Interview: Aaron Tobin – Founder of Sports Tech startup Klip Desk

Aaron is a passionate entrepreneur and manager with a track record in leading teams within the technology and marketing industry.

Aaron founded technology company Klip Desk in 2015 which is changing the sponsorship landscape in sports and entertainment. Klip Desk was recently acquired by multinational media and digital marketing communications company Dentsu Aegis Network and will align to the network’s global sports and lifestyle marketing business, MKTG.

We sat down with Aaron to answer a few questions…

Give us your elevator spiel on Klip Desk

Klip Desk is a technology business with two product offerings – Klip Studio and Klip Logic – that enable content owners to automate the curation and distribution of live content across all digital media.

• Klip Studio automates content creation and social sharing, guaranteeing that fans never miss a moment of the action.
• Klip Logic tracks and measures the true value and impact of brands sponsorship within digital highlights and Klip Logic’s custom AI.

What does this new partnership with MKTG mean for the business of sport?

When looking at the DAN family of brands in terms of what they are doing for clients, the rights holders they work with and their sporting partnerships, there is a great opportunity to provide more value to those partnerships across the globe.

Where do you see your greatest opportunity for business?

Without a doubt, we believe that the greatest opportunity for our business is in providing richer fan engagement to open up commercial opportunities through Klip Studio. With Klip Logic, we help rights holders and brands have insights at their fingertips by appropriately tracking and measuring exposure across digital channels. 

Have you got any advice for tech start-ups?

I focus on 3 key areas when building a technology product business

1. Know the problem you are solving for your customers.
2. Understand who has tried to solve this problems or problems in the past and failed and understand who is currently doing it well. Learn from both.
3. Relentless focus on designing your product around your customer needs

What are the most common mistakes you see sports organisations make?

That is not really for me to comment on. Compared to other categories, sports organisations across the world are delivering some of the best technical innovation, from an infrastructure and engagement point of view. We hope to support them on this journey.

Who do you think does good work in the industry and why?

Locally all of our codes and clubs are doing some amazing work. AFL, FFA, Cricket Australia to name a few.  Globally you see so much happening at a club level given the size and structure of some markets. So in terms of an organisation that I feel we have close alignment philosophically with (Customer experience focused) is the Seattle Seahawks. What they have done in building their whole organisation around customer experience is incredible. Selling out 130 games in a row is proof of that.