Sport Loves A Comeback Story…So Does The BP Brand

December 22, 2011 by

It has been a slow and steady climb back for the BP brand since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Little by little the company leadership has been working to find ways to look forward and positively to what the company has done as the images of the tragedy in the Gulf fade slowly and the brand rebounds.

Of course one of the greatest areas where comebacks are adored is in sport, and BP, recognizing that opportunity and the drawing power of diverse athletes, recently released their latest far-reaching campaign to again help restore the positive sides of the brand and its thousands of employees to an always cynical public.

The latest campaign is a forward-thinking look at the London Olympics, also a key part of the BP brand reclamation project, although it involves American athletes as opposed to those on the continent. As part of their USOC sponsorship, BP selected a wide swath of Olympians and Paralympians, nine in all, to be part of their proactive ambassador team. The team, from
decathlete medalist Bryan Clay and world-class hurdler Lolo Jones to Paralympic standout and medalist Rudy Garcia-Tolson, will do all the usual messaging and appearance and endorsement obligations that comes with such a partnership.

Their launch through social media and the use of augmented reality to promote their personalities is a great new twist, and one which can be altered and downloaded as the game approach. Held up to any sort of computer or Smartphone camera, the printed cards will come to life as the athletes digitally appear in front of the user sharing exclusive training tips and information about themselves and the sports they love.

Again while all that is a cool twist, what is even better is the potential brand adoption for a younger audience that can come with an augmented reality and/or mobile push for BP. While an older consumer may quickly forget the damage the BP brand did to the environment while he or she is filling up at the pump, a younger consumer is still skeptical about companies that do damage to the environment, so going to a more virtual platform may help engage and message that younger consumer just a bit more. BP is in the mega-business of selling products in a very crowded environment, and the use of Smartphone technology to communicate with that discerning consumer is just one more way they can step outside the crowd.

The other interesting adaption that comes with the use of the smart phone will be how those augmented reality platforms can be used for promotional opportunities. Does a Bryan Clay follower down the line get an opportunity to purchase products at a discount at selected stores, can a Lolo Jones follower be prompted into a sweepstakes for autographed merch or a meet and greet or some sort of Town hall event online with Jones herself. Tracking the spending and download habits and serving the consumer even more is key to such a launch with a digital offering.

Then there is the tie to the USOC and its athletes themselves. Even with all the big business of Olympic sport, the tinge of nostalgia tied to Olympians, especially those not in the high net worth sports of basketball or even swimming, is still very high among the average consumer. BP has tied themselves to successful athletes, but not to LeBron James or Michael Phelps. The stories they selected appeal to a wide range of athletes, and are of athletes with chances for huge success in London. They are established but still have upside, and with that growth BP gets to grow as well.

Yes it is only a piece of their sports engagement, but to combine solid backstories, technology, and the Olympic movement, BP has again picked a spot to find ways to continue to heal and to grow in the mind of an active audience who still needs to know that the company is not done with their recovery efforts, but is understanding the consumer and his or her needs more and more and is communicating to that consumer in the environment…sport…where a comeback and hard work is rewarded regularly.

Filed Under: Crisis Management, NCAA, Olympics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Science, Strategy Bridge The Gap Between Sports Of Mind And Body

December 16, 2011 by

Last Saturday the gym at Mt. Olive High School in Flanders, New jersey was filled to capacity. Mascots roamed the floor, music blared, cheerleaders encouraged little children and parents alike to rise to their feet and cheer, and schools from across the state waged battle against each other for an elusive state title.

It wasn’t hoops or football or wrestling, it was robotics, and judging by the size of the crowd and the over 40 schools that participated in the state final from Marlton to Jersey City, the idea of healthy mind, healthy body os alive and well in the Garden State. The day long event was the culmination of work by middle school students from across New Jersey, each team of whom had to first score well in a country tournament to move on to the state event, with the winner moving on to the World Championships in St. Louis next spring.

