Joe Favorito

Joe Favorito has over 32 years of strategic communications/marketing, business development and public relations expertise in sports, entertainment, brand building, media training, television, athletic administration and business. The Brooklyn, New York native has managed the day-to-day activities in strategic communications for: Two of the world’s hallmark sports and entertainment brands (the New York Knickerbockers and Philadelphia 76ers), the world’s largest professional sport for women (the WTA Tour), the world’s largest sports National Governing Body (the United States Tennis Association) and the world’s largest annual sporting event (the US Open). He also oversaw the strategic planning, investor relations, communications and digital business development of the International Fight League during its two year run as a Mixed Martial Arts venture and a publicly traded company.

Since 2008, Joe has been an independent consultant on crisis communications, social media, strategic planning, brand marketing, publicity and business development for clients that have included or now include: Bloomberg LP, MP & Silva, LaLiga, Intel, NFL Films, U.S. Road Sports and Entertainment, Fantasy Sports Ventures/The Big Lead, Major League Baseball, Spike TV, Sony Entertainment, Lead Dog Marketing, Nickelodeon, EPIX, World TeamTennis, Wizard Entertainment/Comic-con, TOPPS, the John McEnroe Academy, USA Hockey, USA Rugby 7’s, AVP, USA Wrestling, USA Baseball, Beyond Sport, Leaders In Performance, and others. He co-led the USA Wrestling Communications team that won four CLIO Sports Awards in 2014, and was named one of Forbes’ “100 Sports Business Must Follows On Twitter” for 2015, their “50 Must Follows” for 2016 and 2017 and The Huffington Post’s “Sports Media People To Note” for 2017 as well as being the only sole proprietor selected as a finalist for the Cynopsis Sports PR Awards in 2015. Joe is also the co-host of the Columbia University Sports Podcast (“The CUSP Show), a weekly visit with the innovators and game changers in sports and entertainment.

Additionally, Joe was associate producer for the Tony nominated hit Broadway show “Lombardi,” and was part of the creative team for the production “Magic/Bird,” the Tony-nominated musical “A Christmas Story,” and the plays “Bronx Bombers” and “Dinner With The Boys.” He has also worked on marketing and publicity for a series of feature films and documentaries including: “Coach Carter,” “Act of Valor,” “Warrior,” “Never Back Down,” “Knuckleball,” “Glickman,” “Need For Speed,” “Schooled: The Price of College Sports,” “The Other Dream Team,” “Forgotten Four,” “Serena,” “The Road To The Winter Classic, 2015, 2016 and 2017” and “When The Game Stands Tall,” as well of a host of book projects ranging from “Yankee Miracles” to “Football’s Greatest,” “Club Soccer 101” and “Steelers Pride.” He serves on the boards of the Weinstein Carnegie Group, New York Sports Venture Capital, the National Sports Marketing Network, and Columbia University’s Sports Management program (where he is an instructor in Strategic Communications and Director of Industry Relations). Joe also maintains a well trafficked blog on the sports marketing and publicity field, “Sports Marketing and PR Roundup,” on the website joefavorito.com, as well authoring the first-ever text on the sports publicity industry (“Sports Publicity” published in August 2007 by Reed Elsevier and updated in 2012 by Taylor Publishing with a third printing coming in 2018), which is used in over 60 sports management programs in the U.S. He has been a guest speaker on sports marketing, social media and communications at a host of institutions, including Princeton University, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, the University of Florida Law School, New York University, the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and many others. He is also a frequent spokesperson on the industry for publications ranging from Ad Age and The New York Times to NPR and CBS News.

A graduate of Fordham University, Joe, his wife and two children reside in River Vale, New Jersey.