Danica Delivers Early…

February 18, 2013 by

 It looked like a slow start for NASCAR leading into the week’s Daytona 500. The NBA All-Star Fame, pitchers and catchers reporting, the sudden controversy with the Olympics and wrestling, the Oscar Pistorius  tragedy, even the NHL’s “Hockey Across America Day,” were grabbing headlines and casual viewers. Next weekend was Daytona, along with the NFL combine and more hoops and hockey, so what to do to break through.

Enter Danica Patrick. By stretching out the coverage of Daytona over a week, NASCAR stuck gold for the casual fan, as Patrick grabbed the pole position for the race next weekend, giving the sport a huge jump in the minds of casual fans who might not remember where Daytona is on the sports calendar. They do know Patrick, who continues to match her driving skills with her marketing prowess, a combo which would be another big win for NASCAR growth, especially amongst young women who love her style but could now identify a little bit more with her as a successful racer. Maybe they won’t follow her to the track, but to a dealership down the line…now that’s another boost the sport and its sponsors could use.

Make no mistake NASCAR is doing just fine.  There is still no sport whose fans are more brand loyal and the push to connect the personalities of the drivers to fans even more…especially through social media…will continue to elevate the sport. Another big winner in the Danica pole position could be Miller Coors, who is the circuit’s official beer but doesn’t have huge positioning on cars on race day. However what it does have is sponsorship of the Coors Light pole award for each race. Dropping Danica in at the start of Daytona, with thousands of photos of her this week in the media, could give that partnership an even bigger boost  as the hype builds toward race day. Brands love being part of history, and putting Danica on the pole for this week is one of those intangibles that large scale sponsors like Miller Coors can reap an unintended benefit from.

Now of course lots of this goes away if Patrick goes out early in the race next weekend.  Regardless for this week at least, It is a monumental next step in the career of a driver who has delivered off the course and looks to now win on it, and for a sport which may have to push just a little bit less to cut through the clutter as its season rockets off in Florida next weekend.

Filed Under: Fox Sports.com, Indy Car, NASCAR Tagged With: , , , , , ,

There Was Another Hockey Team That Also Tried New York…

October 29, 2012 by

All that talk of the Islanders move to Brooklyn, and encouragement from an old friend (Charlie Cuttone) prompted this post about a New York hockey team that well…never was. But I was a part of it. Here is the story circa 1985, of a team which I left working for before it really started, 26 years ago this week.

Yes there have been other hockey teams in the New York area other than the current three, and that includes the one making the move eventually from Long Island to the new Barclay’s Center, the Islanders. The New York Raiders and Golden Blades, the Long Island Ducks,  the New York (Brooklyn as well) Americans, the River Vale Skeeters (in my current town, although no trace still exists), the New York Rovers, the just-departed Brooklyn Aviators and the Jersey Outlaws (now playing outdoors in the Federal Hockey League in Williamsport,Pa.), and…the New York Slapshots.

Never heard of the Slapshots, who were to play at the Phil Esposito Sports and Entertainment Center on Staten Island in the fall of 1986? Good reason. The arena and for the most part the team, never really existed for a long time. Now it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The Slapshots, named after the movie, were housed in the Windsor Terrace offices hard by the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, not far from where the Staten Island Yankees play in the New York Penn-League today. They were to be part of the fledgling Atlantic Coast Hockey League (there is a Wikipedia page for it) and would bring professional sports to the sometimes-forgotten but sports-crazy borough of Staten Island. They would be playing in a gleaming pre-fab building that would seats 3,500 (we had the diagrams) in the Travis section of Staten Island, near a new state-of-the art bowling center and easy access for fans coming from New Jersey and Brooklyn as well. The team had good senior management…Cuttone and longtime NHL and minor league sports empresario Norb Ecksl and we had a big time coach- Dave “The Hammer Schultz, not far removed from his days leading the Philadelphia Flyers to their Stanley Cups and looking to get into hockey adminstration.

