Antonio Cromartie

San Diego Chargers’ NFL Star Antonio Cromartie has been fined yesterday $2,500 by his club for making a comment from his private account on Twitter, talking about the quality of food at the Chargers’ training camp, as reported by ESPN.

Cromartie tweeted: “Man we have 2 have the most nasty food of any team. Damn can we upgrade 4 str8 years the same ish maybe that’s y we can’t win the SB [Super Bowl] we need.”

A few weeks ago Nike confiscated video tapes of College kid Jordan Crawford slam dunking over LeBron James.

Both Nike and San Diego Chargers by trying to hide the news and attempting to silence the facts have obtained the exact opposite result, litterally throwing them on a planetary stage and generating a never ending tail of comments, articles, opinions and… laughter.

Click to watch Crawford's interview

With today’s online technology it takes a matter of seconds for word of mouth and news to travel globally. This is a fantastic opportunity but sometime it can be a threat as well.
Both the opposite situations have a trait in common: there is no way to silence it.

So better be open and honest and react creatively: everybody at some point in his career has been slam dunked on, and San Diego Chargers’ food could be improved, right?

It might even be a great opportunity for a creative viral reply, making fun about the facts.
What is sure is that with social technology the world has changed and there is no way back.

Alessandro De Zanche

Relationships, relationships, relationships: it’s the word that bounces in my mind like a flipper ball while I am stranded and furious at Venice airport, having to wait for two and half hours before being able to board my plane to London. Why so long?

Ferrari 248 F1 2006

My favourite low cost European airline, the one I fly with almost bimonthly, the one that sells tickets only through its website, the one that stays in touch with me and hundreds of thousands of people like me via a weekly newsletter and sends regular sms to my phone, keeping me informed on offers, new routes and prize draws, let me down again for the second time in a week.

Long story short (I am not using this post for an official complain) a couple of months ago they changed times to some of their flights and by chance I bought my return ticket just a couple of days before the change, so with the old timetable (as stated in their confirmation emails).

Now you would think that such a modern brand, so strategically connected with its online client base would have no problems in managing the timetable changes, informing the passengers via mobile text messages and email about the changes and alerting them again a couple of days before the flights.

Ferrari 248 F1 2006

Only thing they did was to send me an sms two months before the first flight (that I had of course totally forgotten about by the day I had to travel), and doing nothing in occasion of the return trip, leaving me wondering about the company reliability.

What’s the lesson we can learn from this and that can be applied to Sport Organisations too?

No matter what our goals and strategy are, no matter how well we are connected with our fan (client in this case) base and what technology we are using, it is still a one to one, human to human, personal relationship that is in place, that needs to be nurtured and maintained with care, common sense and flexibility.

Relationship, relationship, relationship!

Alessandro De Zanche

P.S. The glass is always half full is we want to look at it with positivity though: I am sitting very close to a stunning Ferrari 248 F1 2006 Formula One car so I will get my smile back in no time!

How much more powerful are figures than words? Forrester Research has recently published a five-year interactive marketing forecast. The way they conduct this type of studies is by interviewing as many marketing departments as possible, identify the global trends and use the data to make projections.

What came out of the study is that while interactive marketing budgets decreased in this recession, they decreased less than traditional advertising.
“Six out of ten marketers (Forrester Research) surveyed agreed with the statement “we will increase budget for interactive by shifting money away from traditional marketing.” Only 7% said “we have no plans to increase our marketing budget.”

Again, says Josh Bernoff, senior vice president, idea development at Forrester Research: “Now it looks more like advertising is inefficient, relative to digital. More than half of the marketers we surveyed said that effectiveness of direct mail, television, magazines, outdoor, newspapers, and radio would stay the same or decrease within three years. In contrast, well over 70% expected the effectiveness of channels like created social media, online video, and mobile marketing to increase.”

Bottom line of the study is that “digital, which will be about 12% of overall advertising spend in 2009, is likely to grow to about 21% in five years. Along the way overall advertising budgets will decline.”

