Joe Favorito and Tom Richardson welcome Ally Corbin, VP of Custom Research at Navigate and a 15-year veteran of the Chicago-based sports marketing and analytics agency, to discuss her career, her research, and her surprising second life as “Tornado Alley,” a retired competitive roller derby player. Corbin explains how a chance invitation to a bout in 2019 led her to the Arizona Derby Dames, where she raced bank-track derby and eventually won a national championship before stepping away from the sport. She then shifts to her work at Navigate, unpacking how the agency designs custom research for brands, leagues, and collegiate athletics, why quantitative methods have overtaken traditional focus groups, and the quality controls her team builds in to guard against bad data. Corbin also digs into Navigate’s “fan friction” research and its “utility is the new visibility” philosophy, and closes with her take on how Gen Z and Gen Alpha are redefining fandom, why ratings data deserves scrutiny, and her advice for job seekers trying to break into sports research.

Connect with Ally: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allycorbin/

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The CUSP Show is hosted by Joe Favorito (@Joefav) and Tom Richardson (@ConvergenceTR) and produced by Sam Henry (@s_henry11), LJ Holmgren (@LJ_Holmgren), and Danny Hagenlocher (@DhColumbiaSPS), with social media efforts led by Lissa Ruiz and Sydney Cristall.

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