Uniting Brands and Fans with Eric Fernandez of Brazos Innovation Partners

Jul 15

Eric Fernandez is Co-Founder & Partner of Brazos Innovation Partners, a tech commercialization company that invigorates the potential of marketplace ideas.

In this episode of Let's Talk Limbic Sparks, Eric reveals how understanding underlying emotions is a game changer for brands. We talk about the importance of looking below the surface of people's actions to determine the emotional motivations causing their behavior, and that it's not always what you would expect.

Eric also discusses his comfort with leveraging emotion in brand development thanks to his career-long experience in sports marketing and media. He shares similarities between connecting teams with fans, and connecting brands with their audiences, and why marketers should pay more attention to behavioral science approaches that get to the why behind the what.

Key Takeaways and Soundbites:

“There's a lot of similarity in my sports marketing background with the Limbic Sparks model that's based on emotional motivation... our whole goal is, how do we take that emotional equity a fan has for a team, and how do we activate with a team to transfer that to us.”

“If you can get past the clutter and connect with that consumer at an emotional level, it can really change the game for you as a brand and how you can advance not only your cause, but your business.”

“Let's face it, feelings and emotions are kind of hard. We're kind of wired in professional settings of lets not get into the softer skills, or not getting into feelings and emotions, because, let's face it, they're kind of complex, maybe uncomfortable, maybe can be messy at times and we've become a very data-driven, decision-making society... I think that's why more brands aren't doing it.”

“People are emotional beings. Behaviors are the manifestation of our underlying emotions.”

“If you think of this as an analogy and you think of a tree, the behaviors we see are everything that are above ground - the trunk, the branches, the leaves. It's what we see and what we experience - that's the behavior. The roots and what's underground is really the underlying emotion. If you can understand the emotion, then you can better attune to and respond to the behavior.”

“Getting into their hidden fears. Getting into those hidden desires. It's not what people will tell you, it's what they won't tell you.... If I can figure out those hidden fears, then I can figure out that what is that emotional connection and how do I create that spark that allows me to connect emotional motivation with brand desire.”

“Once I started leveraging more techniques that you learn in behavioral sciences, you can really start to understand the why behind the what. The what is the behavior you see. The why is the underlying emotion that's driving that.”

Here are some fun facts about Eric…

Eric Fernandez is a co-founder of Brazos Innovation Partners, a technology commercialization firm focused on the higer education market. Brazos Innovation Partners launched out of Baylor University in 2023 where Eric had joined Baylor University in 2021 in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR). Eric joined Baylor after a 25 year career in industry, namely in marketing, media, advertising, partnerships and technology.

Eric spent the first 15 years of his career with AT&T in a number of positions across operations, marketing, media and partnerships. His last position was Executive Director of Global Sponsorships where he led a team that oversaw global marketing partnerships namely in the sports, entertainment and music industries.

In 2008, Eric joined Michael Kassan’s MediaLink strategic advisory firm serving as a senior executive over media and ad tech. MediaLink works with Fortune 100 clients to navigate and profit from the evolving media/marketing landscape.

In 2014 Eric left MediaLink to start-up SportsDesk Media, adata analytics and digital media agency. SportsDesk Media focused on performance marketing leveraging in-depth fan data and grew into a sports and entertainment industry leading marketing agency. In 2017 SportsDesk Media merged with Property Consulting Group to form 4FRONT which was acquired by Legends in 2021.

Eric holds a BBA in Finance/International Business from Baylor University. He is on the executive committee of the advisory board for Baylor’s Sports Sponsorships and Sales (S3) major and is on the Advisory Board for Sports Media Ventures. Eric and his wife, Sylvia, reside in Dallas, TX and have four grown children.