Many-to-Many Media Opportunities in Professional Sports

Virtual reality meet actual reality ….

My 10-year old (that’s him messing with me in the photo) loves soccer  (playing, watching, and reading about the game). He also loves soccer video games, including playing manager, which he can do with Electronic Art’s FIFA ’08.

The other Sunday I heard excited shouts: "I signed Schweinsteiger, I signed Schweinsteiger."  He’d negotiated to bring a virtual version of Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger on board his virtual team. He was soon playing Schweinsteiger and the rest of his team against the computer’s virtual team.

Now, for £35, my son can make (or at least contribute to) personnel decisions on a real team, Ebbsfleet United. Through an arrangement with online community myfootballclub.co.uk, real people can pick real team members from the comfort of their home computers. It’s conceptually similar to picking a  virtual video game team—except the players and the outcome happen with actual humans on an actual pitch. Details can be found in this Max Colchester story in the  Wall Street Journal story (registration might be required).

Both experiences (FIFA and Ebbsfleet) offer, or will offer, new ways of connecting with consumers in the digital era. Much has already been written about so-called "in-game" advertising (as in the FIFA example).  I’m fascinated by the new community-media opportunities afforded by the Ebbsfleet development.

Professional sports have for a long time been a major media business—in the traditional one-to-many broadcast/endorsement media model. Could Ebbsfleet (and a few other similar examples mentioned in the WSJ story) be an early example of professional sports becoming a many-to-many community media opportunity similar to what’s developing with Facebook, Digg and other websites?

Target!

This Christmas I got everything I needed, and everything I thought I needed: Sheets, socks, a slow cooker, an orange juicer, night cream, and a gift card at Target. The list does go on.

And I realized that getting it right when it comes to giving gifts is a lot like marketing; it’s all about getting closer to the people that matter most to you. This means going to a little extra work, doing some more research to figure out exactly what they need, or think they need, most. And in return, a smile, love, attention, a sale. We’re all looking for something.

I was doing some last minute shopping at Target a few days before Christmas when I realized I was being followed. My mother’s boyfriend, Bob, and his kids had spotted me and my cart and had been spying on me to see what I was admiring, maybe wanting. From an aisle away I heard Bob’s son Patrick tell his dad, "I saw her looking at this slow cooker in this color and she said, and I quote, ‘This is really cool.’" It was true; I was talking to myself. That’s market research! They studied my actions to discover my wants/needs/tastes and they were indeed rewarded as I cruised the aisles for their gifts, with a smirk on my face. 

RoyalWeTube… Queen of England Half Leverages the Web

The Queen of England hasn’t always been known for stellar "customer relationship management" with the people of England. She’s always been a broadcaster and not much of a listener (unlike, say, the late "people’s princess" who gave a strong impression of being a listener not just a broadcaster).

The Queen’s YouTube debut is interestingly very much about media technology—she shows her first television broadcast, compares it with her new YouTube broadcast and presents it all as a symbol of her always being in touch with the latest ways of sharing her message with her subjects.

However, Buckingham Palace’s use of YouTube is really just a continuation of their use of broadcast media. They’ve simply found another push-it-out distribution mechanism. They are not using the web for  smart digital era relationship marketing because they’re not using the web to listen.

And listening is key to taking a relationship seriously. Her new/digital/social media strategists have disabled the feedback/listening technologies of YouTube and are just using the broadcasting/speaking aspect.

Specifically, they have turned off commenting (allowing people to add their own text and video responses  below the original video).  Interestingly they also disabled embedding (allowing people to take the video and add it to their own websites, blogs etc.).  It seems the keepers of the royal brand want to maintain some control of the "environment" where she appears.

Here is The Royal Channel on YouTube where you will find, among other things, her 2007 Christmas Message and her first television (RegularTube) 1957 Christmas Message.

L.. O.. L.. A.. Lola…. Explain this to a Media Planner

This little ad-diddy from Coca Cola seems to capture some of the spirit of the times: 1) people working remotely via technology, 2) old things coming back and becoming popular (The Kinks’ song Lola),  3) micro/ephemeral fame (the kid in the ad) and true, enduring fame (Coca-Cola and The Kinks) and 4) a kinda ambiguous relationship with privacy (check out the kids’s facial expression at the close) …. However, what really touches on the spirit of the times is not the content of the ad, but how I came across it. Explain this to an
old-line media planner/buyer.

