Social Media – BaylorS3E

Utilizing LinkedIn for Business Prospecting

kirk_wakefield 2015, Lead, Luxury Suites & Premium Tickets, Networking, Relate, Sell, Social Media, Tickets July 21, 2015October 31, 2018linkedin, NBA, no off-season, Nuggets, prospecting, Rockets, selling, tips 0 Comment

by Mike Dimitroff – July 2015

My sales philosophy: Better to go after the big fish than waste time fishing for minnows! Anyone can go to the local watering hole, cast a line, and catch small fish. But if LinkedIn is your fishing pole, businesses will be the big fish you are trying to catch.

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”550px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]“It’s no secret that today’s business decision makers have greater control over the buying process. Three-fourths of B2B buyers use social media to educate themselves before making purchasing decisions and twice as many use LinkedIn to research purchasing decisions than any other social network.” ~ LinkedIn.com[/dropshadowbox]

If 75% of B2B buyers do social media research prior to buying, you can bet that business professionals preparing to make a large monetary commitment will run a background check on the seller–and that’s you!

First Impressions

People buy from people they like and often decide if they like you within the first few moments of contact. What will buyers think if they look on your LinkedIn profile with no picture? A photo helps prospects put a face to the person they’re talking to and helps develop familiarity.

Your story

Provide a short background story about yourself and list your job responsibilities. I recommend listing sales accomplishments since people are more likely to buy from people who are successful at what they do. They perceive that if other people are buying from you then you must be trustworthy. These may seem like nuances, but they will help build trust with your prospective buyer and trust ultimately leads to sales.

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”350px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]”New and different methods to contact decision makers are invaluable. LinkedIn is an effective, smart tool for prospecting new companies, identifying decision makers and increasing your network. Professional salespeople will definitely increase productivity, generate qualified leads, and have a higher closing ratio when using LinkedIn.” Jesse Salazar, Manager of Season Sales, Houston Rockets[/dropshadowbox]

No Off-Season

At the Houston Rockets, our motto is, “There is no off-season!” Although some sales reps choose this time to relax and take a break, this is the perfect time to build your sales pipeline. I spend most of the off-season business prospecting.

Prospecting

Prospects can come from oil & gas magazines, billboards on your drive into work, or simply searching under the “people you may know” tab on LinkedIn. With over 500+ connections, many are within my target industries of oil & gas, construction, & law firms. When you search for a new company on LinkedIn simply type in the company name and it should pop up under the drop down menu. Once you have your company selected you can begin to filter by city.

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”350px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]“LinkedIn is an essential tool for staying connected to business professionals and a creative method to target companies. C-level executives are almost impossible to get on the phone. LinkedIn is just another way to get in front of decision makers in a competitive business environment where their time is limited to unique salespeople who they see as a resource to get them immediate results.” Rob Zuer, VP of Ticket Sales & Services, Denver Nuggets[/dropshadowbox]

Once you identify a company, contact one of the following from your search of their LinkedIn profiles: Business Development Manager, Marketing Manager or Executive Assistants to CEO. These are typically the people that either make decisions on purchasing season tickets or handle the distribution of tickets.

You make the call

Call the mainline of a company and ask directly for the person by name. I’ve seen sales reps call the mainline and use basic intro lines like this:

“Hi, this is Michael Dimitroff with the Houston Rockets. I was wondering if you could put me in contact with the person who handles season tickets purchases at your company.”

Gatekeepers are taught to screen such calls and you’ve just given them a layup! Instead, act confidently, as if you’ve already had a conversation with the person. Ask using their first names (e.g., Rob, or Rob Zuer; not Mr. Zuer) to give the sense you are familiar with them. Once the gate keeper transfers you to the direct line…now it’s time to work your magic and catch the big fish!

Redefining the sports fan

kirk_wakefield 2015, Digital Strategy, Relate, Social Media March 18, 2015October 31, 2018fan communities, microfame, redefining sports fans, research, social media, tribes 0 Comment

by Alan Seymour – March 2015

The sports fan redefined?

Are sports fans changing? Recent history and experience suggests they are, for two key reasons:

The power of social media enables the fan experience to enhance the future prosperity of sports brands and properties against competing pursuits. The integration of social media with sporting events makes it unlike any other leisure activity.
The growing importance of fan input on sports properties amidst social media dialogue continues to increase fan identification and engagement with all fan tribes & participants.

