Social Sweat

NBA's Greatest Shots Mash Up

Hoopism has received a ton of buzz this week for their interactive video mash up of the NBA's 65 Greatest Shots.  The team reached out to their favorite basketball bloggers to poll the crowd for the best shots, and attributed contributions to various influencers (clever way to generate buzz for the post.)

"We were pretty happy with the variety of shots both in terms of location distribution, and in terms of what makes them great. The shots range from game winning buzzer beaters, to devastating dunks, and half court shots. A couple of our favorites: Jeff Malone’s 1984 running out of bounds 3 point shot, Shaq tearing down the back board and hitting himself in the head with the shot clock, and Kevin Johnson’s 1994 dunk on Olajuwon."

If you like, check out a similary developed vizualizer of every Slam Dunk contest from '84 - '10 by dunk, year and score and some of Hoopisms other interactive posts.

(Obviously this picture is not interactive people, you have to visit the actual post on Hoopism to play around.)

Super Bowl Sets New Twitter Record for Sporting Events

Ok, so this isn't like an awesome award or anything... but it is interesting to know that the Super Bowl shattered the previous record for most tweets during a sporting event, six times throughout the night. 

The Twitter Blog has released some interesting volume trends around last weekend's Super Bowl.  The high point came at the end of the game, 10:07:16pm EST, when the site registered 4,064 tweets per a second.  (Though Usher dropping in from on a rope during the Half Time Show generated a surprising peak - apparently many join me in my love for bad slash awesome R&B.)  The previous record was set during the Japan/Denmark World Cup game this summer.

(Click to enlarge)

If your Super Bowl party looked anything like my social media dork fest, it's easy to understand these trends. 

Aggregators - Helping or Hurting Super Bowl Sponsors?

As I engaged in two six screen viewing during this year's Super Bowl with some fellow social media/marketing geeks, I was struck by the prevelance of aggregators that seemed to be popping up in my Twitter stream.  The most popular of these were non-sponsor sites set up expressly to slice and dice buzz from the game and/or leverage the cultural conversation around the ads themselves.

A quick run down of some of these sites:

AdWeek Super Commercials XLV

• Pros:  Near real-time posting of the commercials (I used this several times for re-watches)
 
• Cons: Editor Live Blog was a nice filtered view on ads, but did not compete with fire hose of worldwide user-generated tweets that other aggregators featured

Visa/NFL Go Inside Aggregator

• Pros:  Totally geared for the sports fan, it aggregated real time "rewindable" buzz about the game and the teams, boiling it down to trending topics. 
• Cons:  Pure to the game, it ignored the ads - which are a major part of the cultural conversation.  Could this have been stronger with an ad component, or a partnership with one of the other aggregators?

 

Radian6 & Mullen Brand Bowl

• Pros: Aggressive promotion by the social mediarati lead to extensive use of the #brandbowl hashtag, which was trending throughout the game.  Tie in with Radian6 allowed for topline aggregation of "winners" along with a deep dive look at the volume, tone and trends behind each ad
• Cons: Hard to determine what drove the "score" that seemed to be ranking each ad

 

YouTube AdBlitz

• Pros:  The standard YouTube rundown of all ads inevitably draws the masses because people watch videos on... YouTube
• Cons:  User interface makes it hard to figure out how to vote, took me a minute or two to realize how to make the thumbs up/thumbs down pop work

This morning, AdAge noted that the rise of third party aggregators (especially Super Bowl video aggregator pages like YouTube's) seem to have deterred fans from visiting sponsors' branded websites directly.  The article notes that major sponsors like GoDaddy and Budweiser saw significantly decreased lift in web traffic this year when compared to last.

Despite the suspicious lack of web/social calls to action in ads (which I called out mid-game), I would wager a guess that many of these brands have seen jumps in visits to their social channels (versus their traditional .coms) as more and more consumers think Facebook first when it comes to connecting with brands. 

A quick glance at Facebook Page Statistics shows significant daily jumps in fans for some of the top talent in last nights ads - including daily growth of 80,000 fans+ for Eminem.  Chrysler, whose popular Imported from Detroit ad featured the Michigan-born rapper, is the #23 most viewed channel on YouTube today. And Lipton Brisk, whose ad also featured a claymation Eminem added more than 22,000 Facebook fans this week. 

