We all know that Shaq is the king of twitter, and that Tiger usually breaks news on his web page, and that other athletes have been using various pieces of social media to communicate in lockerooms, to fans and to assist various brand and team partners in growing market size and creating more access to fans. However this week with the start of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, through his LIVE STRONG website, will use almost all aspects of social media, live updates, real time chats, twitter and other applications, to communicate with fans while integrating all of his sponsors into the program. Brandweek had a very detailed look at the plan Wednesday, which spelled out the sponsor strategy, and other details which will include the ability to track Armstrong’s progress live online. With a mega-event and a mega-star in Armstrong firmly embracing the social media platforms all at once and in real time while going through the race, the brand value of his site, as well as the access to fans, should go up exponentially. A great experiment for an elite athlete who has embraced the technology available to provide the latest info.

If any sport could be hurt by the global economic problems it should be NASCAR. The essence of the “traveling circus” of a circuit, especially one built around the auto industry and legions of fans that have to travel to see their stars, makes survival problematic and growth questionable. Outside the US, racing in the form of Formula One has been devastated, with more bad news that good. Yet NASCAR, although taking a hit, has continued to build its brand, redefine itself and find ways to satisfy its core audience and find new, casual fans in these crazy times. How? By staying on message, looking for new avenues, listening to their fans and doing everything possible to keep their TV, digital and brand partners happy in these tough times. A look around this week sees the NASCAR story told point by point in USA Today , and in an indepth all access show on CNBC . Prior to that, away from the sports and business pages, the New York Times spent A Night Out with driver Jimmie Johnson recently in Manhattan, while SUNOCO re-launched their campaign for Free Fuel for NASCAR fans and loyal customers in early June. Are things all rosy? No. The discretionary dollar for many fans has dried up, which will hopefully lead them to TV or more digital coverage, but NASCAR has done a great job of showing all partners that they are remaining strong in these tough times and will do whatever it takes to reward all involved with their brand. Great mid-year push by a sport fueled by loyalty.

Usually with expansion teams in sports, mascot or naming contests will be held to sample the local flavor and see what ideas can arise that brand marketers hadn’t thought of. Usually the name or logo still comes from a well positioned, well thought out plan intent on making sure that the merchandising rights, colors and traditions of the area are kept in tact. The choice, especially in this era of maximum return on the investment, is never random. So the College of William and Mary took a bold step, and one that certainly got them some solid publicity, in opening up the choice of their new mascot not just to local fans or alumni but to anyone interested in providing an idea. The school had to change mascots, but not nicknames, becuase their long-standing mascot was a misrepresentation of an Indian, which the NCAA ruled in appropriate for institutes of higher learning. The choices came from all over the country, and although the University President will make the final call, the Williamsburg, Va. school will get to unveil the final choices on ESPN Tuesday, again getting some great name recognition for one of the few Division I schools never to make it to the NCAA Tournament. In this digital age, most schools are still struggling to correctly embrace new media, so William and Mary’s choice is a great one, and could open the idea of other schools/minor league teams opening up “naming rights” for teams for a day, a year or for a permanent change at the right time. Smart, calculated investment, good payoff in exposure.

Because the NFL is so much the American spectacle and a weekly destination watch for much of American, we often forget that several franchises still need to work in case of those rainy days to build brand value year-round, keep fans and business partners interested and engaged, and find new ways to generate revenue despite lofty ticket prices, PSL’s and TV money. For every sold out stadium there are a few still figuring ways to make sure market value grows. Perhaps the best example of that this offseason is the Miami Dolphins, under new owner Steve Ross. The fins have seemingly made a move every week, whether it is in fan access programs, new seating plans, altered colors, different naming rights deals and most recently, celebrity owners. Even with a much improved playoff team last year, the Dolphins ownership change, not to mention the sluggish South Florida economy, kept the teams brand building in flux, and with his hefty investment to buy, Ross and his management team have looked to every possible avenue, assuming nothing and taking no one for granted, to make sure that the Dolphins brand value ascends not just in South Florida, but in a national buzz and relevance quotient that is reflects in increased merch and ticket sales and a grander place in the NFL hierarchy. All the offseason buzz generation is a very smart move for the first year owner, and they have played to every segment of a potential audience to grow marketshare. While some may say, “Its the NFL, what do they need to sell themselves for?” the answer is simple….as an owner trying to invoke change you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and in this economy taking anything for granted, especially in a market where discretionary dollars can go elsewhere, could be a very fatal flaw, even for the most solid of brands, sports or not.

