Flora Kelly

Vice President, Brand Strategy and Content Research at ESPN

Speaker

Flora Kelly, who joined ESPN in 2006, is currently the vice president of Brand Strategy and Content Research in the strategy department. In this role, she and her team are responsible for TV audience research, digital media research & analytics, consumer and brand research. The goal of her department is to provide reliable data and tangible insights to grow the ESPN brand and increase audiences.

Over the years, she has delivered valuable insights for key priorities such as ESPN’s reimagined Brand Promise, insights that drove the successful launch of ESPN+, and award-winning research that has led to ESPN’s groundbreaking creative and marketing campaigns. This includes a gold, silver, and bronze medal sweep at the ARF David Ogilvy Awards (2020), which honors the best campaigns that exemplify the power of research and insights.

Kelly also serves as a highly followed source for fan and media trends in the sports industry as she powers ESPN’s research Twitter account (@ESPNFlora).

Kelly began her ESPN career as a research analyst. She has progressed to manager, consumer insights; associate director, consumer insights; director, distribution research; senior director, brand and consumer insights; and vice president brand strategy & content insights.

Prior to ESPN, Kelly worked at Radius Insights as an analyst working on projects for media brands like HGTV and OWN. She started her career at SSRBI conducting polling work for government institutions.

Kelly is a graduate of Hofstra University and earned her Master’s degree in social research from Hunter College.