This applies very much to Sport Organisations, whose core values match more than any other industry the core values of online technology: Sharing, Collaboration, Interaction, Engagement, Passion, Involvement, Community.

But this is not enough: they must act and join the “Social Revolution” happening through online technology. The alternative is to disappear, some slowly, some suddenly.

Alessandro De Zanche

If Shaquille O’Neil is one of the athletes that are making the best use of online social platforms (think of his 1,808,777 followers on Twitter or his 823,845 fans on Facebook), his new team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, is not second to any other Sport Organisations.

On their cavfanatic.com social website they count as many as 14,433 members, 6,002 blog posts, 44,488 photos, personal videos, etcetera.
It features fans’ personal profiles and blogs, forums and groups.

Looking at groups I had the feeling of the core meaning of a community built around passion and loyalty to a sport club.
It’s not just a list of groups dedicated to this or that player, to this and that tournament, but also cross subjects like a group for Graphic Fanatics (users of graphic software like Photoshop and MS Paint), for Poker players, for Streetball players, for weightlifters, for people of Polish or Filipino’s nationality: all with different interests but connected and engaged through the same passion, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

From a monetisation perspective, this is a gold mine for merchandising, ticketing and subscription based services: it’s an active, solid, engaged audience.

The strategy here is key: a social website, separated by the club’s website, totally built around fans and their needs, and only as a consequence becoming an opportunity for monetisation.
From a fan perspective it’s about trust and freedom, it’s about feeling that the website is THEIR space, not a controlled environment with a top to bottom feed of filtered news and sale offers, where the club presence is visible only via advertising banners, like it would happen for any external sponsor.

While the debate on how to target more efficiently online audiences is always hot (how do you find them? where?), the Cleveland Cavaliers have made the smartest choice: have created their own audience, know exactly where it is located and strategically talk to them.

Alessandro De Zanche

Canadian bobsleigh and skeleton fans heading to Vancouver next February for the Winter Games will now have Tour Packages available as a result of the exclusive agreement. Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) has announced a sponsorship deal with Ludus Tours in time for the Games.

Ludus plans to create packages that cater specifically to Canadian bobsleigh and skeleton enthusiasts in Vancouver that will include hotel accommodations, airport transfers, hospitality at the Ludus Lounge/banquet dinner as well as tour guide/concierge assistance during their stay.

Now you will ask yourself what the hell this has to do with online sport marketing…

Sponsor and Sport Organisation have already decided that it is in their mutual interest to associate themselves with each other’s brand.

Let’s dig in to find the huge additional value that a sponsor will receive from a strong, interactive and engaged Sport Organisation’s online presence.

First of all, a web presence like the one just described, guarantees:
1) Higher number of visits
2) Longer time spent on the site
3) Audience heavily interested and connected with the brand and the website itself, not just “passers by”.

Just the 3 elements mentioned above would support the choice by the Sport Organisation to display the Sponsor’s (or both’s) logo(s) and advertise the partnership on the site, with some smart call to action.

But this would leverage only a minimal part of the potential!

Courtesy of www.vancouver2010.com

A vibrant and cutting edge online presence gives several other monetisation opportunities to Sport Organisations, which can then tailor them as needed.

In this case I can also see a lot of relevance with:

- Deeper knowledge of fan base, giving more accurate targeting opportunities, online and offline.
- Relationships and networking effects.
- Availability of an active community, increasing potential success for online events and promotions.
- Increased viral impact of online initiatives.

Let’s think of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton and the strategy behind the Ludus Tours deal “to cater specifically to enthusiast fans” and apply it to what mentioned before.

An online prize draw i.e. involving a free trip to the Olympics could be launched with multiple benefits:
a) Attracting offline fans to the website where the interaction with both brands is more direct and personalized.
b) Having people to sign up for the prize draw would mean data collection, which would mean widening the Organisation’s database but also the possibility of collecting specific preferences of the Bobsleigh and Skeleton fans related to travel and tourism.
c) Enhancing the sponsorship by being able in the future to leverage the data collected via more accurate targeting and personalised offers, emails, etc.

