Keaton Day, a native of Columbia, Missouri, spent his formative years in Kansas City, graduating from Liberty High School in 2013. Before earning his degree from the University of Missouri in 2017, Keaton gained valuable experience working with prominent sports organizations including the Kansas City Command, the Kansas City Royals, and the University of Missouri. For over two years, Keaton has successfully run his own business, GameDay, serving a diverse clientele that includes Hy-Vee Arena, the Kansas City Comets, Soren Petro, and 810 Varsity, among others. Outside of his professional endeavors, Keaton is a devoted husband and father to three beautiful daughters.
https://gamedaypartnerships.com/
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-Transcript-
Brad Burrow (00:01):
Brad Burrow (00:01):
Welcome to In a World With Real Media. I’m your host, Brad Burrow. In this podcast, we’ll dive into the lives of the most successful people in business. We’ll learn how they overcame adversity, took advantage of opportunities and learned from their experiences. Learn from our experts. Get inspired, then go live your story. It’s in a world with real media. Hello and welcome to the In A World. Lemme start that again. I do so many podcasts. I forget which one I’m in it I, okay. Hello and welcome to the Inner World with Real Media podcast. Today we have Keaton Day. He’s the founder of GameDay. It’s a sports partnership agency. I do a lot of really cool things and we’ve worked together in the past. I’m really excited to have you on Keaton because we’ve done some things with the comets and some different things in the past in the sports area, real media, I don’t know if you’ve known this, but we’ve been in business 28 years, but our first 15 years of existence was doing really animation and graphics and interstitials and all kinds of things for sports. So we worked with the Cincinnati Reds, the Miami Heat, the New York Mets, about half the Big 12 and doing game opens and stuff like that. As a matter of fact, K State didn’t mean to make this all about me,
(01:29):
But K State, we used to do their cat train open. I don’t know. And Melinda, that’s how I’d met Melinda. And we built this really cool 3D version of the Cat train blowing out of this mountain and going down I 70 and it comes into the stadium and they were using that, I think they used that for maybe 10 or 15 years, something like that. Really crazy. We got to do all that. My son is at K State now, so he’s like, dad, I saw a little bit of that cat rain. I said, my dad did that. So pretty fun. That
Keaton Day (02:00):
Sports work is a lot of fun with that good content. You make good stuff and you can hold onto it and use it year after year after year.
Brad Burrow (02:06):
Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, enough about me. I want to talk about you. So I want to get into all of the things that you do at GameDay. So that’s going to be later on in the podcast, but give me a little bit about where you grew up, I’m assuming up north, and what set your sights on getting in sports marketing.
Keaton Day (02:27):
Yeah. Well, first of all, I just want to thank you for having me on here. This is the first time I’ve done a podcast, something like this. So I was really looking forward to coming on here this morning. I really appreciate this opportunity, so thank you.
(02:39):
But yeah, I am a Kansas City guy. You’re a wildcat. As long as you’re not a Jayhawk, we can get along a little bit better than okay. But I’m a tiger. So I grew up, I was actually born in Columbia. My dad and my mom were in school up there, so I was born in Columbia. I lived there for a couple years. We moved back to Kansas City and then I’ve grown up here my whole life. So I went back to Columbia for school for a few years and then back to Kansas City. So I grew up a Kansas City guy here, Kansas City, through and through, and that’s what’s awesome about doing a lot of this sports stuff is that Kansas City is still kind of a close knit community where you can make big relationships and do great things with people, but also we’re growing so fast and there’s so many great opportunities here, not only just with sports, but with businesses and interacting with each other and what we do with each other in this city for each other makes Kansas City a really great place to live. So I’m lucky to have grown up here and super happy to still be here and raising my family here.
Brad Burrow (03:37):
Yeah, that’s awesome. So I do have a little bit of history with Mu for two or three years. We did their sports animations and stuff like interstitials and sponsorship, animations, stuff like that. So I think it was mostly for
Keaton Day (03:52):
Football,
Brad Burrow (03:53):
But we’d make a trip
Keaton Day (03:54):
Down to Did trip you the referee flag? Was that you?
Brad Burrow (03:57):
Oh, maybe So I feel like maybe one of Jefferson who worked for me at the time, we got him a ref outfit and shot him on green screen. I had forgotten about that. But yeah, I think we did some of that stuff. I think they
Keaton Day (04:12):
Were running that when I was down on the field at the zoo working. I was always looking up at that.
Brad Burrow (04:15):
Is that right? That’s the fun thing about some of the things we do. We did a bunch of stuff for the Royals and we animated slugger. What would happen on a home run is the field would open up animation obviously, and out of it would come a rocket and slugger would be on the rocket and it would fly out of the stadium. They used that for years. They may still be using it. It’s pretty cool when you go to a game, it’s like, Hey, I recognize that. Pretty fun. So sports is fun, isn’t it?
Keaton Day (04:48):
Yep.
Brad Burrow (04:49):
Did you know that you were always going to kind of go into that?
