With close to 20 years’ experience working with brands to maximize their partnership investments, Chris brings a wealth of knowledge to lead REV/XP. Chris joined rEvolution from Dignitas, one of the most successful esports organizations in the world, where he led partnerships. Prior to Dignitas, Chris spent time at WME IMG and led T-Mobile’s entry into gaming and esports, securing many first of their kind deals with the biggest leagues, teams, and platforms in the industry.

Episode transcription:

[00:00:21] Rob Mann: [00:00:21] Thanks so much for jumping on, Chris. Welcome to the Ivy Podcast.

[00:00:24] Christopher Mann: [00:00:24] Hello, Robert, friend. Last name is very familiar. Have we met before?

[00:00:30] Rob Mann: [00:00:30] So the elephant in the room is that crisp is my older brother who has a lot more hair than I do.

[00:00:35] Christopher Mann: [00:00:35] Better hair. Better basement.

[00:00:38] Rob Mann: [00:00:38] Yes. You were in a cave and I live in Fort Lauderdale and it's been snowing. What do you have? 24 inches of snow right now.

[00:00:43] Christopher Mann: [00:00:43] I got a lot of shoveling to do later. You should be happy that I'm not standing up because I have no pants on underneath this wearing sweat pants guys.

[00:00:49] Rob Mann: [00:00:49] Also, I saw a very cute photo of my nephew shoveling in front of a snowman earlier. So thank you for that mom.

[00:00:57] Christopher Mann: [00:00:57] Much appreciate Henry. Maybe he'll make an appearance. Maybe Henry has made an appearance on some pitches. I was on recently with a wiffle ball bat and it was a floating wiffle ball bat that came up from behind me. And then I saw my wife, Danielle, chasing him as everyone on the call was laughing. And I turned my head just in time to catch the wiffle ball bat, as it almost smashed me in the face.

Rob Mann: So those of you that have a deal funny enough?

Christopher Mann: No, we didn't get the business, but not because of that. They all laughed. But yeah, I mean, that was the joys of working from home are awesome. And having a 22 month old is amazing. So he definitely helps. He's been helping me shovel all the snow outside.

[00:01:38] Rob Mann: [00:01:38] Yes. Actually throwing it on you. And I would like to probably say that Henry is more useful than you were probably as a child cause I had to shovel off.

[00:01:44] Christopher Mann: [00:01:44] No, he's good. He's very useful. It's nice, he's a nice little chat. There we go.

[00:01:48] Rob Mann: [00:01:48] Anyway. It's good. Good parents. Thanks for, thanks for joining in. You guys, we're going to talk about esports and gaming. It's a super fascinating market growing rapidly. Chris, you want to give your background about Revolut, your background, and then also the background about Revolution.

[00:02:05] Christopher Mann: [00:02:05] Rob is more handsome, older, better looking better hair brother. I'm the SVP of REV/XP, which is the gaming and esports division of Revolution, Revolution’s a full service sports marketing agency covering everything from experiential marketing consulting for brands looking to get the most out of their sports investments, including esports and gaming. We do a host of different services, so full service, data and insights, research, media placement, media buying. We run the gamut of services across the board headquartered in Chicago. I'm based here in New Jersey. Of course, many of us are working from home right now, given COVID. And my background, how I got here is that I've spent 15 years on the agency side. I led Campbell Shuggie Soups, NFL partnership for 10 years. You see a lot of NFL stuff behind me, this is usually a really busy time of year for me when I was on the NFL stuff. 10 super bowls that I have the opportunity to go to. And then I transitioned to gaming any sports about five, six years ago, led T-Mobile's entry spent the last few years on the esports team side. Most recently with a team called Dignitas,