The competition was not your father’s Erector Set version of building a robot. Each team had trained for weeks using the LEGO Mind Storm system to have its robot perform a series of complex tasks in 2:30 seconds against another table of robots. The tension was palpable and the sense of team was very, very apparent. The final result saw the Cyber Hawks from River Vale, New Jersey perform the most flawless of tasks throughout the day, earning the state title and moving on to the worlds.

However what is more amazing is the sense of fun, competition and creativity that each of the teams took on throughout the event. From posters to mascots to elongated signs, the students and their supporters cheered with a fervor that would match any athletic event. Everyone who came saw the best of what New Jersey has to offer…healthy competition with a mosaic of children from every ethnic and social background in a healthy competition devoid of many of the trappings that childhood events have these days. There may have been some uber parents in the crowd, but most were there for good natured support both moral and emotional.

The rise of competitive robotics is not just limited to New Jersey. Club robotic competitions have propped up all around the country and are growing with each passing semester, from sixth grade through high school. There was also no “Revenge of the Nerds” feeling at all. Many of the kids looked fit, coordinated and ready to do battle in every form of athletics as well as a competition of the mind. Indeed, mind sports, from robotics to other activities like chess, bridge and even poker, are being seen more and more by organizations like the International Olympic Committee as a way to teach strategy that applies to traditional athletics and help grow the whole young person, combining a healthy mind with a healthy body. Also the rise of “Money Ball” in traditional athletics, where front office positions are being taken up by young people who understand business and strategy as well as athletic fundamentals, is also spurring a new generation where young people will take academics and team activities in the lab or the classroom as seriously as many take athletics. For a rising immigrant population that is more focused in many ways on academics but who is still trying to assimilate to American culture through athletics, activities like robotics provide a great balance. For young people who like athletics but are not into the ultras competitive areas of Little League or Gymnastics, robotics and mind sports can also provide a balance, instilling that sense of team and competition while sating the mind and the skills they excel at as well.

For brands looking to activate against an audience that understands both team competition and gaming, robotics is also a unique answer for engagement. Now it is not to say that analytics and team competitions like robotics should be at the detriment of traditional sports. There is a place for both, and the two actually compliment each other very well. However in a society today where young people are getting more and more technologically savvy, competitions like mind sports and robotics can fill a growing need, keeping young people active and involved and finding ways to stimulate the mind as well as the body.

Is it the start of a long term trend of cyber warriors, or a fad like crystal radios and rocketry was in the 1960′s or 1970′s? The jury bis still out, but judging from the crowds, the engagement and the spirit of competition, the “sport” of competitive robotics is here to stay, and that is not a bad thing for a young group who wants to grow into a well rounded and healthy adult.

Congrats competitors, on to the worlds!

Filed Under: Gaming, Olympics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Row. Row, Row Your Brand…

November 4, 2011 by

This coming Sunday, thousands of runners will take to the streets of New York for the ING New York City Marathon. It is a spectacle like no other, one that celebrates the triumph of the human mind and spirit as much as it sends a message to all watching that health and fitness is a key part of the American way.

That same morning, about 90 minutes southwest of the starting line on Staten Island, another group of athletes will be pushing themselves towards their own triumph of spirit, albeit in relative anonymity for now, and with a goal that is certainly marathon-like, but it still several months away. They are the steadfast, resolute, entrepreneurial and enthusiastic hopefuls for the United States Women’s Rowing Team, working in and around their federation training site and headquarters in Princeton.

Virtually every morning, the team members, supported by some funds from the USOC and the National Rowing Foundation, but largely on their own dime from around the country, hit the water at Lake Carnegie and Mercer County Lake for endless sessions of training as they prepare for their moment in the sun, next summer in London. Training requires 45+ hours per week of dedication, three times a day by rowing, erging, running, biking, yoga and weight lifting.

Most of the women on the team work part-time to try and make ends meet, but it is a struggle. Only one has a “fulltime” job other than training at this point, but that one is helping the entire team in the drive for marketing gold away from whatever may happen on the rivers of London next summer. She is Ali Cox, a former IMG marketing executive who now runs her own Princeton-based company, and the leader behind an entrepreneurial effort to help her teammates maintain a normal lifestyle outside their training, while still being able to focus on the skills needed to make the team and represent the United States.