There was a spring press conference in Manhattan, and a sales and marketing team was in place. So myself, fresh out of Fordham and working nights at SportsPhone (in the days before sports radio and regional networks this was how you git score updates, 976-1313) and a group of others looking to break into sports, including a former MLB umpire named Zach Rebekoff and a former Oakland A’s sales and marketing guy named Scott Alderman. I didn’t have a car so I would take the subway and the ferry to Staten Island and then set out on foot, train and bus to all parts of the Island selling tickets and advertising throughout the summer of 1986 and into the fall. There was great enthusiasm…we sold dasher boards and promotions, plastic cups and season tickets, eventhough no arena even existed. We hired a day-to-day guy to run the hockey operations (Joe Selenski who later went on to coach the Johnstown Chiefs in the city where “Slapshot: was filmed) and we had a draft and started to get players. All with seating charts and hope.

As the fall progressed even the most enthusiastic followers were getting worried. You see, the arena had yet to arrive. “It’s coming on a truck in pieces from Georgia, it will be here in a matter of days,” we were told. September turned into October, and players even started to arrive. We had a woman named Kate McCoy who helped arrange housing for the players as they showed up in Staten Island, staying at the Holiday Inn adjacent to the Staten Island Expressway. We started to plan for a season to start on the road in outposts like Erie, Pa., with hopes I had of broadcasting the games. We were hired to be the official statisticians for the ACHL (there were other franchises with real buildings in addition to players). Dave would do appearances and we would sign sponsors with the building arriving any day. It all seemed real…we had had real marketing people, real offices, a real logo, a VERY real coach and very real players. How couldn’t the building be real (we never did see Phil Esposito by the way, who never had any stake in the building or the project other than giving his name to it)? So I kept walking Staten Island with my sales kit (there were farms still at one end of the island) and kept talking to the players as they arrived from all parts of the hockey world, with training camp starting in the Ironbound Arena in Newark, New Jersey.

As the preseason started, we would now open the season on the road for a month and play the home opener before Christmas we were told, Alderman and I, neither with a car, decided to take a trip out to the site, which we heard was now being prepared for the area. As we arrived, the silence was deafening. Nothing. Not a worker or a construction trailer, just a blown down sign proclaiming the site as the “Future Home of The Slapshots.”  Tumble weeds, Staten Island style, blew across the huge empty expanse of land. We were crushed. We returned to the ferry terminal in hopes that we were missing something.

As luck would have it for me, an opportunity arose. Iona College’s Sports Information Director Tom Didato had suddenly resigned, and the Gaels needed a quick replacement. Their season was to open in two weeks at the University of North Carolina. My mentor, the late PR guru Mike Cohen, called Iona athletic director Rick Mazutto and the job was mine. I left Staten Island and the Slapshots as the season opened somewhere in upstate New York. Although I returned to the borough to do stats for the league through the first month of the season on Sunday nights…typing and then sending the league info out via telecopier…the team never arrived. They played a few games in Ironbound and then headed to other locales like Virgina to play “home” games. The arena was some sort of scam, the money disappeared, and the Slapshots faded into history.

Over the years I kept in touch with Cuttone who has been involved in a variety of business and currently runs a top soccer website. Ecksl went on to work again with several professional teams in various marketing functions and stays busy in various areas of sports. Rebekoff ran an umpiring school for a while and stayed in sales, while Schultz remained and is still a Philly icon, although never as a coach.  The others drifted away over time, some continuing on as the team ended up in Troy, New York before folding. As far as the ACHL, it eventually became part of the ECHL which exists today in the minors, but no team anywhere near Staten Island. The Yankees finally figured out the Staten Island passion and build their ballpark overlooking Manhattan and remain a strong force in minor league baseball. As far as the site goes, it had another brush with fame in sports a few years later, when NASCAR proposed building a track in the vast area close to New Jersey. Like the hockey building, that project never came to see the light of day either.

For me, the Slapshots were a great first step in a career, at the lowest rungs of sports, selling something that didn’t exist. It gave me that grassroots experience and a lot of fun with some very smart people who were in it for the passion as much as the money.  Luckily I emerged from the experience unscathed financially, with a business card that I still hold on to (my first) to this day.

So as the Isles make the move to Brooklyn, maybe somewhere down the line they will honor some of those teams of the past with a little retro night. If they do, I have the logo from a team that tried, and failed, to do what they will probably be successful at…creating fun and successful professional hockey outside of Manhattan.Nothing better than majoring in the minors to get a start, even on Staten Island.

