Episode 205 Snippets: Wayne Partello of CUENTO Marketing and former MLB/NFL marketing exec

Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 205: Wayne Partello
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
On episode 205 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil
chatted with Wayne Partello, Co-Founder and CEO, CUENTO
Marketing; formerly CMO with NFL and MLB clubs.
What follows is a collection of snippets from the podcast. To hear the
full interview and more, check out the podcast on all podcast
platforms and at www.dsmsports.net.

Wayne’s Career Path
Wayne originally was going to be a police officer and graduated from the police academy at age
19 → After that he started DJ’ing at nightclubs, which led him to the radio business where he
got involved in marketing and sales, while also doing work on air → He transitioned to the .com
world of the radio side before going to the Miami Dolphins, where he spent four years
“When I left the Dolphins (I was) overseeing all the marketing, in-game entertainment, social
media, all that good stuff…(I) had the opportunity to leave there and become the Chief
Marketing Office for the San Diego Padres…I got there to rebuild the brand. I oversaw
marketing, brand, advertising, social, plus marketing, communications...I got there with a goal
in mind (and achieved it), felt really good about the work that we’d done.”

His VP of Marketing at the Padres (Katie Jackson), decided to go into the consulting business
together after already doing some strategic consulting with fellow clubs while he was with the
Padres and Dolphins
“Personally, for us, the opportunity (was) to go fulfill another dream…”
Last November, Jackson and Partello started Cuento (Marketing) → “Top to bottom, we can
jump in with the marketing. If you don’t have a marketing team, our team can step in and be
your full marketing resource. But then we’ve got other clients that we work with where we either
sit alongside their chief marketing officer and then all the way down through designers...So we
can either fulfill the full needs or work alongside the existing people — project-based or long-
term…”

About his radio DJ’ing career
“I did it all — I was on a dance station, I was on a rock station. I was playing music, I
was doing a lot of travel -- so a lot of advertiser-based travel…”
[Wayne talks about going on air from the Jameson Distillery in Dublin for St. Patrick’s
Day, a week on ‘Cuervo Nation’ in the Virgin Islands
“(It) allowed me the opportunity to really immerse myself with brands and really learn
‘why would they spend all that money to fly me around the world to talk about it?’ And
(I) realized it all came back to storytelling. And we were the tactic that they were using
to get their story told to a really specific audience…

About CUENTO
“Cuento means story in Spanish...I realized when I was on the radio, I was a storyteller. And
then when I got off the air and I was behind the scenes, I was a storyteller. And then I became a
brand marketer and I was a storyteller. And I love telling stories. It's fun. So Cuento for me,
boiled down to brand was story...I like to simplify things. I've never claimed to be a very
intelligent person, it's basics, right?
“I love to take what can be very complicated and cloudy and boil it down to a very simple
understanding...So for me brand is this sort of buzz word, whatever everybody wants to talk
about it all the way down to, it just means your story. And we wanted to build a business that
represented that.”

The state of the Miami Dolphins when Wayne started
“The dolphins at that point had been purchased by Steve Ross and he wanted
to build a best in class organization. I was brought in because as the team was
negotiating their media rights, a lot of the dollars on the radio side started to
kind of go away for NFL teams. So there was like, you kinda needed to build
your, like an in-house media team, which, you know, back then — I've been a
big Gary V fan since his early days and he was talking about that way back
then, right? Every brand's going to be its own media company.

“So those of us who were on the media side, it was an opportunity to see what was going to
come and realize that the day of sitting as a media company may not be the best place for
you long-term; that the closest you could get to the point of — I always say, this is the line
— the closer to the point of contact with the content is the key, right? So you could work at
a radio station that covers the Boston Red Sox, or you could work for the Boston Red Sox,
or, you know, now we're getting to the next level of, you could work for the players who
play for the Boston Red Sox, right?
“The fans want access to the closest point of contact to the content. And so what we saw
was this opportunity to leap from the media side to the team side, to build that circle
around the brand and tell stories...Look, media companies as a whole have slowly
dwindled in existence and in budget. So those who are still around don't have the budgets
to travel like they used to. There used to be a ton of media at spring training. There just
isn't anymore. They can't afford it. And so teams have had to evolve to provide access to
that content. So shooting all the interviews for them, sending the interviews up. All of that
started to change.

