Social Media, Story Telling and Building Brand Equity for the Athlete

First of all, let me qualify this post by saying I am a huge believer in the "story"...the story behind the man, the brand, the reason, the cause, the action...the story is what connects the individual to the cause, the athlete, the event...One of the hardest parts of creating a successful marketing campaign is building an authentic story and finding organic ways of sharing/distributing it. It is one of the most critical elements in branding and building equity in a brand regardless of whether the brand is a product, service or person.It is also the one thing that is taken for granted or miss understood.

Done right, using social media to get the story out is a very powerful and useful tool. Done wrong can be a disastrous, just ask Congressman Wiener, for him, it just keeps getting worse. The viral nature of social media and the ease in which links and content can be shared gives it the ability to dwarf conventional media with the number of impressions it can receive in a short period of time. It can be the most powerful tool in taking a brand from accepted to iconic and beyond.

Being a fan of professional surfing, auto racing as well as other sports, I often find myself in conversations about the not so pretty side of things...Like what happens to the athlete after the last event, when a pro is done being a pro and is now just a guy. The challenge of creating social relevance for the athlete brand once you are on the "outside" of the game. Many athletes are fortunate to have invested in their future and leveraging their personal brand beyond sport is not an issue. Whether its family, businesses, job, coaching or other they find that flow to segue into the next phase of life unaffected by the change of identity. For others the "outside" is often is seen as a death sentence and they fear of the unknown leads to stupid decisions and in some cases catastrophic consequences. The increase in deaths of top tier athletes who a are on the backside of their careers is further evidence to this stress and fear.

Brands, whether personal or product oriented are living entities and need to be cultivated and cared for. Form an athletes perspective, its never to early to begin investing in, maintaining and cultivating your personal brand. This is one investment that will help to extend the length of your relevancy in the "game" and key in building value after the "game" ends for you. With the advancements and acceptance of soical media you now have one of the most powerful tool for brand building and value generation for personal brands at your finger tips. Use it well and look at ways to connect the world around you to build a foundation for the future.

I found this article the other day and was very impressed with the way the author summarized the value proposition of good social media in telling the story of an athlete and building lasting brand with it. Hopefully it is useful and beneficial to you...

5 Reasons an Athlete Should Leverage Social Media

By Anthony Caponiti

http://activ8social.com/2010/05/03/5-reasons-pro-athletes-should-leverage-social-media/

Let’s get one thing straight upfront—social media is not as easy as “if you build it, they will come” for any athlete, team, league, or sponsor looking to establish or enhance brand equity. Social media marketing is no different than traditional off-line marketing in that it requires a well thought out strategy, devoted resources, and a budget targeted at a reaching a measurable goal for the individual or organization.

With that said, social media’s major advantages—the cost-to-creativity ratio and the ability to expand reach via an engaged audience (key word here is “engaged” but I’ll explain more)—make this form of marketing so powerful that most athletes looking to enhance their salaries with fat endorsement checks should be asking their agency, management team, or friends and family why social media isn’t a part of their overall marketing strategy.

How can you not look at Kevin Garnett and wonder why Dwight Howard is arguably more popular with fans and boasts more sponsors yet earns 25% as much salary as his older counterpart plus lacks an NBA championship ring.

One reason is that Howard is literally an authentic presence everywhere on the web in addition to print and TV. You better believe his sponsors and media partners love the added exposure (unique visits and status update impressions) his 525,000 fan Facebook Page offers. Notice his latest Men’s Health magazine appearance occupies both his Facebook and his 1.5 million follower Twitter profile pic.

So with the above example in mind, here are 5 reasons that professional athletes should leverage social media sooner than later:

1. Personal brand equity

Professional athletes are more frequently choosing to separate their representation for contract negotiations and marketing because of the complex multi-million dollar athlete endorsement arena. Traditionally, athlete reputation, fan popularity, and access to a major metropolitan market has determined who earns national endorsement deals.