 

Filed Under: Minor League Baseball, Minor League Hockey, NHL Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

What Pocono Means To Indy Car And Indy Car Can Mean To Pocono

October 7, 2012 by

While most of the causal sports world focused on the MLB playoffs, college football, the NFL and the return of referees and the opening of NBA training camps, IZOD IndyCar made an announcement that could be a real boon to the circuit in the coming years as it continues to try and find its rightful place…the return to racing at Pocono Raceway after a 23 year absence.

Why is that a big deal for the circuit? Few reasons. The track has been a NASCAR hub with two races for several years, making it the place where ANY racing fan from the metropolitan areas of New York and Philadelphia could come to watch their favorite sport. The hills of Pennsylvania have been a long-established hub for open wheel racing in the United States (Andretti anyone?) with not one but two tracks (Nazareth is now long gone) when the sport was in its heyday. With Formula One in New Jersey now apparently revived for 2013, open wheel racing could take hold for fans with a one-two punch in the area.

More specifically for Indy Car, the circuit seems to have plateaued again this year. The loss of Danica Patrick from a marketing angle slowed casual interest in the circuit, and the move to Pocono, along with the relaunch of a “Triple Crown” challenge, which will award $1 million to a driver that wins the Indianapolis 500, the 400-miler at Pocono and the season finale at Fontana, Calif., gives the sport new tent poles from which to grow next year.  Returning to Pocono also gives Indy Car a leg to market directly to Madison Avenue as the trip to the race in July is more than manageable for those wanting to experience the power of the sport. Yes it is true that drivers will always make the trek into New York to do promotions, but what racing has missed is the opportunity to have an event close enough to get marketers out to feel the race as it happens. NASCAR and Pocono have still never properly marketed the two races that exist directly to New York, but IndyCar will now have that opportunity should they choose to take it…a consistent, year round presence to remind fans that this is their race, both in the Apple and the City of Brotherly Love.

Now the success of the race won’t happen by just hanging out a shingle. The past success of open wheel racing in the Poconos came because the sport spent dollars to market directly to New York. Promotions with local and regional brands need to be struck, a strong presence in the market needs to be had, the digital strategy needs to be in place. Casual fans know when to go see NASCAR at Pocono already, that does not mean they will just go back a third time for IndyCar, a sport which is racing of course but is of a different brand and style than NASCAR.

Will it be easy to succeed in year one? No. is it great to see the return for a sport with great power and personality. For sure. Start those marketing engines for the Apple and Philly, IZOD Indy Car.

Filed Under: Indy Car, NASCAR Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Formula 1 in the States; More Risk Than Reward?

September 28, 2012 by
There is perhaps no more costly undertaking that the traveling sports “circuit,” which needs to recreate infrastructure wherever it goes. Those huge out of pocket costs are what do in event the biggest of events…from the defunct AVP to tennis tournaments to even large scale events like the Ironman or the X Games and the Dew Tour or the U.S. Surfing Championships, in some places. Big costs for building structures, big permit fees and in the case of first-time events, but learning curves with little margin for error. Take the event to an urban area, and the potential for problems escalates even further. The Super Bowl in New Jersey? Sure there is some rick but you have the most important element…the venue…established and well used before and after the event.
Such is the issue with the proposed Formula One race in New Jersey, which is now on life support for 2013. Yes it would be a mega attraction, with perhaps no greater backdrop than the New York skyline. Yes it would bring in ancillary dollars to towns like West New York, that need the dollars and the work. But the cost, especially for a sport that is well established globally but has little to no footprint in the United States? Devastating.
While promoters talk about millions to flow into the economy, they sometimes gloss over the millions it takes to re-route traffic, build stands, and important all those needed to stage the race to an area where there is no given that people would spend a very high ticket to turn out. A reasonable cost, sure. But thousands for the best seats? Hard to say. The organizers of Formula One are amongst the most savvy, and the most wealthy promoters in the world. They fully understand the value of bringing the sport back to Madison Avenue. It is an idea that every acing sport has chased for years since the Meadowlands Grand Prix departed in the early 1980’s. There are fans of racing in the New York area, but they go to places like Pocono to see NASCAR and Watkins Glen to see open road racing. The track in the New York area just doesn’t exist. So can the spectacle work in the area? Maybe, but you need to have someone assume very great risk to get it done. That is what the organizers in Baltimore did to bring Indy Car there two years in a row. The first race happened with great pomp and circumstance and ended with great financial loss. This year’s was scaled back on the extras and went a bit better, but the large scale issues of managing a race of such proportions in an urban area not used to such disruptions remain very high.
Racing is all about passion and the involvement of brands to activate and support the event. In NASCAR and Indy car to a large extent, the circuit drives sponsors. Yes there are local event sponsors but many of the big dollars come from activation constantly across the country with drivers and their teams. That the beauty of NASCAR’s marketing engagement. Formula One? Big brands for sure. Big TV and technology for sure. But with just one race in the States (Austin) and a few others on this side of the Atlantic, the ability for brands to constantly engage is lost. As great as it is around the world, here Formula One today is what soccer was ten years ago. Lost in a sea of sports choices for the casual fan.
Maybe it is still too soon for F1 to return to the States. Maybe it needs other places with a little more established infrastructure first before it takes a shot at Gotham. Maybe, like Ironman, Surfing and even the AVP, the X Games and even the Red Bull Air Race the costs of being in New York far outweigh the benefits. Organizers will point to events like the New York City Marathon that have success, but they don’t take the same type of dollar commitment to stage and they are repeat community events far different from the big business of racing.
F1 is a spectacular experiential event that will win fans when it is done right. Whether it can be done right on the streets in the shadows of Manhattan is another issue. It’s not cheap, and it certainly has a huge long term cost for those who try to buy in to the staging and have little precedence for return, but big precedence for failure.  Maybe the organizers will rally and find the dollars and the structure to stage what would be a spectacular event, but in today’s challenged economy, it may be a long and risky ride to the finish line.

