Andrew Diamond: SiriusXM Manager, Sports Partnerships and Marketing - Work In Sports Podcast

Calling all up-and-coming broadcast talent – here’s your chance to make a name for yourself overnight.  Compete against others in SiriusXM’s “MLB Fan Call of the Month” contest starting on Thursday, September 3^rd at 10AM Eastern. Visit SiriusXM dot com slash MLB Fan Call, and make your voice heard before the contest closes on September 10^th. One winner, as judged by the SiriusXM programming team, will have their play-by-play call air on SiriusXM MLB Radio, and advance to compete in the final “Fan Call of the Year” contest for a grand prize that includes a trip for two (2) to attend the 2021 MLB All Star Game at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia, plus the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to call a half-inning of the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game, LIVE on SiriusXM MLB Radio!

Go to SiriusXM dot com slash MLB Fan Call for a full set of contest rules, prizing details and more. 

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast.

I have an ongoing internal dialogue - no I’m not talking to myself, I’m not that old or senile yet - no, I’m constantly asking myself “what else?”

This has become a little bit of a joke between my wife and I, she was on a job interview once years ago, and the interviewer started with a broad question about the role, and then for the next 30 minutes just kept repeating “what else?” every time my wife paused.  

While I think this is a terrible interview technique -- it is a pretty good question to ask yourself about yourself. 

I do this often and in many ways. 

With my kids, I wonder - again in my head -- what else can I be doing to help them become good people?

What else can I teach them that school may not? Maybe it’s life skills, maybe it’s about the history of racial oppression, maybe it’s about climate change and sustainability? 

I wonder “what else?” can I do to be a better husband, mentor, friend, volunteer, member of society -- the list goes on. What else?

I have an industry friend who always talks about the extra 1% you can do -- similar concept -  he’s always telling people it doesn’t have to be huge, it just needs to be 1% better than everyone else...and this is just another way to get into a positive mindframe of doing a little more. 

I’m not perfect at it, sometimes I ask myself “what else” - come up with a good idea for something more I can do, and then cease to actually do it. Turns out, you make less of an impact when you don’t actually do the stuff you think about doing. Who knew? 

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is not out of self-importance or even a desire to be transparent…  it’s because my mind has been raging lately about the podcast, this here show. 

What else?

I feel like I should be doing more, that the traditional industry expert interview style is good and I enjoy it thoroughly, but maybe we need to break through and push a little more. I don’t know, I don’t have it all figured out yet, but I feel there are some more creative approaches I am yet to unlock but will continue to work on.  

With that in mind, I am taking a bit of a different approach to today’s show… a little shift that i think is pretty cool.

Today’s guest is Andrew Diamond, Manager of Sports Sponsorships and Marketing for SiriusXM - cool job right? Andrew has also worked for Octagon, FanDuel, Topps and more - he’s a pretty interesting dude. 

If you were listening at the top of the show, SiriusXM is running a really cool contest called “Fan Call of the Month” with a chance to win a trip for 2 to the MLB all-star game and a chance to do play-by-play for a half inning of the sirius xm broadcast of the All-Star futures game! Pretty cool contest right?

So what we are going to do today is tell the story of Andrew’s job, through the lens of this particular project -- how the Fan Call of the Month, went from idea, to activated project rolled out narttionwide. This will give you a really cool view into the reality of working in sports!

So let’s get it going -- here’s Andrew Diamond, who has a perfect name to work in baseball...  

Questions for Andrew Diamond, SiriusXM Manager, Sports Partnerships and Marketing

1: Our audience will be very interested to hear about your career journey, and we’re going to get into all of that –but let’s start with the fun stuff first, then we’ll get more serious.

You and I connected because at SiriusXM you are running this really cool contest, which I was drawn to and got us talking – so tell us about you Fan Call of the Month contest…get into the details!

2: Since my background is in the sports media this contest just speaks my language, and I know in this audience we have some talented people who will have some fun and jump in there  -- but let’s get a little deeper – you are in sports marketing and I thought it may be fun to explain your role in marketing and what it actually looks like to activate a project through the lens of this contest.  

Technically your title is Manager of Sports Partnerships and Marketing for SiriusXM – so what does this mean exactly, what does your role look like on a day-to-day?

3: What’s the process for an idea like this to come to life? Does it start with a brainstorming meeting, just throwing ideas out there?

4: How much data and analysis do you do prior to pushing for an idea like this? Do you do much research, or is it, “this sounds like fun let’s do it?”

5: How hard is it, or better yet, how important is it, as a marketer to tap into the creative ideas part of your brain…but also be able to be organized and execute on a plan?

6: Which part do you personally enjoy more – the idea creation, or the idea execution?

7: In marketing you don’t work in a silo, you are constantly relying on other team members graphic designers, the sales team, analytics, promotions, email, on-air talent and more – how important is it to be able to work cross functionally and get along with others?

8: I am the type of person who if I threw a party I’d b stressed all day fearing no one would show up. So what’s it like for you when you run a contest, or activate some marketing plan you’ve been working on for months – do you have anxiety? Do you trust your process? What’s that like for you?

9: In a broader sense, you have worked at multiple sports organizations over your career – Octagon, MLB Advanced Media, Topps, Fanduel, SiriusXM – are the approaches totally different from organization to organization, or is marketing, marketing?

10: There are so many subsectors to marketing – digital, content, product, email, partnerships, activation – what is your advice to someone who wants to work in sports marketing, just jump in there and do it all, or have a specialty?

11: Are you one of the judges for the Fan Call of the Month Contest? If yes – what is your playbyplay style what do you like? Give our audience a little insight into what a winner may sound like?

12: Great stuff Andrew, tell the audience again where they can get into this contest – I’m an avid Sirius XM listener and when my kids aren’t in the car it’s all sports and Howard Stern. When the kids are in the car, we’re pretty locked on Hits1. Thanks for coming on!