“You could sit back and go, oh, I feel bad for us, nobody's coming to cover us anymore. Or you can
help make it easier for those entities to cover you. And you can cover yourself. When we first started
to do it, you know, traditional media weren't very thrilled with that because it was a threat. That's
the other thing that people forget is that the voices that you're listening to everybody has an agenda,
right? If you work for the team, your agenda is to make the team look good and to work your butt off
to drive that for the team, right? That's your job.
If you work in the media, it's to drive eyeballs that drive impressions that drive revenue.Now
reporters, that's not their job. They're going to tell you that, but they are judged on driving eyeballs.
And so they can do it in a lot of different manners and a lot of people do it in different ways. And
there's no wrong way. I enjoy the game, you know what I mean? Like they're doing their job, I'm
doing my job. I think that's the important part of when you start to build these, this in-house media,
it's about storytelling around the story you want to tell.”

The framing of building the in-house media team with the Dolphins and getting buy-in
“It was a pretty simple exercise. It was trying to replace revenue that was gone from
rights fees. So you had this baseline that was a guaranteed money every year that's now
going down because the market had changed. And so it was like, okay, you're going to
produce this content and then they're going to try to sell it just like a media entity.
“When we did the Dolphins show, that was Monday through Friday, 52 weeks a year.
So two hours a day, 52 weeks a year, five days a week, and kudos to the team. We did
that through some pretty lean years. We also did it through a lockout. We also turned it
not just a radio show, we added the digital media video, and a chat room. Way back
then 2010, we're doing chat rooms with fans real time every day. Then e added the
video to the point that we got approved by FOX Sports corporate to stream it live on
FOX Sports, Florida.

“And that was a huge accomplishment. For us, this was something when I got to Miami
— ownership was on board. They wanted to build best in class. It was great, leadership
was on board. We had the resources to do it. Some employees weren't on board. They
were like, no, no, no, there's no way; it's going to cost you a million dollars a year. This
many camera operators, you're going to need a floor director...And we did it. We did in
Miami with two producers. So I had an audio and a video producer; the audio producer
was more like a radio show producer, he was booking the show and handling the
guests. And then the video producer had all robotic cameras and was able to do all
that. And so we started with just switching cameras and getting the cameras in the right
position. Then we added graphics. Then we added B-roll over it from practice….

“Then when we got to San Diego and we were going to build the show for the Padres,
we actually got it down to one producer, producing audio video in the element with
graphics, with B roll, with the whole thing and communicating in real time with master
control back in Houston for FOX. It was pretty cool to pull off and to use technology to
give us the ability to produce that type of…
“It’s not possible without incredible staff. Jesse Agler was the host of the FInsiders in
Florida. We brought him out to San Diego because Jesse is just so good. He's so
talented. And his ability to not only host a show like maneuvering in a manner that he's
giving that producer clues and cues to where he's going in advance. So that's how that
works right there. They have to be in such unison to make it work...

On teams investing for in-house media vs. using more freelancers and agencies
“To be an early adopter on any of this stuff just costs money. Because you're spending a
ton and the advertising market is usually five to ten years behind the medium. We were
doing those shows and we were really fortunate [that] we had some big brands in
Miami step up. I mean the Geico comment center, right? Geico stepped up in a major
way and bought in on this concept that was light years ahead of where everything else
was. You look at that today and you go, oh yeah, that makes sense. Why wouldn't you
do that? Why wouldn't you have a chat room on game day where fans are chatting with
Agler during Dolphins games? It was this whole concept and they got it. But normally
there aren't a lot of major advertisers taking those types of risks.

