publication and like many other print publications going through a very rapid and transformative change to being digital first. And so a lot of my role there was around trying to navigate getting some of the historical legacy print subscribers.

Over into, uh, the digital [00:23:00] first subscription, in addition to top of funnel growth, trying to find new subscribers for the digital product, and so. That’s where a lot of the work around influencers really started to pop up on under my team’s purview, and that’s something that has also worked for us here at the Nats, really leveraging those creators and their audiences to tell.

A story or to talk about an experience in a much more authentic way.

Jeff Nelson: Yeah. That’s interesting. The, the media space, right, is affect the changes there are affecting everything, certainly in the sports and entertainment world. Do you have a dream influencer that you would work with next?

Kimberly Bolt: Gosh, that’s an interesting question.

The dream influencers that we’ve had actually are not necessarily like the celebrity type influencers. They’re folks that are considered to be a little bit more macro, right? Like audiences that are under a hundred thousand where there’s higher engagement, [00:24:00] certainly from a. Celebrity perspective. There’s some folks that are very core and mean a lot to the city and the region of DC that we certainly have great relationships with, but haven’t worked with them in the capacity of, uh, influencer or a content creator.

So folks like Jose Andres or um, Dave Chappelle, they’re, they’re like DC born and bred, Kevin Durant. As well. So those are all folks that I think are more on that celebrity level that mm-hmm. You know, certainly we’re excited that they’re fans of the Nationals, but yeah, we’ve never worked with them in that type of capacity.

Jeff Nelson: Interesting. Yeah. The, the Jose Andres, I feel like a lot of opportunity there, given his profile and roots in DC and yeah. His great

Kimberly Bolt: work. Yeah, a hundred percent

Jeff Nelson: Amazing. Also Under Armour head of Marketing on Connected Fitness. Anything you learned there that you have been able to take into this job given [00:25:00] that wellness and fitness and the things you talked about being really passionate about seem to be permeating more and more the sports ecosystem and the way that we can have a positive impact on fans, anything in that role stands out?

Kimberly Bolt: Under Armour is so, so spot on and so careful about its brand, and they make sure that everybody who works at the company is really living and breathing that brand and that everybody understands the vision, mission, and the core values. And so as a marketer, that has been a very important takeaway for me, really understanding how that impacts team morale, your ability to recruit talents.

As well as retain, and then also really how you have strong marketing.

Jeff Nelson: Again, I’m gonna put you on the spot maybe a little bit. You just spurred for me kind of the thinking about how important it is and we sometimes do this work with [00:26:00] clients on everybody kind of singing from the same songbook on who are we, what are we, what do we represent?

What is our brand? What is the Nationals brand? What is that songbook that you sing from? And would hope everybody in the organization is.

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, Jeff, that’s a great question. And I think as I came into the organization, came into the seat, one of the first things that I worked with a lot of the other leadership here to launch was a, a brand and fan study to really understand what’s that current perception, um, and current sentiment of our brand.

And I think as the team that’s playing the national pastime and the nation’s capital, we will always be patriotic. And that is something that’s a, a core part of our personality, our brand ethos. And there is this element of us being this brand with integrity. But where I hope we can go is that we could also be not just patriotic and [00:27:00] act with integrity, but also be playful.

And a brand that is fierce of a brand that. Can really unify the city, unify the region. Be proud to represent DC and to be proud to be playing the nation’s pastime and the nation’s capital.

Jeff Nelson: DC is such a unique city. It’s grown and continues to grow and spread, and you have so many people that live there permanently, but you also have an incredible number of people moving in and out based on the government and especially when

you have an administration turnover like we’re having right now? I think staying true to the people that live there who are Nats fans. Let’s put that aside and just focus on the people that are coming in who are probably either not Nationals fans yet, or fans of another team. How do you have marketing that is catered to those groups to make sure they’re coming to the ballpark as much as the permanent [00:28:00] residents, the diehard Nats fan.

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, you’re right Jeff. This is a very transient city. I think whether or not it’s folks like yourself that were here for college and then after college or graduate school move away, or folks that are staffers on the hill for a short period of time, new folks moving in or out, uh, for administrations.

Certainly a very transient city. I think something you also said was the fact that they’re not Nationals fans yet, but we hope that they can be. Right, or even if it’s a temporary period in time. If we could be your second favorite team, or maybe even eventually if you live here long enough, be that favorite team.

That’s something we certainly hope to instill through. I think really two things. It’s what that experience is like at our ballpark. Having a world class experience here, having fantastic levels of guest experience, staff of service, and then also through some of that brand storytelling right [00:29:00] around some of the players.

And it’s to really connect with us and our players more emotionally. We’re hopeful that. With that type of two-pronged approach, we would be able to really convince a fan that hasn’t been to Nationals Park to come and hopefully start a two-way relationship with us and hopefully build that over time.

Jeff Nelson: Do you ever worry about the core fans feeling like, Hey, you’re bringing in other fans, or We’re playing. I don’t know. I don’t want to use an east rival, but we’re playing this other team. We’re playing the Cardinals and man, there’s a lot of red out here. Not Nats red Cardinals red. Is that ever a worry or challenge or it’s not?

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah, it’s likely a challenge for any team or or club. I think it’s really though, at the end of the day, it’s about staying true to that core fan and understanding what they’re looking for, what their needs are, how we can to deliver [00:30:00] a great experience. And so that feedback loop is very important around what are season plan holders saying?