My 10-year old boy (that’s actually him in my profile photo) came home from a birthday party and immediately wanted to "go on Limewire and find this song that we were just listening to on Julian’s iPod"

The song was a a parody of Lola called Yoda. We decided YouTube was a faster bet than Limewire… more instant gratification. So, we (he, his little bro (6) , and I) gathered round the laptop (hearth) and found a video of Yoda.

It was funny to them… then I told them about the original Lola.. so we YouTubed it… and the first video returned was this ad.

We’re not drinking Coke for the holidays… but the 6-year-old spent his Chanukkah gift certificate on a Kinks album—in a music store, BTW.

Lost in Silicon Valley

Often I participate in meetings where we discuss who potential customers are for a product… what they think? … what they need? … how to design for them… how to connect with them emotionally… how to get closer to them?  It’s very human to project one’s own way of life onto customers—especially customers you don’t have/know yet. And sometimes in Silicon Valley we are very very very human, in that way. It’s easy to believe that "everybody" is as tech-savvy (or social-media savvy, or whatever-savvy) as we are, etc. When this comes up I think of this famous Saul Steinberg cover from The New Yorker magazine. Just flip the coasts—and put the Atlantic Ocean and the countries beyond in the distance. I’m actually thinking of commissioning an artist to do a west coast version. Anybody interested? Please contact me.

From the Department of Faint Praise

Don Jones had this to say in the Venture Deal blog today: "I went to a viral marketing talk yesterday by the CEO of www.rassak.com.  I’ve been to several viral seminars by others and they’ve all been
disappointing – they haven’t illuminated much – sort of like a faint,
annoying light bulb that isn’t bright enough to allow you to read. The talk I just went to was a little better." He then goes on to list some things he heard at the talk.  Thanks… I guess. If you want the full skinny, the talk is recapped here.

Online Video Show "Marketing Voices" Features Rassak

Jennifer Jones’ Marketing Voices podcast featured interviews with Rassak client, BigFix Marketing Veep David Appelbaum–and me.

It was fun to do this. Jennifer’s production crew at PodTech asked us to send over background video and imagery.. and they edited together a nice piece.

Jennifer’s got a cool background. She has her show on PodTech.net. And her consultancy markets professional service firms in venture
capital, investment banking, management consulting, wealth management
and private equity.  She’s a good person for an entrepreneur to get to know.

Before starting her firm,, Jennifer was SVP and GM for Regis McKenna. Before Regis she was a VP at Ketchum .. and before that a
broadcast journalist. She worked as both reporter and producer at  local and
national news operations.

Here’s her Marketing Voices show (14 minutes plus or minus):

1 calorie

My mom often tears ads out of magazines and sets them aside for me. She always gets it right and I love that she knows what IÕll like.  I was especially impressed with this find though, as she had no idea I drank Diet Coke for breakfast. Oh, I do, I do. And the ad is great.

Have you seen this ad? It works in so many ways. 

Coke must have done some good research to figure out that people were drinking the DC with breakfast, or for breakfast.
Diet Coke definitely isnÕt a commonly accepted breakfast beverage. With
this ad, occasional Diet Coke breakfasters (CanÕt you just picture
them? They would never drink a real live Coca Cola Classic) just got
the green light to make It their official morning drink. Those who wake
up craving Diet Coke have been vindicated and shown that they are not
alone.  And other Diet Coke drinkers have been invited to expand their
use of the product.

The ad is part of a four-part series of ideas for people short on ideas on how to incorporate more Diet Coke into their day (see them all at dietcoke.com). 

For caffeine drinkers whoÕve never thought to drink such a thing with their eggs, itÕs been presented as something novel. People love that. And caffeine. And all by saying ÒGood MorningÓ, and putting a coffee sleeve/jacket/glove on it. Brillant, elegant, subtle, not obnoxiously-aspirational advertising. 

IÕm going to visit my mom this weekend and she already gave me a clue about one of the next ads sheÕs torn out for me. The hint alone shows me that either sheÕs getting to know me better everyday or that IÕm becoming an easier target for marketers. 

Or maybe itÕs that market research has come so far good marketers now know their target like a mother knows her daughter.