college basketball

There are many cynics that may say President Obama can spend his time, and the countries’ dollars…doing better things than glad handing the MLS champion Columbus Crew at the White House before heading off to throw the first pitch and hang out in the FOX booth at the All-Star game. However, the man who the Washington Times called this week the “Sports Fan Chief” , was astute enough with his team to recognize early on in his run to the White House that sports is a common bond for those on the fence about anything political, and gave him, more than any other candidate, another link to a demo that may or may not have voted or listened to him at all.

As the NBA Draft approaches Thursday, it will be interesting to see the branding winners and missteps taken, and how quickly in this digital age teams will look to immediately activate with their picks…will guys be twittering new fans from the podium, who will be the first to stream and text messages back home and will any team look to Twitter their pick before it is announced, as happened in the NFL Draft? Speed and immediacy, whether they can be monetized or not at this point, will be interesting, as well as how well athletes today understand perceived brand value vs. real brand value.

A few weeks ago we touched upon the great opportunity that college athletic departments of all sizes have in these troubled financial times to learn, become more business-like and show true value as community leaders to the students and the institutions they represent. Still the troubles continue ahead, as instead of investing and learning the business of sports, more colleges are looking to cut around the edges and find ways to slow the process of media relations and athletic branding down, rather than taking steps to grow through investment, a practice which certainly is taught in the classrooms of any basic history or economics class.

The have had proposals on air, the signature blue field, amazing comebacks and challenges to the BCS…now Boise State is looking to use aggressive social media tactics to grow its brands and expose its athletes to the widest grassroots audience possible in an attempt to market outside its nice audience. The Broncos plans for the summer were discussed in detail in this weekend’s Idaho Statesman, and though not unique as one off’s. they show a solid unified plan for a midmajor school looking to invest in its brand and get exposure where traditional media is limited.

One of the best sites on the web for sports things digital is Pat Coyle’s Sports Marketing 2.0, and they recently did a summary on the NFL Draft and teams use of twitter to actually break news (which was also put together by the Sports Business Daily). As brands and athletes jump to the twitter bandwagon, it shows that the technology may have an immediacy that others do not have for exclusive news distribution.

Often times colleges in mid or low mid major positions will look to take risk in order to shock the system into a new level. The hiring of coaches, the jump to a new division or a new league, an aggressive marketing campaign all usually revolve around the elusive grab for both attention and the sponsor dollar, and with that the even more important alumni dollar. Into that mix usually goes some strange bedfellows…New Jersey Institute of Technology and their foray into a western conference, Army to Conference USA, Bob Hill going to Fordham as hoops coach are just some examples of bold and sometimes unsuccessful moves made by Universities that come to mind.

One of the biggest reasons to have a strong communications leader in a company that has a public face is in times of crisis. Keeping everyone on track, following the flow of information, working with public authorities and media who may not be familiar with your situation or practices, and having the organization speak with one voice are critical when problems arise. For better or worse, one of the best groups at dealing with crisis, more because of habit than anything else, are the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels, led by their long-time head of Communications Tim Mead, were dealt such a difficult situation this week with the sudden, tragic loss of pitcher Nick Adenhardt, but they handled the public positioning very well.

A few recent instances have come up which show when sports or entertainment brands can test the waters to see what is acceptable for their fans and more importantly, their business partners. First was the UFC. CEO Dana White has done a phenomonal job of building that property to as close to mainstream as MMA may ever get, especially in a down economy where discretionary dollars will still go to the main four team sports, as well as NASCAR and soccer, in North America. Still, the UFC, with their great TV partner in Spike, have carved a niche with sponsors like Bud Light and Harley Davidson among others. Not huge spends, but very smart ones to access the demo and the UFC experience.

We have often talked about the new ways NASCAR has derived in a down economy to reach the consumer and work with their partners. This week brought another series of innovations, the biggest of which is a new education module tied into science to reach students who love invention and innovation, but may never have gotten near a track, a driver or any of the brands around the sport. The Science of Speed , an online teaching component available free to all teachers, marries NASCAR’s racing and engineering experience with simple experiments and programs for science teachers to apply in their curriculum to students.

The celebrity endorsement world is always a tricky one, especially in times where every move and every dollar is being scrutinized as it is today.

The Subway chain has done a great job in recent years of finding ways to attack the demo they are trying to reach, whether that is through their team of athlete endorsers, NASCAR or even through their weight loss king, Jared. By going after those groups, Subway spoke right to the adult who chased fast food, and their affordable meals and “Eat Fresh” campaign resulted in some great brand building and awareness, not to mention sales growth.

As March Madness continues on the the necessity of these added Division I tournaments continues to be in question, we noticed two great examples of brand activation on lower level events pointed out by some quality bloggers. First Brian Gainor’s Partnership Activation blog had a good piece on how a local BMW dealer used the Division II Peach Belt Conference Tournament to activate, drive traffic and create buzz in the area.

The world of the have’s and the have nots in college athletics ebbs and flows in any given year, and this time of year the hope for Cinderella trying on the glass slipper in March Madness is what keeps fans up at night. However what keeps many coaches and administrators up at night is what happens when you are a good mid-major or even a rebuilding school in a major conference and the Big Dance, or even the little dance, the NIT, don’t come calling. The answer for some is to go and try another tournament or another…and this year we find not one “alternative” but two….The College Basketball Invitational and the CollegeInsider.com….

Whether you are looking for a vasectomy or recreating a classic moment with the help of a popular energy drink, there will be no shortage of activation campaigns on all levels as Selection Sunday comes into view. Darren Rovell reports that last year’s promotion by an Oregon urologist for vasectomies has gained steam this year and may even be copycatted across the country, while Barry Janoff in his blog goes into great detail on Vitamin Water’s promo where fans can send in videos recreating great NCAA moments, as well as the programs by longtime partners like AT and T and Coke.

Any sports fan in North America looks excitedly to the NCAA Tournament in March, as there are few, if any, annual events which gives us more of a true sense of endless possibilities that can occur than March Madness. Partners, even in a slow economy, looking to capture that key demo will line up for collegiate activation programs and work through CBS to get their brands exposed to the mass audience, even if they “underdog” lasts only the 48 hours from first to second round. But we all love our brackets. In light of that, Major League Baseball, and now baseball on a more global scale, has sought to create its own version of March Madness with the World Baseball Classic.