While this is not "traditional" website traffic lift, these types of connections on social platforms are even more meaningful to brands if they can convert actual fans and open up new channels of communication. 

Bill Simmons Pleads for LEGO MLB Stadium Kits

Much ado about LEGO stadium kits after a professor from a sub-par school in a state south of Michigan build an entire replica of his hometown team's stadium out of legos.  

Around the same time, Gus Ramsey ideated on a proposed LEGO/MLB sponsorship on ESPN's BS Report hosted by The Sports Guy.  Soon followed the movements Facebook Page, which "couldn't have a nobler mission." 

Sports meets social media meets huge dorketry.  Here here!

Rugby World Cup Offers Lessons to "Big Event" Social Media Marketers

I'm a big fan of Lewis Howes' video interviews over on SportsNetworker.com, and a few days ago he posted a great one with Shane Harmon, marketing manager for 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. 

The interview touches on a lot of the standard uses of social for sports teams - content distribution via social, dialing up engagement, leveraging promotional partnerships with sponsors - but where it gets really interesting is around conversion. 

Because the only revenue the local organizing committee for Rugby World Cup sees is from ticket sales, this area is understandably a huge focus for Shane.  With a small ATL budget, Rugby World Cup has leveraged social media aggressively to drive ticket sales on a global level.  As a result, the RWC Facebook page has become the #2 traffic driver to their ticketing site. 

Check out the interview below for some smart tips, and an insiders view into a comprehensive social media approach for big sports events. 

My Revolutionary Social Media Policy for Athletes

Much news this week about Liverpool's Ryan Babel and a tweet published just after a loss to Manchester in which he criticized referee Howard Webb ("And they call him one of the best referees? That's a joke. SMH."), and then shared a photoshopped picture of Webb wearing a Manchester jersey. 

Despite a quick apology, Babel has been cited by The English Football Association for violation of rule E3 as his, "comment or posted image constitutes improper conduct and/or brings the game into disrepute.”  (Note "posted image" was added to the rules in this instance.)  Babel faces a potential fine of up to $12,000 and a one match ban.

Of course the usual chorus of voices around athletes use of Twitter and social media quickly emerged.  Do leagues and teams have the right to create guidelines enfocing, or even banning, social media channels?  Does this infringe on the athletes personality or freedom of expression?  Blah, blah, blah.

Not a month goes by where there isn't some high profile example of an athlete violating a policy or putting their virtual foot in their virtual mouth.  And the SAME discussion always emerges.  So, I have a wild idea for a worldwide athlete social media policy.  It's really simple.  It goes like this:

DO USE SOCIAL MEDIA. DON'T BE A JACKASS.

That's pretty much it!  Athletes, as working professionals, should be expected to maintain the same level of decorum we all do.  Would you find it appropriate for a colleague to update their Facebook status in the middle of an important new business pitch?  Hell no.  Would you get your butt dragged to HR if you started photoshopping mocking images of colleagues?  Hell yes.  I could go on, but you get the point.  Here in the real world there are consequences for improper use of social media that keep (most of us) on our best behavior, and no one second guesses social media guidelines imposed by companies.  Why should sports be any different?

Suns First but Not Last to Pimp Fans to Sponsors in Suite & Social Package

The Phoenix Suns recently announced a new Suite & Social Package that allows smaller budget advertisers to purchase a box, and access to the Suns fan base for a select number of promotional messages. 

This type of move is not surprising to me at all - in fact media companies I've met with in the past are a few steps ahead in figuring out how to montetize access to fan bases as part of sponsorship packages.  What's interesting is the debate poised over on Sports Biz with Darren Rovell as to if this sort of access should be granted to smaller advertisers as the Suns are doing, or if the nature of these updates to fans via Suns channels are better suited for large sponsors that fans already connect to the team. 