What are the things that they’re really looking for? How do you make them feel special? To really celebrate the role that they have in being a core part of our brand, an extension of our brand. And we do hope to be an inclusive and welcoming environment, and hopefully one that anybody can have a good time in.

And as long as we make sure that we’re doing our job in ensuring that our core fans and seasoned plan holders and our fan base is happy. I think that’s where we really spend a lot of our time.

Jeff Nelson: I remember in the early Nationals days, the RFK days, it was just interesting to look around at kind of the attendees and the fans and see how many were becoming Nats fans versus just still wearing a jersey of another team, but wanted to go to a baseball game.

Well, now we’re here 20 years later. You have the 20th anniversary season coming up. You’ve [00:31:00] built this fan base, you’ve won a championship. I am interested both to hear what are the 20th anniversary plans. I know some of them I think have been publicized already, but interested to hear what those are and then even more so maybe.

I would love to hear the process for how you and your team sat down. ’cause every team, anybody listening to this who works at a team every five or 10 years, you have an anniversary to celebrate. What do we wanna do?

Kimberly Bolt: Yeah. Where we’ve been the past couple of years too, and, and ensuring that we’re celebrating moments along the way.

And how that plays into the broader plans for the 20th. That was certainly something we looked at. And specifically what I mean is last year we had a three day celebration of our 2019 World Series win because it was the five year anniversary. Right. And so knowing that we just did this big blowout weekend where we really celebrated what the 2019 World [00:32:00] Series meant to us and the fan base.

How much do we pull in 2019 World Series moments into the broader celebration of, of the 20th. Right. So that was certainly a, a key discussion point. And then do we want to focus on one moment in time for the celebration of the 20th, or is it going to be a season long, um, celebration And, and Jeff, you’re right.

We, we recently. In December, release some of the plans for our 20th, and we do want it to be a season long celebration of which we are kicking it off with a two day, 20 year celebration, April 4th and fifth, where we will have some really cool giveaways, a lot of great theming. An involvement of some of that and really through a lot of our other promotional items and theme nights throughout the rest of the season, we’re doing some new and exciting things like a mystery bobblehead, for [00:33:00] example, where we have three key moments and players from our 20 year history, and fans will get one of those three that day for that giveaway.

And so we’re really trying to find a way to celebrate that history. That 20 year past the nostalgia, the accomplishments, but to do so in a new and interesting way. And so we’re, we are very excited about the 20th and it’s really gonna be about the people and the moments that have really meant the most to us as a brand over the last 20 years.

Jeff Nelson: Mystery Bobblehead. Now my wheels are spinning. What could it be? Who could it be? Dmitri Young. I know you can’t say. All right, well, I love it. Good cliffhanger. I love the mystery on. I end here with some rapid fire questions. I’m starting with my favorite place to eat in dc, which also has a location in Nats Park, so your answer can be nothing.

You [00:34:00] mentioned if you’re focused on health and mindfulness and things like that, I’m not sure this is the place that you would want to go, but what is your order at Ben’s Chili Bowl?

Kimberly Bolt: Oh, I’m a believer in everything. In moderation, even moderation. I love hot dogs. I think you can’t go wrong with an original half smoke,

Jeff Nelson: chili, and cheese on it, or just the half smoke,

Kimberly Bolt: chili and cheese.

Yes.

Jeff Nelson: Yeah. Yeah. I try to tell people who have never been to DC and who wanna go to the great restaurants, the Zaytinya’s Of the world. It’s an institution and the half smoke is basically the only food that’s like indigenous to DC.

Kimberly Bolt: Yes, it’s iconic. Yeah.

Jeff Nelson: And it’s so good. What is your favorite monument?

Kimberly Bolt: Oh gosh. I love the Lincoln Memorial. It’s just larger than life. It’s it, I love it.

Jeff Nelson: What is your favorite marketing campaign you’ve seen from another team that you were just like, oh, that’s genius.

Kimberly Bolt: Oh, I love the Mets and what they do. [00:35:00] Very good friends with a lot of the marketing folks over there. So last year they launched their city Connect jersey, which was the fifth Jersey.

It’s a kind of cyclical program like we were talking about earlier, and their campaign really was focused a lot on the fans and what it means to be a New Yorker and some of the things only New Yorkers would know. And it was just such a great tie in because the color and the texture of the jersey was supposed to be representative of the seven train.

And the kind of like the bridges to get to City Field, which I thought was just really cool how they were able to tell that story in such a unique way to their fan base.

Jeff Nelson: One fun fact about yourself that you have not shared on another podcast or in another interview.

Kimberly Bolt: Oh man. I want to

Jeff Nelson: be unique. Okay.

Kimberly Bolt: I have a huge debilitating fear of snakes that even extends to cartoon snakes.

[00:36:00] That’s a little bit of a fun fact.

Jeff Nelson: And very understandable. Snakes are terrifying. All right, well, on the note of being terrified of snakes, by the way, I’m terrified of sharks, any representation of them, so I sympathize with you. But on that note. Kim, thank you so much for joining us. Really interesting to learn a little more about your career and how the Nationals are planning and managing for this 20th season and everything that you’re doing to tackle the younger generations we have now coming up,

starting to fall in love with baseball. I really appreciate the time. Thanks for joining us.

Kimberly Bolt: Thank you so much for having me, Jeff. It was a pleasure.

Jeff Nelson: To our audience, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out. My email is JEFF@NVGT.com and you can also connect with us on my personal LinkedIn or the Navigate page.

Again, this has been Jeff Nelson. Joined by Kim [00:37:00] Bolt. Thank you for listening to Navigating Sports

Business.