Bills Entire Marketing Dept Steps Down

[SoCal Deek]

4 minutes ago, buffaloboyinATL said:

The article was misleading, maybe they should have run it by the marketing department first. Oh wait, never mind...

Now THAT made me laugh!

 

PS: Any chance the old department can pile in a van and get to California by Monday morning? My firm’s marketing department sucks! 

[Kirby Jackson]

11 hours ago, BUFFALOBART said:

We'll take our chances with them.

I'd wager,  that if they didn't own the team, the Las Vegas Bills would be playing in a shiny new stadium in desert heat, on opening day.

Oh, no doubt them buying the Bills was a good thing. That doesn’t mean that they are good at running the business. Those 2 things aren’t related. 

[Mango]

For all the people getting their pitch forks because Tim Graham is “fake news”, let’s not forget that the article posted at the start of the thread is by Matt Warren on Buffalo Rumblings. Not Graham. 
 

Tim wrote the article on Chris Brown, and briefly mentioned the marketing dept. 

[Malazan]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

Ok.  That would be an odd bit of the story to leave out, no?

 

He said the entire department...

 

People seem hooked on the number of people who make up that department.  It's irrelevant.  If the title had said "all 3 people who make up the Bills entire marketing department have stepped down", would you people be less offended/enraged/triggered?  If JW had written the same article, would you be going off on the title? 

 

In troubled times, people tend not to just walk away from their jobs unless they have another job in hand.  That also would have been part of the above story. 

 

Article Mentions the following:

Shaena Kershner
Alex Compton
Kelly Baker

 

What about?

John Durbin Sr. VP of Marketing and Business Strategy
Gregg Pastore Sr. Director of Digital Media & Strategy
Scott Miner Director of Business Solutions
Evan Barrick Manager of Reporting Strategy
Craig Kanalley Digital Insights Manager
Olivia Merrill Digital Marketing Manager
Chris O'Connell Manager of Data Strategy
Nico Ruggiero Digital Marketing Manager
Colin Greenway Digital Marketing Coordinator
Connor Kukla  Data Scientist
John Landi CRM Architect
Michael Whitney Copywriter

 

Since this took me all of two minutes to obtain, I have to assume Tim is either grossly incompetent or has an agenda. Which one do you think it is?

 

 

9 minutes ago, Mango said:

For all the people getting their pitch forks because Tim Graham is “fake news”, let’s not forget that the article posted at the start of the thread is by Matt Warren on Buffalo Rumblings. Not Graham. 
 

Tim wrote the article on Chris Brown, and briefly mentioned the marketing dept. 

 

"briefly mentioned"

 

Tim's article has 4 paragraphs on Brown and 12 on the "marketing department"

 

Matt Warren did no reporting except on the fact the article exists so saying it's from him and not graham is misleading.

Edited August 28, 2020 by jeremy2020

[Mr. WEO]

17 minutes ago, jeremy2020 said:

 

Article Mentions the following:

Shaena Kershner
Alex Compton
Kelly Baker

 

What about?

John Durbin Sr. VP of Marketing and Business Strategy
Gregg Pastore Sr. Director of Digital Media & Strategy
Scott Miner Director of Business Solutions
Evan Barrick Manager of Reporting Strategy
Craig Kanalley Digital Insights Manager
Olivia Merrill Digital Marketing Manager
Chris O'Connell Manager of Data Strategy
Nico Ruggiero Digital Marketing Manager
Colin Greenway Digital Marketing Coordinator
Connor Kukla  Data Scientist
John Landi CRM Architect
Michael Whitney Copywriter

 

Since this took me all of two minutes to obtain, I have to assume Tim is either grossly incompetent or has an agenda. Which one do you think it is?

 

 

 

"briefly mentioned"

 

Tim's article has 4 paragraphs on Brown and 12 on the "marketing department"

 

Matt Warren did no reporting except on the fact the article exists so saying it's from him and not graham is misleading.

 

The point Mango is making (and you are pretending to miss) is that the title of Graham's article in the Atlantic did not contain the words ("Bill entire marketing department steps down") that have inflamed you and others.  It is the title of Warren's piece.

 

And what's THIS guy's agenda?:

 

“All I can say is that morale is very low outside of the football department,” says John Wawrow of the Associated Press. “Just when you think things can’t get lower they do".

