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Dynasty Reps has recently released a new promotional video. I really like that they’ve made it available on a variety of sites and platforms, instead of trying to get everyone to come to their site to see it. Go where your customers/potential customers are and good things will happen. You can see the full list of sites the video is available on at Sports Agent Blog.

Create Your Own Dynasty from Dynasty Athlete Representation on Vimeo.
I’ve been in contact with SportsAgentBlog.com and Dynasty Reps founder Darren Heitner for awhile now. I’ve said it before, but he really understands how to use the Internet and blogging to build his business and create lasting relationships. Nice job with this video!

Back in September, I wrote an article called Why Teams Should Get Involved With Social Media that outlined a few whys and hows for teams to get started. One way that teams can participate in conversations and deepen their engagement with fans is through Twitter, which is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to build a community of followers, see what people care about and interact directly with people who share your interests. The easiest implementation of Twitter for a team would be to simply broadcast ticket discounts whenever there are extra tickets left before a game. This is just one example of how a team could use Twitter, and there are plenty of articles around now that spell out why corporate brands should be involved on Twitter (here’s one of them), so I won’t get into that now.

Since the NBA season has started, I thought it would be interesting to see which teams are using Twitter to post team news and engage with fans. To identify teams that are on Twitter, I used a combination of Twellow, Twitter Search and my own investigation to identify “official” Twitter accounts of teams (ones that looked official and had links back to the official NBA team site). In many cases, a blogger or other website (ex: sportytweets.com) has established a team Twitter account to post scores and news and links back to his/her blog. I didn’t include this stuff in my investigation, since this does not count as something that is coordinated by the team itself. I haven’t spent an eternity on this and have probably missed a few things, so feel free to correct me if I have.

 NBA Teams on Twitter (official accounts)

Detroit Pistons

Chicago Bulls

Miami Heat

**update **

Philadelphia 76ers (thanks to Russell Scribetti for the find)

Portland Trailblazers (thanks to Lauren Beyer and Kelsey Thompson)

Memphis Grizzlies (thanks Lauren)

I didn’t think every team would be involved with Twitter, but I’m surprised how few are. Other teams are missing a huge opportunity for community relations. They could be providing fans with official news, updates and discounts and learning about what their fans like. Instead, they are absent from the conversation. Instead of finding Twitter updates from official team sources, fans are finding them from other bloggers and websites, and teams are missing out on the opportunity to use Twitter to drive traffic to their own websites. I wonder if the NBA’s rule that restricts teams’ marketing territories has anything to do with the lack of teams on Twitter?

Do you think teams should be on Twitter? Would you want to see updates, news and ticket discounts from your favorite team (NBA or other league) there?

Even though social networking is such a hot topic right now, we’re still trying to figure out what the best way to monetize them is. So I wanted to explore some ways I’ve seen that social networks are being monetized.

1) Advertising supported - This is the main way social networks are trying to generate revenue. It’s good for the users as they get free access in exchange for seeing a few ads. This has the potential to be great for advertisers, too, as they can often target users based on various demographic info and interests. But here’s a dirty secret–click-through rates on social networks (especially Facebook) are horrible. Last I saw the CTR was about .04% …. This actually makes sense, because people go on social networks for specific purposes—they want to check out their friends profiles, pictures, videos, etc. Social network users aren’t in a shopping mindset and so aren’t likely to be looking for information about products or services. But, social networking is still a good option for increasing brand awareness as Disney found out with its MySpace page for “Step Up” and “Step Up 2 the Streets.”

It doesn’t look like ad spending on social networks will be decreasing any time soon. eMarketer says that about $2.1 billion will be spent on social networking advertising this year, with the number rising to $4.1 billion in 2011.

2) Subscription Model – This involves charging users a fee to use a site. Dating sites have been very successful with this model, but outside of this space, I’m not sure who’s operating this way. People are so used to getting things for free, that its hard to convince them to pay for social networking. There would seem to be an opportunity to offer free services and upsell people on something that includes exclusive content, access, etc…In a way, some of the college sports recruiting/news websites operate this way–gives some basic content for free and charge for premium content and message board access.

Something to think about is whether there will ever be other niche or local social networks that people will pay to be a part of…sort of like online country clubs, where membership is seen as a privilege and a status symbol. What do you think?

3) Data mining - This model involves collecting data about a group of people and selling it to an advertiser. So say Nike wants to learn more about what kind of music and movies guys 16-19 like, they would be able to purchase data from a social network that tells them what they need to know. I’m not sure if any sites are currently doing this, but it may be something to think about. Do you know any sites doing this?

4) Sponsorship – Instead of just having advertisers, it would seem to make more sense to have sponsors who are invested in helping the site grow and adding value. Sponsorship could be something as simple as giving Brand X complete ownership of a contest or section of the site, or a sponsor could take things further and partner with the site to bring users something unique and valuable.

5) Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is basically selling an outside party’s goods/services and getting a commission or fee for each sale that is made. In my opinion, this is an under-utilized method of monetization. Instead of putting up some Google ads that no one clicks on, why not offer a relevant product or service to your users? While we’ve seen that most people aren’t in a shopping mode when they’re social networking, it never hurts to test offers, especially on niche sites.
It would be pretty easy to add a “store” to the site and feature relevant products. A couple sites are currently utilizing this method:

• Go211- They are using their status as an Amazon Associate to sell products and get a commission off of each product sold in their “store.”
• SkiSpace – It looks like Bode Miller’s site has a partnership with Backcountry.com to sell items in the “gear” section of their website

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this stuff.

Have a great weekend. Hopefully the Heels can pull out the W against Kansas for a shot at the National Championship. Let’s go boys!

I’m going to go ahead and warn you that this post doesn’t really have a theme or singular focus.

Forbes has a great piece on Nike that discusses its evolution from mass marketing and organizing the company by products (shoes, shirts, hats, etc) to micromarketing, focusing on the consumer and organizing the company by sports. The article also talks about how Nike really focuses on testing and getting the details right, in addition to touching on its expansion into China (Nike is outfitting 22 of 28 Chinese Olympic teams for the Beijing Games). Definitely check out the article if you’re interested in sports business and one of the most popular brands in the industry.

Another thing the article briefly mentions is Nike+. From both a technology and community perspective, Nike+ is a great idea. The Nike+ system requires an iPod Nano and shoes with a special chip that allows runners to track their times, distance, and calories burned. Runners can upload their stats to the Nike+ website and compare them with other runners. The website takes advantage of runners’ competitive natures and allows people to join or issue challenges to their friends or other Nike+ runners. It’s also got a link to the Nike Running Blog, which features interviews, reasons to run, and other running content. Best of all, it’s regularly updated (though it’s not exactly a true “blog” because it doesn’t allow people to comment or discuss posts).

It still amazes me how ingrained Nike is in our sports culture–and just about every sport. Just a few years ago they didn’t have any presence in golf. Now they design shoes for Tiger Woods and sell them for $220. Spending $2 billion a year on marketing helps…

It will be interesting to see how Nike handles the Under Armour challenge. It seems they are both competing intensely for high school sports athletes–especially football players. Under Armour has Click-Clack and Nike has its Leave Nothing commercials. See the links below for a comparison.

Nike

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX_5tzwVz3I[/youtube]

vs.

Under Armor

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moPBR6os8Z0[/youtube]

Which commercial do you prefer?

Things should get even more interesting later this year when Under Armour releases its Prototype shoes, which I’m sure will be heavily promoted. Will UA’s new shoes be a hit with athletes? What do you think?

InterContinental Hotels Group’s Crowne Plaza has done a great job of aligning itself with golf and reaching golf travelers in the first year of its sponsorship of the PGA TOUR Crowne Plaza Invitational.

Crowne Plaza launched its first ever national ad campaign in April with golf-themed ads featuring national golf commentator/journalist David Feherty attempting to moderate an unscripted conversation among TV personality George Lopez, rocker Alice Cooper, golf legend Lee Trevino, LPGA star Natalie Gulbis and outspoke golf scribe Dan Jenkins. Not a bad crowd to hang out with. The commercials focus on the spontaneous dialogue of the group around topics such as golfing secrets, putters, and rules. According to USA Today, footage for the ads came from 18 hours of the cast ad-libbing. Crowne Plaza’s tagline is “the place to meet,” and golf has long been a great social activity for people, so it is a good vehicle for this message.

Up until recently, Crowne Plaza never even entered my mind when I thought of hotels, but now it stands out as one of the best brands that connects with golf fans. My favorite spot is the one that talks about golfing with wives. The spot opens with Natalie Gulbis talking about going on a golf date. Eventually George Lopez says, ” I think my wife would understand that I’d rather play golf with Lee Trevino than my wife.”

David Feherty responds, “I think my wife would understand that I would rather sleep with Lee Trevino than play golf with her. But that’s not a negative comment against my wife.”

You can see all six of Crowne Plaza’s golf-themed ads, plus some nice bonus footage, at its golf site.

In addition to sponsorship of its PGA TOUR event, Crowne Plaza is sending 72 average golfers to play in a pro-style tournament called the Crowne Plaza Amateur Inviational at Colonial in Ft. Worth, Texas. It also sponsors LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis, and has some presence in Major League Baseball through InterContinental Hotels Group’s larger deal with MLB. Intercontinental Hotes Group also has deals with some MLB teams and Richard Childress Racing, in addition to some cause-related sponsorships, such as UNICEF and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Check them out here. There are definitely some good ones I’ll be adding to my RSS reader.