The premise that fans create fandoms and tribal associations can be considered a main attribute of sports patronage. Recent surveys & interviews I’ve conducted indicate strong emotional connections, as well as strongly evocative commentaries, among fan tribes.

Social media create distinct and meaningful platforms for fan tribes to flourish. The distinctive nature of immediacy, impact & personalisation enable teams and players to engage in direct dialogue with fans and supporters unlike ever before. The intermingling of Experts, Tribes, and Celebrities via social media exchanges may be referred to as the ETC Phenomenon.

The increasing prevalence of fan tribes

Research suggests fans exhibit characteristics of a cult. [ref]Moutinho et al (2007), “Surf tribal behaviour: a sports marketing application,” Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 25 Iss: 7, pp.668 – 690. [/ref] There are four distinct types of adherent to this cult of sport, characterized by:

affiliation
social recognition
socialization
symbolism

Football (soccer) is a classic example. Football‐devoted supporters form a kind of cult with a club. We can distinguish distinct fan typologies varying with the level of fan commitment. Members of the cult (or tribe) affiliate through the need for social recognition, socialization and symbolism. Devoted fans gain a knowledge of club association with sponsoring brands, but may not manifest an effective preference towards the brands. [ref] Dionisio et al, (2008), “Fandom affiliation and tribal behaviour: a sports marketing application,” Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 11 (1), 17 – 39.[/ref]

My recent research suggests that fan behaviours and associations with new media and technologies reflect their strong patronage and allegiance supporting sports club marketing with corporate partners. Social media involvement within the fan tribe enables new processes for teams to engage with fans. This changing sports media landscape and digital culture now permeates how fans view the team and its associations with corporate partners. How these may lead fans to increase (decrease) loyalty and patronage is open to future research.

Create microfame for fans

Fans are clearly the oxygen of sports business, integral to all strategies from every perspective. Teams should consider the notion of creating “microfame,” where the fan is the true star. Digital campaigns can focus on fostering the growth and community of the fan tribe by generating social recognition for individual fans. Such strategies build a strong socialization within fan communities. A good commercial example is the ‘We Believe’ culture with Harley Davidson followers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k0wb6ZK1GM

Leading the tribe

To capture the changing fan, teams will need to be loyal, engaged & above all, digitally savvy. [ref]See, Sport Marketing 4^th edit. Mullin, Hardy & Sutton (2014); also, see Rein et al (2006).[/ref] Sports fans are driving new initiatives as key movers & shakers within the industry, rather than acting merely as spectators. The alignment with fans concentrates on involving them as brand advocates, as much or more so than as consumers of the sporting experience. In the new sports business landscape, what happens off the field is becoming as important as what happens on it. What is your team doing to lead the tribe?

Why the Super Bowl Ads Missed the Mark

kirk_wakefield 2015, Digital Strategy, Marketing, Relate, Social Media February 2, 2015November 1, 2018ads, advertising, Bud, commercials, congruence, context, conversation, CPM, Dove, fun, Nationwide, Nissan, Super Bowl 0 Comment

by Kirk Wakefield – February 2015

Advertisers for Super Bowl 49, at least I’m pretty sure that’s the number we’re on, collectively set the mark for most depressing ads ever. Sure, Fiat, Doritos, Snickers and Supercell did their best to entertain. These are ads we wouldn’t mind seeing again.

Others, however, must have been reading the same research report that people were tired of having fun at the Super Bowl. What these advertisers didn’t realize is that if people wanted to be preached at on Sunday, they would have gone to church that morning.

Why do people watch the Super Bowl?

People don’t watch the Super Bowl to hear a sermon, or to learn something, or to change the world. All those are good, mind you. But, perhaps as a surprise to Nationwide, people eat upwards of 1.25 billion chicken wings, 11 million pounds of chips and 325 million gallons of beer, principally for the purpose of having fun (see other fun facts here).

Granted, one reason for a slate of fare less geared to fun-loving males, is that the Super Bowl is a great opportunity to reach the largest audience of women (46%) gathered at one time. But, the reason advertisers are willing to shell out $4.5 million per 30 second ad isn’t for the one-time exposure to over 110 million viewers. It’s because, like any other sponsorship, Super Bowl ads offer the opportunity to leverage the ad in activating the brand throughout a broader campaign.

