Meet The Team: Rowan Northcott

For people who might not know, how would you explain what the sports management team at IMG actually does?

Sports management are the first point of contact for our largest accounts. We simultaneously manage client expectations and requests, whilst internally ensuring IMG’s services are delivered to the highest standard. You must be a commercial generalist that ensures each team delivers against the client’s objectives, whilst also serving as the connective tissue between everyone working on the account.

Account Director is a relationship-led role at its core, but what does the commercial and strategic side of your day-to-day actually involve?

I’ll respond to both of those together as they interweave somewhat. Projects that our team are currently involved with include an analysis of our brand partnerships structure, our go-to-market process in the U.S., and positioning The R&A’s Championships to extract maximum value from the market. In terms of the day-to-day, each of these projects requires a combination of workshops, analysis, research and document delivery to respond to a dedicated brief.

Sports management facilitate the discussion, provide our own input as subject matter experts and rely on our team leads to solve for what the brief is centred around.

The R&A is one of the most storied organisations in sport. What does it take to build and maintain a partnership with an institution like that?

In short, consistently trusted commercial and strategic advice. This advice needs to then be backed up by first-class account management: project tracking, high-quality meeting delivery and top-tier document delivery, as well as high-quality execution across our capabilities.

IMG’s relationship with The R&A spans decades. How has that partnership evolved as the sport and media landscape have changed around it?

The R&A’s commercial program has kept evolving at an incredible pace; let me give you a few examples for The Open:

• IMG’s production team captures and distributes The R&A’s properties for broadcast by 39 partners across 217 territories.
• Prospecting and establishing partnerships with blue-chip brands such as Accenture show the continued allure as a sponsorship proposition.
• A dedicated fan and follower growth strategy enables fan passion to be more deeply understood and mirrored in the content created by the Digital team.
• Taking 113 camera feeds back to Stockley Park to be remotely produced showcases The Open in ways not seen before, such as influencer ‘watch-alongs’ and player-focused feeds.
• Our Event Management team work hand in glove to execute the operational delivery of The Open. This includes providing infrastructure for more than 300,000 fans over the week, offering endless hosting programs, and laying on a top-quality player experience.

Balancing the commercial ambitions of a modern sports property with protecting something as historically significant as The Open is no small feat. How do you navigate that?

It’s something we discuss a lot with The R&A. Ultimately, the secret sauce is using the historical significance to be commercially ambitious. Brands and broadcasters purchase heritage when they partner with The Open. One hundred and fifty-four years of history is an astoundingly unique story to tell and is what makes the major championships in golf such tentpole events.

Ultimately, it is a balancing act. How do you protect the historical essence of The Open whilst maximising value to reinvest into the game as the governing body?

A good example is last year’s spider cam. This innovation showed The Open in a way that had only been used in stadium sports previously. Fans saw a cutting-edge perspective that was new to golf, without impinging on the heritage aspect.

At IMG, it is our role to challenge The R&A on the boundaries of where they are comfortable and advise what the benefits and risks are when considering objectives and risk appetite.

Golf is at a genuinely exciting moment right now. How does that shape your conversations with The R&A about the opportunities ahead?

It is quite remarkable how well golf has penetrated the daily zeitgeist. Funnily enough, golf is quite cool at the moment with top celebrities spontaneously getting excited about the game – LeBron James, Justin Bieber, Kathryn Newton, Niall Horan, all the England cricket and football teams.

Couple that with this alternative/hipster fashion movement (e.g. Malbon and Manors) that has reflected a demographic that was previously not welcome in golf clubs.

For IMG, we have helped deliver content to those who want it, how they want it. For instance, at The Open this year, or Digital team coordinated activations with NBA championship-winning NY Knicks superstars to Rugby League players making the trip along the M6.

Quickfire Questions

Favourite memory from The Open?

When I was working on the scoreboards with my brother as a 15-year-old on the 10^th green at Carnoustie, Tiger walked over, looked me in the eye and stood next to me to wait for his next tee shot. I just remember the aura of the greatest to ever do it. He won his 13^th major the following month.

One person you’d love to play a round with?

Hideki Matsuyama, absolute flusher.

Most-played song right now?

My wife put on Ghost Town by Purple Disco Machine the other day.

I dare you not to dance or work out to that without a smile on your face.