Keaton Day (04:53):
Yes and no. So I had a bit of an interesting path to get here. I am beyond thankful for the opportunities that were laid in front of me and the people that I’ve met along the way. All that to say no, I did not think I would get into sports business when I was younger. I always was a huge sports fan, but when I was growing up in high school, 15 years ago or so, there really wasn’t as big of an opportunity for sports business as there is today. But I started to see kind of the industry changing and the opportunities that were coming along. And that would’ve been, I graduated high school in 2013, so when I was about a freshman or sophomore, I started to really get interest in the business side of sport and what can be done with it. And so I went to Liberty High School, and then I would travel over to Liberty North High School a little bit as well. We started some sports marketing programs up there where we would have a class and we would run stuff on the video board. We would go around, be walking into McDonald’s and Liberty and asking if they would give us a hundred dollars for a sponsorship for a logo on a t-shirt to throw out at games.
Brad Burrow (06:03):
So
Keaton Day (06:03):
That’s where this all started doing this in high school with all these cool ideas. And then that was the
Brad Burrow (06:08):
Beginning of
Keaton Day (06:09):
The fire. That was the beginning of the fire, and that’s where it really lit it in me because I like interacting with people. I love making relationships with people, and that’s where it really, the puzzle pieces fit together to say, Hey, I can do fun stuff in sports while also doing business stuff out of it. There’s all kinds of jobs in the sport industry that you can do too, which is awesome. You can go be a team manager, you can go work for social media for a team, you can work with a grounds crew with the front office. There’s all kinds of different realms, but that’s where I’ve really just been very blessed the last 10, 15 years with the opportunities that people have given me and the relationships that I’ve made with people to keep my passion and my spark for sports going and be able to make a career and a living out of it is I consider myself pretty
Brad Burrow (06:58):
Lucky. And every sports team has to have a very good strategy for selling sponsorships too. I mean, you can’t make it in professional sports without that, right? I mean, you look at Royal Stadium, for example. I remember when the last time they redid the stadium, you can’t look anywhere out the stadium and not see some sort of sponsorship.
Keaton Day (07:19):
No. Yeah, and that’s the thing, the sponsorship strategy and the sponsorship opportunities are so they’re, so, they’re there for so many people, whether it’s youth sports here in Kansas City, high school, college arenas, tournaments, all the way up to the Royals. So if you’re talking about the Royals Chiefs, Mizzou, k UK state, they can operate those big sponsorship ideas and strategies because you probably have 20 people in the front office who are working on those and getting all that to happen. But then if you are a high school, if you’re a college, or even if you’re somebody like the Kansas City Comets, they have a great sponsorship strategy, but still, you only have so much staff, so much time, so much resources to be able to go across just all of Kansas City and make those relationships and try and build those sponsorships. So that’s where GameDay comes in, and that’s where I try and give some value to the partners and the clients that we work with, is just to give you an extra boost of time and relationship making to go around and make these partnerships with sponsors around town. Because yeah, getting a big sign up at Kaufman Stadium’s awesome, and there’ll be all kinds of people to help you through that process, but then you can do the same kind of stuff and sometimes save some money along the line to do the same kind of cool ideas with other places around town too. So that’s where we kind of fill in to help fill that gap there.
Brad Burrow (08:42):
So tell me, what was it like being a marketing intern at mu? I mean, that had to be kind of fun.
Keaton Day (08:49):
It was fun, reminded me a little bit of my task. Now, as a business owner, you wear lots of different hats, but when you’re an intern up there, you’re either making posters during the week, cutting stuff out, putting stuff up around campus for different stuff, doing events to interact with people. But then once the GameDay comes, everybody thinks that the earliest people out there on a Mizou football game or the people out there for the tailgates at 9:10 AM all the sports workers are out there. Even before that, if you have a game that kicks off at 7:00 PM you still have all the workers for that day who are there early in the morning getting everything set up, everything
Brad Burrow (09:28):
Ready.
Keaton Day (09:29):
So GameDay is a super fun day. Everybody lives for the GameDay. But that’s the other thing about working in sports is that it’s a lot of time
Brad Burrow (09:37):
That’s just a little bitty part of it isn’t.
Keaton Day (09:38):
It’s a little bitty part of it. Yeah, you’re planning all week, you’re getting everything ready, and then the crown jewel of your whole planning process is your event. And it usually takes place all day on a Saturday. So you’re lucky if you get to relax on a Sunday and you’re back on it Monday for the volleyball event and gymnastics on Tuesday. So you got to wear a lot of hats and learn a lot. But it was certainly fun. I missed those days.
Brad Burrow (10:04):
Great experience, sounds like, huh?
Keaton Day (10:06):
Absolutely.
Brad Burrow (10:07):
Royal’s game crew. I didn’t know that. So did you do that for a season or how
Keaton Day (10:13):
Yeah, so that was 2014 that I did that.
Brad Burrow (10:16):
Wow.
Keaton Day (10:17):
What a year to do that, huh? It was a pretty good year to do that. Yes.
