The Long Game - Sports Analytics and Social Media Insights | Harnham US Recruitment post

The Eagles just took down a Super Bowl dynasty, the New England Patriots. They did it with a quarterback only three games in before the Bowl. In 2002, the Oakland A's in a bid for the Championship won 20 consecutive games with, as quoted in the movie Moneyball, "an island of misfit toys." Football, baseball, basketball, whatever the sport, New York is the home for league headquarters. The New York Metro area is one of only two cities in the country to boast eleven sports teams in the five most important professional leagues. Here, numbers, stats, and algorithms are just as important as plays, training, and wins. Okay, so wins are important. But, how do you get there? How do you know your play will hit a home run or make a touch down? It's in the numbers, the data. Even fan engagement can offer insights across social media channels - every channel, fuel to the win, plus of course great players, well-trained, who go for the win.

Sports Get Social (Media)

Sports have always been social; a place for friends and family to gather and cheer on their favorite team. In the age of digital, sports teams and their players join the social media landscape to better engage with fans and businesses are paying attention.

Social media value in sports translates to the transfer of power of popular players and teams to products. Something like the athlete on a cereal box, but on a much wider scale. For customized up-to-the minute dashboard analysis, companies spend anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 to determine their social media measurements. Comparing their mentions, fan reach, engagement and so on to see how they measure up against other teams and players within a specific location or sport.

As social media continues to preoccupy marketing and advertising executives in sports, decision-makers are digging deeper. They want to know what's working, what isn't, what to focus on, who's being reached, and how effective their efforts are. Data is weighted depending on the sport, but across the board social media is quickly becoming one of the most important ways to speak to sports fans.

Sports Marketing Insights

Though TV, radio, and in the seats are still valuable and viable, the sheer magnitude of social media fandom is on the rise. Wherever you are, you can check your favorite teams scores, find player stats, and compare notes with others around the world. The key selling point for marketers? Instant feedback.

Marketers now have instant access to what's working and what isn't when it comes to social media. They'll know immediately whether a brand campaign is successful or not and can gauge its effectiveness via comments and critiques. Insights via these channels allow businesses to see at once what might take them hours or days to compile via polls, surveys, or focus groups. Fan engagement insights are invaluable to not only launch follow-up campaigns, but to ultimately have user-generated content to spur engagement.

In play, a team's success is measured on the scoreboard, but in social media channels, teams, players, and brand successes are measured with fan engagement. Though not everything can be controlled, we would be remiss in not mentioning analysis of pain points and injury reduction through machine analysis.

Pain Points

While ultimately, coaches decide who is at risk for injury and must make the determination to keep them on or take them off the field, they must first understand the computer-generated analysis. As seasons progress, fluctuations in a player's fitness and appetite for risk determine the probability of injuries.

This type of analysis requires a level of computation only machines can process. But, if coaches don't understand what they're reading, they can't make informed decisions. They need to know such variables as how the predictions and analysis were calculated as well as the exact effects of analytics on performance. They need to trust the numbers generated by the machine, then combine that with their domain knowledge and experience to make their decisions.

Predictive injury analysis, fan engagement, brand awareness, and sports business executives can all benefit from insights gained through analytics. Marketing insights help to propel successful campaigns into the limelight and this knowledge helps to feed everyone's bottom line.

Join the Club

Multiple revenue streams such as match day, broadcasting, commercial, and now digital are driving sports teams' executives and clubs to a healthy bottom line. Fan data segmented by any number of factors include age, location, and gender while store sales and season ticket holders can be monitored to understand where and when sales are being made. Clubs use this information in their marketing campaigns to decide the best place for their stores based on demographics and fan behavior. By analyzing these results they can even boost ticket sales based on past results to balance profit margins through predictive analytics.

The potential for analytics in sports has been utilized prodigiously in every sport from baseball to football to basketball and everything in between, yet its benefits are still up for debate. Data-driven insights offer a glimpse into the inner workings of teams as one unit, can help prevent injuries, as well as help individual players improve their game. When the dynamics come together the return on investment can be huge. Though the data must be translated for humans to understand, most sports clubs recognize data can create insights humans can't replicate.

Analytics may offer immediate insight once played, but investment in analytics is a long game. Affecting everything from player recruitment to injury prevention to business decisions, for some the debate of its benefits remain. Yet, as the jocks claim the money and fame, the back-office nerds are developing algorithms to help businesses determine everything from player picks to ticket prices.

Want to join our club? We specialize in digital and analytics recruitment and currently have an opening in our roster for a Lead Marketing Scientist with a data-rich sports media firm in New York. For a list of all our current vacancies, check us out here.

For the East Coast team please call 212-796-6070, or email newyorkinfo@harnham.com.

For the West Coast team call 415-614-4999 or email sanfraninfo@harnham.com.