They want guaranteed return. They don't need to be in the business of building your media house
for you. So I think we were really fortunate with that. And I think a lot of teams — you see the
majority in that space are taking their lead from a few...So there's some teams that are really good at
in-house media and the rest of the teams will sort of let them kind of blaze the trail and then go,
okay, that's what worked. That's the right vendor. We'll all buy into that...
“So back to your original question, I think there's benefits to both. I think it's hard to be an
innovator in this space of trying to show ROI immediately. It was tough for me when I first got to
San Diego trying to show ROI for the expenses I was throwing on social. And fortunately the world
sort of started to catch up where all of the work we did to build audience in the social space was then
able to be converted to ticket sales revenue because of paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
So now you're able to go and ‘remember the last few years of work to build audience. Well, now we
have audience, now we can convert against it.’

“Everybody knew the conversion was coming at some point, it was just trying to figure out where
that was going to go. It's an interesting space; you know, decades ago you needed media outlets to
tell your story. You did. But if you're a sports team today — you know, the Baltimore Ravens have a
bigger following than any media outlet that's covering them in Baltimore. They just do. And so they
have the ability — the example I love to use is my favorite from this offseason was JJ watt walks
away right from Texas, from Houston.
And there was no press release. There was no leak. There was no nothing. It was legitimately, he
puts a post out on and he explains it to his fans direct, ‘Hey guys, here's what's going on. I love you.
But I got to go.’ Where in the past he would have sat down with somebody, look at the decision with
LeBron just just seven years earlier. LeBron sits down and does a huge ESPN thing. Great. But today
he may not do that. He may just do it himself. It may be his production company doing it...”

Talking about the evolving relationship and incentives between media and teams
“Even with employees — relationships, and even in your personal life, relationships only exist if
they're mutually beneficial. They used to be[between sports and media[, very mutually beneficial,
right? We need to help each other. I think it was Mark Cuban who wrote a blog and he got fined
for it where he asked the question why he allowed Internet writers into the locker room.
“It's a valid question, right? Like I'm trying to build a championship organization and your job is
to drive page views and drive revenue. Why am I granting you access to my business? You know,
that's an interesting take, right? It was somebody saying it, like ‘I believe the media is still has a
huge benefit to industry as a whole.I really do. But I think that everybody has to continuously
evaluate the benefits that you're bringing to it…”

On coming to the Padres and invigorating their brand
“When I first got here and you would talk to folks — I came from the media
side of things, so I've always been really open to discussion and dialogue and
debate. I enjoy it. I think that can be used against you at a certain point when
you get to a certain level and I had to learn that there was no win in debate,
right? When you get to that level of fandom for a team, like you don't want
anybody who works there telling you you're not right. Because you are right.
Like it's for you, that's your fandom. Like who am I to tell you?

“For me it was incredible. I thoroughly loved the organization. I loved every second I got to
spend there. Great relationships across the board. For me, it was really listening and
understanding who I needed to listen to. And that takes time. Also, you make a lot of mistakes
when you're trying to innovate a brand, when you're trying to create and innovate at the same
time. You're trying to run the day-to-day, but also drive it to the future. So you learn a lot there.
“You also learn that most people want to hold you to your mistakes and not realize that they're
going to naturally happen; because it's easier just to pick out people's flaws. And once you can
come to grips with that as an individual and go, okay, that's natural.I got that. And by the way,
I'm gonna make more mistakes...As long as I learn from them and we continue to drive forward,
then this is working properly…

“I think that the opportunity that we all had in our time at the Padres was
that ownership believed in research. It's very easy for any owner of any
company to say, listen I’m the owner of this company, and this is the
brand that I want and make this happen. Okay. Like, that's fine. I've talked
to a lot of brand marketers that have that in their experience in their
business. We were fortunate that we had an ownership group that believed
this was a community jam and that we were just stewarding it for the
community. So research was a major part of it, so to be able to go through
the journey of that much research and be a part of that is pretty special.”

On developing the brand in tandem with fans
“First you start with — because I talked about this in my early years, like, ‘Hey, we're
doing research on brand.’ And what I had to remember was that to a consumer, the
brand is your hat and your uniform. But to a brand marketer, it's not, it's what you
stand for, it's what you’re driving towards, it's the guiding principles that help you
make decisions on a given day. That was a lesson I had to learn later. I would use the
word brand and I would be laughed out of meetings.
Like you don't have a brand, you work for the Padres buddy. And it was like, no, but
we're going to.

