161 - Connected Marketing: What It Actually Looks Like with Tom Rupp

Sports Marketing Machine Podcast

Sports Marketing Machine Podcast
161 - Connected Marketing: What It Actually Looks Like with Tom Rupp
Apr 22, 2026 Season 1 Episode 161
Jeremy Neisser

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What does “connected marketing” actually mean for a sports team? In this episode, Jeremy Neisser is joined by Tom Rupp, co-founder of Revelocity Sports, to break down why so many teams feel stuck even when they’re doing good marketing—and how better integration between ticketing, email, paid media, and analytics can unlock smarter decisions and stronger revenue results. Together, they unpack what connected marketing looks like in the real world, where most teams are falling short, and what to fix first. 

Call to Action
Free mini digital audit designed to directionally show what’s working, what isn’t, and what to fix next - sign up HERE

Key Topics Covered

  •  Why most teams hit a marketing ceiling even when they’re creating strong content and running solid campaigns 
  •  What “connected marketing” really means: integration, automation, and visibility across your tools 
  •  Why attribution is broken for many teams—and why multi-touch thinking matters more than ever 
  •  How siloed reporting from Meta, Google, and other platforms leads teams to overestimate what’s working 
  •  The crawl, walk, run framework for building a more connected marketing system 
  •  Why pixel placement on your ticketing site is one of the simplest and highest-impact fixes a team can make 
  •  How audience exclusions, segmentation, and personalized messaging can dramatically improve performance 
  •  Why UTM tagging, synced ticketing data, and a unified reporting view are essential if you want to make smarter budget decisions 
  •  What a digital audit can reveal about gaps, friction points, and missed revenue opportunities in your current setup 

Timestamps
00:00 – Jeremy introduces Tom Rupp and the idea of connected marketing
02:17 – Why teams struggle to see what’s actually driving ROI
03:49 – The technical challenge of accurate tracking and attribution
05:44 – What it means to truly connect your marketing systems
06:52 – Why siloed attribution creates misleading performance data
08:07 – Why impressions and clicks are not enough
09:33 – The role of audience segmentation and personalized messaging
11:12 – How AI is helping teams create more tailored marketing content
13:22 – What Meta’s creative evolution means for sports marketers
15:00 – Crawl, walk, run: a practical framework for marketing maturity
16:51 – Why pixel placement and cross-domain tracking matter so much
18:58 – How automation and retargeting can improve campaign performance
20:19 – Using ticketing data to build smarter audiences
22:48 – Moving from marketing doer to marketing director
24:16 – What connected marketing makes possible in the future
29:02 – Why fan value and better visibility change how you spend
30:19 – The case for measurable personalization
33:45 – What a digital audit actually looks at
37:20 – The free mini audit and what teams can expect
41:04 – The first things teams should check right away
42:11 – How to evaluate vendor partners based on business impact

Links mentioned: 

Revelocity Sports - LINK

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Book a call with Jeremy from Sports Marketing Machine

Episode Artwork 161 - Connected Marketing: What It Actually Looks Like with Tom Rupp 46:36 Episode Artwork 160 - Exciting News: Sports Marketing Machine Has Merged with Revelocity (And What It Means for Your Marketing) 13:19 Episode Artwork 159 - Should You Get Rid of Your Ticket Office? The Pros, Cons, and What Teams Need to Consider 18:48 Episode Artwork 158 - The Theme Night Framework That Actually Works 15:47 Episode Artwork 157 - What Your Group Renewal Rate SHOULD Be — And Why They Don’t Come Back 23:47 Episode Artwork 156 - Pros / Cons of Doing Trade Deals with Your Marketing 25:47 Episode Artwork 155 - Game Entertainment 101 - How Great Teams Design Crowd Energy 17:33 Episode Artwork 154 - How to Make Your Group Sales Page Easier to Buy From 15:25 Episode Artwork 153 - Selling Merchandise on Amazon — The Pros, Cons & Hidden Tradeoffs for Sports Teams 27:12 Episode Artwork 152 - Why More Reach Didn’t Mean More Ticket Sales (And What Actually Fixes It) 23:17 Episode Artwork 151 - Why Your Meta Ad Creative Isn’t Built to Scale (And What to Fix) 16:40 Episode Artwork 150 - How to Track Marketing When Meta’s Reports Tell a Different Story 24:26 Episode Artwork 149 - What Is P-Max? (And When Agencies Use It to Hide Weak Strategy) 18:04 Episode Artwork 148 - Allocating Budget to Lead Generation 22:45 Episode Artwork 147 - Meta Ad Strategies That Work in 2026 17:18 Episode Artwork 146 - 13 Marketing Predictions for 2026 30:19 Episode Artwork 145 - Where I Was Right & Wrong On My Marketing 2025 Predictions 24:02 Episode Artwork 144 - 13 Marketing Lessons Learned in 2025 30:49 Episode Artwork 143 - The Experience Shift: How to Make Fans Choose You Over Everything Else 16:46 Episode Artwork 142 - How to Use Q5 to Sell More Tickets With Less Budget 14:39 Episode Artwork 141 - Pros/Cons of "Buy Out" Nights 18:38 Episode Artwork 140: The Mystery Pack Promo That Sold 700 Opening Day Tickets in November 27:10 Episode Artwork 139: What Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)? 9:32 Episode Artwork 138: Community Survey vs. Fan Survey — The Value of Both 12:56 Episode Artwork 137: Make Your Black Friday Offer So Good Fans Feel Stupid Saying No 21:36