(10:20):
So I got connected with a guy named Matt Schulte. He was the director of marketing for the Royals for a long, long time. Absolutely wonderful guy. He actually works with a FIFA World Cup now. He’s doing a lot of stuff for World Cup as they’re coming into Kansas City here. But he came into our sports marketing class when I was up at Liberty High School, and I did a marketing plan presentation when I was, it would’ve been my junior year for the Royals. And then from that, he asked if I’d come up and do an internship with them for the year. So I did some of that front office stuff with him, but then I was able to be there for all the GameDay stuff. So that was awesome too, whether it was dealing with Slugger for stuff or rounding up first pitch people, or the color guard or the national anthem, all that.
(11:06):
Then doing all the fun interactions that ending breaks and all that was fun. But yeah, like you said, that was a pretty good year to be there for that. So I would’ve been 15 or 16 at that time, and I still just have such vivid memories of being at Fan Fest in 2014 and being in that back setup area with Hosmer and Ace, Gerald Dyson and Mokis. Those guys were just, that’s fun, man. They were a fun group, and I’ve been able to be around. I haven’t been around a whole lot of different professional teams, yada, yada. But being around that crew at that time was, you definitely could tell that they were a special group. And I didn’t get a chance to stick around in 2015. Then I went Mizzou. I know. I know. If I did, I’d be flashing a ring. You
Brad Burrow (11:56):
You’d have gotten a ring.
Keaton Day (11:57):
Yeah. Yeah, I would have. But I ended up not doing it that next year, because that was my senior year that I did it the first year. And then after that to just travel back during the season from Columbia every night for those games just would’ve been too, would
Brad Burrow (12:10):
Too much.
Keaton Day (12:11):
And then I was doing so much with Mizzou at that time when I jumped up into Columbia, so I definitely wish I could have stuck around for that one more year. But 2014, it was pretty fun.
Brad Burrow (12:20):
Now you probably got an A LCS ring or something, didn’t you?
Keaton Day (12:23):
I didn’t, no. We didn’t even, no, we didn’t even give those out at that time
Brad Burrow (12:26):
For
Keaton Day (12:26):
That. Everybody was hoping for that in 14, and then they kind of loaded it up and gave everybody everything in 2015. So I missed out, just barely.
Brad Burrow (12:36):
So a good friend of mine is Kevin Seitzer.
(12:41):
So he was at Atlanta when they won a World Series. And so my wife and I had dinner with him and his wife, and so of course he brings the World Series ring, and I mean, that thing is this big. The Braves the top had a hinge on it opened up, and then inside was the stadium, and there was a diamond where every home run that was hit in the World Series. That’s crazy. In the stadium, and it had LED lights. Can you believe that? I was just like it. You got to be pretty strong to hold your hand up because the ring’s so big. Pretty cool though. It
Keaton Day (13:17):
Almost makes you wonder with some of those rings though, at what point it gets over the top. You and I know those guys don’t wear those rings around every day, but that’s a lot. Be we a ring that you’ve got to open up and it’s got L. Yeah, check this out,
Brad Burrow (13:30):
And you need a light in here.
Keaton Day (13:32):
Well, he deserves to wear that. When I think about the Braves, when they won the World Series there, I just think about Jorge sale. He couldn’t hit here with us that year and send him over to Seitzer and
Brad Burrow (13:44):
Well, it’s interesting what’s happening right now. This is not to go down too much of a rabbit hole, but he’s with Seattle now and they’re on fire, and the Braves started really bad this year, so everybody’s like, now why did we get rid of Kevin Seitzer? Yep. It’s typical thing that happens, and you never know how long you’re going to have a job, no matter how well you’re doing, but he’s instantly turned the Mariners into one of the top teams in the American League, which is really cool. So he’s a great guy. I love being around him and stuff. He is kind of just getting learn a lot when you’re with somebody like that, so
Keaton Day (14:22):
Pretty
Brad Burrow (14:22):
Cool. So story came after that. Tell me a little bit about that. Was that from relationships from the Royals?
Keaton Day (14:31):
Yeah, a lot of that peeled off from Royals relationships and then just relationships that I started making with people right off the bat.
Brad Burrow (14:38):
How did you meet Melinda?
Keaton Day (14:39):
So Melinda was a teacher with me up at Liberty High School for a while. Okay, there you go. So yeah, so we met there and then she had some William Jewel ties. So a lot of my stuff started in Liberty when I graduated there. That was a good spot for me to doing some stuff with William Jewel and working with some sponsors in Liberty that I’d already had good relationships with. And then, yeah, just over the last handful of years, McDonald’s just filled up, yep,
(14:59):
McDonald’s, all the Liberty people and Conrads and Crowley Furniture. And that’s the great thing about a lot of those folks is that a lot of those sponsors that we worked with in Liberty felt like the only people coming to them for opportunities was just random stuff in Liberty where Liberty, just like Overland Park, Lee Summit, everywhere, there’s a lot of opportunities in those areas where they want to get big KC wide exposure. So for instance, there is an insurance guy in Liberty who did a big deal with us up at William Jewel College. His name’s David Starnes, he’s got an Allstate agency here in town, and he did some stuff with us in Liberty. He’s based in Liberty. He did a cool William Jewel College partnership with us. And then now he’s spun that into doing a big partnership with Saren Petro.