Why did the Super Bowl ads miss?

The three (or four) C’s of communication spell out the reasons.

Conversation

Leveraging Super Bowl ads depends on eWom (electronic Word-of-mouth), as well as traditional water cooler talk (tWct). [ref] Note: No one uses this acronym. But, feel free to start.[/ref] We like to share information with others that makes us feel loved, to be included, and to distinguish ourselves from others [ref]Ho, Jason Y.C., and Melanie Dempsey (2010), “Viral marketing: Motivations to forward online content,” Journal of Business Research, 63 (Sept-Oct), 1000-1006.[/ref]. Although open to future research, my guess is that only the few truly enlightened men will be motivated to share with others their feelings about being a dad and how that relates to their choices of Dove or Nissan.

Even if you have relatively high ad meter marks (i.e., 6.0+), that doesn’t mean people are talking about it. And, although I personally liked the Dove ads, overall, men liked it (6.06) considerably less than females (6.70). Such male/female liking differentials are even larger (e.g., 7.65 vs. 8.50 for the Bud’s top-rated “Lost Dog“) among many of the top 25 ads as rated by USA Today’s admeter.

Cost

If we just take the CPM of ads (~$37), there are plenty of other better targeted programs to reach women that wouldn’t include such incredible amounts of waste (recall: 54% of SB audience is male) and hence require much lower budgets in absolute dollars. Further, the “lean-in” factor for women watching the Super Bowl is questionable; surely, women are interested in watching the game on-screen, but not at the same level of intensity as males not wanting to miss a play.

Congruence & Context

Even if advertisers with somber messages have carefully considered the first two C’s, the two biggest reasons communications of any kind do (not) work have to do with congruence & context. Fundamentally, individuals seek out, process and retain information congruent within the context of the situation. We look for things that fit, because it’s easier to connect in the schema of linkages in our brains. Aside from sports, the Super Bowl is about fun and friends. Our brains are wired to look for entertainment, because that is the context of the situation.

We may use contrast, or surprise, to get people to pay attention. But, we do this at our peril–because surprises can be pleasant or unpleasant. An unpleasant surprise results in disgust or distress. These are usually not good things. In any case, a lack of congruence within the context of the Super Bowl makes it difficult to justify the cost because it becomes more difficult to leverage through ongoing conversations people want to have.

The Two Keys to Building a Successful Loyalty Program

kirk_wakefield 2014, CRM, Digital Strategy, Marketing, Relate, Social Media August 1, 2014November 1, 2018fans, goals, hockey, LA Kings, loyalty, message, new, NHL, principles, starting, strategy 0 Comment

by Kelly Cheeseman – August 2014

Everywhere we turn these days we are constantly reminded about loyalty. Every business seems to have a rewards program or a loyalty program. Case in point, on a recent shopping trip to the mall I made transactions at four stores and bought lunch. Four out of the five stops asked me to sign up for their loyalty program including the pizza place! All of the locations were offering perks in exchange for my information. As sports teams evolve and start entering in to this very crowded “loyalty” area of the business, we must not lose sight of what makes our industry unique: We already have loyalty with our fans.

Loyalty and pride of our teams is what our customer base is built upon. The connection with our teams and the memories that come from it is the foundation of the wheel that drives us. Our great fans are with us through thick and thin. Realizing this and leveraging this is an important step as we develop our loyalty platforms.

With the LA Kings and LA Galaxy we have started to establish new loyalty programs, and we strive to drive these programs with two key principles.

#1 Be transparent and authentic with goals and message

There is no doubt that the goal of every loyalty program is to gather more information about customers. Learning their habits and info in order to allow us to reach our business goals is an important part of how we can have success. Our mission is to make sure we are open with our fans that our goal is to gather this information to help make their experience better. If we simply just tell them that they will be rewarded if they attend games or buy tickets, we may not see the results we are looking for in this busy “Loyalty” marketplace.

#2 Return the favor to the fans

Through thick and thin our fans are with us and they expect us to be loyal to them. So asking them for their “loyalty” is a slippery slope that can be insulting if framed in the wrong light.

