FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sports Media Challenge adds Bustarde as Director of New Media Strategy and Fan Engagement
(Hire of industry expert solidifies SMC as industry leader in analyzing online content to protect brands)
CHARLOTTE, NC - March 12, 2007 - Sports Media Challenge, a company that has provided communication training and consulting to premiere professional and collegiate sports leagues, teams and individuals worldwide since 1988, has made a strategic hire. Dexter Bustarde, an industry expert in social networking and online content, is the Director of New Media Strategy and Fan Engagement, the company announced today.
Kathleen Hessert, founder and president of Sports Media Challenge, said "I'm thrilled to add Dex to our team. SMC has maintained our standard of being a leader in blog development and brand protection because passion and community are at the core of sports, which is why fans have embraced blogs. There has been an explosion of social networking and online content at all levels over the past several years and this hire demonstrates our comittment to bring in the best people to meet this growing demand."
Most recently, Bustarde received his MBA in Sports Business Management from San Diego State University and was a member of the SDSU Sports MBA Case Competition team. After receiving his B.S. in Computer Engineering from UC San Diego, he went on to work in software development and web analytics for five years at Sempra Energy.
Bustarde also has extensive experience in the blogosphere. For the last two years, he's run Gaslamp Ball, the San Diego Padres blog for Sports Blogs Nation, which was recognized on Deadspin as one of "Blogdom's Best". He was also instrumental behind the scenes for Every Game Counts, the official NCAA Football blog and has provided guest posts on several other notable sites including Deadspin.
His primary responsibilities at Sports Media Challenge will include the development of the Sports Blog Index, which is the first ever standard measurement to identify the top blogs across all sports and in each major sports category. The SBI aims to be a helpful tool to determine where the most passionate fans go on the Internet and which blogs carry the most weight. He'll also enhance the company's capability to offer clients word-of-mouth research and more robust fan engagement options.
Another key role for Bustarde will be to further enhance Buzz Manager™, which has become a staple service of SMC. Buzz Manager is a proprietary search engine that mines, monitors and analyzes online content for marketing and PR initiatives. It also tracks and measures the online word-of-mouth and mainstream media exposure of brands in the sports market. Through a combination of proprietary technology and human analysis, we can determine a brand's awareness and perception. The service provides real-time quantitative and qualitative measurement and analysis specifically in the sports, entertainment and lifestyle markets showing at-a-glance the client’s Buzz Rating and Trend Charts comparing both Fan Generated Media and mainstream media. Fan Generated Media, which consists of blogs, social networking sites, message boards, and chat rooms allows us to measure the volume, intensity and direction of influential fan sentiment.
Dex and his wife, Jessica, relocated to Charlotte in March.
About Sports Media Challenge (www.sportsmediachallenge.com)
Since 1988, Sports Media Challenge has helped more than 100 leading university Athletic Departments, professional leagues, teams and world-class sports personalities protect and enhance their brands through strategic communications, consulting and training. Some of the more prominent clients to use PR and marketing tools both proactively and reactively include The Universities of Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas, NCAA Football, ESPN, THE PGA TOUR, The NFL, MLB and NBA teams as well as NFL MVP Peyton Manning, and NBA great Shaquille O'Neal.
Media Contact
Harold Kaufman
Senior Analyst and Consultant
Sports Media Challenge
704-451-8938
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