“And I had to remember that I was committing my life to this, right? This was going to be
my every day. But this franchise — they'd heard that song and dance a long time. So why
should they believe me? And so I just had to go do my job...So, yeah, it wasn't, this is the
franchise we want us to be. Ownership said we want to be best in class, all those great
things. But what it really was was this is the type of organization this community would be
proud of as a brand, That we would do these things, things that we would be a place for
families to come enjoy, baseball. The pride that San Diego has in Petco Park being America's
number one, ballpark, right? Like that's a real thing. And they should be really proud of it.
You know, they voted for it. It was funded by this community and this ownership group has
committed to never make it look less than five years old. So the amount of resources and
dollars that they've put into the building should be commended as well.

“So realizing that all of that was important that you don't just spend
the money, you make sure everybody knows you're doing these things
because that makes them proud of who you are too and you want that.
So yeah, you want to do the research and understand what matters to
the community and make sure you're living up to it every day and
then go back and test whether the tactics that you're using are actually
delivering up against the things that they said would make them
proud.”

The process of developing the brand
“You're testing sentiment, you're testing words that matter. Because if you're saying you
want to be family friendly, like, okay, are you? Because you're not just going to come out
and go, ‘Hey everybody, we're family friendly.’...It's not about saying it, it's doing it. The
brand comes from doing the actions that live up to this essence versus just saying the
words over and over again, you have to actually be those things. So are you family-friendly?
Are you committed to the community? Are you doing these things?
“Then you're doing research, surveys in the marketplace to determine whether you are or
not. And using a third-party research firm to validate the work. It's not us just sitting there,
you know, patting ourselves on the back, you really want to know the answer yay or nay.
Because you don't want to sit in the middle, you want to be right or wrong. You don't want
to be in the gray area of like, yeah, I guess it's kind of working. It's like, no, it's either
working or it's not because sitting in the middle you don't get good answers and direction.”

On maximizing the opportunities with the team creating buzz through their transactions and
play
“It all goes back to who you are trying to be. And I think in all of those moments, you take a step
back and you go, okay, here's what it is, how are we going to [execute?] For example, when the
team signed Eric Hosmer, it was literally loading trucks in San Diego to get all this gear over to
spring training so that we could execute, not just a standard spring training announcement.
Like, no no, this is a big deal. This is a big spend from this organization and this moment in
time, it should feel big, right? It needs to. You want your fans to feel, but again, back to the
whole media, you want them to walk in and realize that this is a different organization. That
we're, we're turning a page here. We're, we're moving in a direction that we've said we're going
to do. This ownership said they're going to do these things. And so that was a big one.

“And then the next year there were rumors of us in the conversations for Manny Machado.
And so we didn't want to be stuck again. We knew the blueprint for a successful day, so we
brought all that gear with us just in case AJ pulled it off again. And he did. And so now
here we are. We were ready. We knew the blueprint, we knew what we were going to do.
We knew all of the things we would have to accomplish to do that.
“So you look at any given moment in time and you try to assess the decisions you can make
that get you to the destination of the brand goal. If the goal of the brand is to be these
things, how do you make sure you do everything you can today? No matter what the day is,
the day that you bring in all these players, the day that you lose a game or whatever, how
do we, every tactic, every decision we make should be with that lens in your mind?”

Creating and cultivating a brand north star up and down the organization
“It’s special. It doesn't happen overnight. I think that's one of the things that when you go
from tactical marketing of, like, okay we're going to run this campaign, it's a short burst
campaign and we're going to try to drive this much revenue off of this campaign. On the
brand side of things, it sort of ladders up to this longer term...really turning a large vessel.
And making sure everybody in the organization understands that it is about acting in
concert with the brand direction. If you're trying to be whatever it may be — [for example]
an innovative brand; if that's one of your core tenants, that's who you want to be. It
doesn't just mean that your sales team needs to use the most up-to-date iPads; that's
innovative. No, it means you need to think and behave like an innovative company that
how you go about your day-to-day business in every department, whether it's your finance
department, because every interaction with your organization is an opportunity to tell your
story.

