Kate Guerra

New Titans, New Coach, New Stadium

Kate Guerra is vice president of communications and corporate affairs for the Tennessee Titans. It’s an exciting time for Kate as this year has brought major changes to the Titans. Kate has been with the Titans since 2019, and her role has continued to grow, centered around serving and engaging the Nashville and greater Tennessee communities. All her responsibilities are focused on the same mission, which is to win, serve, and entertain.

With the announcement of the new coach, Brian Callahan, and new players, what is most exciting for the team?

“I think that when you have so many things happening at one time, one of the best positives from that is just fresh energy. And it’s things that they’re seeing as exciting, especially coming off a season we came off of last year.  To have these fresh new things happening, really revives that excitement and gets people looking forward to the next season.”

How is the new staff adjusting to Nashville?

Guerra shares that everyone involved is loving the city. “Going back to that room, that meeting and those degrees of separation and how small they are, it almost as I was sitting there in that room felt like a microcosm of Nashville in a way because a lot of people say this about Nashville too, is if you’ve been here long enough, even though it’s a city that’s rapidly growing, it does still have that kind of small town neighborly vibe to it.”

“They’re very much embracing that sort of spirit of we’re in this together, they’re very proud of the city and they want to represent it well. And so I think that embracing that sense of what makes Nashville, Nashville is something that is going to come very natural to them.”

Having a female owner of the team and you being a woman, do you think sports marketing is opening up to more women as a career?

“I hope that all of sports is really opening up to more women as a career within the marketing field, certainly. But I think the NFL, and our organization specifically, is really focused on getting women participating in many aspects of the business.”

Guerra notes that they have ten or eleven women with vice president or more senior titles, which is significant compared to the size of their team.

Can you share with us the idea behind the new and improved Titans stadium?

“The idea behind the new stadium was never to be the most technologically advanced new stadium or the fanciest new stadium.  Those words were never words that were really in our head. We want the new stadium to really feel like a Nashville experience. And so when we were looking at inspiration for the building, we were looking at the Ryman, we were looking at buildings here that represent Nashville, that have character and that have soul, and trying to figure out how you create that in the new stadium.

And now to be clear, the new Nissan Stadium is going to be beautiful and it’s probably going to have bells and whistles and it’s going to be amazing, but we want it to feel not like you planted a spaceship in the middle of downtown Nashville, but that you have something, particularly with this new East Bank neighborhood. With the city’s developing around the stadium, we want it to feel like a neighborhood that has a stadium in it and not a stadium that this neighborhood was scattered around. And making it feel very much part of the fabric of the city is super important to us.”

How has the Titans as a business, sports team, and as part of the evolution of Nashville been reflected in your marketing? What are some of the big changes that you all have made in marketing and fan engagement along the way?

Guerra notes one huge trend in the industry right now is partnerships with TV and broadcast, because fans have become more and more comfortable with watching games at home. On the other side of that, the experience that fans get when attending a game in person has to be top-notch so that they have a reason to leave their homes. From times in line to food and even activities for kids, the NFL is making efforts to make those experiences bigger and better.

How does the Titans stadium experience vary from the rest of the NFL?

For the most part, Guerra can confidently say, it really does come down to getting in and out easy and having good food while fans are there. Specifically, to Nashville, being Music City, music is a huge part of what makes the Titans experience different from the rest of the NFL. For Guerra and her team, they are always surveying fans on what music they like and what they want to hear at the game, including all age ranges, trying to give each fan a little bit of something they like.

What influence do women have on attending Titans games?

“I remember reading a while back, the woman is still the greatest influencer in the family, so she’s making the decisions on whether you’re going to stay at home or you’re going to go to the game and what kind of chips you’re going to eat and all those kinds of things. So, it’s everything along the initiative of the day…” Guerra begins. She tells us women make the purchasing decisions; The Titans actual purchasing data shows that men purchase more tickets than women, but women are purchasing more group sales, which could be contributed to by family outings, school groups, scout troops or local youth sports teams.

What efforts does your team make to connect with children and families?

The Titans kids club, the Rat Pack, is targeted towards families with children aged five to twelve. With the kids’ club, there are exclusive activities, events, and promotional material that involves children and families with the Titans in a personal way.

What are some specific women’s programs that appeal to women?

“We are very proud of our Playmakers initiative. With this, there are themes throughout the games that involve women directly. We have one that’s going to be our final home game of the regular season, our Playmakers game. Our Playmakers Game honors really influential and impactful women doing amazing things in our community. We typically designate four to five women in our community as our playmakers of the game. And all throughout the game, we celebrate their accomplishments and really try to give them a platform to promote the things that they’re working on and their causes. I love that initiative because I think it’s important that we highlight and celebrate each other, particularly women celebrating other women as well.”

Resources and Links

Website: www.tennesseetitans.com

Kate Guerra on Linked In

Approval of Girls Flag Football: https://www.tennesseetitans.com/news/titans-announce-approval-for-girls-flag-football-as-an-official-tssaa-state-sanctioned-high-school-sport