Filed Under: Fox, Indy Car, NASCAR Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Value of Pocono

August 5, 2012 by

It is nestled between the major markets  of New York and Philadelphia. It is the largest, and in many ways the only, self-sustainable green sporting facility in North America, if not the world. It is an independent venture run by a family dedicated to finding ways to reinvest in its community. Yet for  all it does, Pocono Raceway, the quirky tricky triangle of NASCAR, may still have its biggest days as a brand yet to come.

The track is a key piece of NASCAR’s growing strategy to embrace the northeast, a goal that has proved at times elusive and at many times frustrating to TV partners, brands and to the circuit itself. Pocono, twice every summer (now with a new racing surface as well), is the beacon for thousands of fans to embrace a sport which is much more prevalent  in the media on a daily basis in many parts of the country, despite its huge drawing power of all its affiliations with virtually every prominent brand in the consumer marketplace. Fans in the northeast can enjoy the sport, follow its drivers, engage in social media, but without a close home to experience NASCAR in the New York or Philadelphia markets, it is still a bit more out of sight than most who are in the business would like.

Yes you can bring the drivers to the fans, and NASCAR has done a great job of doing so, but the sport is all about the track experience, and with no one rushing to build a monolith to the sport in those urban areas, there is only so much a brand and a circuit can do. Golf has numerous homes in both markets, tennis has the US Open, even surfing tested the waters of New York last year.  NASCAR, not quite.

So can Pocono be the bigger draw for the markets, maybe not jus NASCAR but racing in general? Some thoughts.

The track needs to better  embrace Gotham. Years ago race fans had both Nazareth Raceway and Pocono to fill their need for racing, and New York was a key marketing hub. Beer sponsor Schaefer spent huge amounts marketing to the New York market, and the brand awareness of both the track and the sport was much higher. That has gone away in recent years, with a focus more on Philly. However Pocono is an easy ride from New York, and the lucrative suburbs of New Jersey, and marketing to those areas as an affordable big time sports event, would be a smart move.

F1 Could Help Rise A Racing Tide: The coming Formula One race on the streets of New Jersey  in 2013 will draw huge media to racing in the heart of the New York area. That casual fan engagement in racing can be used as a positive for NASCAR and Pocono, helping to draw fans to another fun, engaging alternative for the time when F1 may or may not be back to down. By the way, finding a way for IZOD IndyCar to return to Pocono would also help life the profile of the track and the sport of racing as well. Another event, outside of the two NASCAR events, gives casual fans another reason to venture away from the cities for a fun event.

