Not A Wise Choice….

September 1, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Mike Wise of the Washington Post is a very good writer and has built a strong and solid following on the radio side at WJFK radio in Washington.  He is a deep thinker who always looks for long form angles in his pieces and rarely follows the path that is easiest to tell a story.  Recently he had an extensive piece on Olympian Rafer Johnson that showed the great value that senior athletes can have for a young and sometimes uninformed get it done now world. Mike has also overcome a freak accident to return to good health, get married, and later this week will be a father.  He has some great long term relationships with media, and always speaks his mind and voices his opinion.

A “Saintly” Display Of Being A Public Trust…

June 10, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

One of the toughest elements for a sports entity to maintain these days is the balance between being a multifaceted, revenue generating business and being a public trust, like other community institutions that evoke emotion, passion and support in addition to brining in dollars. The endless media presence, a never ending season, the transient nature of athletes have all contributed to the drive to having franchises be more big business and less part of the community as they were in earlier generations.  There is a need to find every way to engage partners and fans these days, and the balance between quality and quantity of brand positioning can sometimes get lost in the dollar search, especially when partners are under continuous pressure to justify their spends, and teams are under constant pressure to deliver more return for the dollars spent by fans. Now it is true that teams have realized this issue and have taken strides to restore community trust and interest, but the true integration into the community is still a very tough balance in these challenging times.

AFL Tries To Hold It Together As Messages Conflict At The Team Level…

December 10, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

One of the biggest challenges in a crisis is getting all spokespeople on the same page.  Regardless of the message, releasing the bigger picture information, positively or negatively, and having that information be consistent is a great show of solid planning.  Such was the recent case with the WNBA and the demise of the Houston Comets.  The information was released with one voice and one message through the league and the team at the same time, and showed a solid plan and unity amongst spokespeople even in the bleakest of situations for a sports entity.  The last few days the Arena Football League has faced an even bigger crisis…one of suspending play for an entire season as it reorganizes.  It has been a bizarre few months for the league, going from the unexpected resignataion of Dan Baker and the folding of one of its best franchises from a business standpoint, the New Orleans Voodoo, to this week’s feeding of the rumor mill.  Now the league has put out the correct broad statements with regard to action or inaction going forward, all tempered with the correct mix of guarded optimism while a final plan to play or not play is arrived at.  The real issue has come at the team level, where some like the Orlando Predators are conducting business as usual and looking forward and supportive, while others like Kansas City speak out about shutting down and suspending operations.   While none of these decisions and statements can be made in a vacuum, the conflicting messages do not help the league at this crucial time, and it shows the lack of consistentcy that many second tier sports often face.  The great experience and planning at the league level doesn’t always translate down to the team level, and the result is more distractions as the course of business plays out.  Now the hope is that the league comes out at the right time with a strongly worded, forward thinking statement with the correct media access to explain the new business plan.  Until that time, the league office remains trying to almost fight as the teams scramble for position, positively or negatively, feeding a rumor mill which will only do the brand more harm than good.  Hopefully out of the solution is a more streamlined and cooperative and forward thinking group at the team level, which will match the level of competence and proactivity the league offices have put forward in growing the AFL into a recognizable and to this point very worthy brand.

Give Them Liberty.

July 19, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With all the choices of leasure time activity in a major market during the summer, the WNBA is always challenged to find ways to attract the casual fan.  However this weekend, there will be a spectacle worthy of near record numbers, brand exposure and good will.  The Liberty will play the Indiana Fever outdoors at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens on Saturday night.  All the elements of the game…the build-in of the court, the first practice, the fan festival around the game, the additional sponsorship…have been pitched and placed perfectly, ranging from multiple local and regional stories in publications which coverage can be hit and miss on, to a great visual piece in USA Today.  The followup visuals and trade pieces coming out of the game will also garner great ancillary exposure and will get the WNBA, already enjoying a banner season, even more attention going into the Olympics.  Well planned, well pitched and well placed, even going against a Yankees home game, the AVP Crocs event in Brooklyn and the great David Beckham playing at Giants Stadium, all in the same day.

Managing Expectations And Handling Adversity…

June 8, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With Big Brown’s loss in the race for the Triple Crown on Saturday, publicists, madia and brand managers were left scrambling to find ways to fill voids, justify dollars spent, and re-jig lineups that were anticpated for the coronation and history that would have come for all involved with a Triple Crown winner.  The prep to take advantage is always important in business., but seizing the moment for sports is so much trickier becuase of the human element.  Therefore, being ready for both the sunny day and prepping for the rainy one are so key in finding ways to get exposure and ROI.  The expections, and the managing of those expectations, are really the key to being a good sports marketer or publicist.  Many of these points on managing expectations were handled really well in former MLB player Doug Glanville’s op-ed piece in the New York Times.  Glanville does a great job on how the assumption of winning and then living up to those expectations, is handled by media and athletes.  The spin of failure…how sponsors like UPS and Hooters, who rolled the dice with Big Brown, will handle the next phase, and what horse racing can do not to lose all that momentum, will be interesting to follow in the next few days.  Having the umbrella ready for the rainy day is more important than dealing correctly with the win, and making sure that all properly take pause to be messaged and that brands have gotten back what they invested prior to the unpredicatable results, are so important in the process, since marleters and publicists never have control over the ultimate result of a game, race or competition.  For example, Edelman PR did a great job in seizing the moment of a world record late at night in last week’s Reebok Track and Field Championships in New York, getting Usain Bolt to every media opportunity possible following his world record finish. Another great piece of spin was offered up by  legendary boxing promoter Don King, waxing positive on how boxing can benefit from the recent MMA success, in a piece in Sunday’s Daily News…both come from seasoned pros ready to take advantage of opportunites..the biggest challenge on the rainy day is finding ways to look through the adversity and create the unforseen chances.

A Wide Range of Crisis Management…

February 10, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

We have looked at various ways of dealing with crisis management since we started this blog in November, and this week there were varying degrees of crisis that arose, from college football to baseball to hoops…lets take a look at the trio, the ways they have been handled, and what could be next…

A Look At Tilghman, Jacobson and Majerus

January 28, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

We don’t think anyone would have been able to find a link between Kelly Tilghman, Dana Jacobson and Rick Majerus prior to last week, other than some obscure SportsCenter mention.  However now it seems like the three are tied together in a world of “he said, she said and who can say what.”  There were some very poignant pieces worth reading involving the trio, ranging from great columns by Michael Wilbon and Len Shapiro in last week’s Washington Post, to Rich Sandomir’s series of pieces in the New York Times to a very comprehensive and well thought out piece by Joe Strauss in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.  All the pieces weighed the actions and the consequences, and although all three issues dealt with varying degrees of “who said what”…Majerus voicing his personal opinion as a citizen, Tilghman with a less than thought out “joke” on live TV, and Jacobson with an offcolor comment during a “Mike and Mike” roast…the bottom line remains that public figures always have to be on guard and responsible for their actions.  Especially in the 24/7 world of camera phones, hackers breaking into media conference calls (as happened last week with both the Big East men and the Southeast Conference women) and an unquenchable news cycle, thinking before you speak and act is critical.  Now that doesn’t mean a person can’t be honest and make good copy.  It just means that you always have to think to control the actions of the situation.