Edited August 28, 2020 by Mr. WEO

[BarleyNY]

17 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

 

The Sabres have always been popular, since they came into the league in 1970. That said the Bills are king and always will be. Sabres are right behind them but will always be #2. It's like the Red Sox in Boston. They are THE team.

I’ll just repeat what I said earlier for everyone telling me the same thing you are.  I’m not talking about what pro team people like more, I’m talking about support and enthusiasm for the sport at all levels.  Being a town where the NFL team is the most popular does not mean that it’s a football town.  I’ll leave it there.

[Mango]

43 minutes ago, jeremy2020 said:

 

Article Mentions the following:

Shaena Kershner
Alex Compton
Kelly Baker

 

What about?

John Durbin Sr. VP of Marketing and Business Strategy
Gregg Pastore Sr. Director of Digital Media & Strategy
Scott Miner Director of Business Solutions
Evan Barrick Manager of Reporting Strategy
Craig Kanalley Digital Insights Manager
Olivia Merrill Digital Marketing Manager
Chris O'Connell Manager of Data Strategy
Nico Ruggiero Digital Marketing Manager
Colin Greenway Digital Marketing Coordinator
Connor Kukla  Data Scientist
John Landi CRM Architect
Michael Whitney Copywriter

 

Since this took me all of two minutes to obtain, I have to assume Tim is either grossly incompetent or has an agenda. Which one do you think it is?

 

 

 

"briefly mentioned"

 

Tim's article has 4 paragraphs on Brown and 12 on the "marketing department"

 

Matt Warren did no reporting except on the fact the article exists so saying it's from him and not graham is misleading.

 

 

A few things. To your top point about the listed staff. It is fair, but a C- for research. About a month ago the Bills website still listed a marketing dept that was different from PSE.  Your big gotcha moment is a list of the PSE employees, NOT Buffalo Bills. Because if  you went with the current website, there would be none of them. Which is Grahams point. If you jump back to the website from a month ago, there would be three of them. . I don't know what the difference between the two teams are. I assume they work together in a lot of ways. The Bill staff might be high level, and PSE does the grunt work? I don't know. But those are also PSE employees you listed. Graham mentions the Bills team, not PSE. To which he would be correct.

 

It has been noted that the Bills have largely kept the Bills and Sabres/PSE separate for whatever reason. I believe that may have even been confirmed by either Beane or McD when the "Maintain Family Lifestyle" thing broke. Maybe that is different now? They are merging with PSE? Either that or they need to replace the marketing staff. Unsure. But it is note worthy. 
 

https://web.archive.org/web/20200630095801/https://www.buffalobills.com/team/front-office-roster/

To your second point. That is incredibly disingenuous for a few reasons, one it really is not true, and two, news article paragraphs are often a sentence or two long.

The article opens with a few "paragraphs" on Brown. Then spends about the same amount of space on the marketing team. Back to Brown. Mentions other firings. John Murphy's removal from One Bills Live after criticizing Pegula. Back to Brown and a transcript. 

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Mango

[PaattMaann]

15 minutes ago, BarleyNY said:

I’ll just repeat what I said earlier for everyone telling me the same thing you are.  I’m not talking about what pro team people like more, I’m talking about support and enthusiasm for the sport at all levels.  Being a town where the NFL team is the most popular does not mean that it’s a football town.  I’ll leave it there.

 

All one needs to do to verify this is look at the NHL viewing ratings. Its true. Buffalo LOVES hockey. Even though we have had a ***** team for over a decade, we always rank in the top 3-5 of these ratings for playoffs/stanley cup/winter classics. 

 

As Barley points out, that doesnt mean we like the Sabres more than the Bills, it means this area LOVES and CONSUMES hockey. 

[Back2Buff]

It's crazy to think, that Bills fans have been a huge reason for the growth of the Bills, more than any marketing department out there.

 

Individual fans branding the "Billsmafia" and spreading it on social media has done more for expanding the fanbase than any marketing department has done.

 

The best part about it, is the official Bills have done everything possible to try and limit the expose of the fans.

[NoSaint]

2 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

They likely fired the department?

 

Ok.  That would be an odd bit of the story to leave out, no?

 

 

He said the entire department...

 

People seem hooked on the number of people who make up that department.  It's irrelevant.  If the title had said "all 3 people who make up the Bills entire marketing department have stepped down", would you people be less offended/enraged/triggered?  If JW had written the same article, would you be going off on the title? 

