You must be living under a rock if you don’t understand how Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have become a staple of modern marketing campaigns. But only learning how to implement those KPIs won’t take you anywhere. Management 101 says you need to understand, interpret, and measure those KPIs before throwing them into your campaigns. So, in our latest ES Think Tank podcast episode, we are focusing on redefining the usage of KPIs in marketing campaigns.

Gone are the days of traditional KPI measurements. As we go deeper into expanding marketing horizons, we have a bit of a secret tip for you, expertly curated by none other than Seth Yassky. His secret sauce will freshen up your marketing perspective.

Proximo Spirits’ Head of Partnership Marketing & Commercialization, Yassky, has altered the way people examine KPIs. How? When our podcast host Trey Holder asked Yassky, “How do you measure success, you know when you’re identifying the KPIs? I know it can be a little bit difficult sometimes in marketing, just curious. How do you identify those KPIs, and then how do you ultimately measure it?” His response might be a hack for all marketers out there who don’t know how to maximize the potential of KPIs.

“My team have created, you know, 3 different pillars that we track everything against.” So, what are those 3 KPI pillars Yassky’s team came up with? “One is commercialization, which is always my number one prospect, two is the media, and the awareness that we get of it, and third is the venue, what happens at the venue. So we are able to measure the different aspects to the best of our abilities against each of those three different pillars.” It’s words of wisdom from the man who stayed on top of brand innovation for almost a decade.

Yassky’s team at Proximo Sports has worked with over 15 different brands spread across UFC, PGA Tour, League Cup, COPA, USA, and, of course, the NBA and the NFL. His team has been responsible for generating over $100M AMP through advertising, marketing, and promotion. Seeing that success, you could effortlessly decipher how well those 3 pillars of KPI worked wonders for him. And undoubtedly, it could work for you too, assuming you follow them at heart.

But there’s also one thing Yassky pointed out while giving his opinions on his 3 pillars of KPIs. “If it’s not working, it enables us to have the conversation, as look, this is factually just why we can’t proceed; it doesn’t make sense. Throwing good money at bad isn’t a smart business decision, so sometimes we have to make those tough decisions and walk away and move on.” Translation? It’s about understanding when to stop. Yes, you can keep proceeding and continue to invest money in a campaign you hope will work. But if it isn’t taking you to the promised land, then giving it up could help you take your losses and move on before it’s too late.

And while Yassky gave his thoughts on the 3 pillars of KPIs in marketing. Let’s look at the KPIs you must keep a close eye on when it comes to athletes.

KPIs for athletes—what’s that all about?

KPIs aren’t just confined to your marketing campaigns. It can also make a mark on your evaluation of athletes who are training for a particular outcome. KPI can serve as a strong guide for all the coaches out there trying to evaluate a strong crop of players. First, it’s all about the assessment. How well are they recovering after every skill play? This would help you understand their conditioning depending on the sport they play. Next up, it’s about monitoring. What is the maximum speed they can achieve? Can they accelerate and decelerate without hurting their skill play? Or on what grounds do they need to improve?

These are some parameters that would help you decipher the quality of a sports athlete. Then it’s all about evaluating them against the group of players they are training with. Moreover, they can offer them new plans to either enhance certain aspects of their game or learn some new skills. To sum up, these KPIs can make your work a lot easier than it could be.

But going back to Yassky’s 3 pillars of KPI. You need to have that judgment to decipher those athletes, “Where it makes sense to renew because we can see what that value is driving, but we can also see where we’re under-delivering that we can have a conversation with the properties and say, look we’re not hitting where we our thresholds need to be.” 

It’s about understanding when to move on and pursue a different target. Using Yassky’s eye-opening insight on KPIs could help your marketing campaigns prosper—if it was stumbling before. At EssentiallySports Think Tank, we continue to commit ourselves to exploring the strategies and leadership insights that will shape your evolution.

Our Think Tank podcast is a premium initiative of EssentiallySports where we bring the greatest minds out there who can talk about strategy, leadership, and change of culture in the ever-evolving door of the sports content business. Stay tuned for more such episodes on thoughtful leadership from global experts.