From Soap to Sports
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FIFTH E3TATER Marketing maven: From soap to sports The marketing career of Steve Zales through other positions until he arrived at has spanned diverse successes - another point of departure: becoming from growing market share for dish- director of video products for Sports washing soap with lemon juice to oversee- Illustrated in 1990. "As a big sports fan, ing the most lucrative sports franchise on it was a no- brajner to go over there," the Internet. Zales says. "It was building new busi- While he describes the lemon juice nesses and building the S/ franchise into strategy as "exciting," Zales is a sports new areas." fanatic at heart, and he has strategy of a At Sports Illustrated. Zales helped slightly different sort in mind to keep launch the video business with a Get the ESPN Internet Ventures at the top of the Feeling series featuring star performers. online heap. "We're starting from such a Zales subsequently diversified Si's mar- strong base; it's a very good position to keting, taking over Playboy's home video be in," says Zales, who could be speak- business as part of that strategy. ing of the move that took him from serv- Zales also played a role in Sports Illus- ing as vice president /GM at CNN /SI to trated's entry into new media with the overseeing arch online competitor publication of two CD -ROMs and a sub- ESPN in October. There's "incredibly sequent 1995 deal to be the sports con- But then, Zales's career has been a tent provider for CompuServe. That was series of sudden turns through a variety strong interest" the spark that led directly to the follow- of corporate venues. He earned his BA in ing year's launch of Sports Illustrated sociology and economics at Dartmouth, internally in lever- Online as part of Time Warner's reasoning that "a sociology degree aging ESPN's on- Pathfinder site. And that, in turn, pushed would help get me in the mind -set of the SI to seek an alliance with CNN, already consumer." air assets in fresh a well- established Web media force. "I Zales left Dartmouth for an internship realized if we wanted to be a major play- with the Schneider industrial conglomer- ways on the new - er in the sports world, we had to become ate in France. It was an early career chal- side. a 24 -by -7 entity," Zales says of the deci- lenge with serious cultural underpinnings. media sion that led to CNN /SI's entry online "I had never learned French until my just over a year ago. senior year in college," Zales recalls, "and So after shepherding CNN /SI's devel- I tried very hard to learn French and stay opment over the past year, Zales has awake for eight hours a day listening to Steven taken the top spot at the leading online people speak it." sports brand -another no- brajner move: After a year of hands -on marketing Cahn Zales "For somebody who is interested in the and language studies in Paris and Greno- Senior vice president/general Internet and sports, the opportunity to ble, Zales returned to the states for work manager, ESPN Internet come over to the entity that is clearly the on his master's degree in marketing and Ventures, New York; b. Jan. 8, number -one player in the sports Web international business administration at 1959, Greenwich, Conn.; BA, marketplace -and is clearly very com- Northwestern University's Kellogg Dartmouth University, mitted to the Internet -was something School. Dartmouth, N.H., 1981; MA, that I just couldn't pass up." After the MA program at Northwestern, Northwestern University, Instead of playing catch-up, the way at a at at an internship Pepsi was followed by Evanston, III., 1984; product he had to CNN /SI, Zales's mission three -year stint at Lever Brothers ESPN Internet Ventures is to maintain -finally manager, Lever Brothers, New as the product manager who put that the franchise. The priorities include York, 1984 -87; HBO Home appealing lemon smell back in Sunlight exploring relationships with sports Video, New York: marketing dishwashing liquid. Appealing enough. leagues to add to its NFL, NBA and NHL manager /nontheatrical that is, to increase the product's market connections and launching other Web - share on crowded supermarket shelves. programming director, 1987- sites-a source of ongoing discussions And when the call came from a former 90: Sports Illustrated, New with a number of different entities, Lever Brothers executive who had moved Yo-k: director of video according to Zales. to HBO Video, Zales hesitated. "I was projects, 1990 -91; director of He reports "incredibly strong inter- torn between the glamour of working in development, 1991-96; VP, est" internally in leveraging ESPN's the entertainment business and the excite- GM, CNWSI, 1997 -98; present on -air assets in fresh ways on the new - ment of marketing dishwashing liquid," position since October; m. media side as the sports net's Internet he deadpans. Cathy Barton, Nov. 7, 1988; unit remains in an "investment" mode Ultimately, he opted in 1987 for the children: Scott, 8; Greg, 4 for the foreseeable future. spot at HBO Video, which led him -Richard Tedesco 92 BROADCASTING B CARIE I IUUIY111 7, 11111 .