We need to return the favor with great service and experiences. Our goal with our loyalty program is to build upon this fandom and become fans of our customers. We can’t forget where we come from and we need to celebrate and support our fans by giving them experiences that fit their needs. To some people this may just be free items or discounts, to others this may be experiences you can’t buy. Diversity in their choices is important while recognizing them for helping us and updating them on our progress of improving their experiences. As we establish and run our programs these are the key principles we are shooting for to break through the noise of the evolving and growing loyalty marketplace.

Got a Question? A New Idea? Ask the Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) Forum!

kirk_wakefield 2014, Careers, Lead, Learn, Networking, Relate, Sell, Social Media May 1, 2014November 1, 2018break into sports, community, leadership, professionals, sales management, selling, social network, sponsorships, sports business, sports network 0 Comment

by Kirk Wakefield – May 2014

Post questions to the community

This month we introduce the Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) forum where you can post questions to others in the community. We encourage you to ask others what works for them in the area of ticket sales, sponsorship sales & activation, sponsorship metrics, sales analytics, CRM, social media, digital media, or any other category in the area of sports business.

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#F7D358″ border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Click here to visit the S3 Forum.[/dropshadowbox]

Offer ideas & feedback

One of the options in the forum is to select “Feedback” as the category. Use that category in the forum to post ideas for new articles, ask for help, or offer insights/comments on how we can improve our service to the sports sponsorship & sales industry. We’ll check regularly and follow-up with each idea or suggestion.

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#F7D358″ border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ] Click here to connect with members in the S3 Community.[/dropshadowbox]

Set your profile to public if you want to make friends

You may not need another social network, but feel free to connect here to build friendships among like-minded, goal-oriented people committed to the sports sales industry.

So that others in the community can find you, be sure to set your profile to “public.” Members may edit profiles by clicking on the button in the upper right corner where it says, “Howdy, Your Name.”

I want to join the community. What do I do?

Hey, I don’t see anyone saying, “Howdy” to me.

To join, just click on the social media button in the upper right corner! Or click here.

What can teams learn from Manchester United? How to hang out with fans on Google+

kirk_wakefield 2014, Digital Strategy, Relate, Sell, Social Media, Sponsorships April 1, 2014November 1, 2018@Realmadrid, #FrontRow, community, global brand, Google+, hangout, Juventus, Manchester United, ManU, MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, social media, sponsors 0 Comment

by Alex Stewart – April 2014

Manchester United is a global brand

Manchester United, along with Real Madrid and Barcelona, have the most fans outside their own country. They can count on fans in emerging markets, especially Asia and Africa.

The Red Devils may be suffering on the pitch currently, with the tenure of David Moyes, Sir Alex Ferguson’s anointed heir, currently a stuttering work of bathos, but their relentless commercialization shows no signs of abating. Indeed, it has become something of a running joke that United cannot seem to win much at the moment except for a slew of endorsements and commercial partnerships ranging from Japanese snacks to diesel engines.

Google+ Campaign

Manchester United has an active, if fairly staid, social presence, but they have recently become one of two clubs (Real Madrid being the other) to begin exploiting the burgeoning potential of Google+. With some 1.15 billion registered users, Google+ is a more dynamic, interactive social platform than the less agile social media such as Twitter and Facebook. United has hosted chats with the team on Hangout, and, most recently, launched Front Row, a campaign to encourage that global fan-base mentioned above to participate in the match day experience.

Using a hashtag-based competition, similar to Juventus’ #LoveJu fan choreography campaign, Manchester United invited fans to submit a picture via Twitter or Facebook using the #MUFrontRow hashtag to show their passion for the Red Devils. Winners were then selected from this group to participate in a Google+ hangout, which displayed their faces on the pitch-side advertising hoardings at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United, during the showpiece match against north-west rivals Liverpool.

Why the hold up?

Google+ has been around a while, so why has it taken so long for football clubs to recognise and develop its potential?

Clubs’ use of social seems to fall largely into two camps:

the sometimes successful tongue-in-cheek conversation with fans via Twitter, and
the rather generic release of team information, photos, and match reports via all platforms.

Google+ requires thought in order not to be simply yet another platform on which to post the same pictures and comments. But, with thought, Google+ can be perhaps the most useful of all platforms for clubs.

