How impactful are sports leagues for paid partnership posts? ListenFirst created a comprehensive infographic to answer that very question for brands and marketers. Sports and Sponsored Content: The Winning Playbook looks at the performance of 5,378 sponsored posts shared on the social media channels of the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and MLS between July 2020 – June 2021. 

Below are all the key finding, though for even deeper dive, be sure to read our full Optimizing Sports-Related Sponsored Content On Social report.

The Key Hire Signals ListenFirst’s Transition From An Industry Pioneer To A High Growth Global SaaS Company

NEW YORK, July 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ —ListenFirst, the premier social analytics solution used by the world’s leading brands, today announced the appointment of David DiGiacomo as CEO. Current co-founders/co-CEOs Jason Klein and Christian Anthony will remain on the ListenFirst Board of Directors, focusing on corporate strategy and relationships with key customers.

As CEO, proven operator David DiGiacomo will focus on scale and accelerating growth by executing proven strategies within the developed markets. He will also focus on leading the executive leadership team with ListenFirst’s global expansion and next stage of growth. This change comes as the need for ListenFirst’s unique analytics solution has grown dramatically and the number of new ListenFirst clients has followed suit. For example, new business has increased 114% year over year and clients are finding more and more value in the rich data insights the platform provides.

In the past ten years, ListenFirst has been a pioneer in powering social media analytics for some of the biggest brands in the world, such as Amazon, AT&T, and NBCUniversal. ListenFirst has stood out as the preferred social analytics  solution thanks to continued investment in creating technology that’s machine learning-driven, and their ability to empower marketers with premium analyst-style reports that help capture ROI to maximize their marketing budgets.  

With ListenFirst experiencing unprecedented growth, it was an opportune time to bring in a leader with a proven track record at scaling cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) companies.  

David DiGiacomo joins ListenFirst with exactly such a resume. Earlier in his career, he co-founded and led the first of its kind multimodel SaaS communications technology company, Emergency Communications Network (now Onsolve), through 15+ years of successful growth — from two full-time employees to the industry’s largest provider of emergency and intelligent notification services with $100+ million in annual revenue. Additionally, DiGiacomo was brought in to help lead PowerDMS in their quest to be the premier provider of Policy Management and Accreditation software which was realized as best in class through a merger with NEOGOV. In the companies he’s run, DiGiacomo drove nearly $1 billion in Enterprise Value creation while upholding industry leading client NPS scores.

“Beyond their superior technology, ListenFirst has an incredible culture and an amazing team who serves a client roster of the best brands in the world,” said DiGiacomo. “World-class companies have great people, process, product and customer support, and ListenFirst has them all! As ListenFirst embarks on its next chapter, I look forward to working with Christian, Jason, and the rest of the capable team to build on their existing success. We’re setting a course to  create new solutions that fulfill our client’s complex and ever-changing needs along with driving new products to meet the needs of clients in new market verticals.”

“Social media has forced every brand in the world to be a content creator, which only serves to fuel the social analytics business,” noted Klein. “David will lead the charge to leverage our industry-leading technology and insights as we expand our footprint in high-growth verticals including CPG, sport, and entertainment. His experience will be invaluable to the continued success and expansion of ListenFirst.”

“We’re thrilled to have David join the ListenFirst team,” added Anthony. “We’re confident that his vast experience will continue to drive success for the company and afford us an edge as we continue to innovate and evolve our technology to best serve our customers.”