We love green. Many arenas and franchises have paid lip service to green initiatives, but Pocono has done more to be self-sustaining than, well, anyone. While the story of the solar field that has been installed has been told in mainstream media to some extent, it needs to be re-emphasized to an audience well beyond sport, and revisited with many of the other self-sustaining efforts the track is doing to assist not just sport, but the area as well.

Make no mistake, Pocono is a great American success story. However its potential to help lift a solid sport and increase its brand value is still tremendous, with a push a little to the north and to the east. With so many opportunities to spend casual dollars, consumers need to be constantly reminded that  there is a great, cost effective and fun experiential event not that far away. It can’t be assumed, and if it is assumed people know, then an opportunity for growth is lost.

Filed Under: ESPN, Indy Car, NASCAR Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Jersey Sponsors Now, What’s Next?

July 20, 2012 by

It was never an “if” but a “when,” so those who expressed surprise that the NBA officially announced an approved outreach plan for a front jersey patch sponsor should not be surprised at all. MLS has done well without issue, the WNBA has worked smoothly, small patches on NHL, NFL and NBA practice jerseys didn’t cause the world to collapse, and this week starts the series of soccer “friendlies” across the U.S., with clubs from abroad wearing some of the most lucrative kits in the world, all adorned with sponsor tags front and back.  NASCAR it won’t be. A lucrative, very lucrative and needed revenue stream is what it is, one that will hopefully offset the rising price of operations and not force ticket prices to keep going to the stratosphere.

 So let’s say the jersey sponsor goes well and expands to other sports…even…maybe baseball…at least starting at the minor league level. What’s next? Two ideas, one of which is not tobacco, which was the life blood of sports revenue as recent as 20 years ago.

Hard Liquor and Condoms: Some networks and leagues have started to relax the spirits category, and new stadia are adorned with spirits-sponsored clubs. The rules still restrict some forms of advertising and promotions but the dollars for brands to spend are in place, and characters like Diageao’s Captain Morgan are popping up in more places than R.J. Reynolds’ Joe Camel cartoon for Camel Cigarette’s ever did.

Similarly, while male enhancement pills like Cialis and Viagra have dominated sports ads for several years, condom advertising is still largely off limits. New rules for condom advertising, especially tied to HIV prevention, are going to open up the category and can drop condom ad spending right into sports at a big price.

Gambling: The leagues will never attest to supporting, but we live in a world where fan engagement is becoming more and more important. New Jersey governor Chris Christie is pushing hard to overturn the ban on sports books in casinos outside of Nevada, and if successful it will change the atmosphere and the opportunity for legalized, government controlled sports wagering. Wagering, and all the advertising and revenue associated with it, is legal in many parts of the world, and that opening of the market…and maybe at first its for goods vs. dollars…and the growth of the mobile space could dwarf the revenue streams for teams in almost all categories except maybe beer. An opportunity for incoming dollars that once was way off the radar is coming more and more into view.

Sure there will be naysayers who will maintain that these categories should never be addressed and that teams and leagues are just too greedy. it will ruin the image of team sport yet again. However we live in a global environment where most if not all of these streams have been active for years and in order to try and help maintain whatever is left to have casual fans engage and attend events, these next steps will be taken. How soon? Well you won’t see gambling addressed in an election year for sure, but condoms and spirits? probably soon. Regardless, what has worked and is accepted elsewhere will come to the States soon. It makes too much sense…well at least dollars…to be ignored much longer.

Filed Under: FIFA, MLS, NBA Teams, NFL Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Will The #NASCAR Tweet Experiment Work?

June 10, 2012 by

On Sunday at the now ultra-fast Pocono Raceway, NASCAR, one of the best sports at fan engagement, will launch their latest attempt to capture casual fans by partnering with Twitter for a co-branded racing page.

It will be promoted at the racetrack and on television, and the Pocono 400 will be renamed the “Pocono 400 Presented By #NASCAR,” which for a sport that is all about selling every possible piece of real estate to brand partners, is a very big move. The page offers a brand-new Twitter interface that prominently features photographs and is optimized for quick navigation. The #NASCAR page will be curated by Twitter employees, with a custom mix of tweets from racing personalities, organizations, family members, and sponsor promotional accounts. It will also be set as a draw for people new to twitter as well as casual fans drawn in to see what NASCAR is all about in a medium they are familiar with.