Cox and her teammates have come up with a formula to create, market and sell a new calendar, “Power and Grace,” with the goal of raising both awareness and funds for the team, funds distributed equally to all of the female team members. While not a cheesecake calendar, the images, taken by esteemed photographers Jordan Matter and Jeremy Saladyga at no cost to the team, portray the members in poses and styles that the women say will give even the casual fan a little more insight, and certainly a more provocative look, at the women of USRowing.

The team set a goal of $100,000 as a benchmark to fundraise through the calendar, and devised the look, the printing, the design, the sales and the marketing all on their own, an entrepreneurial project straight from the grassroots. They haul the calendars around to key events, sell to friends and use social media to get the word out not just to the rowing community, but throughout the Olympic and athletic community. The results thus far? Over 3,000 sold, with the fundraising goal not just a pipedream, and although the finish line is still a bit far off, it is in sight. But why a calendar in an age when the whole world is going less to paper and more to digital?

What they are also doing well with is success in rowing. At the 2011 World Rowing Championships this past fall, the team had four medals, including a sixth consecutive world title in the women’s eight. While the overall team won’t be chosen for London until June 25, the effort, and the marketing experience, will help give all the candidates not only a chance to be successful athletically, but in the business world as well.

So while thousands this Sunday take to the streets of New York in a one day marathon, the New Jersey based women of USRowing will continue their marathon toward success, albeit with a goal of Olympic glory in the distance. Bolstering that effort is an entrepreneurial spirit, in the form of a calendar, that may, just may, help these amazing athletes cross that finish line in London next summer with gold around their necks, and a few more photos on the walls of their supporters.

For a look at the 2012 Power and Grace Calendar go to http://www.thetimefactory.com/products/us-womens-rowing-team.

Filed Under: Olympics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Climbing The Fencing Fence…

August 4, 2011 by

We have now entered the official countdown for London 2012, less than a year to go. So with NBC now locked back in for the long term, the USOC righting their corporate ship, and interest starting to move toward next summer, a few thoughts on what could make a dent in interest leading up to The Games. How about fencing?

OK it will never draw mass numbers to be a professional sport, but on the grassroots level, as well as on the technology side, the sport of fencing is making inroads which could lead to some interesting opportunities for exposure next summer. As a scholarship sport on the collegiate level, fencing is affordable to both create and administer. It teaches great amounts of strategy and hand/eye coordination. It is purely international and it is growing at a good rate in the innercities, places like New York and Detroit, on the club level. The lack of quality fencers has given rise to increased opportunities for athletic scholarships and grants for students, and it’s relative affordability for those who excel have made fencing clubs increase in those areas where there are large amounts of young people looking for a new athletic challenge. Technology has seen masks become clear, which has given rise to show the great emotion and expression of fencers as they ply their trade. Their faces are no longer hidden behind mesh screens. Technology has also increased the opportunity for micro cameras to take fans inside the game, mounted on helmets and even foils, which has given the sport a step up on the internet. Pristine white uniforms lead to a canvas for sponsors, and the high level companies interested in the sport could afford time buys on television which could take the place of poker, which has lost sponsors in the crackdown on internet gambling. The sport has its weapons, and could pull in even more gamers interested in the swashbuckling style and its nuances, as well as fans of the action figure genre who are not pulled to team sports but still want to stay active.

What the sport needs is promotion and personality. the flamboyance of a charismatic champion who can overcome a nemesis to obtain new heights. It has drama, despite its complex point system, and the innercity involvement could remove some of the stigmas that it is just an elitist sport played in the Ivies. In short, fencing has technology, drama, athleticism and a wide open playing field for growth in an era where the individual athlete is taking more and more center stage. it also has an underdog quality that leads to prime Olympic interest, should a series of rising Americans emerge. No it’s not gonna push the Dream team, or gymnastics or even beach volleyball. But it has history and a unique cache that most people “get” when they see it,aand with a little push, maybe maybe its time for renaissance has come. En garde indeed.