The list of other initiatives could be very long, from viral videos involving athletes to online discount for travel packages to the Vancouver Olympics bought via the website (again, data collection opportunity and future enhanced targeting capabilities), to search & display online advertising campaigns targeting people located in the area and interested in winter sports and/or travel.

The reality is, a strategic web presence generates a virtuous cycle that opens never ending direct and indirect monetisation opportunities with much higher ROI than most of other media and that has only one limit: the limit of creativity.

Alessandro De Zanche

Adidas is keeping us entertained with its several viral videos.
It’s the triumph of creativity against budgets and shows how with very little money great viral pieces can be created.

Enjoy!

John Terry? Ashley Cole? Frank Lampard? Wrong answer. The most valuable asset of Chelsea FC is far far away from its roster: it’s their people, a huge community of fans spread all over the world and kept together via several initiatives, most of them online through www.chelseafc.com.

I am glad I bumped into this article on their website,  where the Club is calling for all young fans between 12 and 16 years old to become journalists for a brand new section targeted to young fans in Chelsea’s official monthly magazine.

This is a fantastic example of one of the advantages of having a vibrant, engaged and active online community.

It is not just about page views, site visits and tickets sold, it’s also about having the advantage of the availability of an active online community, increasing potential success for events and promotions.

So when you plan, like in this case, to tap into a specific audience segment with the goal of involving it in a new initiative as end users but also as generators of content, BANG! there they are already.

This is not happening overnight and it is not just because Chelsea FC is one of the most popular clubs in the world: I could write a list of popular clubs twice as long as this post without any of them having an engaged online community.

It is about planning, goals, strategy, technology and yes, a lot of hard work. But it pays off!

Alessandro De Zanche

Sport and Technology have never been so close.

Engagement, interaction, community, belonging, involvement, loyalty are just a few of the core concepts that are common to both Sport and online technology.

San Francisco 49ers

This is why I am closely following an amazing story happening in San Francisco, California.

After 63 years of history in the NFL and 5 Superbowl wins, the city of San Francisco is risking to lose the 49ers in favour of Santa Clara, CA.

The owners of the team and Santa Clara’s politicians are all up for the deal that would guarantee a brand new, state of the art, stadium for the 49ers, while on the other hand San Franciscans and San Francisco’s major are fighting to keep the team.

63 years of history, tradition, culture, tightly interconnected between the city, its people and the team, risk to be wiped off by a move dictated by financial interest: but are we sure that financial benefits on paper will meet the favours of the fan base and will not translate into a catastrophe for both the 49ers, that moving to Santa Clara would lose most of their audience and the city of San Francisco, that would lose not just a football team but a piece of its history and culture? Not to mention the cost of 900 million USD to finance the whole project.

In this context is where the hand of Technology appears, stretching towards Jeff Kruger. I don’t know Jeff personally, but I would like to analyse his challenge from an online marketing perspective.

He has thrown all his passion, love, sense of belonging and affection for the team on the table and created a website, savethe49ers.com, where he is providing information, blogging, hosting forums and links to articles on the subject. In his own words: “This site is for anyone who understands that keeping the 49ers in San Francisco via a new stadium is of critical importance. It’s not about football. It’s about the growth and standing of the city, its people, history, diversity, and the long-term viability of the greatest city in the world”.

The Internet as an instrument to send a wake up call to a city and a community.

Now, let’s step back a second and analyse San Francisco’s challenge in a way that we can all get some learnings from.

There are two types of approach that can be taken (I am talking theoretically for discussion purposes without knowing what Jeff is doing specifically):

The generic approach:

A Facebook and a Twitter page will be setup, creating an opportunity to grow an online community around the subject; the savethe49ers.com blog will be regularly updated but also the author will comment on other external blogs with links to the savethe49ers.com website, increasing the number of visits, a video could be designed focusing on the relationship between San Francisco, its people and the team through history, culture, and a glorious past. The video could be virally spread across multiple channels, touch people’s emotions, grow that voice “Save the 49ers!” so loud that the team’s owners and politicians will not be able to ignore it anymore.

