How To Build Fandom with Kimberly Veale, SVP of Marketing & Communications, Portland Fire | Ep. 413

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0:24Welcome to the Marketing Millennials, the no BS marketing podcast. I'm Daniel Murray and join me for unfiltered conversations with the brains behind marketing's coolest companies. The one request I tell our guests, stories or it didn't happen. Get ready to turn the f*** up. We are back with another episode of the Marketing Millennials podcast. I have a really cool guest today, and I'm super excited because we have Kimberly on the podcast. And Kimberly is the SVP of Marketing and Communication at Portland Fire, the new-ish WNBA team, which actually used to be a team and got brought back. And then she used to work for Golden State's WNBA team and Golden State Warriors.

1:18And she's had a cool career in the sports world, and I'm excited to have her on the podcast. So welcome to the podcast, Kimberly. Thanks, Daniel. Yeah, excited to be here. I'm excited to chat, but I want to know, like, how did you get into the sports world? How did you get into Mark today? Yeah, the short version of the story, obviously, I've been in sports my whole career. You know, started on the sports PR track with the Seattle Storm, WNBA team. I kind of wore multiple hats up there in a comms role and a player relations role, which is really where, you know, I learned the ropes and kind of got a baseline understanding of the WNBA and inner workings.

1:59And this was, you know, over a decade ago. So a very different WNBA compared to the one that we are building and growing and, you know, enjoying as fans, as an industry today. from there I went to the Warriors and you know had a chance to kind of cut my teeth in one of the best run organizations in the world when it comes to sports and I think that was kind of the curiosity and approach you know the challenges there are obviously a lot of highs and moments to learn with inside of my time at Golden State in general but with the Warriors and then you know having the opportunity to be from the Bay Area have played basketball growing up in the Bay Area and then to, you know, kind of lead the Valkyries from marketing and comms perspective for about a year and a half, you know, and introduce the WNBA to the Bay Area was an opportunity and a phase of my career that I am very, very grateful for.

2:59And now we're doing it all over again. So different set of circumstances, different city, but, you know, standing up the WNBA's return here in Portland. So you've done this twice now, the Valkyrie and Portland Fire. So what is the playbook for building a fan base before you've even played a single basketball game? Yeah. You know, there were definitely two different versions of this. Obviously, one that we executed at Golden State and a work stream that had multiple years of effort and energy behind it within the Golden State organization. And the result was obviously incredible. And then, you know, in Portland, the team's coming back.

3:45So slightly different history at play here. There's been a 24 year gap with Portland WNBA fans being able to rep their hometown team. But, you know, the interesting thing about the WNBA is kind of what defines the consumer and kind of the core consumer and fandom. And there certainly are subsets of WNBA audiences that are here for world class basketball and kind of that basketball purist and, you know, people who have been women's sports fans for many, many years. But I also think, you know, part of the WNBA is uniqueness and ethos is the lifestyle brand that it is the athletes and kind of the DNA of the WNBA athlete and what they represent in culture, in community, and how WNBA teams can find success marketing the team, you know, kind of year round and adding value to, you know, the fans' lives.

4:47through kind of that lifestyle brand as culture drivers. And so that's been kind of the high level approach that we took at Golden State. You know, objectively, I think, you know, there was a lot of success found there. And Portland's a very similar city in terms of vibe, culture. I mean, just it's such a vibrant creators city. There's a lot of, you know, things here for us to sink our teeth into as a brand. that are basketball adjacent, that we've really tried to do while we built this team, got ready to play basketball games, and ultimately welcomed players on the roster just a couple weeks ago.

5:28Which is crazy. The thing that I've learned is you're top five in the league with full season tickets sold and leading all teams in 2026 membership. So before a game was played, which is crazy. So what are some tactics you use to do that? What was that like conversion engine to get people hyped up to buy these tickets? Yeah. So I joined Midstream on the deposit process. But, you know, I think it speaks to the women's sports fan and the appreciation for women's basketball kind of comprehensively in this market. And it's known. I mean, you have the Portland Thorns who have certainly established kind of the attendance records in the NWSL and, you know, what they've been able to accomplish dating back multiple, multiple seasons.