Brad Burrow (15:50):
So
Keaton Day (15:50):
Saren Petro does a Chiefs and Royals podcast every week, and so I help him get sponsorships on those podcasts. And our title sponsor for the Kaufman Corner podcast is David Starns Allstate. So it’s just an example of one guy who we started in Liberty a few years ago and now we’re getting him bringing an exposure all across the Kansas City metro.
Brad Burrow (16:08):
Yeah,
Keaton Day (16:08):
That’s great.
Brad Burrow (16:09):
This is a great transition into GameDay. So decided to go out on your own. It’s not easy. So tell me how that happened and what was your thinking? Why did you decide to do that?
Keaton Day (16:20):
Yeah, I mean, I am just a very ambitious, ambitious guy. I’ve got lots of goals and dreams to make this a great business, but also to just make great relationships with people in town and make a real impact. Whether that’s helping young kids getting in the right position for their future stuff, whether it’s school or working with sponsors, working with businesses to get set up in good positions. I’m really passionate about helping those kids out to give them an opportunity and a spot to do some of the same similar stuff that I’ve done.
(16:56):
But then also there was just a lot of opportunity for me to continue on to keep building out in Kansas City and span across just out of the metro and into the Johnson County area where there’s just a whole nother world of business out there to tap into. So there was a lot of opportunity, and I had a lot of people coming to me saying, Hey, I really think you should make this move and do your own thing and kind of start blowing the top off this thing. So how’s it going? It’s going pretty well. Yeah, I’ve been pretty happy with everything, and it’s crazy. GameDays coming up on two years in October, which is nuts. But I’ve got four wonderful girls at home with me. I’ve got my wife and I have three girls that are all under the age of five, so my life’s pretty crazy.
(17:51):
I’m constantly working, getting all this stuff going, but as soon as the day is over at five, I do my best to spend time with the girls and have that time. But it’s a lot of taking care of the girls and having fun with them. And then to work. I don’t really have a whole lot of breaks. In fact, sitting in the chair here and relaxing for 45 minutes to an hour is about as good of a break as feels pretty good asking for it feels pretty good. But yeah, all that to say it’s going really well where I’ve got about five or six clients partners right now. We work with Hy-Vee Arena, the Kansas City Comets eight 10 Varsity Johnson County Parks and Rec, and they’re all Sar Petro is another one. And so it’s a really good crop of partners that we’re working with here. And we’ve got a few other new partners that we’re right on the brink of adding this summer that are going to be really exciting. I’ve added a few people to my crew, so I’ve got four people at GameDay now. And then my brother is actually graduating from Mizzou this Friday. I’ll be going to Columbia for his graduation, and then he’s going to come start with us in June.
Brad Burrow (18:58):
Nice.
Keaton Day (18:59):
Throw him right into the fire to join the fun. And it’s going really well. We’re really excited about where we’re going.
Brad Burrow (19:06):
So give me the pitch for GameDay. Say I was a sponsor, tell me what is it that you bring to the table? What would you do? For me?
Keaton Day (19:13):
And that’s fun with doing all this stuff is that I work with sponsors all across the board. It may be a medical sponsor, a hospital, it may be an orthopedic somebody, it may be a local clinic, you may be a restaurant, you may be an insurance agency, you may be Dick’s Sporting Goods Academy, sports work with all kinds of people across the board. So what’s interesting, as we’ve kind of gotten into this business, and as we talk about the business of sport, 10, 15 years ago when I started doing a lot of this, it was like the intro to a McDonald’s looking at an opportunity with sports and saying, okay, yeah, that’s our route to go. Whataburger is another really awesome sponsor that I work with in town for a lot of stuff. And if you think about them 10, 15 years ago, they were probably not doing anything big sports wise.
(20:01):
Well now everything they do is Patrick Mahomes on the chief side, and then you got all the Bobby wit. I mean, they were out at his wedding with a whole. So all that to say, you’re not putting all your eggs in one basket for a lot of that, but if you’re somebody like a Whataburger and you’re looking at a big corporate level, what kind of opportunities that you can do, whether it’s nationwide or across the region or just locally to Kansas City, it’s really hard for somebody at Whataburger to find those opportunities at a grassroots,
Brad Burrow (20:32):
The corporate level level. Yeah,
Keaton Day (20:33):
Yeah, yeah. Corporate or just as a regional, a local franchise. It’s like Whataburger. Half of ’em are owned by corporate, and then you’ve got the other half that are franchise. They’re called the KM Oberg, the franchise, that’s Mahomes group. And so they work with each other, but then I can come to them and say, Hey, Whataburger here, you do a big corporate deal. We’ve got your whole name business over all the ER petro stuff. But then with Whataburger and Kansas City, the local people, we do stuff with eight 10 Varsity where they do special social media promotions for all of our high school kids around town. Kids can go up to Whataburger to get special deals or team of the week, team of the month stuff. So it’s really kind of fun whenever I sit down with somebody and talk about what they’re looking for. It can be all across the board. Could be a fun little social media, something just to get things going. Or it can be a big naming, right? Something. And just starting tonight up at Hy-Vee Arena, we have graduations from local high
Brad Burrow (21:31):
Schools.