Filed Under: ESPN, Olympics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Let The Olympic Social Media Games Begin…

July 2, 2011 by

One of the great aspects of the Olympic Games are the stories of triumph by athletes we may not know that much about, the stories told through either great triumph or through agonizing defeat, and it is through that window, and sometimes it is a short window, that the business of sport grows. In many cases those athletes rise to Olympic glory and then fade back into the fabric of sport, occasionally heard from but rarely on the stage size that they have while competing during the games. Some mega stars…a Usain Bolt or a Michael Phelps…can effectively use that stage to extend, create and grow their brand beyond their Olympic window. Some try and see that the window and the fame that goes with it is fleeting, as people move on to other things in the here and now.

Another aspect of success is how certain athletes can effectively use their success at the Games to invoke social change. This has happened despite the best efforts of the games to remain neutral in the political arena. Athletes are humans and know how to be creative, and their passions give them a window of opportunity for commercialism or for social consciousness that arrives and then closes so they have to best take advantage of that when they can, and the consequences are the consequences.

Now take those two types of opportunities…commercial and social…and insert the world we live in today with new media, and you have tremendous opportunity. You have opportunity for expression and a voice, which is what social media is, and you have opportunity for access to the world to learn more about overnight stars and who and what they are, and the opportunities for the entrepreneurial seem endless.

So this week the International Olympic Committee realized the coming convergence and got out in front with their social media issues for at the 2012 London Games. The IOC “actively encourages” competitors to “post, blog and tweet their experiences.” But it warned that if rules are broken it can withdraw accreditation, shut down online operations and start legal action for damages. Athletes can’t use Twitter, Facebook or personal blogs for commercial or advertising purposes or share videos filmed at Olympic venues. Games-time rules — which apply from July 16-Aug. 15 — also protect the rights of Olympic broadcasters and sponsors. The IOC also urged athletes not to comment on their opponents or reveal confidential information, and to conform to the Olympic spirit and charter. Posts, tweets and blogs should “be dignified and in good taste, and not contain vulgar or obscene words or images.” The IOC has drawn up the rules in the aftermath of violations during the last Winter Olympics, which included skiier Julia Mancuso, someone with a short window to monetize success, using her platforms to sell items ties to her success.

While it is smart for the IOC to recognize the issue and get out in front, and even set guidelines for posts as opposed to other bodies who have tried to shut down athlete social media around competition, the policy will have its challenges. Social media is about emotion and access, and the access is what will make following athletes interesting during the games. Being able to get a window inside the games for many people will be interesting…maybe it is not Michael Phelps minutes after leaving the pool, but it would be for a member of the Indian field hockey team to talk about what it is like to enter the Opening Ceremonies, or to meet Dirk Nowitzki in the village. Also the athletes with large endorsement deals already have been gearing up for the Olympics with large followings already, so those people will know and expect to capitalize on access during the Games as well.

Then there are the creative…the fans and the associates…who can use social media unencumbered during the Games from wherever they are. Will brands be able to associate with these people to tell the story of the games creatively, and effectively skirt the rules. Will the IOC have a zero tolerance property for ambiguity during the games, and then slow a medal ceremony because they will try and determine what was a proper post by an athlete and what was an improper post. Protecting the rights of broadcasters and sponsors from ambush is one thing, curtailing the emotion and free speech of an athlete is another. If posts are offensive or racially charged, yes that is an issue. If it is about the emotion of a competition or is an outlet to tell a story then social media should be effectively used.

We live in a very fluid world, and the IOC does address that by setting a policy in advance. What will be interesting is how the policy adapts to the emotion of the athlete and to those who follow the Games, and how such a large scale event will be played out in a world where immediacy and creativity, commercial or not, is now the rule and not the exception.

Filed Under: Crisis Management, Olympics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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