Google+ fan interaction = community

Fans love nothing more than to debate and discuss, to put questions directly to their heroes, and to feel part of a community. This is especially so when it comes to fans of a team in a foreign country.

If you are a die-hard United fan from Thailand or Ghana, you might never get the chance to go to Old Trafford. Google+ hangouts allow a level of engagement and participation that is immediate, actual, and generates the kind of fan engagement that builds a genuine sense of community.

Circles = Global reach for sponsors

The use of ‘circles’ on Google+ also allows the content managers for United’s social team to tailor material specifically to fans in different countries. This, in turn, has an obvious benefit for a club with specific sponsorship partners in different locations. Those commercial tie-ins can be used only in the circles where the have an impact for the sponsoring partner.

The use of Circles is not the only benefit for sponsors. DHL already hosts the Hangouts with players. AON, the title sponsor of United, sees their logo emblazoned across shirts in every Hangout.

Customized messaging

The tailoring of commercial messages across specific circles can also benefit sponsors. The main plus point, though, is surely that Google+ allows fans across the world to feel connected in a way that other platforms cannot. It creates a direct, bespoke level of conversation, at times a genuinely two-way conversation, with a variety of content that realises and solidifies a fan’s passion for her team.

Football clubs benefit sponsors mostly by positive association rather than direct messaging. The global reach of Google+, married to its ability to create more of a genuine feeling of community than any other social platform, means it could be the most significant vehicle for generating earned media for clubs yet, with all the commercial benefits that entails.

Manchester United might be struggling on the pitch, but in the social space, they’re setting the pace.

Digital CRM is the New Ticket Sales

kirk_wakefield 2014, CRM, Digital Strategy, Marketing, Relate, Sell, Social Media April 1, 2014November 1, 2018CRM, customer relationship management, digital, digital ticket campaign, innovation, Property Consulting Group, revenue, social media, ticket sales 0 Comment

by Neil Horowitz – April 2014

The most eye-popping statistic shared at this year’s National Sports Forum (February 9-11, Dallas) came from Associate Athletic Director and Chief Marketing Officer at the University of South Carolina, Eric Nichols (@ericnichols):

A $38,000 digital media budget realized $922,000 in track-able ticket sales.

That number is astounding to be sure, but the point isn’t so much the level of success, but that taking shots in the dark in digital should be a thing of the past. Data is the new & reigning king in making marketing, sales, and activation as efficient and effective as possible. Companies like the Property Consulting Group who executed the digital CRM campaign for South Carolina are the wave of the future and the now.

Where do you start?

Before investing in some expensive data mining software or hiring an agency, the first thing to do is commit to integrating social, digital, partnerships, & sales. This means insights and ideas are shared across channels and inform best practices:

Is the sales staff ready for a new marketing campaign and the messaging coming from the team to its fans?
Does the marketing team know what questions, concerns, and suggestions are coming from sales leads and fans?
Are sales and leads acquired tracked by source so the value of digital dollars spent can be assessed?
Are analytics from social media content used to optimize messaging, campaigns, and calls?
Social CRM with Microsoft Dynamics

Integration = Sharing

“We’ve gotten better at incubating ideas for web and social media that sales can use in the future,” said Ali Towle, San Francisco 49ers Director of Marketing. A similar sentiment came from Jeff Meyer, Senior Vice President of Event Marketing and Sales for Feld Entertainment. “Our marketing and sales people are one and the same in our organization.”

That sounds all well and good, in an abstract kind of way. But, as is the common refrain in sports, it all comes down to execution. And execution begins with one simple concept: sharing. Sharing data, that is. We may be tired of hearing it, but as long as it’s true we must keep reminding ourselves to eliminate “silos” within our departments.

Understanding what drives sales, what works in marketing, what could be useful for partnerships – all of this data, and the insights drawn from it, should be consistently shared.

Start small and build

We can easily be overwhelmed with the amount of data available. Start with those on your team with the talent and willingness to share and collaborate to reach a common goal. Then begin to utilize big data to get more nuanced with:

specific marketing campaigns
targeted sales programs
sales lead scoring
customer relationship management
web and email marketing analytics
equipping partnerships with data to sell and renew clients

Every action a fan takes to interact with the team is a signal of intent, an insight about their personality, desires, lifestyle, activities, or opinions. The interaction with the customer is where it all starts.