Keaton Day (21:32):
So that’s a great example of some sponsors that we’re working with, just as an opportunity for them to get in the door at a smaller level and then just keep building stuff. It’s hard to go to a lot of sponsors and be like, Hey, 20,000 bucks, are you ready to sign on? Let’s do it. And that’s really how most people deal with their strategy. And then you’re working with corporate people, you’re hoping to get answers in a couple of weeks, yada, yada. It’s a whole long process. So up here tonight, we’ve got Winne, Tonka graduation starts tonight, have the arena. So we’ve got like Oaks Auto is coming out and they’ve got two vehicles that are outside front the arena armies coming out. They’re going to have a little setup out there where they can interact with some of these graduates who are maybe looking for another option, which is their target audience. Exactly. That’s great. Wash is coming out to just hand out some stuff. So those are really good opportunities for us to just get people’s foot in the door and then just keep building those relationships from there. But that’s where I try and not to take it from zero to a hundred with a sponsor or a potential partner that we’re talking with because it, that’s usually too overwhelming. It’s really the best bets to just get your foot in the door, try out some stuff, and then build that partnership up into something bigger.
Brad Burrow (22:45):
So a big part of what you have to do is build a network. I mean, just knowing the people at Whataburger and all the different places that are actually the decision makers for sponsorships, that’s got to be half of your job at more. It’s the hardest part. Just from a, I hadn’t thought about this question, but sales today is completely different than it’s ever been. You’re basically selling prospecting and all that. What’s the methodology that works the best for you? I mean, is it getting on the phone? Is it sending an email? Nobody reads their emails anymore, I don’t think. And so what do you do? Go knock on somebody’s door. I mean,
Keaton Day (23:28):
It’s the wild, wild west. And that’s what’s so funny with today’s, these post COVID and all that, it’s different than what it used to be when I was in high school. And nobody really likes it when somebody just walks in their door unannounced. But it was a lot more normal. I think five, 10 years ago when I was in high school, it was a lot easier, I think, to walk into doors and just to hand off some items and see if somebody would have a quick conversation. These days, it’s different. Hard
Brad Burrow (23:57):
To get to people
Keaton Day (23:58):
Isn’t to get through to people. So a lot of my prospecting, I grew, like I said, grew up in Kansas City here. I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle of who the businesses are here. When new businesses come in. I certainly try and keep up with a lot of that, but it’s just trying to reach out and connect with people who I know who their businesses are already. I’m just working my way through to try and get to that right person. Or it’s sitting on Facebook or sitting on whatever and seeing opportunities for new people and reaching out to them and saying, Hey, are you interested? So I am walk in doors, I cold call, I send LinkedIn messages, I send emails, I do whatever the above, all the above. And it takes a long time for somebody to trust you and reach out.
(24:44):
I’m not a huge LinkedIn guy. I use it because it’s good to have. But as a business owner myself, I, I can’t tell you how many messages every week that are random reach outs. And so I hate reaching out to people that way because it’s probably never going to be seen. So if I just keep pushing, chipping away at an email, at a phone call, at a visit at a LinkedIn, I’m hoping at some point you’ll eventually multiple touch points, maybe trust me that I’m a good local guy who’s not just here to You’re not a stalker. Yeah, yeah. Or just your standard salesman.
Brad Burrow (25:17):
Hi, I’m Keaton.
Keaton Day (25:20):
But yeah, that’s crazy. I never thought I’d get into sales at all. But a lot of this is just roped into the whole process together where it’s an interesting, interesting challenge these days. Yeah, an interesting challenge to do all that.
Brad Burrow (25:35):
Do you find that the bigger brands like Whataburger, places like that, they are actively seeking opportunities to sponsor things and get out in front of audiences? So the need is clearly there. You’re not going in and saying, well, you need to be doing this. They already know most of them that they do need to be doing it
Keaton Day (25:54):
For sure. But then it’s having that conversation with that right person, and even if they know that this is something they need, it’s kind of confusing sometimes if I just come straight to you and say, Hey, I’m GameDay, got to explain to you what I do. And then I say, Hey, we’ve got these five, six different clients. It takes a minute for you to understand where I’m coming from, what I’m offering. And so once we break over that hurdle, I can share with you all the partnership kits for all of our people and what we have to offer. And then it makes it easier for somebody to say, okay, awesome. If I want to get involved in youth sports ages 12 and under with Johnson County Parks and Rec, here’s my spot. Oh, high school in Kansas City, eight 10 Varsity College here, comets. So you’ve
Brad Burrow (26:34):
Got places, excuse me to put people basically, I wanted to ask you methodology wise, when you’re going in and you’re talking to somebody, are you, from a business model standpoint, are you an exclusive agent for Saren Petro and different places like that? Do you have agreements that I’m the guy that’s selling everything that comes into your podcast?