6:21There's been other professional women's basketball leagues and, of course, the original WNBA Portland Fire in 2000 to 2002. do. There's always that through line of passion, sold out buildings, engaged crowds. You know, Portland's known for that. And, you know, we've obviously got the epicenter of women's sports kind of ethos and, you know, kind of tagline here in Portland, but it's true. I mean, there really is this incredible passion and pride for what these athletes represent, you know, on the field or court of play and in the community. And there's this really interesting and opportunity to market this team that I've experienced since moving up here just a couple months ago that is very unique to this city.

7:15I also wanted to ask you this. I know you've said in the past that one of the leading indicators of fan intent is buy merch. And did you see that signal with Portland as well? Did you see a lot of merch sales before ticket deposits came in? Because I say this in B2B marketing all the time. You know you have a brand if people are buying your merch. That's a key indicator that people think you have a good brand. And I think we had that hypothesis just in terms of the kind of top of funnel strategies for women's sports fans at the Valkyries. The QARNA study that came out a couple of years ago really drove home additional research there in terms of how women's sports behavior kind of translates into ticket sales and what that path is.

8:10But yes, an overwhelming number of women's sports fans do engage with the retail products before they're buying tickets or kind of in conjunction there. And so again, thinking through when you're rolling out your retail strategy, there's different audiences. Like who's actually buying a WNBA jersey versus lifestyle pieces versus kind of player name and number product. So it's definitely something that we've looked at here at Portland in terms of how we're driving the new brand that just rolled out less than a year ago. and, you know, what we're offering our fans to wear to games, to wear out. And again, kind of going back to how we're adding value to our fans' lives, 365.

9:01That's a huge, you know, area that we're candidly still adding to as we go and as we build. That's been a really interesting and fun journey for us. Could you also, I mean, one of the coolest things you all did was the Portlandia moment for the schedule release. which I think was a great video and got some virality to it. Could you walk me through how that came about? How did that get greenlit? What was the decision-making process to decide to do this? Yeah. Well, Carrie's a huge Portland Fire fan, and that was definitely something that was on our radar very early, and the ideas kind of started flowing from there.

9:49and quickly, you know, once we started talking about what's possible, how do we, do we want to go the Portlandia route? Is it something that's too expected or is it kind of one of those things that's so expected that we have to do it? And so conversations with Carrie and her team, then the question was asked, you know, is, is Fred available? Can we get Fred involved? And, and the two of them share such an enthusiasm for the city and representing the city. And of course, the sports teams now of which the fire are included, that it became a clear path to executing it. And then the content, the strategy around the content is obviously the Portland fire is returning to the market.

10:32And Portlandia has been off air for some time now. And so we kind of spoofed one of their previous skits around coming home and coming back. and we got a lot of comments about people thinking Portlandia was coming back as well which obviously I can't speak to but it was fun to see kind of the energy around what we were able to produce in that moment with two people who are very near and dear to Portland's heart and notable in the market kind of representing the team's return It's great when you can get two people who actually are creators that are fans or like actors and actresses are fans of a brand and be able to tie it into the team.

11:20And it works perfectly because like Portlandia is Portland native show. So it's like the perfect connection between all three of those. I thought that was super smart for people. And it's funny because you want to stay relevant with something like that and bring nostalgia back when you're doing something cool like this. And Portland did have a team before, so it's kind of like a relaunch as well for the city. So I want to also go to you got a Lashify deal. Well, Portland Fire got a Lashify deal for this coming year. And it's kind of like a co-created experience that was built. So how did that partnership get built?

12:11And could you explain to people who don't know, like, the integration of that partnership with the Portland Fire? Yeah, I mean, we're excited to have Lashify on board as our marketing partner. There's been a couple of partners that we've welcomed to the fold more recently as we build this from the ground up that we know that are going to be with us for multiple years to come, which we're excited about, just the overall investment and value that they see in women's sports and they're spot on and, you know, kind of where they're deploying their dollars and what that partnership will glean both for the fire and for, in this case, Lashify.

