New York Times

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.

One of the big problems with the team sports environment is the reluctance to work together on joint projects that could benefit multiple markets. Because the focus is so much in-market to grow ticket sales and relevance for brand partners, rarely will teams focus on projects that could be mutually beneficial to both without being an encumbrance on anything the team is doing in their area. It is viewed as a missed opportunity of focus, because in today’s marketplace fans exist everywhere, and to find ways to cultivate out of market fans, especially when your home market is a travel destination, is a mistake.

One of the big problems with the team sports environment is the reluctance to work together on joint projects that could benefit multiple markets. Because the focus is so much in-market to grow ticket sales and relevance for brand partners, rarely will teams focus on projects that could be mutually beneficial to both without being an encumbrance on anything the team is doing in their area. It is viewed as a missed opportunity of focus, because in today’s marketplace fans exist everywhere, and to find ways to cultivate out of market fans, especially when your home market is a travel destination, is a mistake.

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 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.

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 is the nichest of the niche, designed to inspire the sailor and sense of adventure in all sports and entertainment fans, albeit using the highest of high tech to satisfy sponsor spend and communicate in real time through satellite technology to millions of logged on interested parties. It is the Volvo Ocean Race, and as it recently left Boston Harbor, it proved again that with the right partners and targeting the right audience even niche sports can survive in a down economy.

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.

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.

The value or effectiveness of twitter for teams, athletes and fans continues endlessly, even spurring a Maureen Dowd column about general use in the New York Times. However there is always room for innovation and proof that the simple technology, even without an ad compenent, can have some unique spin. Take the AAA Pacific Coast League Fresno Grizzlies, who last week set up a Twitter Challenge with the front office of the newest PCL member, the Reno Aces.

As we move into the weekend extravaganza that has become the NFL Draft, it is interesting to see the continued activation, both print and digital, of the NFL machine as fans look to where the future stars will come from. No other off-season “event” has the power for two days that the NFL Draft does. And into the draft cauldron goes some pretty interesting stories, some of which received little attention on the national stage before now. Case in point is the NCAA’s leading rusher, Connecticut’s Donald Brown. While Brown was a key member of the Huskies building a solid Big East football power, the team was hidden in the spotlight of two mega-power college hoops teams and a market trapped between New York and Boston.

Sometimes on the surface the matchup of an athlete or celebrity with a brand may be a little quizzical, and such was the case when high-end shoe retailer Cole Haan announced its first-ever athlete endorsement deal with tennis star Maria Sharapova. Now Sharapova is already becoming the stuff of legend in the endorsement world, even in a down economy. Her deals with companies like Canon, Tiffany and the watch brand Tag Heuer pull in millions, almost as much for her ability to understand and deliver messages to a high end consumer as for her on court results and tennis pedigree. Still, matching Sharapova with Cole Haan still could be a stretch for a brand with little TV presence and no sports marketing background.