Listen to this articlePOP is an agency based in Seattle with an office in San José, Costa Rica. For more than 20 years, they’ve combined the expertise found across the spectrum of marketing and technology consultancies to make a lasting impact on their clients’ business. Below is our interview with Erin West, GVP and Client Partner at POP:
Q: Erin, could you tell us something more about the company?
A: We take a consultative and collaborative approach to deliver tangible results for our clients, including Microsoft, Target, F5 Networks and Adobe, to name a few.
When we were founded in 1996, POP was a group of creative technologists designing breakthrough experiences for the Internet. Today, our clients are in a world transformed by technology. Where others can sometimes see chaos, we always see potential. We see the opportunity to lead, to inspire, and to shape change through marshalling the full capabilities of our agency to improve our clients’ business.
Q: Can you give us more insights into your services?
A: At POP our mantra is, “Make Things Happen.” Our services span strategy and consulting, campaigns and content, platforms, and products. POP leads by identifying and evaluating the emerging trends and technologies that can make an impact for our clients. The sports industry, and its increasing use of technology, is just one example.
Q: You’ve recently announced POP’s Collaboration with Sports Performance Platform from Microsoft; could you tell us something more?
A: As mentioned, through our relationship with Microsoft, both as a supplier and Implementation Partner, we announced our recent entry into sports technology with the launch of the Sports Performance Platform, a Microsoft Garage project.
POP’s design and technology expertise has been highlighted as instrumental from the beginning of the project. We see a big opportunity to enable sports team to take their games to the next level through data-driven insights by bringing player and performance data to life. We do this through strong collaboration with clients and customization of the platform.
As an example, we’re currently collaborating with coaches and players of our first sports team client, Seattle Reign FC, an American professional women’s soccer team that plays in the National Women’s Soccer League, to deliver a platform tailored uniquely to what their team needs to perform at their highest levels. We’ve gathered, organized, and translated data and then created custom data visualizations to drive training and, subsequently, better play on the field.
We have also begun work with a second sports team – one of the leading clubs in the English Premier League. We look forward to showcasing that in the future.
Q: What makes POP a good choice?
A: We have a history of bringing technology to the sports industry. Major League Soccer has been a client since 2012, as an example. For MLS, we’ve tackled many initiatives, including exploring ways of leveraging emerging technologies, such as Microsoft’s HoloLens, into the sports training environment. We delivered a holographic tool that re-imagined how match plays are studied and reviewed.
Importantly, however, it’s not about simply applying what’s new and innovative to clients. The POP team brings insights into our clients’ businesses to provide solutions that make an impact today and tomorrow – today’s innovation is tomorrow’s standard. When we enter a space, such as sports, we do so by being a ‘true champion’ for both the client and the opportunity.
Q: What are your plans for next six months?
A: The adoption of wearable technology at all levels of sports is continuing at warp speed, and the intersection where sports, data science and technology converge will continue to widen. We’re about to launch with Reign FC and put everything we’ve developing into play. The data-mining, adaptation to the Reign’s needs and optimization to help the team perform at peak levels is an on-going process. We’ll also be diving head first into the work with our second sports team client. Finally, we’ll be closely monitoring the sports landscape. It’s our job to understand what’s happening now and what’s next, and how we can take the application to the next level to give teams a competitive advantage.