You have a choice: lead or lose

Leaders in the field of sports recognize that mass marketing campaigns and ticket reps pounding out calls to single-game buyers lists from 2009 are old-school.

As David Peart, Senior Vice President of the Pittsburgh Penguins, shared, “There will be a digital transformation. In the next five years, we see marketing as primarily digital and social media and ticket sales relying more heavily upon CRM and analytics, as we interact with fans on a 1-to-1 basis where they are and in the way they want to be reached.”

Those clinging to the status quo will be left hanging by a thread. Those who see the future of digital and big data have already begun the transformation. Where will you be?

Cover photo courtesy of the Digital Traffic Squad.

#LoveJu: How Juventus & Jeep Partner to Target the Digital Fan

kirk_wakefield 2014, Digital Strategy, Marketing, Relate, Social Media March 1, 2014November 1, 2018activation, brand, communication, Creative sponsorships, engagement, fans, Juventus, Serie A, soccer, social media, sponsorships, Success, twitter 0 Comment

by Alex Stewart – March 2014

#LOVEJU

Juventus, la Vecchia Signora of Italian football, may be one of the most established brands in Italy, but she recently showed the sort of innovative approach to earned media that many newer, more agile brands could only sit back and admire. Using a multi-platform approach to social media, Juventus ran a competition to design a vast choreography within the stadium during the heated match with fellow soccer grandees Inter Milan.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foKIndrO6Uc

Users uploaded their suggestions via a Facebook app for a placard-based design to be rehearsed and performed by the Juve faithful as the teams took to the pitch. The app received:

3122 suggestions,
over 4000 registered users,
290,000 views, and
over 18,000 users voted for their favourite submission online using the #LoveJu hashtag.

This hashtag is itself a superbly crafted example of digital interactivity, a homophonic pun that is simple and appealing, and works on a platform where English is still the most used language.

During the game, the interactivity continued, as tweets using #LoveJu were displayed on the stadium’s massive screens. Many events now have this form of interactivity and it surely cannot be long before most stadiums in Europe follow suit, with the appropriate levels of screening, obviously.

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”650px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

“This was a great initiative, yet another example of Juventus’ modernity and innovative thinking. A number of clubs are embracing social media in Italy and doing a really good job at engaging with their support. The other clubs that spring to mind are Milan, Roma, Fiorentina and Parma with Inter and Napoli probably a touch behind though not by much. To return to the #LoveJu initiative, though it looked great and was a real success, I do think fan choreography is at its best when it’s spontaneous and designed by the supporters rather than the club.” ~ James Horncastle[/dropshadowbox]

Proper planning

Juventus’ initiative was over three months in the planning. They have had a digital department for two and a half years, which is longer than many clubs in Europe. I asked whether there were plans to follow up the choreography event and was told, perhaps a little cagily, that “it’s something that could perhaps be considered, but we view this particular event as more of a one-off”. Of course, with the app already produced and the hashtag well established, the nuts and bolts of such an initiative are in place, so any reactivation would be fairly straightforward. Indeed, one might ask why, given its undoubted success, it would not be something that the club would commit to. I suspect that it is an example of comms smoke and mirrors, rather than a genuine likelihood that it was a one-off.

Connecting the dots for sponsors

The Juventus spokesman I spoke with stated that “one of the aims of our social media initiatives is to give visibility to our sponsors.” Of course, this is achieved by repeated visual exposure to the shirt and its sponsor, Jeep. Beyond this, though, and the obvious positive brand association with a widely covered and ground breaking social media initiative, it is difficult to see any immediate, tangible benefit accrued by sponsors.

The predominant benefit for sponsors, anyway, is visual earned media and positive association for fans of the club with that brand. So, in that respect, something which is globally reported and talked about as a viral event achieves that aim. Nonetheless, I suspect that clubs and sponsors are working hard to maximize the earned media potential of social media engagement.

Building the digital fan base

The Juventus spokesman told me that social media is for the club is about:

building a closer relationship with our fans and football aficionados,
understanding their needs and opinions, and
gaining and reaching out to new international fans worldwide.