Keaton Day (27:01):
Yeah, pretty much. It depends on when I come in and work with somebody, what they already have set up and what they need from me to help you get the plane off the ground
(27:13):
And being steady. So when I started with the Comets, the comets have got their own marketing staff, they got their own sponsorship group, but it’s only a couple guys. So I don’t have to rely on the comets to give me or for me to have to make too much stuff for them. They’ve already got a partnership kit, they’ve got different things. I just kind of come alongside them, go around town and just have as many conversations going as I can. But for Rin, when he started this podcast stuff, he didn’t really have a whole lot of the foundation in place for the partnership stuff, a partnership kit, all that. So that’s another part. My world is creating stuff, creating partnership kits. I’m not the best artwork guy in the world, but I get a little bit of a design mind. But that’s part of my days too, is coming up with those and putting these packages together and then putting together cool artwork mockup proposals for sponsors and things. So yeah, I can come alongside anybody who’s looking for sponsorships and help you do what you’re already doing or help you figure out everything you need. Go through an asset list, figure out what you have to sell, who we should go hit Target and help you out from square one.
Brad Burrow (28:24):
Now, do you have the same type of agreements with sponsors? Do you represent Whataburger? Just comes to mind, but would you be the local Kansas City representative for anything that they would do sponsorship wise? Do you sign agreements like that?
Keaton Day (28:39):
Not exclusively yet. To that point, I got a lot. That would
Brad Burrow (28:42):
Be good though, wouldn’t it?
Keaton Day (28:43):
That’s what I’m working towards, and that’s where I’m trying to work with a lot of these sponsors that these bigger corporate sponsors that I’m getting these bigger relationships with. Dick’s Sporting Goods Academy Sports, there are a couple of ones that I’m talking with right now about me not just hitting them up once every two months and say, Hey, here’s this opportunity and then here’s this one. Now these people have started to trust me a little bit, Whataburger as well, where I can come to them once during the year and say, Hey, here’s all five of the opportunities that we’re doing together. Here’s a strategy for it. Here’s how it all work. Now, I don’t have to mess with you and hit you up again in a month or two and ask you about updates, whatever. I’ll reach back out in six months and we’ll have an update about this stuff and we’ll just keep moving along. But that’s where I’m working towards. Hopefully I can have somebody like a Whataburger, I can have a dick, somebody to say, Hey, we trust you to take our X amount of budget and use it across the community and just let us know what you’ve got us going on with. And then it takes a lot of work and stuff off their plate when they know that there’s somebody in town who can kind of run those things for you, and you don’t constantly have to hold the hands of those partnerships that you’re working with.
Brad Burrow (29:52):
One of the things I wanted to talk to you about today, Keith, was just podcasting. Obviously I’m here on the podcast, so thank you for being here, but I’m seeing a lot of corporate America actually starting to embrace the power of podcasting, obviously with rin, and you’ve got some of those things happening with their radio personalities, that’s a natural thing for them to do. But I’m also starting to see brands starting to do podcasts. What do you think about that as a tool from a marketing standpoint?
Keaton Day (30:27):
Yeah, I think it’s awesome. I mean, the whole podcast realm is just so interesting, and it’s obviously caught on fire the last few years, but I really don’t think it’s going to slow down. I think it’s here to stay, and it just gives you so much more opportunity to showcase your brand, but it just gives you the visual and the intimate connection that radio and just that basic stuff can’t give you. So yeah, I think whether it’s just sitting down at a table like this and whether it’s an insurance, somebody you have a special podcast with or a lawyer or a restaurant, I mean, you could have Dick’s Sporting Goods or Whataburger themselves have a whole podcast.
Brad Burrow (31:13):
Let’s do that.
Keaton Day (31:14):
Let’s do it just in Kansas City to talk about what they’re doing here. And so think about if they were to do that. I think people in Kansas City or no matter where you’re at, if you see something like that, if you see somebody’s face, if you see them interacting with you, if they see your logo and all these different things, whether you’re doing social media interactions, interacting with people around town, there’s just a lot more that’s going to pull up people’s heartstrings to want to interact with a sponsor or a partner like that than somebody who’s just, I won’t name any names of anybody in Kansas City, but the same advertisements and things that you hear every day, all the time. I think podcasts really just give you a really good opportunity to get a better bang for your buck.
