Marketing

NBA Finals Recap: The Winner$ Not Named the Miami Heat

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Did you watch the NBA Finals game 7 last night? Don’t worry…you didn’t miss a single thing except maybe one of the most epic games in NBA Finals history.

As you can tell, the Miami Heat won. Again. (shocker I know) Oh yeah, apparently LeBron doesn’t have a single worry in the world anymore.

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While Game 6 had a 14.7 TV rating, Game 7 topped that as you could easily guess. In fact, last night was the second-highest preliminary television rating (17.7) for the NBA Finals on ABC since the network took over the series in 2003.

I tweeted early this morning that the real winners from last night were those that didn’t play on the court . I’m a marketing nerd, and I’ve grown to accept it. I love looking at how #InstagramVideo became a trending topic yesterday and how Time Warner’s potential partnership with Liberty Media calls for consolidation in the media industry.

I also like sports…just a little.

Immediately after the game ended last night I went to sleep. The game was definitely one for the record books, LeBron captured his 2nd straight title and Finals MVP to go with his 4 MVP awards and we get to talk another 365 days about how “awful” King James is as a player, competitor and person. These are all great topics that I’m sure will attract a lot of attention.

But LeBron can rest now. His endorsement partners, however, are hard at work today creating new national and global ad campaigns to make more what? MONEY.

In this world we call the sports business industry it’s very interesting to see the passion on numerous sides of the equation:

Passionate Fans + Passionate Players + Passionate Marketers = More Money

What used to excite me (the game) is now just that…a game. A game that happens and will continue to happen until the end of time. The business aspect, though, is driving all this engagement and allowing us fans to enjoy sports the way we do today. Just think back to the excitement in 2009 surrounding the NBA Playoffs when its two biggest stars, Kobe and LeBron, were putting up big numbers on the court and starring as puppets off it.

So what happened last night from a sports marketing perspective? Something incredible if you ask me. Three of the top brands in the business brought the real Heat.

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As I write this, the above Nike commercial about LeBron has close to 87,000 YouTube views in less than 12 hours of it going viral. Talk about creating contagious content.

As we all look to what looks like an even better 2013-2014 NBA season (can you imagine such a thing?) with the return of Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant along with Kevin Durant’s continued resurgence, Miami will have a hard time 3-peating. Gatorade and Nike will of course still look for record revenues as LeBron James, D-Wade and Ray Allen return for the Heat next year. But Nike will be competing with a few familiar friends:

  • Adidas – paying Derrick Rose approx. $10M / year in endorsements
  • Coca-Cola – have Kobe Bryant (Sprite) and D-Rose (Powerade) as clients, both with deals close to or above $1M / year

Fans are excited to see if LeBron can repeat his MVP success en route to another NBA title. As I wrote in a previous post, sports marketers are also looking for the MVP: the Most Valuable Profit.

Follow the money. It seems to always have a way of telling us the full story.

~sMyles

You Aren’t Innovative, Passionate, Dynamic or Creative. So Stop Saying You Are.

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I woke up this morning searching through my class Facebook group, “Branding of Me,” which is a special topics class in the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Our professor, Gary Kayye, is one of the best instructors I’ve ever had. I say “instructor” instead of “teacher” simply because Gary doesn’t teach. He inspires through instruction. 

Maybe you didn’t fully catch that.

I said Gary inspires through instruction. Ironically, (and I didn’t know this prior to writing the previous sentence) the Branding of Me class tagline is the following:

“Because doing is way better than just saying you can do it.”

And this is so true. And Gary isn’t alone in this notion either. I was reading this article on LinkedIn entitled “Stop Using These 16 Terms to Describe Yourself” written by Jeff Haden.

I’ll let you read the article for yourself but I wanted to highlight a few points Jeff made that immediately caught my attention:

How many of us describe ourselves differently – on our website, promotional materials, or especially on social media – than we do in person? How many of us use cheesy clichés and overblown superlatives and breathless adjectives that we wouldn’t dare have the nerve to actually say in person?

I know I’m guilty of all the above. I felt especially convicted when I read this article from AddictedToSuccess.com. This is why I stop trying to be innovative, passionate, dynamic and creative. Because I’m not. And even if you think I am because of the “fancy” personal logo above, I thank you kindly but I know the real truth. How? Because I learn from real innovators like Gary Kayye on a daily basis. And even Gary will tell you he amassed his knowledge from someone else, be it a mentor, teacher or previous boss.

So I came up with the following to effectively describe myself in a concise manner (this is inspired by Shaq of all people believe it or not):

My marketing format is simple:
60% to put sMyles on your face
30% to inspire you to make your own monumental Mylestones for success
10% to sell you the brand “Myles J. Robinson”

The fact of the matter is this: We ALL learn from someone or something. So let’s all help each other out and stop trying to be at the “forefront of innovation.” The guy who was really doing that (and you can argue against me in the comment section below) is dead. Maybe you’ve heard of the name Steve Jobs?

I could be wrong (I doubt it in this regard, though) but I don’t remember Steve ever referring to himself as a “innovative thinker” or “innovator.” Why? Because if we’re truly at the forefront of an industry, on the cutting edge of success, or [insert your next favorite phrase here], we will #StuntSilently as one of my best friends Alexis M. Davis would say.

Success doesn’t sleep, but these pompous clichés we all are guilty of using have to be Fitz (no Scandal). In the words of the late, great Steve Jobs: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

But most of all stay foolish. Because we can’t connect the dots by looking forward. We can only connect them by looking backward. We aren’t innovative, passionate, dynamic or creative. So let’s stop saying that we are, be a #SilentGOAT (greatest of all time), and be Minutes Away and Myles Ahead of the curve.

In other words, let’s continue to make our own monumental #Mylestones for success. Doing it is way better than just saying we can do it.

~sMyles