Social media can play a critical role in the expedited development of an athlete’s personal brand by showcasing personality to fans and the media. If an athlete is well spoken and naturally gifted in front of the camera, platforms like YouTube and Ustream provide invaluable opportunities to demonstrate that a client can be an effective pitch person.

On the flip-side, if an athlete is thought to be soft-spoken or non-personable, platforms like Facebook and Twitter offer the chance to build an audience who might be willing to listen to what the client has to say and hopefully over time become ambassadors for the athlete’s personal brand. Contests and random giveaways related to both the athlete and the team enhance the likelihood that fans will engage. This can be done in repetition with little coordination.

The bottom line here is that a professional athlete can let the media, team, and league decide their personal brand or if the athlete is proactive, he or she can evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in personality and play up those strengths to the fans who can then in turn form their own opinion of the athlete rather than let the mainstream media paint a different picture. This can prove critical during a PR crisis.

2. Insights and analytics

What did sports marketers do before social media when determining what athletes would best represent their brand? Seriously … if there is one reason to leverage social media, it’s to reach critical mass on a Facebook Page. Unlike any other platform on the web, Facebook is the backbone of personal identity meaning that demographics such as age and race on a Facebook Page are highly accurate indicators of an athlete’s overall fan base.

Here’s where that key word “engagement” plays a critical role. If an athlete can build a Facebook Page with a sizable audience (say 100,000 fans) that hangs on every word, photo, and video posted, a smart sports marketing team can shop their athlete around and proactively seek one-off endorsement deals.

Imagine discovering a male athlete has a fan base this is predominantly female and now imagine how many brands would be interested in reaching the women of the household that drive the purchases of household goods, for example, male grooming products. It should also be noted that YouTube offers strong analytics and extremely effective Google advertising once a large enough audience is reached while Facebook’s analytics will be a key audience predictor leading into a YouTube viral campaign.

3. Sponsorship activation

The first two reasons lead to number reason number three which is the ability to leverage a social media network to effectively activate brand sponsors. It so simple to use social media to create authentic touch points between the athlete, brand, and consumer and arguably more effectively than a TV or print advertisement because social media affords the opportunity to connect the athlete’s lifestyle to the brand.

Don’t you think Mercedes-Benz would love for an athlete to broadcast himself or herself live on Ustream driving their new CL while Rolex could hardly argue with that same athlete wearing one of their watches in full view of the steering wheel? It’s real world and it’s the type of marketing that separates innovative and sustainable brands from their competitors.

Even less complicated are branded images and videos on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. Not typically thought of as a social media platform for athletes, Flickr can offer tens of thousands of authentic views for the sponsor especially since it is integrated with Yahoo! image search. And because images are so highly searched, a well tagged and described Flickr photo gallery can continue to provide sponsor activation long after a campaign ends.

4. Charity and community

Although not every professional athlete is intimately involved with a charitable foundation or community effort, there are some who are truly connected to a cause. For these athletes, they should be using social media to increase awareness as well as for fundraising. Social media also humanizes the athlete which is critical in this day and age of TMZ Sports and off-the-field problems for many athletes.

Twitter and Facebook are extremely effective mediums for promoting a charitable event or that special story fans need to hear about. Social media platforms also present creative opportunities for fundraising like raffle giveaways with special prizes for fans that donate. Another example use would be the athlete giving away money when a specific fan or follower milestone is reached (e.g. Drew Carey donating $1 million dollars when gaining his 1 millionth Twitter follower).

5. Retirement

We all know that there is a limited shelf life on a professional sports career. For all the athletes that have their eye on a media or coaching career, social media helps to shape an on-screen personality and establish an expertise. Platforms like Ustream and YouTube can be used to increase comfort levels in front the camera and sharpen on-screen presence.

Especially for an aging athlete and perhaps arguably most important, social media affords an opportunity to keep an athlete relevant to a younger generation. Possessing a strong digital brand, can open the door to cameos or guest appearances on TV shows as well as prove that a older or retired athlete is still connected to pop culture. This should matter to TV networks searching for talent as well as colleges looking to boost recruiting.

Do you agree with us … what’s your sixth reason?