Turner Sports has also bought into the experiment with cross-promotional elements to see how a social media following can also increase tune-in on a very busy spring weekend.

Now the quest to bring in ancillary eyeballs is not new for NASCAR. Attempts have been made to mainstream the personalities of the sport and their loyal followers with everything from Harlequin Romance books to fine wines, all to various degrees of success. Some die-hard followers have seen this type of outreach as a betrayal of a brand, while new advertisers see it as a way to find new followers themselves.

Will it work for Twitter as a promotion? Probably? Has it gotten NASCAR some buzz and additional interest? For sure, as it is always great to be “first” in a partnership. Will brands look at the data and then find ways to use this large scale page and outreach to customize offerings away from the race and the broadcast, which could lead to new sales from an audience not exposed to NASCAR? That remains to be seen.

One key positive is that, smartly, NASCAR has worked to engage all areas of media in this partnership. The track promotion, cross-promos with drivers and most importantly the link to broadcast, gives everyone a fighting chance. Many brands, leagues, teams and athletes have sought to just create “social media” without integration, and while sometimes there has been a great pop, the follow-through has been less than expected, and very quickly those trying to engage and draw dollars just from “social media” go on to other things to spend money and time.

If it works, for sure other entities will follow. If not or if the results are negligible, it will be back to the drawing board for NASCAR, and for twitter as an effective and lucrative way to pull in followers and eventually dollars for a property.

Filed Under: NASCAR Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Troops Still Remain A Largely Untapped Platform…

May 28, 2012 by

As Memorial Day is upon us here in the States, it is interesting to take a quick look at a group that is passionate, young, loyal, appreciative, athletic, budget conscious and enthusiastic, yet is among one of the most underserved groups for brands looking to reach the male demo and grow a fan base…the men and women of the military. While the Federal Government recently announced a big cutback in sports spending on recruiting advertising (over $80 million affecting properties like fishing and NASCAR at first), it remains a mystery as to why many brands looking for that young active male demo don’t go right to the bases and places where these loyal families and “captive” audiences sit. Armed Forces Radio and TV remains a very fertile and cost efficient ground for sports brands to reach a loyal audience, and bases are always looking for programs to keep the troops and their families busy and connected to mainstream America. More importantly, these groups, once discharged, remain very loyal to those who supported them while serving their country, with NASCAR-like brand buying and affinity. So why don’t more brands look to use sports to activate with the troop. Is it because of the perception of Red Tape? The sometimes transient nature of the military and their families? Neither are clear but for those brands who can figure it out, the captive audience waiting to attach to their products, services and even teams as potential viewers and ticket buyers, is huge. Now there are a number of strong programs that serve as one-offs for honoring military men and women once at the game to give them and their families a chance to attend events. Camoflage Kids is one great one, and on Memorial Day MLB will have a series of ceremonies at all games, but those are all outbound programs once these young people are on site. Brands should look to base activation programs, tied to sports, to really make a sound investment.

Now virtually every sports property honors a local vet during a break in play. Those moments are inspirational for sure. Some teams have set about hiring programs for those returning in droves from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. All good. However sustaining programs that support the military and their families at the core rather than just a base visit here or there is really what would be unique. It may not sell huge amounts of tickets at first, but the word of mouth amongst the military is very powerful, and the legacy built in for what will be a long future of a solid fan base or a consumer alliance is probably well worth the initial investment. Several lifestyle sports…NASCAR, the UFC, Ironman…have done a good job with putting their brand with the core of the military. Finding a brand to activate with that sport is still not easy though, but combining that powerful sports brand with a solid consumer program is something that is worth cracking as we hopefully move toward more troops coming back to the States and entering civilian life.

Filed Under: CBS, MLB, NASCAR, NBA Teams, NFL Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Yin and Yang of Twitter…Osi Umenyiora and NASCAR

May 22, 2012 by

The endless debate rages on as to how and what twitter as a social platform can do for sport. We started the weekend with New York Giants defensive lineman Osi Umenyiora trying to use the medium to help Lawrence Taylor buy back his Super Bowl ring…provided Umenyiora found a million followers. Then we had NASCAR cutting a “deal” with Twitter to help manage and effectively market the medium to the sport’s uberloyal fan base, starting with the Pocono 400 in June.

One great idea, one poor one. Why?

