NBA teams

Teams are constantly looking for new ways to engage fans, build brand and create added value and access year round. The problem is in this challenged economy, and with all the options out there to draw a fans attention, especially ones that are free, how do you find something that will work and keep someone engaged that will also have enough value to turn them into a new customer or keep them as a repeat customer with their discretionary dollar. One alternative that seems to be more cost efficient and has a bit of a wow factor is outbound personalized calls and video.

The announcement in this week’s Sports Business Journal that Tom Fox will join Arsenal to run their startegic marketing is the latest in a series of moves by elite clubs and sports around the world to try and not only capture ways to engage their own fans, but to try and begin carving niches to make their brands interesting and meaningful to fans in North America, whether those fans are expats now living in the States, new fans or sport like cricket and rugby, and more importantly, brands that may be looking to activate more on a global level.

The announcement in this week’s Sports Business Journal that Tom Fox will join Arsenal to run their startegic marketing is the latest in a series of moves by elite clubs and sports around the world to try and not only capture ways to engage their own fans, but to try and begin carving niches to make their brands interesting and meaningful to fans in North America, whether those fans are expats now living in the States, new fans or sport like cricket and rugby, and more importantly, brands that may be looking to activate more on a global level.

As we inch closer to NFL Training Camp, two interesting notes popped up again in the football world over the weekend, both showing what it will take for the casual fan to take notice of football outside of college or the NFL. The first was up north in the CFL, which incidentally has done a good job of rebranding itself and working with, not against the NFL in many ways. This past week, Toronto receiver Arland Bruce took the Ocho Cinco route by doing a “touchdown tribute” to Michael Jackson, complete with acting dead after a score.

As we inch closer to NFL Training Camp, two interesting notes popped up again in the football world over the weekend, both showing what it will take for the casual fan to take notice of football outside of college or the NFL. The first was up north in the CFL, which incidentally has done a good job of rebranding itself and working with, not against the NFL in many ways. This past week, Toronto receiver Arland Bruce took the Ocho Cinco route by doing a “touchdown tribute” to Michael Jackson, complete with acting dead after a score.

Within a 24 hour period this week, the brand value sport of professional soccer in the United States took a huge jump.

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.

The patriarch of one of America’s legendary families, Joe Kennedy, always preached to his famous sons “You Are Who You Say You Are,” and that creedo is a good example of how today’s brands can best pitch and stay on message. Remembering “who you are” and “what you do” and making sure everyone in the company is in line with that vision is the best way to effectively and consistently communicate. A great example of that consistent messaging, and the placing of a steady stream of information around that message, is being done by the New Jersey Nets as they battle every obstacle in their planned move to Brooklyn in the future.

As everyone gets in a tizzy about which athletes and entertainers are on twitter, facebooking and breaking news on their own websites it is important to remember that the interraction between the media and those they are covering and reporting about…whether that reporting is on CNN or CNBC or the New York Times or blogtalk radio…is still pretty important. No matter how much people can crow about the use of social media, it remains just a part, and still a small part, of effective brand management and communication for fans and the companies associated with teams, entertainment properties and organizations.

The drama of horse racing has always been well…on the horses. Rachel Alexandra’s Derby win was the cover of Sports Illustrated and spark a host of stories about what is good in sports. Last year Big Brown’s almost Triple Crown gave UPS a new marketing platform for over a month and the drama of Barbaro and Smarty Jones in past year’s has always been good theater and a boon to ratings. Sp this year the Belmont Stakes is challenged to draw eyes and attendance, with not just a challenged field and no real favorite but a switch from the promotion-driven NBC to the one-off coverage of ABC for the Triple Crown Series.

While the pressure to find new ways to get bigger ROI and link athletes closer to fans spending their discretionary dollar grows, the legitimacy or original reasons for using social networking as a valuable tool becomes more clouded in many ways. Shaquille O’Neal’s Twitter success, with the help of Charlotte-based Sports Media Challenge, broke the ice and showed athletes and brands how that medium could work as a successful connection tool.

It started with mic’ed up athletes and coaches, evolved to Helmet cam and driver cam and on and on until we get Tweets from Charlie Villanueva and others in the lockerroom all in the name of trying to give fans unprecedented access to the athlete in a time when the media are getting less and less access on a daily basis. So the ways brands have to look and think about what is still available and what is next remains a growing challenge for a demanding public, demanding brands and a shrinking traditional media field. The folks at Sprint, through their NASCAR Partnership, have come up with yet another piece of an insiders look, and found the perfect way to use their distribution methods to their subscribers to provide it.

For as long as we have had promotions in sports, teams have worked with franchises for “special prizes” when teams hit milestones in games. Free fries for a 100 points, double chili for six goals etc. etc. have always been a get something for nothing mantra that drives foot traffic as the added bonus for a team partnership for many retailers and franchisees. In February Quiznos took in one step further by using many of its sports platforms to promote its one million free sub giveaway, which generated a countless amount of foot traffic and publicity even with some of its snafus with demand outreaching supply.

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.

Last January, with Scott Price’s Sports Illustrated piece on then-candidate Barack Obama, we wondered if other candidates would take to sports to try and pull in the casual male voter who may not really be interested in politics but would put a guys guy in the White House. Price’s piece was followed by the now well known series of sports-themed shots and pieces about the President, while the other candidates never really looked to sports as a catalyst. John McCain golfed a bit and ventured to NASCAR races, and then-Senator Clinton never even looked to young women as a way to garner the support of young athletes.