Sarah Nettinga

Sarah Nettinga has an extensive twenty year career as a Brand Marketing and Communication Executive in the entertainment and sports businesses. Driven by the strong interest in building and executing strategic marketing and communication plans that include branded content designed to strengthen brand engagement, Sarah’s strengths are in her strategic belief that marketing is content and that every piece of communication that a company creates is a potential asset to be shared to achieve a tighter bond with consumers. Internal assets such as research, analyst reports, CEO blogs, tweets, and other information are often untapped opportunities to produce content to benefit the brand. She has been recognized for her exceptional ability to grow brands and produce new business opportunities both through content creation and through increased brand affluence. Having successfully done this with highly respected brands in companies such as INDYCAR, NASCAR and Warner Bros., she is considered a thought leader, critical in today’s evolving media market, with a strong marketing background and heavy curiosity. She is dedicated to building relationships with every part of the organization to deliver on the company’s mission and improve the reputation of the company’s brand.

Most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Media and Entertainment for INDYCAR Entertainment opening the league’s first media office in Los Angeles, she reported to the CEO of both INDYCAR and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and represented the media rights around ancillary programming on behalf of the sanctioning body and the Speedway. Her primary focus was on expanding the content available to consumers surrounding the sport with the intention of increasing reach, awareness and engagement of INDYCAR fans. In this time she recommended and oversaw the relaunch of INDYCAR.com, the engagement of a partnership with YouTube Google Sports, the placement of the sport in over 35 television shows, the partnership relationships of a variety of third party television producers to package and sell original programming, the sale of the a television special to 3NET in a one hour 3D special around the Indy 500, and the negotiation of a the partnership agreement between INDYCAR and DreamWorks Animation to develop, produce and market the major motion picture TURBO to be released July 2013.

Prior to INDYCAR, Sarah was Managing Director, Film, Television, and Music Entertainment for NASCAR and NASCAR Media Group, which she created and managed for nine years. In that role, her mandate was to bring NASCAR into the mainstream entertainment pop culture—requiring a multi-tiered content strategy that included the creation of content from a variety on non-traditional outlets, through sales, sponsorship relationships, brand integration and relationships with over 150 celebrity talents. She developed, sold and produced films and television shows with third party producers. Most notably creating relationships for NASCAR on three motion pictures: NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience; Herbie: Fully Loaded; and Talladega Nights as an Executive Producer, of which she was awarded an ESPY Award in 2007 for best sports movie and a SABRE award for best product integration. And, having equal success on television, she produced four series (NASCAR DRIVERS: 360, NASCAR in Primetime, NASCAR: Driven to Win and NASCAR Drivers: Non-stop) and over a dozen television specials that were on every network from E! to Animal Planet.

At Warner Bros., she managed television production for international co-production deals for Warner Bros. International Television Production. There she oversaw 200 hours of television brands that were produced overseas in a number of countries, including Canada, Isle of Man, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Germany, and France. The television programs were intended for sale in the United States. In addition to productions, she focused her efforts heavily on the marketing and publicity extensions and successfully reignited many known brands such as “The New Adventures of Robin Hood”; “Police Academy: the Series”; “Zorro: The Animated Series”; and “The Fantastic Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.”

In each of her roles, Sarah understood the importance of every piece of communication that the companies created as a content asset to further define each of the brands and tighten their relationship with the consumer while balancing their need to be released in sync up with larger marketing strategies. To achieve each of the content opportunities, Sarah has had to build relationship bridges to every part of the organizations internally (sales, marketing, publicity, competition, sponsors, licensing, online, broadcasting) and demonstrate how using the messages generated from these divisions externally can drive business results and help the entire company. Sarah’s unique contribution is in her ability to take a macro perspective on the content exposure opportunities that can be created from a brand that already exist inside a company and use them to extend the brands impact on new audiences and drive revenue to the core franchise.

Sarah lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband and daughter and has experience working with companies that have been head-quartered elsewhere. Additionally, she is committed to maintaining a modern media perspective and has chosen to continue her education, currently pursuing her Masters in Communication Management at USC School Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.