 

In troubled times, people tend not to just walk away from their jobs unless they have another job in hand.  That also would have been part of the above story. 

I’m also surprised people thought the bills marketing team was potentially 30 people. 
 

I had assumed it was likely a handful, unless we suddenly roll in all game day promo people and such. But straight marketing? No way. 
 

I think a fair question is whether the issue is the headline or people’s assumptions on this one?

 

and I dislike Timmy as much as anyone here. 

22 minutes ago, PaattMaann said:

 

All one needs to do to verify this is look at the NHL viewing ratings. Its true. Buffalo LOVES hockey. Even though we have had a ***** team for over a decade, we always rank in the top 3-5 of these ratings for playoffs/stanley cup/winter classics. 

 

As Barley points out, that doesnt mean we like the Sabres more than the Bills, it means this area LOVES and CONSUMES hockey. 

 

flip side is top 3-5 hockey tv ratings cities strikes me as a potentially stacked metric to use. 
 

like I’d expect buffalo to perform better than a lot of other nhl cities but that’s because I’d expect those other cities to not do well. Whereas the nfl is a beast across the US.

[Mango]

10 minutes ago, PaattMaann said:

 

All one needs to do to verify this is look at the NHL viewing ratings. Its true. Buffalo LOVES hockey. Even though we have had a ***** team for over a decade, we always rank in the top 3-5 of these ratings for playoffs/stanley cup/winter classics. 

 

As Barley points out, that doesnt mean we like the Sabres more than the Bills, it means this area LOVES and CONSUMES hockey. 

 

Fair, the Sabres did well with TV ratings last year, which is wild. We aren't doing great with attendance, and have not been for about a decade now. Since 2010, the Sabres have not been in the top half of % capacity filled in the NHL. Worth noting that the NHL TV contract is trash compared to the NBA and NFL and does not even cover the salary cap. NHL owners live and die on attendance, not TV viewership. 
 

 

http://www.espn.com/nhl/attendance/_/sort/homePct

[Doc]

37 minutes ago, Mango said:

A few things. To your top point about the listed staff. It is fair, but a C- for research. About a month ago the Bills website still listed a marketing dept that was different from PSE.  Your big gotcha moment is a list of the PSE employees, NOT Buffalo Bills. Because if  you went with the current website, there would be none of them. Which is Grahams point. If you jump back to the website from a month ago, there would be three of them. . I don't know what the difference between the two teams are. I assume they work together in a lot of ways. The Bill staff might be high level, and PSE does the grunt work? I don't know. But those are also PSE employees you listed. Graham mentions the Bills team, not PSE. To which he would be correct.

 

It has been noted that the Bills have largely kept the Bills and Sabres/PSE separate for whatever reason. I believe that may have even been confirmed by either Beane or McD when the "Maintain Family Lifestyle" thing broke. Maybe that is different now? They are merging with PSE? Either that or they need to replace the marketing staff. Unsure. But it is note worthy. 
 

https://web.archive.org/web/20200630095801/https://www.buffalobills.com/team/front-office-roster/

To your second point. That is incredibly disingenuous for a few reasons, one it really is not true, and two, news article paragraphs are often a sentence or two long.

The article opens with a few "paragraphs" on Brown. Then spends about the same amount of space on the marketing team. Back to Brown. Mentions other firings. John Murphy's removal from One Bills Live after criticizing Pegula. Back to Brown and a transcript. 

It seems reasonable to think that they’re trying to consolidate the marketing departments.

[KD in CA]

2 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

They likely fired the department?

 

Ok.  That would be an odd bit of the story to leave out, no?

 

 

He said the entire department...

 

People seem hooked on the number of people who make up that department.  It's irrelevant.  If the title had said "all 3 people who make up the Bills entire marketing department have stepped down", would you people be less offended/enraged/triggered?  If JW had written the same article, would you be going off on the title? 

 

In troubled times, people tend not to just walk away from their jobs unless they have another job in hand.  That also would have been part of the above story. 

 

Don't be disingenuous....the 'entire department' story has already been debunked.  It was one person plus a college intern who left to go back to school (a rare occurrence in late August.....).  The mid-level Marketing Manager (who's a total 'yes' btw) still works there according to her own LinkedIn profile.

 

As far as the 'troubled times' angle, that's even more evidence she was fired.  And regardless of how/why she left, the shock and awe of the pandemic on the white collar job market dissipated months ago unless you work in the travel industry or other similarly disrupted industry.  White collar people like these are freely moving around as they always have.

