When Lynette Kaylor joined FuboTV in August, she was tasked with spearheading the company’s ad sales operations in North America. As the advertising landscape continues to evolve with new technologies, she possesses key qualities to make an impact in the industry.
“I know what it’s like to be a consumer. I know what appeals to me and what doesn’t,” Kaylor said in an interview with Fierce Video. “I’m also a huge sports fan.” Since Fubo is a sports-centric virtual MVPD, she’s watching the same content they’re watching.
Most importantly, Kaylor considers herself competitive, which she thinks is crucial when working in advertising.
“I think in any sales role, you have to be competitive,” she said. “You have to take it personally when you lose, and I do. Like if my team isn’t succeeding, that’s my fault…it’s my job to make sure they have everything they need to succeed.”
Kaylor, who manages a team of roughly 25-30 people, oversees ad sales, ad sales marketing, operations and research. One of her primary goals is to help Fubo’s advertisers figure out who exactly they’re reaching.
“Obviously I’m a big believer in data-driven sales strategies,” she said, such as using first-party data to figure out who Fubo’s audience is, where they live, what they buy, their habits as a consumer, etc.
“So we can really tell a true story of ‘this is who you’re reaching when you come to Fubo,” Kaylor said. “I’ve been working hard to refine our stories so that we’re going out there and really speaking to what makes Fubo so great.”
From finance to Fubo
As for her background, Kaylor noted she’s experienced a lot of “twists and turns” throughout her career. She started out in print advertising, working at a small, Colorado-based trade publication geared towards finance and insurance.
“Contextual banner ads is where you were at,” she said, as the internet was relatively new at the time. Since then, the advertising landscape has advanced in technology. But Kaylor believes the concept of good advertising hasn’t changed.
“At the end of the day, sales is sales,” she said. “A good salesperson can sell anything…as long as they understand the product and the value. And they’re able to develop those relationships and tell that story.”
Kaylor spent a few years in the insurance field, mainly selling insurance to brokers, when a former coworker (now mentor) offered her a position at third-party data provider V12 Data. After that, she moved onto Merkle, a customer experience management (CXM) company, which provided her with “invaluable” experience in the advertising business.
Kaylor admitted the transition from V12 to Merkle wasn’t the easiest. While she had a general understanding of data, she wasn’t yet aware of the intricacies behind matching a publisher’s first-party data onto a third-party data set.
“I sat there for like the first six months thinking ‘I’m going to get fired, I have no idea what I’m doing,’” she joked. “Like how do you create those connections? You can’t actually activate addressable audiences, it’s pretty complicated.”
But it was at Merkle where Kaylor marked one of her proudest accomplishments in the ad tech space. That is, she helped develop M1 Merkury, a people-based marketing platform powered by Dentsu first-party data.
“We were the first ones to do it in the entire industry,” she said, adding M1 Merkury’s launch was backed by several big-name publishers across the country – partnerships that took years to cultivate. The platform also propelled the concept of addressable buying in TV.
“Prior to M1 Merkury, relationships between TV providers – your traditional cable networks – and agencies didn’t exist,” Kaylor explained. “Those were tough battles that were fought because everyone’s very protective of their data, as they should be.”
Her experience at Merkle shaped her in-depth knowledge of advertising.
“Not only did I learn the data landscape and building those partnerships out, [but also] understanding how you work from an offline CRM (customer relationship management) basis, offline first-party database,” Kaylor said. “And how that comes online and how you’re able to target audiences…show real outcomes when you’re buying on audience. That side was eye-opening.”
Since she joined Fubo, Kaylor said the company has started to cast a wider net on what it can offer advertisers – through Fubo’s various content channels. Fubo Sports Network, which just last month turned up on Amazon’s Freevee service, operates a collection of vodcasts hosted by professional athletes. Those vodcasts provide advertisers unique sponsorship opportunities, Kaylor explained.
Other potential revenue streams for advertisers include the Maximum Effort channel – owned by Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds – and the recently-formed Fubo Studios, a production division that focuses on sports and entertainment programming.
Role of sports, role models
Sports is particularly a genre poised for growth, Kaylor noted, as most Fubo subscribers – and consumers in general – prefer watching sporting events when they’re live.
“You’re not going to watch the World Series after you already know the outcome,” she said. “It’s a very engaged audience. You’re not changing the channel, you’re there waiting for that big play to happen.”
Sports fans in turn are very engaged on social media platforms, she added, which helps advertisers not only reach viewers but also those wider social networks.
“That’s why you see Super Bowl ads going for so much money,” said Kaylor. “It’s because they know there are so many eyeballs and they’re all tuned in.”
Sports also strikes a personal chord for Kaylor, who in her spare time enjoys attending football games with her family – mainly for the Denver Broncos. She considers former football quarterback Peyton Manning as one of her favorite ‘idols.’
“From a business perspective, watching what he’s done from moving on to his post-football career, it’s pretty impressive,” she commented. Manning, after retiring from the NFL in 2016, delved into the media and entertainment industry. Notably, he’s the host of “Peyton’s Places,” a football-themed documentary now on its third season on ESPN+.
“Now that he’s basically working in a similar space as where Fubo is, it’s pretty interesting to watch,” she said. “His post-football career may be as good or better than what he did playing football."
Other figures Kaylor looks up to include Serena Williams, professional basketball coach Becky Hammon and Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini – women who have broken barriers in the sports industry.
“All of those women are doing things that people probably thought women would never do,” she said. “You have [sports commentators] Kay Adams and Sam Ponder sitting at the table with men, holding their own talking about football. So that’s impressive.”
Interestingly, Kaylor noted women are the fastest growing demographic among sports fans, and that information sometimes gets lost in the media industry.
“You traditionally think, oh it’s men who sit in front of the TV on Sundays,” she added. “But it’s actually a lot of women, too. So, [we’re] making sure we’re telling that story.”
Kaylor also took some time to highlight the women who served as her mentors throughout her career.
“There’s nothing better than having someone to help you when you’re facing tough decisions, that you can really lean on and say, ‘hey, what’s your advice here?’ You know you can trust them and they’re not going to lead you down the wrong path,” she said. “I think it’s so important for – especially women – to continue to promote each other and lift each other up as best we can.”
Lessons learned in advertising
Fubo’s advertising prospects look bright for 2023, with the company last month stating it already sold out new ad inventory for the fourth quarter. Looking ahead to 2023, Kaylor stressed the importance of continuing to work on addressable advertising opportunities as well as building out partnerships with brands and agencies.
“I think that’s going to be the really fun part,” she said, referring to developing new partnerships. “We’re at the ground level right now, so it offers brands the opportunity to come in at the ground floor and help us and be a part of that content creation: How do we integrate you into the show? Maybe there’s a big cause that’s important to them.”
While opportunities abound in advertising, Kaylor noted the industry as a whole can be very humbling. You might surpass your ad revenue goals in a given month, but you have to start all over again in the next month.
“If you can close 10% of your deals, you’re a really good salesperson,” she said. “Put that into perspective, if you’re putting out 100 pitches and you get 10 ‘yes’s, that’s really good. But that’s a lot of ‘no’s.”
Understanding why a pitch got rejected is key, Kaylor explained, but so is establishing a trusting relationship with brands and publishers, so you can return to the table with a better offer.
Ultimately, advertising is a constant learning experience, with Kaylor adding, “You’re constantly having to find new roads and new avenues that you have to be persistent in and not take no for an answer.”