The digital age has spawned what I like to call the digital fan, someone who may live on the other side of the world, but who feels part of the supporting community and lives that support as part of a connected web of fans, using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to participate in the supporter experience.

Before you might have been able to buy a club shirt and watch the occasional game on television, but now clubs can generate and drive support and engagement with social media. Fans feel actively part of the community through chat rooms, forums, and other online discussion platforms. Games can be watched on a wide array of satellite channels or live streams online. A digital fan can be almost as engaged as a season ticket holder who sits in the stands every week, and may even be more knowledgeable and active in their online life.

The #LoveJu choreography initiative was clearly designed to tap into this digital fan base and did so, registering interest from all corners of the globe. It is important for the digital fan to feel connected and so the participation rates for effectively planned events are high. Since this captive market puts itself forward to be part of an event, what sponsor wouldn’t want a piece of that action?

Opportunities for global brand partnerships

More and more events of this nature will be coming from clubs with a global fan base. Global clubs and brands may partner to activate on each other’s websites and feed back into the clubs’ other communication channels to increase visibility and brand engagement. The potential is too big to ignore; where the Old Lady of Turin has led, others will surely follow.

Super Bowl Ads: A Kid’s Point of View

kirk_wakefield 2014, Marketing, Relate, Social Media February 4, 2014November 1, 2018advertising, Buffalo Wild Wings, Cheerios, children, Coke, Dorito, esurance, Heinz, Oreos, Pistachios, Radio Shack, Steven Colbert 0 Comment

by Deven Nongbri – February 2014

And now a message from our kids: KISB = Keep It Simple Brands

Even though the game itself was a one-sided romp , the marketing sideshow known as the Super Bowl Ads continue to be of interest both before and after the big game. And of course during the game. A well-executed campaign has tactics leading up to the game in addition to real-time marketing elements for the game itself and a little something to amplify the buzz coming out of the game afterwards. Advertising in the Super Bowl (whether your brand is on TV or not) is a huge deal these days.

And so it’s critical that your marketing efforts both reach and engage your intended audiences. Given the fact that 111.5 million viewers watched the game on TV (and even more were reached online), your message needs to be accessible to those millions and simple to understand to the many.

Albert Einstein once told the faculty at Princeton the same thing: “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.1” Same is true in the agency world; if you don’t have a grasp of your client’s product/service, how can you create effective marketing communications?

With that in mind, which Super Bowl advertisers have a simple enough message to get through to the proverbial six year old in all of us? We decided to see for ourselves with my own four year-old son and seven year-old daughter providing the running commentary on the ads during the game.

Which ads won the day for the kids?

Wonderful Pistachios

The overwhelming favorite, for both the four and seven year old was the “Wonderful Pistachios, Part 2” spot. Who’d have thunk fifteen seconds of airtime would have the kids rolling on the ground laughing so much? Fake news man Stephen Colbert was the just the right amount of pushy to get the point across and surprise everyone in the process. I see green pistachio-head costumes in our Halloween future.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MErkYH-FNo

Heinz

Two year-old: “It tooted.” Enough said. And it brought the house down. And now we’ll be dealing with kids trying to get that exact sound from every plastic condiment bottle in the fridge. I wonder how this played out with others?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAhkswKitQg

Doritos (Time Machine)

Of the two Doritos ads shown on TV, this one clearly had the kids engaged. They liked the idea of the kid pulling one over on the adults, but our scientifically-minded four year-old summed it up with, “Too bad time machines don’t work.” They both understood the humor and the product; bad news next time we head to the grocery store with them. I was sure the special effects of the Transformers or Spider-Man trailer would have pulled better, but the three ads above were recalled right away, and with a level of real enthusiasm about retelling each ad, complete with sound effects. It could also be that their top three spots were all food items, things they could relate to and have enjoyed at one time or another (viz., brand relevance).

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P0Hs0ADJY

What did they think of the kids they saw in ads?

Cheerios – Gracie

Seven year-old: “She needs to just eat those Cheerios before her Daddy gets to them.” Not saying that happens at home. Nope. Never.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKuQrKeGe6g

Coke – America the Beautiful

Both kids were stopped in their tracks when the first child started singing. They both listened intently as the ad played and the four year-old made a surprisingly thoughtful comment, “It’s nice to hear different people sing the same song.” I’m pretty sure that’s as simple a message as Coke would want to get across.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=443Vy3I0gJs

Did the kids pick up on any real-time marketing efforts?

