TFG Pod: Meet Laura Froelich, Twitter’s Global Head of Sports Partnerships
From The Football Girl Podcast, hosted by Melissa Jacobs. Please subscribe in iTunes to get new episodes of the pod in your feed the second we publish. If you like what you hear, please rate and/or review us!
If Global Head of Sports Partnerships for Twitter sounds like a dream job, that’s because it is. Laura Froelich, who has held the role for 2.5 years, join the pod to talk about her role, her fascinating career trajectory, how exactly Twitter is enhancing sports, efforts to make high profile athletes feel safe on Twitter, and when her New York Jets may reappear in the Super Bowl.
Before you listen to the interview, try and guess how many miles Froelich flew last year. (Hint: It’s not remotely normal.)
Also in this episode, Melissa’s son has a message for Jimmy Garoppolo, Melissa dreams of a more diverse Monday Night Football booth & much more!
Follow Laura Froelich on Twitter: @laurafrofro
The Rundown:
2:59: How Melissa is passing the time now that football is season
5:37: Melissa’s 6-year-old son formally invites Jimmy Garappolo to his birthday party
9:34: Laura Froelich explains her fascinating career trajectory
14:50 A typical day in the life of Laura
20:25: Overall goal for Twitter when it comes to sports partnerships
21:05: Why Twitter’s live stream of Thursday Night Football worked for both sides
26:33: How Twitter get high profile athletes on Twitter who are not inherently comfortable
29:28: What are micropayments and how they could dramatically alter how we watch sports
35:47: Laura with three fabulous bits of career advice.
37:50: Melissa’s Musing: If Sean McDonough is done in the MNF booth, here’s who should replace him.
Notable Quotables:
Froelich on Twitter streaming Thursday Night Football in 2016:
Our promise to the NFL is that we’ll bring you new audience because, as we all know, consumption habits are changing. So we said to the NFL, not only are we uniquely equipped to present your content to our audience and have the content and conversation live together all in one place and that super unique experience, we’re going to do that and at the same time bring you new audience both in terms of folks who are younger and a global audience. We delivered on both of those things. Like I said, we were both super happy with the results.”
Froelich on why Twitter is good for athletes:
When they’re not as comfortable, oftentimes what we talk to them about is … they feel like the don’t want to be self-promotional and that’s fine. We tell them with Twitter it really gives you the opportunity to speak to the world about things you care about. So it’s not necessarily promoting yourself, it’s you’re involved with a charity which many athletes are. What J.J. Watt did for Houston is mindbogglingly fantastic.
Froelich on the importance of helping women in your career:
Bring others with you, especially the women out there. For a long time I felt as if, I’m moving up, things are good, there are a lot of great women out there, things are getting better. They are, there’s no doubt about it but we need to remind ourselves and be vigilant and at every opportunity bring along the great women with you. There’s a saying that people use, it’s a great one, which is: When you go up in the elevator, make sure to send it back down and bring others up with you.
Music:
Funky Cha Cha – Arturo Sandoval | When You Wish Upon A Star – Jiminy Cricket | Int’l Players Anthem – UGK Ft. Outkast | Power – Little Mix | Mr. Brightside – The Killers
