Here are some things you might not ordinarily think of when the topic of sports business comes up.

Information warehousing. Analytics. Data centers. Cybersecurity.

Typically speaking, these are NOT the topics that most fans concern themselves with when heading to a game. They just want their tickets to scan quickly, their payments to work seamlessly at concession stands, and their smack talking posts to load quickly.

And this is where Gabie Boko, the CMO of NetApp starts nodding enthusiastically.

No one knows more than Gabie about how interwoven sports and technology are. That’s why she’s been leveraging sports to help NetApp tell its story. Their partnership portfolio already includes 49ers, Sharks and Aston Martin F1, and it just got a whole lot bigger: NetApp just launched a new collaboration NFL, now serving as their official intelligent data infrastructure partner.

In our conversation, we talk about the role of sports in marketing complex enterprise technology. We also dive into how she leverages her partnerships in storytelling, how she built upon an existing business relationship with the NFL to help create the new partnership, and how she views measuring the effectiveness of her partnerships. The Alaska native also shares the story of her most frightening bear encounter, which almost assuredly will have you canceling your northern exposure trip.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

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