12:48But it's been awesome. I mean, you think about the athletes on the court, them having the ability to look and feel confident in their place of work, really, and what that confidence represents, what self-expression and individualism means to each of our athletes and how we exude that same mentality and ethos to our fans that are engaging with the Lashify partnership that we're rolling out. So it's a big one for us and one that we're really looking forward to bringing to life. Of course, we just announced it a couple of weeks ago. So it's new for us. We announced it on draft day. The campaign was called All Eyes on Us, kind of as the new WNBA team in the mix or one of the new WNBA teams in the mix.

13:34and everybody kind of seeing, you know, what we're about, what's our reputation, how are we going to show up, you know, what does this brand and this team, what are they made of and what are they going to do? And so Lashify was a huge part of that unveil and, of course, the play on words with the eyes and lashes. But I'm really excited to see what we can do and bring that partnership to life. I want to ask you, I know, just say from your experience, When looking at partnerships for a team, how do you vet a good partnership? And then how do you vet that communication of that partnership that aligns with the team, their love for women's sports?

14:23Could you walk through how that comes about for someone who doesn't know? There's definitely a very attractive synergy and collaboration that we look for between our brand and the brand that we're talking to ahead of the deal coming into its final stages. And Flashify is a good example of that. Chime is another one. Kaiser Permanente is a big one for us as the naming rights partner of the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center. the dual sports performance center that we're unveiling with the thorns here in a couple of months and so you know that one they're the official team physicians for both the thorns and the fire and and obviously the performance and the care that goes into these athletes on the court the storytelling around you know to use them as an example the storytelling around the resilience and the adversity that athletes face in injury.

15:25How do we partner with Kaiser Permanente, who's one, you know, executing the actual recovery of the athlete, but two, how do we storytell and show athlete personality, athlete resilience, and, you know, bring that recovery process to the consumer with the help of Kaiser Permanente. So it's one example that, But, you know, again, we're going to be looking for all of those opportunities with all of our partners as we put the ball in the air for the first time here on Sunday for our preseason game. And really, you know, kind of what's possible inside of and outside of the arena as we think about collaborations with our partners to bring this brand to life.

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16:55And I know I've kind of brought this up and you kind of brought it up. The Fire originally did play for a couple of seasons back in like the early 2000s. And that was like an old legacy, a little painful one because the team folded. But how do you use that heritage to your vantage without having that haunted past of it folding? How did you play into it in a way that helped Lonzo Bend and communicate that in the right way? Yeah, it's a great question. And it's certainly something that we've thought a lot about in terms of how we appropriately honor, recognize, and mark the past, a 24-year gap. And so there's been a couple different things that we've done to do that.

17:42One, of course, establishing the relationships with the original team and the 20 or so players that wore a Portland Fire jersey during that time. Our campaign this season is called Legacy Reignited. And so we think about the legacy that they started. And, you know, it's not, legacy isn't something that we just revisit and that we look back to. It's something that we are actively carrying forward. And so when we have our athletes put on the jersey for the first time at home here in a couple of days, that's what they're representing. They're representing the origination of the team. They're representing the 24-year gap where this city did not have a WNBA team to cheer for.

18:21And they're representing the modern era and the future of the Portland Fire. And so it's been a lot of fun to think about how we do that. Of course, you know, from a marketing tactics perspective, technology and the ability to tell stories has changed a lot over the last 24 years. And so giving part of this, too, is just giving these athletes their due. I mean, Jackie Stiles, 2001 Rookie of the Year, Sylvia Crawley, Kristen Fockel. There's several players that have really interesting stories during their time with the fire that we are excited to bring to life throughout the duration of this campaign.

18:57We're also finding the right balance between our history, our legacy and our modern, our present and our and our future. So something that we're, you know, again, players came onto our roster within the last month. And so there's some equity around the players that are currently playing for the fire and how we're going to, you know, market them and bring their stories to life and finding where that perfect intersection is for, you know, juggling both. But at some point too, you know, this is our debut season. we are recognizing the fact that there was a team, the fandom that existed for that team never died, and it's not had a chance to be reignited.