Below are some thoughts we put in the updated Sports Publicity text which will come out in November on twitter usage. In the case of an individual athlete, the idea that “I will do this if I get to a million followers” has jumped the shark. It hasn’t worked with charities for the most part, and is becoming white noise with athletes and other sin the entertainment field trying to get a mass following “just because.’ The social media audience is becoming more savvy, and the days of quality followers that can be used to merchandise brands or other partners is becoming more important than just volumes of passive followers, many of whom may be spam or may never actually read or engage in anything that the “prominent figure” endorses . There is also a growing backlash from athletes and others who try to openly use twitter growth or Facebook likes as a ploy to help a charity or a brand.

If the effort was sincere, then why not just support the effort with the fan base you have cultivated, and use traditional media to help grow the word as well? Sincerity in cause and brand marketing is much more important than “follow me.” The other need is for consistency of message. The ability for athletes or any celebrity to endorse one brand this week and another random one the next is getting more and more difficult. People want to be cultivated and want to see a steady message, not some willy nilly shoutouts. Sure there are a few exceptions…an Oprah shoutout or something that Shaquille O’Neal may like carries weight because their work in cultivating followers has taken time and has been proven effective. It is very, very difficult to replicate, especially when someone is pleading for followers with no real backup.

Umenyiora’s appeal is a great example of what happens when the request for followers rings hollow. It is great that he got to 50,000 plus followers. That is the core he should work with and that is still a powerful group that will grow, so long as he seems sincere in his efforts. Otherwise the white noise gets louder.

Now NASCAR is a different story. Their athletes are marketing machines, they appear sincere in their outreach and the fans are looking for more interaction. They rarely have to seek, fans seek them and will follow.

NASCAR has also allowed, as we have seen in previous races, to use social media platforms for drivers and crews in race, the biggest result of which was Brad Keselowski tweeted from his car a photograph he had just shot of a jet-dryer truck engulfed in flames right after having been rammed by driver Juan Pablo Montoya. He added 100,000 Twitter followers in a few minutes because of his content and the viral nature of the shot.

The partnership with Twitter will support live race broadcasts. During a race, when fans click on #NASCAR, search for #NASCAR on Twitter.com or visit twitter.com/#NASCAR, they will reach a Twitter platform scrolling the most relevant tweets from NASCAR drivers, families, teams, commentators, celebrities and other racing fans and personalities. Twitter.com/#NASCAR will be available starting with the Pocono Raceway race weekend and then on June 10 in conjunction with TNT’s first of six television broadcasts of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
Smart way for the medium to embrace, and for sure a good litmus test of proactive brands who will not have to beg for exposure. The exposure will come to them. Quality beats quantity.

Now those points…

One, it’s not for everyone.

Just like parties or driving fast cars, social media is not a practice for everyone. Coaches, athletes, even some brands may be risk averse or simply not have that much to say. Therefore participating in a social media campaign of any kind is not something that everyone must do. Understanding and following what is going on from a distance makes sense, so being on twitter or Facebook from a monitoring standpoint is a great thing to do. If you have nothing to say, or add, then don’t say or add anything.

However understanding what is going on is important. Silence can be the best form of intelligence.

Two, Size doesn’t always matter.

When social media exploded there was a burst to get to large number of followers. However social media is about peer to peer engagement of thoughts and ideas. Making sure you, your client, your business partner have the right followers, whether they are 20 or 20,000, is just as important as having a million in many cases.

Three, know who is in your posse.

Many people sign on to twitter or Facebook, Google Plus or engage in LinkedIn or any other social platforms and never bother to see who is following them or why they are following them. Ask from time to time; check your lists for spammers or unusual content, block those who are offensive to you. Just like people at a party in your house, responsibly managing your lists is an important piece of business maintenance. Then, knowing who and what is being said amongst your user groups will make your social media engagement just as valuable and effective as anything else you do in communications.

Four, ask questions.

Make sure you ask people why they are following you if you don’t know. Drop a question from time to time to some followers. It is important to be involved in the social space if you choose to be, so engage when you can.

Five, speak when you have something to say.

Many people fall into the trap of speaking just for the sake of saying something. Don’t. If you have an idea, a link, a story to communicate then do so, and make sure it is reflective of your overall social strategy. Don’t just post something because you haven’t said anything in a while and feel a need to do so.