With the NHL and NBA Drafts happening withing 24 hours of each other, it was interesting to see all the subtleties and action that athletes and their agents, along with eams, quickly pulled together. A nice composite of the goings on before, during and then right after the draft was put together by Goodwin Sports Management in their Rookie Chronicles segments, which followed their three guys…Terence Williams, Patty Mills and DeMar DeRozan…as they got ready and then had their names called on Thursday night. The best thing was the unique perspectives from each athlete and how they got ready and then went through what really was a life changing experience that few can appreciate. The immediate Twitter reaction, and their response to questions, also showed the impact active players can make for a brand with fans in a 24/7 news cycle. The Knicks also offered up their picks and coach Mike D’Antoni for a chat with season subs, also a nice touch for a fan base that craves access and is being given a chance to connect for the top dollar the team demands. On the NHL side, the draft in Montreal took on a multilingual feel, with a number of teams, from Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo to Chicago’s Scotty Bowman speaking in French to the Canadian crowd as they made the picks for their teams, a nice touch to give the teams a bit more diversity and personality on draft day. However the best play probably came from the Islanders, who on one of the few sunny getaway days in June, managed to amass 10,000 fans at Nassau Coliseum for a draft party as they took the league’s number one pick and immediately built goodwill for a long-suffering and oft-ignored fan base. They not only made the popular choice in John Tavares, they had him messaged correctly and gave the fans all that they wanted to hear and experience in the draft…hope for the future. Well played out on the Island, across both leagues and into the digital space.

Within a 24 hour period this week, the brand value sport of professional soccer in the United States took a huge jump. First came the coups of ESPN scooping up the Premier League from virtually bankrupt Setanta Sports, followed by the US’ stunning 2-0 win over Spain in the Confederations Cup, followed closely by Steve Nash’s second annual grassroots soccer fundraiser in a New York park, along with the Sports Business Journal piece that WPS is doing better than expected. From the grassroots to the professional, all seems to be going well. Now is there a way for some brand, or a series of brands, to take the good news, tie it in a package and use it as the latest, and strongest, all-encompassing boost for a sport that was already well positioned going into the recession (because of their structure and cost cutting measures) but now has a variety of platforms that are highly visible to attach to? We shall see. Of course Confederations Cup final against Brazil still remains, but the continued interest of Nash (who will be part of the ownership group for MLS Vancouver) as an ambassador with both the world class pros he brought to New York and with his NBA friends, plus a steady women’s product gives the sport another boost while others are struggling. However for brands who have held back on investment waiting for the economy to turn or the right opportunity to invest in, maybe this weeks series of events for soccer will get them a well placed kick for new activation and partnerships.

As the NBA Draft approaches Thursday, it will be interesting to see the branding winners and missteps taken, and how quickly in this digital age teams will look to immediately activate with their picks…will guys be twittering new fans from the podium, who will be the first to stream and text messages back home and will any team look to Twitter their pick before it is announced, as happened in the NFL Draft? Speed and immediacy, whether they can be monetized or not at this point, will be interesting, as well as how well athletes today understand perceived brand value vs. real brand value. Tuesday’s Washington Post gave a great glimpse inside the workings of North Carolina’s Ty Lawson as he prepped both on and off the court for this Thursday’s coming out. The piece had great access into Lawson and the team around him that is prepped to strike once his name is called, and how they can roll out the new branded Lawson to the Carolina faithful, and to the faithful of his new team. It is a very smart message to try and show potential fans, the media, teams and brands that Lawson is ready for the marketing and playing tasks ahead. however one thing that misses from the article, and is critical to be factored in…are the plans of the team he is selected by. Are they ready to work with Team Lawson on his brand roll out…does it conflict with anything they are planning for their elite customers or partners? Are both sides ready to work together to maximize the opportunity each has created? It sounds simple, but often times it is not. The best partnerships are when teams and athletes start from day one to pull for a common goal…brandwise, community wise, activation wise, access wise and most importantly playing wise. For every LeBron James brand, there are countless others that tried to build upon failed on court or on field focus, and although some athletes can succeed as marketing brands based on just performance, the opposite, brand success with limited on field success, is the rarest of the rare. The Lawson prep story shows smarts by his team…hopefully he lands with the right team that can take advantage of his smarts both on and off the court.

