It’s that time of year where we can find the good in everything, especially those who look to every opportunity to make lemonade with lemons.
First there is Houston Texans defensive end Jadeveon Clowney who created a firestorm in the social space early last week by calling Jacksonville Jaguars Blake Bortles “trash” following their matchup last week.
The comment went from the social to the physical, as entrepreneurial Jags fans sent Clowney physical trash cans with the requisite garbage as a response. What did Clowney do, in addition to backing off the heat of the moment comment?
He took the trash cans and filled them with gifts for needy children in Houston. Rather than amplifying a feud, the Texans star took advantage of the situation to spin a negative into a bigger picture positive. Smart thinking by his team, the Texans and by Clowney for going along with it.
Then we have the Milwaukee Bucks, who, despite being in a small media market, have found a great number of ways to draw attention to their brand this year and amplify every bit of a business message they can to a larger audience in the sports and entertainment media world.
The latest example came this past week, when they took a pretty mundane announce; signing Master Lock, as the “Official Lock of the Milwaukee Bucks Locker Room” for their new arena, the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center and used their internal assets to create a video that went viral.
Yes there was the requisite added value of tagging video as part of the deal, such as the Bucks Locker Room Report will be presented by Master Lock and will consist of a series of branded player interview segments after each Bucks home game. But using the Bucks mascot in a fun viral with Mike Bauer, Master Lock CEO to kick off the announcement gave the news added legs. The power of Bucks.com, NBA.com and sharing the video with influencers brought creativity and light to a partnership which would have been passed by with many organizations. That mentality of finding a niche and exploiting it was a great boost for all involved, and showed how a little creativity with existing assets can go a long way.
Will it work for every partnership? No. But it goes to show that a little thought and effort can go a long way. Score one for the Bucks, one of two great examples of how thought, creativity and spin can turn a negative or a mundane into something bigger and better.