[NoSaint]

1 minute ago, Doc said:

It seems reasonable to think that they’re trying to consolidate the marketing departments.

not impossible.

 

do you think its reasonable to think that there was some sort of unpleasant atmosphere that contributed to them leaving? 
 

lots of things are possible here but one seems the shortest jump. And also happens to line up with a bit of a reputation we have heard of. and also is what the reporters seem to be trying to tell us. 
 

im not sure why some seem to be taking the idea that the report could be accurate personally. It’s not a huge deal even if true, but might be some insight behind the curtain.

[Mr. WEO]

4 minutes ago, KD in CA said:

 

Don't be disingenuous....the 'entire department' story has already been debunked.  It was one person plus a college intern who left to go back to school (a rare occurrence in late August.....).  The mid-level Marketing Manager (who's a total 'yes' btw) still works there according to her own LinkedIn profile.

 

As far as the 'troubled times' angle, that's even more evidence she was fired.  And regardless of how/why she left, the shock and awe of the pandemic on the white collar job market dissipated months ago unless you work in the travel industry or other similarly disrupted industry.  White collar people like these are freely moving around as they always have.

 

 

Good point.  Plenty of white collar workers are leaving their jobs working for an NFL franchise in bunches.

[NoSaint]

29 minutes ago, KD in CA said:

 

Don't be disingenuous....the 'entire department' story has already been debunked.  It was one person plus a college intern who left to go back to school (a rare occurrence in late August.....).  The mid-level Marketing Manager (who's a total 'yes' btw) still works there according to her own LinkedIn profile.

 

As far as the 'troubled times' angle, that's even more evidence she was fired.  And regardless of how/why she left, the shock and awe of the pandemic on the white collar job market dissipated months ago unless you work in the travel industry or other similarly disrupted industry.  White collar people like these are freely moving around as they always have.

a coordinator is not an intern. The dude worked for the team for 2+ years in a professionally employed capacity while not attending college.

 

it appears he left the team to start grad school, which is good on him. 
 

also I’m not sure a non updated linked in is anything. Many don’t update until they have a new job.

 

last up - absolutely not. Especially in marketing dollars are tight for new hires. Many companies are tightening the belt and if choosing between an operational role or a marketing role are cutting the marketing dollars back.

Edited August 28, 2020 by NoSaint

[Malazan]

You people hoping for the bills to become a mess are hilarious.

Edited August 28, 2020 by jeremy2020

[NoSaint]

21 minutes ago, jeremy2020 said:

 

Debunked in one URL: https://www.buffalobills.com/team/front-office-roster/

 

The Bills current website...lists a bunch of marketing people. You can spend a whole bunch of words trying to change that fact, but it's never going to make your dreams reality. 

to be fair, the PSE folks work for 20+ non bills accounts. So that the local reporters are telling you that the bills in house marketing team has all departed is still potentially very true.

 

@Kirby Jackson could probably shine a lot of Light structurally here but I’d venture most teams have a few in house folks and and outside contractor as well. That we list the outside contractors full team on our website is likely the only unique factor here, based on my much more limited knowledge.

Edited August 28, 2020 by NoSaint

[NoSaint]

Looking at my local 2 sport ownership group

 

saints have it broken out as “marketing and game presentation” with 13 total members. When you back out things like dance team manager, etc... it’s 8 folks and most share duties with both saints and pelicans. 
 

so a handful in house and sure they have a larger scale out of house partner too 

[Mango]

1 minute ago, jeremy2020 said:

 

Debunked in one URL: https://www.buffalobills.com/team/front-office-roster/

 

I am very unsure what you debunked here? I literally posted the archived link from a month or so ago with 3 people on the team. I guess maybe the fact that I said there was not any listed currently. Sorry, I missed that Kelly Baxter wasn't removed from the website yet. Is that the big gotcha moment again? Kelly Baxter is still listed on the Bills website after quitting?

I cited that in my response: https://web.archive.org/web/20200630095801/https://www.buffalobills.com/team/front-office-roster/

One more time for the people in the back. The Buffalo Bills, and only Buffalo Bills employed  marketing team was listed as 3 people one month ago on the Bills website. The list of employees you gave are PSE employees.  They are also listed for the Sabres because they are PSE. What was reported by Graham is factually true. 

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/team/staff