Thankfully, no. From what I could tell, other than Buffalo Wild Wings informing folks they didn’t have a button to liven up the game , no one brand stood out like Oreos last year . JCPenney did capture the scorn of many with its attempts to be clever and relevant with real-time marketing and esurance cleaned up after the game.

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”300px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ][slideshow_deploy id=’4329′][/dropshadowbox]

Any parting thoughts from dad?

The Radio Shack spot was pretty comical and kicked off a lot of conversation about what 80s characters everyone saw in the commercial. Said the seven year-old, “You actually remember those guys when they were on TV the first time?!” Yeah, kiddo, I do.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUwwZHdx6SU

Postlog

Click here to read more from our readers: What do sports executives kids think were the best ads? Would your kids agree?

Cover photo courtesy of Padu Merloti.

How Can Teams Use Social Media To Build Brand, Develop Fans & Tell Their Story?

kirk_wakefield 2014, Digital Strategy, Marketing, Relate, Social Media February 1, 2014November 1, 2018digital, Dodgers, fan base, personality, social media, super-fans, tell a good story, twitter, University of Miami 0 Comment

by Neil Horowitz – February 2014

Before the days of social media, the frequency and avenues of touch points between brands and consumers, and teams and fans, were few and far between. Beyond media broadcasts and ads, team slogans printed, and in-venue experiences, the concept of building a brand and using it to develop fans and partnerships was an afterthought. But times have changed and the ubiquity and depth of social and digital media in sports has made brand building not just a possibility, but a necessity. Teams and their brands are live entities, speaking to, and interacting with, fans on a daily basis.

Why should sports teams care about their brands?

The most successful teams in terms of marketing have fans with whom they’ve built emotional ties. These fans understand:

What the team stands for,
Why they support them, and
The need to evangelize on their behalf.

Do your team’s fans understand their roles in the community? Have you intentionally empowered them by clearly communicating the core values of the team and engaging them in the task of building the fan base? Without a strong brand purpose, this very real and effective value is lost.

Go ahead, make their day

“If we [interact with a fan on social media], 99% of the time we’re making their day, said University of Miami Associate Athletic Director Chris Yandle (@chrisyandle).”Small stuff like that can make fans feel part of the program and that’s ultimately how we build brand ambassadors who help (further) build our brand…They’ll help amplify our message and fight for our cause.”

While brand ambassadors can deliver direct return by convincing a friend to go to a game, talking up the experience with the team, and generally just promoting awareness and interest for the team, there is more. These super-fans proselytize and spread the team brand even more, developing more fans in the community and defining the team. The Dodgers used social media with great effect to this end, as they sought to win back a fan base that had felt alienated.

Tell a good story

“I’m trying to tell a story and it’s the Dodgers brand story,” explained Los Angeles Dodgers Coordinator of Social Media, Josh Tucker (@joshbtucker). “It’s having a voice…but staying on brand. You can still have a personality on behalf of the brand; it’s just understanding and finding that voice.”

There is a proliferation of teams trying to cultivate a “personality” on social media, often of an irascible variety, pioneered primarily by the Los Angeles Kings Twitter account. Ultimately, the most effective brand building for teams comes down to trust – developing a lasting, emotionally invested and trusting relationship between fan and team.

Trust doesn’t just happen

Trust cannot happen with a shower of marketing messages and one-way broadcasting; it takes proactive, two-way engagement. Tampa Bay Lightning Director of Digital and Social Media James Royer (@jamesroyer) spoke of the importance of forming this relationship in order to get the most out of social.

“We saw [social media] as ‘Let’s interact and engage with our fans,’ said Royer. “Let’s earn the right to market to our fans, by engaging with them first.”

What about you?

Think about your favorite pro sports teams. Think about the team you work for. Do you have an emotional attachment? Can you define the brand? Tell the brand story? Are you a fan evangelist? Are your fans brand evangelists?

Social and digital media bring the brand to life, opening opportunities for fan development like never before. Understand its value, use it correctly, and use it strategically. Then that’ll be a story worth telling.

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