Brad Burrow (31:59):
And I think people don’t realize, one of the things I think is really cool about podcasts is that it’s like you get to sit in on an intimate conversation. It’s like you’re listening, like you’re there in the conversation, which is really, really cool. But there’s so many other things that are really great about podcasts, like transcriptions for example. We put all the transcriptions on our website, so now all of the SEO gets impacted in a very positive way. Everything you say, GameDay partnerships, sponsorships, all those things. Now Google says, oh, well, they know what they’re talking about this, we’re going to rank you higher. So I think there’s a big that people miss on that. And I also think that if you syndicate a podcast to a lot of different places, you can reach people where they are. And if you can get ’em to subscribe now, that’s a powerful thing. It’s like every time a new podcast comes out, they get a little ding on their phone. It’s like, oh, that’s power. When it comes to sponsorships, I mean, you have an intimate connection with a potential viewer that’s worth
Keaton Day (33:08):
It. Absolutely. On RINs podcast for example, we do, and I know you do this, and I know every podcast has the ability to do this, but also just shows when you do the podcast and you have the video, all that’s great, but once you have that video, it’s so easy to take clips from it,
(33:24):
Cuts from it, and use that as part of your social media strategy. So everybody knows now, whether it’s on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, whatever, you’re scrolling through these videos and you’re getting a 15 second clip or 32nd clip or a minute clip. But that’s something we’ve been doing a lot with Saren on his podcast is that each episode he does, whether it’s a Chief’s episode or Royal’s episode, you take a couple clips from it that have a really good interaction or really good discussion and post that on social media and then use that for more exposure. So just last week, Saren put a clip out on his social media. So he’s got a really cool branded clip that at the end of it, the David Starns Allstate logo pops up with the Kaufman Corner logo and says, presented by David Starns Allstate. And so he put a clip out last week that was talking about should we trade Mike Cal Garcia, should we trade Vinny Quintino, all that? And when he posted it, I mean I haven’t looked at it in the last couple days, but two days after he posted it, it had like a hundred thousand impressions.
Brad Burrow (34:25):
It
Keaton Day (34:25):
Had over a hundred comments, it had over a hundred retweets. So you get 10,000 plus people who are just listening and getting the logo and getting the name when he’s doing the episode every week. But then because he did that podcast, it took his people what, a couple minutes to clip that, clip that clip, and then you put it out and then you’ve got over a hundred thousand impressions just on that.
Brad Burrow (34:49):
And think about the upside for the sponsor on that deal. That’s a big deal. It is a big deal. Getting in front of a hundred thousand impressions is legit.
Keaton Day (34:58):
And just like we’re saying with the podcast, you hear it, you see it, you get extra social media stuff. There’s just so much more with it that gives a sponsor a good heartfelt partnership over just hearing something
Brad Burrow (35:12):
Over
Keaton Day (35:12):
And over.
Brad Burrow (35:12):
Yeah, I think that a lot of the guys Saran or people that are doing the podcast, there’s a learning curve on things like that to talk about. Obviously that struck a nerve because the Royals and they had a good hitting night last night, but their offense has been not great. Not to get off on the Royals discussion, but they need to do some things, and that’s their lane to talk about those things. And a lot of the fans are really interested in hearing what they think about what the Royals should do. And we all have our opinions, but obviously that struck a chord with somebody. So that formula, if you could figure out what that formula is in every podcast, at least talk about something a little bit controversial or what,
Keaton Day (36:06):
Just to get a discussion going,
Brad Burrow (36:08):
Now your sponsors are going, yes, this. I wouldn’t be surprised if your insurance guy didn’t get some leads out of that.
Keaton Day (36:14):
You’d hope so. Yeah. And so we did just last year on the Chief’s podcast, he did a ticket giveaway. So siren’s got over 50,000 followers on social media, and they’re very loyal followers to him, so you’re only going to follow him if you’re really wanting to digest and see what he’s putting out. So we did a really cool ticket giveaway, I think it was during the Bucks game last year on a Monday night, and had a ton of people scan the QR code and we gave the tickets away. But just on that one promotion right there that we did for the Allstate guy, he had a whole list of a hundred plus people that he could then call from there and say, Hey, I know you signed up for the ticket giveaway and I’m Dave, can I
Brad Burrow (36:54):
Quote your car
Keaton Day (36:55):
Insurance?
(36:56):
And even if of course you’re not going to get a hundred people out of that, and maybe you don’t get five of those people right off the bat, but I just turned 30 years old here recently, and I always joke that when we were in high school or even in college, nobody really teaches you any tax stuff, insurance stuff. So once you get to be about this age and stuff and you start figuring all this out, you think, well, do I reach out to State Farm, Allstate, whatever. Most people in Kansas City, top of mind, you probably are reaching out to State Farm because you think of Patrick Mahomes, but I’m hoping here on the podcast there may not keep telling the Allstate guy, you’re probably not going to get 10 people calling you the day after they see you about insurance, but when they need it, you’re going to be the guy they call.
Brad Burrow (37:38):
Yeah, that’s exactly right. Well, I want to wrap up here pretty quickly. We talked about some of the challenges in everything, but tell me about some of the opportunities. What do you see coming down the pike the next couple of years for opportunities in sponsorship and kind of what you’re doing?
Keaton Day (37:53):
Yeah. Well, have you heard the World Cup is coming to Kansas City?
Brad Burrow (37:56):
I have heard that
Keaton Day (37:59):
It’s going to be, this next year is going to be interesting.
Brad Burrow (38:03):
Yeah,
Keaton Day (38:04):
To just kind of, I mean, one interesting for me on the GameDay side with just what’s going on around town and how sponsors are looking at things and what they’re wanting to be involved with. But just Kansas City in general, everybody’s going to be really affected by this.