How Analog Rituals Can Amp Your Productivity

How Analog Rituals Can Amp Your Productivity:

This is a re-post of an article written by Scott Belsky from the Behance Team...Very cool and worth the share: RF

As a society, we are engaged in a constant pursuit to be more productive. For the most part, this is a good thing. We want to work smarter. We crave efficiency. Time is our most precious commodity, and productivity tools help us spend it more wisely.

Over the past few years, I have observed all sorts of methods for productivity. One consistent surprise is the role of monotonous rituals and what could be described as "analog drudgery" among the especially productive. For such accomplished people, I am shocked by the apparent lack of efficiency in their daily routines.

At one point during my research for Making Ideas Happen, I interviewed Bob Greenberg, the legendary CEO of the digital agency R/GA. With high-flying clients like Nike and other household names, Greenberg is overseeing a tremendous number of heavyweight projects at any point in time. He's a busy guy and he's been leading his industry for decades.

One consistent surprise is the role of monotonous rituals and what could be described as 'analog drudgery' among the especially productive.


Despite his digital interests, Greenberg's productivity tools are entirely analog. He uses a paper agenda with a series of lists written at the top that he writes every single day. In the morning, Greenberg will manually bump uncompleted tasks from the previous day to the current day. He also re-writes the names of key clients and other areas of focus; often transcribing the same names again and again, daily, for weeks if not months or years.

When I hear about such monotonous and repetitive work, my instinct is to make it more efficient. If Greenberg used a digital system — even a spreadsheet — he could save a significant amount of time. Even better, he could use an online project management tool that automatically bumped everything to the following day for him. Scratch that; he's a CEO! Why doesn't he have an assistant that does this all for him?!

For Greenberg, it's all about feeling the granularity of prioritization. By manually bumping a certain task every day, he feels that it is incomplete. He is faced with the reality and forced to either complete the task, delegate it, or bump it again.

And it's not just Greenberg who operates like this. Many admired (and extremely effective) leaders use an analog approach to productivity as a way to stay accountable and feel connected to their decisions around how they spend their energy.

It's all about feeling the granularity of prioritization.


Yes, monotony and routine can be truly wearisome. They transform our colorful, over-stimulated existence into black and white. But a task left undone SHOULD be a burden. If you make your system for productivity too productive, you will become anesthetized to your responsibilities.

We are left with an important lesson: The manual labor involved with productivity is valuable. Repetitive rituals will make you pause. You will feel burdened, but you will also catch a glimpse of just how busy you are and what you should prioritize.


This post was written by Behance Founder & CEO Scott Belsky,

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What Madison Avenue And Silicon Valley Can Learn From Each Other

What Madison Avenue And Silicon Valley Can Learn From Each Other

What Madison Avenue And Silicon Valley Can Learn From Each Other

What Madison Avenue And Silicon Valley Can Learn From Each Other

12 Secret Tips to create hit Global Brand Virals!

I occasionally come across a post on a site, group or blog that hits me just so that I feel it needs to be shared. This one comes from thewww.CraftofInnovationClub.com via a Linked In group I am a part of...It is not that it is so overwhelmingly insightful or full of new and cutting edge content...it is more that it strikes to the core of every marketeers soul when they are stuck in purgatory between company and their AOR on a creative initiative.

I encourage you to click on the links as they add context to the content of the post.

Again thanks to Richard Watkinson, Club Captain for making this available to share.

12 Secret Tips to create hit Global Brand Virals!

1. Interaction/personalization is key. Any technology used must be easy to use - duh! http://en.tackfilm.se/

2. Simple straightforward storyline which should run for no longer than 2 minutes. Some creatives get excited at writing such a long script and produce overcomplicated trite/shit. www.mymagnum.com

3. Don’t just add a logo or tagline to a really cool film idea if it makes little sense! VW and fun? www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

4. Tonality of film should fit tonality of brand. Hello?

5. Leave the temptation usually from the client side to put their logo and product throughout the majority of the viral - including brand colours! Nobody wants to see a cheesy ad. www.mymagnum.com

6. Any personalization or interaction must be shown in the right light - as a hero - friend - star- Not rocket science here, think Ben Hur.

