The Buy Side is our regular series talking with brand side marketers about sport and sponsorship.

This week’s guest is Mark Kirkham, the global CMO of PepsiCo, one of the biggest spenders in the sports industry, whose brands such as Aquafina, Pepsi, Gatorade and Lay’s are associated with a huge number of major events globally across a portfolio that includes official partnerships such as UEFA Champions League, the NFL, the Saudi Premier League, the LPGA, WNBA and EA FC or what used to be called the FIFA game franchise, but also a large number of tie ups with individual sports stars, musicians and other creators.

With this type of spend, comes influence and power. How, where and with whom Pepsi spends its money is a signal to every sports rights holder to shape their commercial programmes to catch Mark Kirkham’s eye. What are the implications of this for sport and what does Pepsi want sport to be?

The Buy Side is sponsored by KORE Software the global leader in engagement marketing solutions. More than 900 brands, venues, and sports organisations trust KORE’s tools and platforms as a source of truth to manage partnerships, assets and measure impact, with real-time insights. Through Sponsorship Management and Evaluation, Ticketing, Fan Engagement, Data Management and Analytics, KORE unites corporate sponsors, properties, and their fans with solutions that help enhance the fan experience, drive smarter decisions, and enable marketing and operations teams to spend time where it matters.
Learn more at KORESoftware.com or follow them LinkedIn or Twitter.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Bryson Dechambeau heads to next week’s Open Championship at Troon as the reigning US Open champion, having beaten Rory McIlroy down the straight at Winged Foot in New York three weeks ago, confirming the American’s position as one of the very best players in the world today.

But this is a conversation about what he’s done off the course over the last three years, that has changed his public image by becoming one of the most followed creators on social media.

Brand Bryson is a masterclass in sports digital media strategy, a playbook as to how best to use YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitter to build long term value, both for himself and by extension the sport of golf.

The bigger question is what the Dechambeau case study means for traditional rights holders such as the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and the R&A.

Our guests are Carsten Thode and Rich Johnson.

Carsten is a former Reuters, Manchester United and Synergy Sponsorship is co-founder of Aphetor, the Creator Games., which connects internet influencers with sports event rightsholders.

Rich was formerly head of content for INEOS Grenadier Cycling Team, and the founder of Sports 3.0, which creates specialist agencies at the intersection of sports content, media, and technology. He’s launched a new agency this week, called CAPTAIN, a personal content agency for founders, CEOs & commercial teams in sports.

Welcome to Wedge Issues, an Unofficial Partner Production.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

FIFA+ is the global football governing bodies own media platform, created in 2020 and launched two years later. It’s one of sports biggest and most ambitious and expensive direct-to-consumer projects, and so brings together many of the threads we talk about often on Unofficial Partner; a debate that runs across the sports industry, as governing bodies, leagues and teams spend billions creating owned and operated channels as a mitigation against volatility in the media rights marketplace and the money made from their content by the big social media platforms.

The conversation is peppered with phrases such as walled gardens, creative tension in the bidding process, owning the customer relationship, long tail audiences, build and they will come.

FIFA+ is a poster child for these theories. But this is a conversation that goes beyond the mechanics of D2C. It’s about what the leaders of big sports governing bodies want to be and the role they will seek to play over the next decade or more.

Read this week's UP Newsletter for more on FIFA+ HERE
Guests:

Dave Roberts was one of the architects of FIFA+ in the run up to launch and in its early iterations. He’s now CEO of XCel Broadcast.

Hugo Sharman is CEO of StreamAMG, one of the leading players in video content and distribution for sports rights holders.

Carlo Dimarchis is today known as a business media creator, The Guy with the Scarf but previously led strategy and innovation over a 34 year career at Deltatre.

Michael Broughton is co-founder of Sports Investment Partners and was an advisor to FIFA on innovation and commercial strategy.

Leadership in Sport MA 2024 Applications Open

Applications for the next intake on the 2024 Leadership in Sport Masters are open. The Leadership in Sport Masters is designed for sports industry executives to study part-time alongside their careers.

The programme is co-delivered by Loughborough University London and the Institute of Sports Humanities (ISH), experts in leadership education. Loughborough University is ranked best university in the world for sports related subjects (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017-2023).

Find out more https://www.sportshumanities.org/masters-uk

or contact tom.rann@sportshumanities.org

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.