“Sports teams are easy to look at because people have so many interactions. They come to a
game, they walk through the gate. So the sound that you hear as you walk up, it should be telling
you a story and it should be the same story you hear when you walk around the concourse and
the smells come to life for you and you sit in your seat and the music is played and the PA
announcer says it in a specific sound and voice and cadence that is consistent with who you're
trying to be.
“All of those little touch points matter when they hit; when there's a big moment in that game,
that the sounds and the visuals that come to life all tell that same story...and then to your point,
social media starts hitting on it. That stuff was super fun, man. I'm now a fan watching. I love
seeing that stuff too. I love seeing the excitement on a player's face... seeing that there's genuine
joy. That's the stuff fans really buy into.

“I've never been a giant ‘campaign person’ because I've always felt it should come out of
the players. I think a lot of times that stuff when it's genuine and it comes from there,
the reach it has is exponential versus, you know, trying to force something on [them].
Those guys are very, they're not very impressionable players, right? Professional
athletes don't want to be told what they're going to do. But by listening and watching
and paying attention to what's important to them, you can start to collaborate and
come up with some stuff. All that stuff was really cool to watch for sure.
“And now for us working with different brands, It's sitting with them and having that
upfront conversation about the long-term effects. And sometimes the short term tactic
may not feel great because it may have been a little bit off of what you would have
normally done, but if it's leading you to a), an answer...to get you to the long-term
destination, that's the north star. That's what you're trying to go towards”

Wayne’s thoughts on the future of radio
“I'm bullish on audio as a whole. I think the companies that are succeeding in radio are
the ones who realized early that it isn't about the distribution method, but more about the
content. Again, back to what we talked about in the interview, the closest point of contact
to the content. Don't worry about how people are doing, but worry about what they're
getting.
“And so focus on content, focus on delivering relevant content to a specific audience.
Those companies are doing well. You know, my daughter is nine years old and she listens
to channel 933 here in San Diego every morning. She has a set on her alarm and she
thinks she really likes the morning show and she listens to it. And I think that's really
funny because, being a radio nerd, love radio, but I think the faster they, and I you're
seeing it now — but iHeart [radio] jumped on this super early...separating itself from just
the broadcast signal and focusing on the content. And listen, they took a lot of heat.

“They cut a lot of jobs along the way. But it put their company in a
position to be more successful. In traditional media, they're delivering
relevant content, as efficiently as possible and they're expanding their
digital portfolio. I also commend radio because their rates as a whole
have actually been more representative of their audience versus other
traditional mediums that have held to really high price points; when
the world has changed, they're still holding onto price points that just
don’t add up.”

A marketing/brand building mantra or guiding principle for Wayne
“Check your ego at the door. I think one of the greatest things you can do is not make it about you.
And that’s really hard to do. And it's really hard for people to understand that...like when were going
through the process on uniforms, we [were like] well, what's your favorite color? It doesn't matter
what my favorite color is. It's what is your favorite color?...
“And I think as a leader — that’s also part of it — it's not about you. Now, many people will try to
make it about you and that's okay. But if you drink the Kool-Aid...it's not the right way to go. It's
about your people. I used to joke all the time that I used to do a lot of things and then I became, this
executive that I actually didn't get to do anything anymore. And my people did incredible things and
I was part of that and part of them, and when they succeeded, I was so proud. And I would always
share that [with] them, but when they failed, it's on you. That sits with you.

“I think that's the big one. Whether you're the founder of the company, CEO, the
CMO, whatever, you may be the graphic designer —I had graphic designers who are
like, ‘I don't believe that that's the creative direction.’ I was like, okay. You can go
start your own company, but this is the creative direction that we've been given and
this is the direction that the research points us in — like, this is where we’re going.’
“It also builds a better team. When you're pulling for all of you together — I joked
with you thatI am still reaching out to folksI see some stuff that they share and, you
know, getting the comments back and I instantly transport back to wherever I was
with that person in the trenches…”