Ladies Day has long been a baseball tradition…women arriving at the ballpark get discounts and promotions tailored to them, and MLB has gone to great lengths in promoting and raising money for Breast Cancer Awareness. However the Hudson valley Renegades, again showing the advantage the minors have to be effective and creative, will take Ladies Day one step further in July, banning men (those off the playing field anyway) from the stands for the first five innings of their July 7 game.</a> The salute to women, will allow women in while keeping the men outside until the fifth inning, effectively showing that the Rens’ female fan base is both important and recognized by the organization. The night will of course have the usual fun promotions and music that the minors always have, but it sends a smart message to those decision makers in the household…we appreciate all you do in bringing the kids here and to the games, and lets have some fun just with you. Not a huge departure from the ordinary, but it should make for a fun night, a good promotion, some additional brand extensions and some good old fashioned PR which will probably be copied by others along the way.

Many times in North America, the sport of baseball sometimes gets overlooked for its ability to aggregate people, expose brands and tell stories. because the season is so long and the game is so ingrained we sometimes forget the amount of eyeballs and dollars spent on the game, even more now on a global scale. And with the attraction, from Little league through the Majors, comes the ability to marry brands in large numbers to very worthy and promotable causes. This weekend…Father’s Day…baseball takes on a doubleheader of well, timed, well presented and well thought out activation platforms…civil rights and prostate cancer awareness, and delivers on both. On the Civil Rights front, it is sometimes forgotten that baseball broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson, for all professional sports. So when the sport started having a Civil Rights Day and game a few years ago in Memphis, Tennessee, it got some attention but not huge attention. The move to take the entire event and move it to a Major League city, Cincinnati, and involve a full few days of talks and involvement from peoples of all sports and backgrounds, was a great one, and the coverage received for both the sport and for Civil Rights issued was tremendous. For a support to promote issues in season is one thing, to take an active stance and deliver positive messages on a national stage is another, and baseball should get pig points for taking the time and the effort to build this platform for all and to work with the brands who will activate against it. The second weekend cause is Prostate Cancer Awareness, and by using their national platform of games on the Father’s Day weekend…complete with blue bats for auction, sponsor and player activation campaigns in major media and at all games, the sport again hits a homer. Baseball announcer Ed Randall’s Bat For The Cure, is also a great example of how the pooling of resources can work for the bigger cause through the sport. For whatever reason, the prostate cancer campaign is not as well covered as the all-pink breast cancer awareness work done in April and October through the various pink programs, but the yeoman work baseball does to collectively present the issue to millions on a day which is more father-focused than others, remains a great example of pooling resources the right way for all. Now could the two be split on other weekends? Maybe. But despite the timing, both garner great coverage, sponsor activation, and messaging. Great job by all.

This past week saw the seven sports vying to be brought into the Olympics in 2016 and the four cities bidding to host the Games all travel to Lausanne, Switzerland for presentations to the International Olympic Committee Executive Board as well as the the membership countries of the IOC (for the cities presentations). The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Hersch has a great summary of all the back and forth that went on throughout the week, including at least three of the cities being named by someone as a favorite, and no less than four of the seven sports projected to have the best chance, best presentation or fastest movement up (no one was acknowledged to have slid down, others just moved ahead) in a week of true gamesmanship. However one of the better moves of the week for all amateur sports in the United States took place on Monday in Washington, when President Obama named a new office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport. The timing sent a clear but subtle message to the IOC that sports, especially Olympic sports, are now a high priority for a President that helped use a sports platform to get to casual voters during his campaign. The move also gives the US a “Head of Sport” that virtually every other country has, and could potentially help create and administer a uniform vision…and potential amazing branding and marketing opportunities for someone who is able to unify groups that constantly fight for the same dollar, same branding opportunity, and same audience. The position can also help administer policy so that athletics leading to healthy lifestyles does become the priority in schools here that is used to be, all quality messages and potential for those involved in the space. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, the games for the Olympic Games continued, with countless dollars spent on presentations, lobbyists and travel by all groups…monies that probably would be best served in building the brand of sport with their constituents and participants. The Olympic games remain big bucks and mega branding opportunities and can still create tremendous good will and a legacy for all involved. The hope is that the legacy does outweigh the cost for the long term, especially for those five sports and three cities that will not be chosen in Copenhagen in October. Even with all the spending, pomp and circumstance, the biggest winner this week may already be the youth of America…and maybe even those brands which can more clearly serve them…through President Obama’s deftly timed move as the political games begen this week. A move which could have Olympic sized popularity if the office does what it could do.