7. Production values must look good! Give me a personalized 3D Avatar viral with a bag of chips please.

8. Let me repeat this because so many clients think a viral is an application they can download for the same price as an “APP”. Production values mean filming, editing and special effects. These must be of the highest quality if you want your viral to spread. Otherwise don’t bother!

9. Any money goes into the production! Not the media to support it. Bite the bullet if you have the balls.

10. Make a viral that has a point of interest - this must fit with the brand focus - otherwise send your money to a good charity.

11. Support the viral - what do you want to achieve. If you just say brand awareness you are missing the boat.

12. Build a community supporting the focus with sites - think it through properly so it fits with the brand and you have the time to develop it.

Finally. Less is more - deal with key decision makers, the best work comes from small stealth teams not layers of management.

"Expertyteace" pronounced: (expert-tight-ass) noun: A common ailment for common businesses.

It seems companies can never have enough “expert” opinions and input. They hire consultants, agencies, advisors and specialists all in the name of productivity and performance. The funny thing is more often than not these experts do more harm than good to the companies they are brought in to help.

I am one of those experts.

I have recently wrapped up a contract with a client who was not only falling victim to "expertyteace (expert-tight-ass)" they were beginning to drown in it. The upper level management would not listen to their staff, clients, retailers, brokers or anyone other than hand picked "experts" who were referred to them by other "experts". They would not invest, support or engage any opportunity with out the approval of the “experts” making the company a bit of a “tight ass” when it came to investing in its community and basically bringing things to a stand still. Ironically the experts were brought in to formulate strategies to engage their communities and grow the brands awareness in the market place on a grass roots level.

Of course every one of us experts has awesome credentials, how could we not, we were referred by other experts who were referred by experts and hired by the real experts.... management. More amusing is how each new “expert” is more qualified than the others or the last one and as such everything must follow the new experts direction. Each new expert will throw the old expert under the preverbal bus, debunking their shortcomings, blowing out their efforts and will be very quick to take credit for anything that comes their way. It’s a kind of predatorily corporate cannibalism. New eats old until new gets eaten by newer.

In theory how could anything be wrong with this cycle?

The reality is companies should be hiring experts. It is a great way to vet a theory, challenge a strategy, support directional shift and engage new markets. It is a great way to get an educated and informed opinion needed in decision-making process and most importantly get an outsiders opinion. Unfortunately the process gets skewed and all to often the ones who should be the decision makers “punt” and leave the process of deciding to the experts, who more often than not are not qualified to make decisions on behalf of the company. Welcome to CYA executive style: If the experts decision is a “winner” for the company it’s a victory for management, if it is a failure, it is the expert gets canned.

This system is fundamentally flawed and creates a win-win for all who are in charge of hiring experts, but exposes the company, its investors and employees to huge risk. In addition, there are some pretty nasty and often destructive side effects to the process.

The most notable side effect of over reliance on experts is the creation of toxicity with in the company. It can become so bad that can destroy a perfectly good team. This infectious wave sweeps through the company creating distrust, low moral, in fighting and ultimately it undermines the entire company and brand. Leaders need to be acutely aware of how moral is being affected, be transparent, inclusive and take charge of the decision making process at all times. If not they risk loosing not only the respect of their team members, but also control of their company.

The irony here is the real experts on your business are more often than not your clients, your staff and your community. The folks in the trenches tend to have real organic dialog with your customers and can tell you more about trends, risks and opportunities than any expert. They just need to be empowered to listen and share.

The best companies I have worked for have spent considerable time and effort to create channels of communication and tools that engage team members on every level of the organization. They hire experts to flush out ideas and look at best practices to engage team members in its implementation and execution. They are not afraid of the outcome or the possibility that someone may be better suited to run the show than they are…they revel in the possibility of finding that someone and empowering them to take the reigns.

For me, I keep doing what I do and have found that the tread marks from the bus tires seem to heal much faster now than they used….