19:41And that's exactly what we're hoping to do. I love that you're playing into the storytelling of players. I wonder how does that work with you, the connection between the marketing team and players? What does that relationship look like? How do you help better work together to help better tell the stories and market them while also marketing the team? Yeah, well, it's very synergistic. Obviously, we have the Portland Fire brand, and then we have the athletes that make up the personalities and the faces of, and they're representing the on-court game-winning buzzer beaters or moments where we lose in heartbreak or off-court moments, funny moments where you're kind of blending Portland Fire with the personalities of these athletes.

20:37You know, I'll give a good example. We were at Media Day a couple days ago, and three of our players wandered outside and started playing pickup against a couple of boys that were, you know, around shooting hoops. And there's a clip on our social of our players, you know, dunking on these guys and, you know, spared no expense. It was a full on three on three game. And that was our most engaged with clip from media day, which is obviously a very saturated day of content for the team. And, you know, kind of the perfect blend of an opportunistic moment with our players, capturing their personality with basketball, with the Portland Fire brand.

21:20Not something we planned for, so we can't take any credit from that perspective. but just, you know, really a reminder and showcasing those moments and the opportunity for our athletes to come in, be themselves, feel supported from that perspective and, you know, have some fun with the brand that we're building with the fire. Yeah, I honestly believe like the best clips or are come from those organic experiences. Like even basketball, you can't plan for a highlight reel that's going to go on your social. They just happen. You can't plan for a cool play. You can't plan for like a player doing something that hypes up the audience, but it happens.

22:03And that's why content teams are there and content teams are following these players around. and then capturing these moments. You talked a little bit, like something you talked about just previously is like how technology has changed since like that Portland, the Portland Fire and now. And I know you all launched like your own streaming for Portland Fires or Portland Fire Plus. How are you planning to use that for your own distribution and not only relying on like the WMD to push all? the content out there for your team. Yeah, the interesting and exciting thing about Fire Plus really is our ability to have a centralized location for episodic content, docu-theories content.

22:54You know, we have the amount of stories that unfold throughout the course of the WNBA season that don't get told and haven't gotten told for a variety of reasons over the last 30 years is an astonishingly high amount. just as someone who's been around it and, you know, in these moments with these athletes. And so one, we're growing up, we're welcoming athletes to the roster that have grown up with technology their entire lives. And so they're being in front of the camera, they're used to TikTok, they're used to Instagram, like that's just very natural, organic piece of their world and how they communicate and how they ingest content.

23:34And so leveraging that with how we, you know, bring that to life from a brand perspective, our ability to, you know, kind of open moments with this team that otherwise would never have been told or seen or heard about before. And that's, so in addition to Fire Plus being a destination for fans to watch our games home and away. It's also unlocking this ability for us to really think about how we deliver that content and really invite fans on the journey with us, especially in this build debut season, but really how we can house, you know, content that lives throughout the course of the season and beyond for everybody who wants to know more about our athletes, more about our coaching staff, and just kind of the innovation that's taking place inside of the basketball team, inside of the basketball court, and the athletes and their lives off of it.

24:37That's super smart. You've seen that exposure of that type of content with the F1 documentary, bringing that to the U.S., the Tour de France one. There's so many of those stories and being able to capture the behind the scenes. and the actual personalities behind these athletes that they're actually real humans is actually a great way to create great content for your fans, but also for, that lives on for a long time for people. And you get to follow it for a long time, which is cool. Definitely. I want to ask you, I mean, you've been in women's sports marketing for a long time. Um, and so what do you, and you, you've seen like the rise of it and it's getting more and more, which is amazing to see that women's sports are finally getting the recognition it deserves.

25:37Um, but what is your recommendation to brands that are getting into like women's sports? Like what, what do you see they do right? And what do you see they do wrong, um, when entering markets? Yeah. Yeah. The WNBA fan is by and large different. There's a difference between the WNBA fan and the men's sports in the, in, you know, if we're going to go direct one-to-one and NBA fan. And so really understanding what that difference is, what will draw, you know, of course there's the brand's goals, there's the team's goals and kind of the intersection of those, but who you are unlocking when you come and partner with the WNBA team is different.