The effective approach:

Wait a second: didn’t we mention Tradition, History, Culture, 63 years of life and 5 Super Bowl wins? Are we really sure that Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and company will cover all our target audience and help to reach our goals? Answer: most likely it will not be enough and will have to be matched in parallel by other online actions aimed to the older part of the audience.

As of April ’09, Facebook’s users’ demographic profile say that over 54% of them are below the age of 24 and over 80% are younger than 34. It is true that the 35-54 segment is sky rocketing with an over 280% increase year on year but it is also true that if we want to count on the people that lived those successful and epic times of 49ers’ history we will have to focus on other directions, in parallel with the previous approach of tapping into the social networks where the younger target segments of the Save the 49ers spend a lot of their time on.

Take away: know your audience, perform a market research if needed, understand its demo and psychographic profiles and ONLY THEN formulate a strategy, followed by an appropriate choice of technology.

Only with a “scientific” and sophisticated approach your online presence will be productive and successful.

Alessandro De Zanche

Yesterday I received two emails (they both were addressed in a personal style to me, Alessandro), one from the NBA and one from the Los Angeles Lakers, alerting me of the option to buy tickets before the general public: for a next Sunday’s exhibition game? No sir, for the 2010 Dallas NBA All Star Game, that will take place on the 14th of February 2010.

The 14th of February 2010…. and it’s the 22nd of July 2009 today.
Analysing this simple communication email gives us a golden opportunity to look into different strategic aspects that lie behind it.

2010 NBA All Star Game - Dallas

Specific to the event

• Time sensitive element is added to the offer, so pushing fans to buy the ticket with huge advance.
• Kick starting the NBA 2010 All Star tickets campaign with the first of several initiatives, with the objective of a sell out by the time February comes.

More general takeaways

• Personal, one to one relationship: Hello Alessandro, and not Hello World…
• Added value to newsletters’ subscribers: they can buy tickets for one of the events of the year BEFORE the general public. This, and with it many other similar opportunities, are a strong incentive for the fan to register to the NBA or the single teams’ websites and subscribe to different services for free.
• Data collection: this added value for the fan via the registration gives a tenfold bigger added value to the Organisation, that has the opportunity to collect data about fans, and by doing so enhancing the accuracy of audience profiling and its targeting capability, that will translate into more accurate and customised offers for the single fan.

This is just an example, a very valuable peek into the online strategy of one of the biggest Sport Leagues in the world.
We will look into what many other Organisations do too: stay tuned.

Alessandro De Zanche

It’s quite common in the approach to the online world to adopt a certain technology without first really evaluating if that specific tool or platform is what my organisation needs.
Does it support my strategy? Can it help us in achieving our goals? Is this choice consistent with the profile of my online audience?
Tools and platforms go through a typical first phase where the adoption is not driven by strategy but rather by buzz, curiosity and, let’s admit it, a certain degree of superficiality: “they do it, we should do it too!”.

Michael Jordan

Let’s take for example Facebook and Twitter, nowadays with no doubt two of the most used (and abused) platforms and let’s imagine again the above conclusion: “they do it, we should do it too!”, with company A deciding to copy company B and create their own Facebook page.
Probably, before taking this decision, Company A should have spent some time reflecting on the fact that while Company B is a volleyball club with a young audience profile, typically spending time online and actively connected via social networks, Company A is a chain of golfing resorts whose clients are in their majority wealthy professionals, over 30, technology savvy but with a lower grade of active participations to social networks.

On the other hand, Company A’s audience would probably enjoy a much greater benefit by receiving a weekly newsletter on next weekends tournaments and time sensitive discounts on luxury merchandising.
Bottom line, technology is just a tool, an instrument at the service of Sport Organisations, key in supporting their strategies and achieving their goals, but last in the steps of their online presence’s definition:

1. Audience profiling.
2. Goals setting.
3. Strategy definition.
4. Choice of technology.

Michael Jordan, probably the best basketball player of all times, did very poorly when trying his luck in baseball.
So will likely Facebook or Twitter or any other platform matched to your online fan base if you don’t know their profile and/or haven’t got goals and a strategy behind.

Alessandro De Zanche