A brand whose marketing/brand Wayne admires and why (can’t be a Cuento client!)
“I got one I would like to shout out. The New York Giants just launched the Eli Manning
show on their YouTube channel. Back to our original part of the conversation and where
this is all going. Their VP of Marketing is new into that role, I think last year... I love that
they brought Eli back. You're seeing Eli on the [Peyton and Eli] Monday Night Football
broadcast [and] you’re seeing more of the personality come to life. People love that stuff.
“It harks back a little bit to the FINsiders, where we brought on those former players.
They're the ones whose personalities shine,. like a Sam Madison. [Fans] want to feel that,
you want that relationship with those folks. So I haven't had a chance to tune into it. I love
that it's on YouTube. I love that they went all in on a platform, and I think that's really
smart. And I think it's an incredible storytelling opportunity for the Giants in a really
competitive media space. Like New York is a completely different monster and to find a
way to cut through, utilizing a star, and what's becoming an incredible personality — kudos
to the Giants, I like what they’re doing.”

The most memorable day from Wayne’s tenure with the Dolphins
“[There is] one that just popped into my mind and it's a sad day. I don't know why it popped into
my mind, so I'll go with it. Their famed broadcaster Jim Mandich passed away and we did a
memorial for him. He was a huge part of the franchise — broadcaster had his own sports talk radio
show. He was on our broadcast team, so he worked with my team, so I had the opportunity to
work with him for a little while. When I arrived, he was already sick, but he still stayed in the
booth.
“He had three sons and they were all around the organization as well. I don't know why, when you
said that I flashed to [that moment]...he loved Heinekens and he loved drinking Heinekens...I
vividly remember standing on the field with his sons drinking a Heineken, with a bunch of our
staff, just reminiscing and sharing stories. Mainly because at that moment you realize how
important the time you get with these people are. And how important it is, and how important
the organization was to his family. And how important it was that the organization took the time to
really celebrate his life and to continue to be a part of the family's life. That one was pretty
powerful.”

The campaign or promotion from Wayne’s time with the Padres that sticks with
him the most
“Hands down, it was the night that we unveiled the brown uniforms. It was the
culmination of six years of work at that point. The uniform work was a couple
of years, the brand work was six years. For Katie and I and Ron Fowler — the
three of us sort of worked on that together — it was a moment...There were a
couple of things that came into play on that one...We had run some similar
features in the game presentation for years, and we tried some of them that
year with Machado and Tatis on the Padres in 2019.

“And we ran them and we're constantly always monitoring response. We ran some of these
features and some of them just didn't connect; it was silly games and different things. And
I actually had a conversation with Tom DeLonge, formerly of Blink 182 and Angels &
Airwaves — huge Padres fan. He and I would chat from time to time [about the] Padres,
and he came to games all the time. So I had sat down with him and wanted to show him
some of the stuff we were working on and get some feedback. And he had a line that I had
just kept with me — and we were saying it, but not as cool as Tom says things, he's just he's
way cooler.
“But he had said ‘Well, you know why those things aren't working anymore?’ And he said
‘It's because now you have rockstars. And you gotta put rockstars on a stage, man. Nobody
wants to see you buy groceries, they want to see you on a stage pyro, like go big, man.’ So
we transitioned to a lot more music, video styles, and a lot of hype, a lot of banging tracks
and a lot more show. And then that's when the chop came in and really making a lot of
energy around that that was kind of fun. So I love that moment.

“There's this moment in this photo that I keep with me to today of Hosmer and Machado and
Tatis all standing on this massive stage with thousands of fans in front of them and they're
standing back to back to back and the pyros lighting off behind them, and they look like a rock
band that just finished a huge show. And it was sort of this culmination of all the work all the
time. Seeing it all kind of crystallize was pretty special.”
“One of my favorite moments was when the players arrived, we were practicing their walk outs
and whatnot up in the Western Metal building. And they looked out on the crowd and they
looked out on the field, [and] they're like, ‘How many people are coming to this thing’? We’re
like ‘I don't know, a couple thousand.’ They're like ‘Really?’ Yeah. And they're like ‘Oh my God,
these people just keep coming...’ It was really cool to see that many people filling a ballpark in
November to see a new uniform.
“That hadn't really been done at that level for sports, for baseball teams, it was usually done in a
ballroom, it was done in a little bit more of a conservative manner. And we wanted to [make] it
a rockstar moment for the turning of a page for an organization.”