26:27And it's an incredible opportunity to reach a new audience by and large. The authenticity of this league, the authenticity of our players, the ability to tell those stories and who they're engaging with is a really powerful opportunity for some of these brands. I think there's been a lot of them recently that have really done a good job of that. Don't make me name names. You don't have to name names, but you could tell which ones are doing well if you just watch. Yeah. And so the rinse and repeat playbook, I think, is a dangerous trap in terms of really finding the sweet spot to maximize the partnership and to maximize the audience.

27:14And that's something, you know, we spend a lot of time thinking about just as the team, let alone, you know, from our own fan acquisition perspective, but let alone, you know, bringing a partner into the mix and what they're hoping to get out of it and who they're hoping to engage with. I want to also ask a question for the people who are trying to break into sports and break into women's sports in general. How do you break in? What is the starting point? What do you need to know? because I know a lot of people want to be in this industry and want to be part of because they love the game or they love the team or whatever.

28:02What do you recommend to those people who are trying to break in? Yeah. I think at this level, everybody can pass through a blunt shoot. You know, it's skills that you grow up with, you get through school, through training, et cetera. I think being able to figure out what your value add is, what is your role and how can you best execute your role on the team? And then demonstrating that throughout the interview process, demonstrating that even in the relationship building, everybody talks so much about relationships in this industry. It's true how you navigate the relationship piece, how you stay in touch with people, not just when you need something from them, but truly building a relationship.

28:46I think people in sports are the easiest people to follow and track because everything that is coming across a marketer's desk or a ticket sales lead's desk is information that you can get on our website, on our Instagram channels, on our social channels, because it's so public facing. so you know where we're at and what we're working on and what's going on with the teams that gives you tons of fodder to reach out to us and build relationships um and then from there you know finding figuring out what the gaps are what you can contribute what you're hoping to learn um you know i think is probably the best best advice i can give everybody in in sports is constantly getting hit up, talk to this person, talk to that person, doing informational interviews, things like that.

29:35There's only so many hours in the day. And I know there's a lot of good people in this industry that want to give back, want to help. We were all there one day, you know, in our early stage of career. So finding those three pieces, I think, is huge. And just, you know, not losing the resiliency. And sometimes it takes a little longer and your path might be a little bit more windy but um you know ultimately working towards where you're trying to get and enjoying uh you know the curiosity and the approach along the way i'm glad you gave an ai proof skill here because you know everybody's talking about ai right now and then we go into with a skill that everybody needs to learn besides ai in these days which is how to actually make build good relationships those soft skills that you ai is not going to teach you um so i love that that's the answer of actually building relationships with human beings not with robots so um lastly i want to ask you i ask everybody in this podcast but what is a marketing kill you would die on a marketing hill i would die on well i don't want to go controversial you could go as you go as controversial as you want uh social followership is a vanity metric there we go i let you heard it here social followership is a vanity metric um and if you i'm going to add on to this book because i i truly believe that like we are in the interest grabbed era so um he that's you see clip accounts you see accounts getting way more views than someone who has a million followers or 300K followers or 100K followers.

31:19So right now you're in a world where the best content wins, not the most follow person wins. So I think that's a really good point. Lastly, where can people find you, what you're doing, what Port of Fire is doing? How could they subscribe to Port Fire Plus? All the good stuff. Yep. Everything's on our social channels and on our website. We're at the Portland fire across the board and we're here in Portland. I mean, this is a quirky, fun, creative, vibrant city. So definitely want people to come visit us, check us out. Obviously incredible first year for us. And, you know, definitely checking out the rivalry we've got going on with Seattle here as, as we return, but we're excited.

32:11Yeah, I love a little Pacific Northwest five rivalry. It's always a good one. Yeah, so does everybody else in the Pacific Northwest. Yeah, I bet that's what they love talking about. What city's better, Portland or Seattle? What food's better, Portland or Seattle? Yeah. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And thanks for coming on. Cool. Thanks, Daniel. Thanks so much for listening. Keep tuning in to hear more great insights from the coolest marketers from around the world. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe and follow the Marketing Millennials podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.