Leading Remote Teams in the Land of Beer, Barbeque, and Tech

Charlotte, North Carolina known for its beer and barbeque is not the first location to jump to mind when you think digital hub. But here’s the rub, it is. In the Fall of 2019, the city and Microsoft signed a three-year digital alliance. And as the country moved from office locations to work-from-home and remote operations, Charlotte became a prime destination for tech. Four Skills for Leading in the New Normal Whether you’ve learned to balance work time with virtual schooling or have been working from home for years, there are some skillsets which set leaders apart. The first one may surprise you. Let others lead – According to our most recent salary guide, one of the main reasons people leave their jobs is due to poor management. With the rise of remote working, hierarchy has flattened to a degree as everyone must discipline themselves. Micromanagement becomes almost moot as everyone leans into this learning curve. Lead by example and let others take over the leadership driver’s seat from time-to-time. Balance both Soft and Technical Skills – While technical skills are the backbone of subject matter experience in a Digital Analytics role, it’s the soft skills which can help set you apart. Sure, you’ll want to know the ins and outs of web analytics and optimization, but you’ll also need to have the skills to explain findings and offer recommendations to address client needs. Know When to Pivot – Life throws us curveballs. Consider 2020, for example. Whether you must pivot for survival or simply need to take things in a new direction, knowing when to pivot and how to explain it to your employees is a leadership skill inherent for this new normal. Be Approachable – With open door policies moved online, leaders will want to determine the best way to recreate opportunities for employees that need to talk outside the daily or weekly staff meeting. Having insight into how your team works best, can help you guide them toward success. Programs to know and experience to have often include the technical knowledge you’ll need to ensure your client makes the most informed decisions. ‘Smart Cities’ of the Future At the beginning of 2020, as the coronavirus came to call, someone joked that in 2020 we’d hoped to have flying cars and smart cities of the future, but instead were being taught how to wash our hands. Perhaps they weren’t far off on the smart cities quip as both Houston, Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina are on the cutting edge of creating these smart cities. Things like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), LinkedIn Learning, even the Entrepreneur Store offers classes and bundles in everything from computer language learning such as C++, R, and Python to Digital Marketing and Graphic Design. But, learning these things and more on a Microsoft campus can catapult students into more jobs and helps guide cities in smart power grids, smart busses, autonomous cars, and the list goes on. Experience in a design agency who works within both the B2C and the B2B verticals helps to expand opportunities exponentially. Remote working opportunities have opened up worlds of collaboration, teamwork, and focus on the next steps into the future. Whether you’re interested in a remote working leadership role in the beachy Carolinas or looking for your first or next role in Big Data, Web Analytics, Marketing & Insight, Life Science Analytics, and more, check out our current vacancies or contact one of our recruitment consultants to learn more. For our West Coast Team, contact us at (415) 614 - 4999 or send an email to sanfraninfo@harnham.com. For our Mid-West and East Coast teams contact us at (212) 796-6070 or send an email to newyorkinfo@harnham.com.

by Joe Gibbs

10. September 2020

Career Priorities Are Shifting For The US Data & Analytics Market Place

Positions in Data & Analytics are highly sought after in the US. With a widening talent pool due to the rise of flexible working, shifting skillsets and requirements for more professionals working in data and tech, the sector continues to experience unprecedented growth; regardless of the global pandemic pulling at the very core of the business community. For candidates, the Data & Analytics job market will be more active than ever. In our most recent US Data & Analytics Salary Guide, this was clearly identified. In fact, post-COVID, more respondents were either actively seeking, or willing to move for, a new role than they were in 2019. As businesses look to streamline existing processes and establish new ones, they are more reliant on Data professionals than ever before. Yet, candidates in this market have re-evaluated their needs and the incentives they value, shifting their priorities in the wake of COVID-19. With the impact of COVID-19 felt in almost every part of our day-to-day lives, it wasn’t long until conversation turned to what ‘the new normal’ would look like once the worst of the pandemic had passed. However, for those in the Data & Analytics space, the new normal wasn’t as new as first thought - it had been gradually establishing itself over the past few years. When seeking a new role, respondents prioritized career progression over salary increases, as well as an emphasis on job security and working for a stable and growing business. The needs of the multi-generational workforce in a post-COVID world has never been more dynamic than it is today. It was evidenced that financial ambitions have decreased slightly as a result of the pandemic. Interestingly, ‘a more competitive salary’ was the top reason for seeking a new role. Post-COVID, not only do respondents seek career progression over a salary increase, they also put a significantly greater emphasis on job security and the need to join a stable and growing business. Specifically, for Data Engineers in the current market space, 80 per cent of professionals would leave their role if the right opportunity came up. This falls in parallel to digital analytics experts, of which 82 per cent would leave their role if the right opportunity came up. This is perhaps unsurprising as the full economic impact of the pandemic has yet to be established. Attracting the best hire for your business is going to be one of the core challenges of our time. Period. The focus for American organizations needs to be on hiring for the needs of tomorrow, rather than for the demands of today. A forward-thinking business will have the critical vision needed in order to keep pace with the market in its current state. Data professionals are in the driving seat; that’s a certainty. Their holistic skillset, understanding and application of core technologies such as SQL, Python, AWS, Kubernetes and Spark position them well when seeking to secure their next role. It is up to organizations to maintain their momentum as we acknowledge that for Data & Analytics, continuing on the trajectory of growth in the ‘new normal’ is something very few outside of this space saw coming. If you're looking for a new opportunity in the world of Data & Analytics or to expand your Data team, we may be able to help. Take a look at our latest opportunities or get in touch with one of our expert consultants to find out more: For our West Coast Team, contact us at (415) 614 - 4999 or send an email to sanfraninfo@harnham.com. For our Mid-West and East Coast teams contact us at (212) 796-6070 or send an email to newyorkinfo@harnham.com.

by Sam Jones

03. September 2020