Many times we have said that minor league baseball does the best job of staying relevant with fans and finding ways to build brand even in the offseason, especially since they have such a transient problem with players. On the professional side, perhaps no team does a better job with staying relevant in a very crowded space than the New Jersey Nets, who again this week, in the dog days of August and with players scattered to all parts of the globe, not only found great exposure points but also took a potentially negative story and turned it into a very positive one. The story in point involved an innovative ticket promotion that saw fans have the opportunity to get reversable jerseys, Nets on one side, top NBA players on the other, with a partial season ticket plan. As it was posted on the teams site, Deadspin took the Nets to task for “faking” a team promotion by selling the reversable jerseies. However in the real marketing world, teams are marketing their opponents and their experience more than their players more and more, as a way to pull in casual fans in the hope that you can convert them to fulltime supporters of your brand. Not uncommon at all, only the Nets have taken it to a bit more of a “physical” play by putting opponents jerseys in the hands of casual fans. The innovation actually spurred some tremendous coverage, including CNBC, the New York Daily News and Associated Press along with some debate, which in the middle of a ticket and brand selling season with really one top marketable star right now (Devin Harris) is what a brand could want. Is there risk in driving fans away from the team with the promotio. Little. Is there upside if one of the Nets players on the reversable emerge. Yes. Will it sell ticket. Yes. Great play, great way to turn what was an initial negative into a positive and an innovative way again to keep the team brand fresh and relevant in mid-summer.