Compare and contrast the corners of the US he has lived in: Boston,
Miami, and San Diego
“I was born and raised in Boston; it's always special to me. I think
leaving was probably the best thing I ever did because it forced me to
continue to evolve and not stand still and not be complacent. So
Boston, there's an aggressiveness, there's a, a pace to business there,
and an energy that is infectious and it's super competitive. And that's
cool. I think I bring that with me.

“Miami — that competitiveness was still there, but it was more of a show
and it was flashy and it was also blue collar. It was tough. It was gritty. You
know, the majority of Miami is not South Beach. In the research that we did
there, that was really important to the local fans; that like, you know, we are
this tough community, too, that [has] really weathered a lot of storms and
gone through a lot. And it was a true melting pot.I[It was] so fortunate for
me to get to spend time in a community that was so diverse. My time in
Boston was not very diverse. It was a lot of people like me, which is great.
But I really enjoyed my time learning about different cultures.

“Athen getting out here to San Diego, to take that experience — my last
boss at the Dolphins,, the CMO when I left — I learned so much from her
because she was a brand marketer. She came on board, hadn't done the
sports, but was a huge sports fan. We worked so closely together. She was a
half Cuban, half Mexican woman who taught me so much about Hispanic
marketing and things that wouldn't even register for me that make you
start to think about things very differently. So when I got here to San Diego
— I was just really fortunate from the time I got to spend with her and still,
to this day, spend time and talk to her. I'm really fortunate for that.

And then San Diego. Look, when I got to Miami, when we made friends there,
everybody said ‘Welcome. You'll be here three to five years.’ And I was like, okay. And
we were there four [years]. And when I got to San Diego, they said ‘Welcome to San
Diego. You'll never leave.’ And they're right. I's a pretty special place, it really is….My
family loves it here. I have a wife, two young daughters who just appreciate every day
that we're outside as a family, doing things and getting to spend that time together.
Knowing that where I came from, you lose a good portion of the year to being cooped
up because of the weather, and then when it finally gets nice, it gets really hot really
quick. And then you're kind of like, ‘Well, my God find me an air conditioner and coop
me back up inside.’ So I think the journey to San Diego has made me appreciate that I
get to live here and my time here.”

Which brand[s] affected Wayne the most as a kid growing up?
“There's a couple. One, I wanted to be a police officer because I love the TV show
CHiPS. So the California Highway Patrol was one. But, really, there's a radio
station in Boston still going strong today — KISS 108. The morning show guy is
still on today — Matty in the Morning, he's a legend. That's why I wanted to work
in radio. And I actually was fortunate in my first internship was at KISS 108. You
know, reach for the stars and you go get it. YThat brand will always be special to
me because it was on this pedestal in my mind and then I got to work with those
people every day. And some are still friends today, which is really cool...

“And then the last one would probably be the Red Sox. It's just a major force in [Boston].
So my parents weren't sports fans, never have been...None of the family were sports fans,
so I didn't grow up in a sports environment. When we moved to the suburbs, it became a
really big deal. Baseball was huge. And just to see the impact that had on people and what
it meant — I think that was pretty special. I cherished every day that I had the opportunity
to help shape that for a whole community.
“You know, now seeing kids wearing stuff and being like, ‘Wow, are they looking at that
the same way I looked at that?’ How when I was a kid and the impact that had on
me...where I'm at is a dream that I never even knew was possible in my life. I didn't come
from an environment where this was something they told you, you could go do. And so to
be able to achieve those goals, and now getting to build my own brand and my own team
and my own company is pretty special. I literally take time to reflect on it quite often.”

The best meal to get in San Diego
and where to get it
“Full disclosure, it is a client of
Quanto, but the Akira Back sushi
at Lumi Roof Top in the Gaslamp
is a pretty special dish. And I can
eat several of those by myself. I
love those.”

[and also]
“So I went through a weight loss a
couple of years ago [and it] was a
lot of just eating protein. And so
one of my favorite things to eat are
grilled chicken wings from Bubs. I
love the chicken wings at Bubs, and
I also love the Buffalo cauliflower
at Ballast Point.”