Six, remember who you represent

Sometimes people think that they can separate their personal thoughts from their professional by using a “this is my thought not my company” disclaimer. That can be a big mistake. We are all intertwined for better or worse, and the alter ego idea in the digital space does not work. You speak for all those you represent at all times, so always have those around you in mind.

Seven, watch the chains that bind you

It is very easy to comment on a photo or a public chain in social media. Once you are on it you can lose control of those ties and they can spin very easily into a questionable area of comment, whether you are still commenting or intended to be part of a conversation that grew or not. Cut the ties after you comment, it will save you a lot of headaches.

Eight, watch the inference.

We lose all nuance with the printed word, despite the addition of emotions and small catch phrases. If something gets lost in the printed word pick up the phone and call the person. A little voice contact can take much of the sting out of a misguided email, post or tweet.

Nine, Think before your post.

The biggest mistakes made in social media come from those who react emotionally. Be professional, pause and then say what you have to say. Once a thought is out the amount of time taken to retract or clarify will cut away from all the productive time you have.

Ten, Be Genuine and Creative

Don’t use social platforms to create white noise or endless useless chapter about a subject you are working with or promoting. Make your platform as much editorial as advertorial and as diverse as you can. It is social, so be social while balancing the work effort. Social media provides lots of opportunities for us to connect with people from around the world that we would not normally be able to.

Filed Under: Ambush Marketing, Crisis Management, NASCAR, NFL Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Of Beards, Gekkos And Magazines…

April 9, 2012 by

The NHL Playoffs Are Here, So Grow Away: As the NHL Playoffs dawn again, so does the tradition of the unshaven, this year with a twist. It has long been a habit for players not to shave during the playoffs, and in recent years the promotion has been passed along to fans, who can grow their own facial hair for fun and charity, competing team by team. This years USA vs. Canada promotion picked up Just For Men as a natural sponsor, encouraging fans to go unshaven, join together and raise funds to support various charities as their teams advance throughout the playoffs. It is a promo that has grown from the grassroots to the mainstream, and even had the New York Rangers going one better, grabbing Norelco as a sponsor last week to sponsor fans getting one last shave before the playoffs began. With a stronger social media kick than ever behind it, the bearding can probably get even bigger and more mainstream this year, than in the past, riding the strong wave of support the NHL has garnered throughout what has been another strong season.

The Gekko Goes Along For The Ride: It is always interesting to see where the Cavemen and the Gekko for Geico will turn up next, and now it appears the crossover will be more and more for NASCAR. The Gekko made a great visit to Casey Mears garage in Charlotte in a new spot now running across many non-NASCAR platforms. It is a great promo for many reasons…it highlights Mears as a newer face for casual fans, it ties the GEICO brand even closer to NASCAR loyalists, and it opens up even more doors to get the little green guy out and about with a growing number of sports celebrities that fall under the GEICO umbrella. The spot is a little different than GEICO promos in the past, and again shows the value of what a NASCAR team can bring to the table in terms of a wider and more unique scope of partnership.

Family Circle Cup Passes Along Value Again: This past week the Family Circle Cup again made its stop in Daniel Island, South Carolina, in what remains one of the oldest events on the WTA Tour calendar. What makes the stop still so unique is its title sponsor and the ability to use the top tier event as a great activation and pass-through event for all the sponsors of both Family Circle and its current parent company, The Meredith Corporation. For years Family Circle has used the event as a spring stop for advertisers, bringing brands down for a weekend of fun and brand activation. The event’s TV footprint also becomes a showcase for elite brands, such as Dove, to launch activation programs not just around women’s tennis, but for the female and family demo as well. While most media companies will look for more of a broad band approach, Family Circle has chosen to use the annual event as their own pass through activation platform for those who partner with the magazine, an old but very effective way to gauge a corporate calendar. You know every year that this event is yours, in the same place, and build toward it with cross promotion and partnership launch programs for the rest of the year. Managed correctly, this type of event ownership can work very well, although it is somewhat of a dying breed as cost cutting makes such large scale activations more difficult to justify. Regardless, the Family Circle/WTA event is still a great example of textbook activation for an event.

Filed Under: Ambush Marketing, ESPN, NASCAR, NHL, Tennis Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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