Brad Burrow (38:19):
And
Keaton Day (38:19):
I know people know it’s going to be crazy, but I don’t think people quite realize what’s coming.
Brad Burrow (38:24):
I’ve been trying to get in the door at the Sports Commission say, Hey, you need a production company. You need some podcast capability. Let us help.
Keaton Day (38:34):
Yeah, I know the Commission’s been doing a lot of stuff, and I think it seems like they’ve got the final stages of things getting wrapped up where they’re going to start announcing to everybody kind what’s going on where, and different events and stuff like that. But it’s going to be crazy. And I mean, we’re a year away from it right now, and I think anything that’s going on is going to be pretty much wrapped up now. But I think once spring rolls around next year, you’re going to have all of that start getting ready when the summer comes around here. I’m not quite sure I’m going to be able to drive from where I live in North Town across town to
Brad Burrow (39:09):
A lot of people here, won’t there?
Keaton Day (39:10):
Yeah, I, and we’re working up at hyvee Arena, we got a good office space there, but even just driving up there every day, it’s going to be a couple months of absolute craziness here. So all that to say I, to get off talking about the World Cup there, but I’m kind of monitoring a lot of that to see what, because work with the comets, so what our sponsors are doing Comet stuff, what kind of opportunities can we do world Cup wise? But then also where can I zag when people, how do I zig? Yeah, how do I zig when people are zagging, where I can provide opportunities for people where I can hit ’em up with this when everybody’s hitting them up about World Cup. So I just got to keep staying steady and just keep making sure I look ahead to what’s coming and popping those opportunities out for the sponsors that I’ve got.
(40:01):
But it’s going to be a lot of World Cup stuff. But then as we continue to go along, I was just talking about Hy-Vee Arena. Hy-Vee Arena has been a really awesome partnership that I’ve been doing about six months or so. There are so many great events up there. We brought in some new sponsors, we’ve got some new food tenants in there that have been great Smoothie Kings in there now. Tiki Taco is in there. If you’re in Kansas City here and you haven’t tried Tiki Taco yet, go try Tiki Taco. It’s really good. I have not done that. It’s really good.
(40:30):
We got a guy’s snacks and a new Stockyards coffee that’s in there. So we got some really cool stuff going on there. But we’re waiting to hear what the Royals are doing about that stadium, because if they end up going downtown, you’re just a couple miles away from the West Bottoms right there. There’s a lot of talk and discussion about redevelopment in the West Bottoms and the Rock Island Bridge and different things. So we’re hoping if they end up going downtown, we can utilize that area there as a cool opportunity for Hy Arena and the West Bottoms. I
Brad Burrow (41:00):
Think that’s all negotiating
Keaton Day (41:01):
Tactics. Who knows where they’re going to really end up? Who knows? Well, or the
Brad Burrow (41:06):
Chiefs.
Keaton Day (41:07):
Yeah. Well, that’s what I was going to say. Johnson County Parks and Rec is another one we work with, but are the Chiefs going to Johnson County? So waiting for a couple of those dominoes to fall. But all that to say, I mean, just with all the exciting stuff going on here in Kansas City, world Cup Chiefs, Royals, the current, I mean, there’s just so many. The current’s amazing right now too. There’s so many awesome things here in Kansas City that trying to make my way to keep driving through into those big discussions and networking relationships with those people. But there’s still all kinds of good opportunity that I’m still taking care of down here to keep building up.
Brad Burrow (41:43):
Well, you’re doing great. You’ve done one of the hardest things to do, and you’ve stayed in business for two years. Most businesses don’t make it past one year, honestly, and you’ve kind of built up a good foundation that maybe you can really explode in your business. I could see that happening.
Keaton Day (42:02):
I hope so.
Brad Burrow (42:03):
So just remember us when that happens. Okay, no worries. That’s awesome. That’s awesome.
Keaton Day (42:07):
Absolutely.
Brad Burrow (42:08):
Well, I want to go ahead and wrap up everybody that, I dunno if you’ve seen any of our podcasts, but everybody has to end the podcast with a movie voice. So you have to do the inner world with real media movie voice. That’ll be the end of the podcast. But just a little tip, you got to get real close to the mic and you got to go in a world like that. So this could be the loss of your voiceover career. Okay, so here we go. In a
Keaton Day (42:37):
World with real media.
Brad Burrow (42:42):
That’s awesome.
Keaton Day (42:43):
Not quite as good as yours.
Brad Burrow (42:44):
Oh, that was pretty good. Pretty good. Well, Keaton, thanks for being on the podcast. This is really awesome, and thanks for joining us, everybody. We really appreciate it. This is a lot of fun. We may do it again when the World Cup stuff starts happening, so we can really keep up to speed on all that. But be sure to subscribe and share this podcast to show it to people. We need to make Keaton a big star in Kansas City that’s already starting to happen, and we just thank you for joining us and we will see you next time. This has been in a World with Real Media. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow real media on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So you never miss an episode.