The marketing channel that Wayne has his eye on right now and why
“I think it's a couple of things — LinkedIn continues to be a hot bed for me for
clients. It's an incredible place to tell your story. And there it's an environment
where people want to hear your story. I was blown away — Katie and I were
out at the All-Star game in Colorado this year and the amount of people from
across the game working for teams, working for the league, working for
partners — all these different people who were so up on Cuento and what we
were all about and what we were doing and following along with our journey.

“And now some of our partners that we are doing paid advertising to specific people [with] specific
needs on LinkedIn have been pretty impressive. And kudos to Gary V because 2018, 2019, he was
early on LinkedIn. And I spent the time researching and studying it and following his stuff and
then going and do my own research for another year and deploying that for partners.
“The other is TikTok — [it’s] not going anywhere. [We’re’ trying to find the right way to
appropriately storytell on that platform and so really just sort of spending the time with it. I always
tell people that the nightlife industry is a great place to watch emerging trends in advertising. And
when I first got into business, I was sorta laughed at for being a DJ...And I was laughing the whole
way because the things that we were doing to market [t] 24 year-olds were now the things we
needed to do to market to those 28 year-olds who were doing other things, who then became 35
year olds with a couple kids. And now are 45 year olds in my world.

“So if you look at those trends in the things that are working for that 18 to 24
year old today — whether it's on that platform or not — the way in which
they're consuming information, it'll evolve, but the basis of it will continue to
be a part of the conversation of how brands need to connect with those people.
And it's not about advertising to them, it is about connecting with them in the
manner in which they want to be connected. The reason why Cuento exists is
because you don't need to just continuously hammer sales messaging at
people. You need to creatively connect with people in a manner that they want
to consume your story. Not that you're forcing your story down their throat.”

Which happens first [next] — the Dolphins win the AFC or hte Padres win the
World Series?
[Wayne notes the NFL parity makes it difficult and admits he doesn't follow the
NFL as closely today or even the Padres since he’s busy with CUENTO. And he
also believes in the talent on the Padres!]
“I'm going to go with the Padres and I'm in San Diego and I want to see a
championship. My kids are Padres fans. I'm a Padres fan. And I definitely want
to see that. We're rooting them on for sure.”

Wayne’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
“Well, I'm always gonna shout out Gary Vee [Gary Vaynerchuk; @GaryVee]. “In my
moments of uncertainty, I've been able to turn to him. [In] my early years with the
Dolphins, when nobody [was] deploying the strategies that I thought were right. And
he was and he was validating that for me — even though I never knew him, he was
validating those thoughts for me. And I did have the opportunity to meet him when I
was with the Dolphins and it was pretty amazing...Kudos to Matt Higgins who made
that happen and [I’m] forever grateful for that opportunity.”
[Wayne also recommends following Matt Higgins and the RSE Group on LinkedIn]

“Outside of that, I love following along with just a lot of different conversations and
kind of checking in on different things that way. I do a lot of podcasts, but just sort of in
chunks; I'm listening for certain people...And then I need a little laughter in my life too.
I love following Bert Kreischer, who's a comedian who helps break up my day once in a
while with a good laugh.
“It's like this virtual social circle that you need to create for yourself. Right. And for me
I've got all those people that keep me in line and keep me focused. And I love those
comedians that also break up the day and keep you laughing. Uh, I I think that’s also
important.”

Where to find Wayne and Cuento on digital/social media
CUENTO is online at CuentoMarketing.com and is also on Instagram
@CuentoMarketing and on LinkedIn
Wayne is @WaynePartello across social

Thanks again to Wayne for being so generous with his time to share
his knowledge, experience, and expertise with me!
For more content and episodes, subscribe to the podcast, follow me
on LinkedIn and on Twitter @njh287, and visit www.dsmsports.net.

Episode 205 Snippets: Wayne Partello of CUENTO Marketing and former MLB/NFL marketing exec

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Episode 205 Snippets: Wayne Partello of CUENTO Marketing and former MLB/NFL marketing exec