Take A Peck

I read a book called Emotional Branding over two years ago. The book was basically about how brands should appeal to people’s senses and emotions in order to stand out and get people engaged. It’s a very interesting book, if you ever have a chance to read it.

Flash forward to today when I was trying to come up with a post because it’s been too long since I last wrote on here. Somehow I thought back to Emotional Branding and started to think about how social networking sites and blogs can use some of these principles to grow their audience and interact with them.

Sports social networks and communities should especially be thinking about emotions. For many sports fans, there are few things that evoke as much emotion and passion than sports–intense feelings for a favorite team or player, or intense hatred for the rival player/team. There are different stages and types of emotion that hardcore sports fans experience. These range from the anticipation/excitement that is felt leading up to a big game, to the joy or sadness felt due to a big win/loss, which often affects people’s moods for days. Of course, there are many, many other emotions but the point is that sports (more than many other interests) is full of passion and emotion.

While it is pretty clear that sports social networks and online sponsorship will play a huge role in the future (see Pat Coyle’s “Think outside the stadium” post), there is no substitute for the game experience. There is nothing like the visual/sensory experience of being in a packed stadium or arena and cheering for your favorite team. While websites may be able to reach more people, one thing that is sometimes missing is the emotional factor.

In order to build community and increase engagement, teams/leagues/brands need to tap into the emotions (especially in sports). Just as food/beverage marketers have gotten us to think “it’s no longer about eating food; it’s about body management, refreshment, winning, etc.” social networks need to move beyond the tired notion of “connecting” and speak to what it really means for people. They should be thinking about taking some of the typical sports emotions and feelings–competitiveness, loyalty, pride, etc—and figuring out how to bring them online.

Some things to think about to get started with this might be:

• If my brand was a person, who would it be, how would he/she act, etc?
• What core emotions and beliefs does my audience have when engaging in the sport/activity/interest that my social network caters to?
• How can we brand our social network/community and integrate contests/promotions/ongoing elements that evoke these emotions?

Would love to know what your thoughts are about this stuff. I’m off to a concert, so I hope everyone has a great weekend.

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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!

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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

vs.

Under Armor

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?

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Brian Clark over at Copyblogger recently wrote a post titled, “What’s a blog?” He says there are many “experts” who have blogging rules such as “blog posts should never be over 350 words,” and other rules that really don’t make any sense. His take on post length is that it depends– it depends on who the audience is, why you’re writing, what you want to accomplish, etc. He sums it up by saying, “You’re either writing something compelling that resonates with readers, or you’re not.”

What are my thoughts about “what is a blog?” I consider them testing-grounds for new ideas, so they can be spontaneous and unfinished at times. I think blogs don’t necessarily have to be formal or well-thought out. Mainly I think blogs are thought-outlets which should promote conversation and interest among your readers.

This holds true whether you’re blogging about sports, real estate or money. If your blog isn’t interesting, it’s not going to attract readers, and without readers, there can be no conversation. I’ll be the first to confess that I don’t always have the most thought-provoking posts that promote conversation, but I think that should be the goal.

Ultimately, blogs should be authentic. This means being open and honest and transparent about the purpose of the blog. A company shouldn’t pay someone to pretend to be a brand advocate and blog about it, and try to play it off as an authentic blog. A CEO should not have an intern write a blog for him and pretend that it’s his.

So those are my rambling thoughts right now about “What is a blog?” What do you think?

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I apologize for the light posting recently. I’ve been traveling for work and am going down to Atlanta tomorrow for the Georgia Tech-UNC football game. While on the plane today, I was inspired by reading Fun is Good and I started brainstorming some crazy, off-the wall promotion ideas that sports teams could try. Here’s the best of the worst:

Barry Bonds Honesty Day - Inspired by Barry’s repeated denials of knowingly using PEDs, fans can talk/write about a time they  got caught for something and kept denying it, even when all evidence pointed the opposite way. The best denial wins free seat upgrades and a lie-detector test in between innings to see if he/she was really telling the truth or not.

Scott Boras Exaggeration Day - The man obviously way over-valued A-Rod and exaggerated his worth. On this special night, select fans give interviews about their wife/husband and the best exaggerator wins…

Rain Dance Night - We had a big drought in the Southeast this summer. While this was a serious issue and water restrictions had to be put in place, why not add a little humor to the situation and stage rain dance contests in between innings. The winner gets a year’s supply of bottled water from whoever the water/beverage sponsor is.

That’s all for now. Trust me when I say the rest of my ideas should never see the light of day. Peanut Butter and Jelly Night anyone??

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The NBA’s NJ Nets have rolled out a new marketing campaign themed, “More Than A Game.” The campaign reportedly will play up the fact that being a Nets fan and going to games is not just about basketball–it’s about access and entertainment. According to Brandweek.com, the campaign will debut in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and will replace the three-year old “Bring it” campaign.

The Nets have done a lot recently–announcing the move to Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the 2009-10 season, signing additional corporate partners last year, and now this. Led by Nets President and CEO Brett Yormark, they’ve also implemented new events designed to attract season ticket holders, hosting parties for existing and potential ticket holders at players and coaches’ homes. Other teams, such as the NHL Florida Panthers, have copied this novel approach.

If anyone can get people to see Nets’ games as “More than a game,” it’s these guys. After all, they must be damn good salesman–they sold the rights to present the Nets offseason (Nets Overtime) to Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit in a deal that sources pegged at six figures. Not sure how they pulled this off, but give them props for creating something valuable?? and generating additional revenue from it.

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