As long as the Suns avoid spam and focus on a solid value exchange for their fans this sort of advertising could be a win-win for everyone.  For instance, a sponsor who ties their product to the game itself - for every three pointer scored by the Suns Joe's Car Wash will give away a deluxe wash to a Suns fan - could win out and fit right into the dialogue on the page.  (I mean, who doesn't love Joe and his car washes?)

This is just the beginning of teams monetizing their owned social media channels.

Shaq Goes Viral in Boston

Shaquille O'Neal is the poster child for professional athletes and social media, and he has been taking Boston by storm lately with a series of hilarious public stunts that have further endeared him to the people of Beantown.

The antics started in October, when Shaq unceremoniously arrived in Harvard Square and posed as a statue on a park bench while adoring fans encircled him and snapped photos.

Then, last Sunday, Shaq appeared in the famed Boston bar Cheers.  He popped a squat on Norm's bar stool and lead the crowd in a rousing rendition of The Cheers theme Song, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" - later posting the video to his TwitVid account.

This sort of thing is nothing new for Shaq.  The founding father of athletes on Twitter (3.3MM followers), he has also been known to take to his webcam singing a variety of truly random songs and once invited nearby Twitter uses to join him at a table in a cafe. 

Thankfully, Shaq is escalating!  And I can't wait to see what's next.

Foul Line Handshake Fail = Viral Gold for Timberwolves

Props to the Minnesota Timberwolves for quickly cashing in on a team moment gone viral.

After this :30 second clip of Kevin Love and Wes Johnson’s foul line high five FAIL took off, accumulating more than 1.2MM views, the Timberwolves sprung to action issuing their own behind the handshake “Investigative Report.”  Both videos are below.

As Sports Networker points out, this sort of high speed content creation and distribution was previously feasible only for major networks.  Social media has given us all the tools to create fast, high quality spoofs – and major sports teams are finally boning up and getting the right staff to leverage such moments.  Thank god for that.  Otherwise we may have missed the true story behind the “most tragic moment in Minnesota sports history.”

Sweaty Q&A: 5 Questions for the NFL's Paul Hicks

The NFL has been making headlines of late for enforcement of their strict (but fair, IMO) social media policy surrounding players use 90 minutes prior to game time.  Over email, I was able to grab my corporate travel "amigo" Paul Hicks, EVP of Communications for the NFL and former North American CEO of Ogilvy (my employer), and ask him a few questions about how the NFL is approaching social media.

SS: The NFL's social media policy has been widely mentioned over the past few weeks with TO's pre-game Tweet.  How did the NFL arrive at the 90 minute pre-game social media ban, and why does it feel it's important to enforce?

PH:  Social media and Twitter in particular are an efficient way to communicate directly with fans. At most times, we encourage it among all NFL personal. However, like anything, it needs to be used sensibly and thoughtfully, hence the pre and post game restrictions. We believe the use of social media will increase dramatically in the days ahead and embrace the opportunity to enhance communication with fans.

SS: In your opinion, what are the THREE most notable ways that social media has changed the NFL (for good or for bad?)

PH: Social media has been great for fan communication. It has been superb for the dissemination of information on NFL policies. It has also allowed the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to regularly update his followers, some 85,000 as I write, about his activities in a direct and personal fashion.

SS: Does the NFL monitor social media to track its own brand perception or that of its teams/athletes? To what end?

PH: We monitor social media extensively predominately for the functions at NFL headquarters in New York. Many of the clubs have their own systems for handling that at a local level.

SS: In many organizations, channels like Facebook and Twitter live at the intersection of communications and marketing.  How does the NFL approach social media?

PH: Some clubs and League office functions are very sophisticated about the use of social media and others are more traditional and cautious. All acknowledge it is here to stay and is a direct, relatively low-cost and quick manner of communication between the NFL and its many millions of fans. It will help us grow the game and make it better for the fans.

SS: What are the NFL's plans for Facebook?  Will we see customized tabs, promotions and content?

PH: That is a very interesting question and the subject of much internal debate. Facebook is important to many of our fans and therefore it is important us. Stay tuned for our next moves.

Thanks Paul, for taking time out of your busy day to answer our questions!  Somewhere, a Rum Swizzle awaits you...