Penguins, Pope and People: Some Warm Best Practices For A Cold February…

The Northeast may be covered in snow and the end of February looks a bit bleak, so here’s to a few positive best practices from the past week.

The Pope Speaks: Mark Pope has not had the easiest of runs leading the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program. Having known Mark from his playing days when he was with us with the Knicks, I have always found him to be very genuine, a deep thinker and a caring person who always seems to find the best no matter the external struggles.

So I didn’t find it surprising that he had a thoughtful, big picture answer last week during a media session with the media students at UK.

Jason Barrett had a great summary of the session, a well as the video, which you can read and see here.

Barrett’s take was just as important, a piece of his work…

The danger isn’t in understanding audience behavior. It’s in allowing those metrics to dictate editorial judgment. If you run a digital department, how often are conversations centered on traffic over impact? If you host a show, are you creating topics that give the audience something to think about and feel or are you talking about subjects that fit the play the hits mantra and prioritize social media engagement and/or ratings? What about if you’re an executive? Are you rewarding creativity and originality or living and dying with Nielsen numbers and digital metrics?

Many executives build strategies around what they ‘think‘ the audience wants. They make judgments by examining what appears on a ratings sheet or what trends on X. If Nielsen says don’t play music to signal a break, they don’t. If capturing 3-minutes of listening in a quarter hour is more likely to work with 4-breaks per hour instead of 3, they follow the plan. And if a flood of replies come in on X in response to a topic, clearly the right call was made.

In a world where “media” are judged by click bait, and “media” is used as a dirty word by those on the receiving end of a microphone or a mobile device without knowing or understanding who is asking the questions, why they are asking and where they are from, Pope’s answer’s were not just professional and smart, they are worth sharing with those on both sides of the media aisle.

A guy to root for, be it at UK or elsewhere.

Penguins and Mr. Rogers: Great promo by the Pens.

Pittsburgh was the home of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for decades, and the game will celebrate the series’ legacy of kindness, compassion and modeling what it means to be a caring neighbor – values that continue to resonate across generations in Pittsburgh and beyond. Fans attending the March 1 afternoon matchup between the Penguins and the Las Vegas Golden Knights will see a variety of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in-arena elements designed to celebrate kindness, community and learning, highlighting the beloved children’s television icon and his deep roots in the Pittsburgh community. A special ticket package is also available and includes a Penguins-branded Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood-style cardigan, designed to honor Rogers’ iconic look. The sweater ticket package can be purchased here. Additionally, PensGear will also be selling an exclusive Penguins and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood t-shirt.

This isn’t the first time Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood has had a presence at a Penguins game. During the 1991-92 season, as part of the NHL’s 75th Anniversary Celebration, Fred Rogers served as the Penguins’ “Celebrity Captain,” skating onto the Civic Arena ice to accept the honor while receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.

Doing Little Things. Lastly, I was served a refreshing reminder of the value of doing little things no matter how busy we are. On Friday I was helping out the Harlem Globetrotters with their 100^th season game at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. It was the end of a hectic but very productive 72 hours out west, but when I am usually in western travel for less than a week I try to stay on New York time as best I can, which usually means waking up around 4 or 5 and getting ready to call it a day around 10. Luckily the Globies show was ending around 9:15 and I was staying less than 200 yards from the arena, so I headed to the post event meet and greet to make sure some folks connected and then was headed out, box checked on all that needed. As I left the court where the players and guests were I turned to my left, and there was the actual star of the night holding court. It was not a player or Globie the mascot, it was a young special needs man who was captured on the building’s amazing HALO doing his signature dance moves during a time out for several minutes. He exuded so much joy, was so detailed in his moves and was so into the event that he came up on the screens more than once and each time got a resounding response not just from the crowd but from the players who were watching as well. He was sitting with his family in an upper part of the arena, but clearly was in the moment without being overtly promotional. It was fun and refreshing during the game.

So fast forward to being tired and having the work done as the night ended. I passed the young man and his two other guests…which turned out to be his mom and his aunt…and smiled as I heard the conversation, and then I stopped and walked back. I congratulated him, got his name, gave him a fist bump and then asked him if he wanted to meet the players.

He high fived me with a loud YES, so off we went back to the reception for a meet and greet for this young man and his family. When we walked in the players immediately recognized him, and he became the hit of the reception. As he was making his rounds getting pictures and autographs I started to head out yet again, his mom came over with tears in her eyes and thanked me for bringing him back, this was a hard earned Christmas present just to come to the game, but it was his extra fun that we were able to reward.

It made my night, and my trip, and served as a great reminder for those of us who take those “little things” for granted. The little effort, the listening, the small items, go a long way for those who aren’t lucky enough to be “in it” every day.