The Sports Info Business

See his video below

Hi all.  Please wait one second for me as I get on this soap box and try not to fall off.

Ok.  There.

I have made it a point to try and never preach here, but after watching a recent episode  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I thought it was time we spoke about sponsorship.  During Stewart’s 30 minute nightly broadcast, the comedian and his talented team of writers, comics and  crew went after Bank of America during one of the show segments.  Before we get to the video, I wanted touch on a few things.

1) I am not a customer of Bank of America

2) I have nothing against Bank of America

3) I am only using them as an example for this blog since Stewart skewered them on National TV

That said, let’s take the old 20,000 foot view of sponsors and sports sponsorship.  Anyone involved in sports knows corporate partnerships help both team/organization and potentially the sponsor itself.  Some obvious benefits:

1) Off-sets expenses for the team

2) Tying the sponsor close to the team potentially improves how fans see the sponsor

3) Delivers a new venue for the sponsor to deliver their message

4) Provides the sponsor a new venue to sell their product.

Bank of America is no exception.  They spend a considerable amount of money on sports sponsorships.  Taking a look at their sponsorship website revealed the following:

* The compamy is a Major League Baseball Sponsor

* They also sponsor NASCAR

* They began a sponsorship agreement with the National Football League in 2007.  It appears they are still a sp0nsor.

The web page showcase a few major sponsorship, but I am sure they do much more to generate goodwill as well as some of the points mentioned above.

Now take those thoughts and watch this BBQ.

Part of that comic bit was taken from this video, which Jackie Ramos, a former Bank of America employee, made and posted to YouTube.

Okay, if you have watched either or both of those two videos, you now know that Bank of America took a serious hit to this November, 2009 video .

As a company, you can invest all you want in sponsorships to make you look better and sell more, but if you are not operating in a way that consumers or employees expect, then these videos will become more and more common.

It makes a significant impact on all of the company’s other efforts while still making money.

I do not know Jackie and I do not know if all her claims are true.  However, the damage can be significant (see Dominos scandal which made it to The Today Show).

So, here are a few general thoughts.

1) Always operate in an ethical manner

2) Treat employees like you would like to be treated

3) Always associate with quality people and other quality companies.

File this post under you never know who you will meet.
Earlier this week I received an email from Tyrone Brooks of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
We had not met but as it usally turns out n sports knew a few of the same people. Tyrone is the director of Baseball Operations for the Pittsburgh Pirates. There are still a few old friends who are working for the organization since my Dodger days and it quickly became a small world.

How I came to meet Tyrone is directly related to social networking and in this case via LinkedIn. Tyrone saw that I used to work for the Dodgers and Angels and invited me to join his group.
About six months ago, Tyler started a LinkedIn group for people that worked inside professional baseball. This group includes major league staff, minor league employees, vendors associated with the game — really it is targeted to anyone working or wanting to work in baseball.
He has seen the list balloon during the six months to more than 3,800 members.
For the most part Tyrone believes people want to learn and network with others with the same interests. Obviously, by the sheer number of people interested on his list, his intuition was correct.
Tyrone says he just wants to give back and help others. He is a person who says he is thankful to be in a great position and since we has provided with opportunity, wants to do the same for others.  Here is a  bit of background from our conversation.

Tyrone began his career with the camera. As a student at the University of Maryland he took pictures of the college’s sports teams for five years.

“I wanted to stay close to sports,” he admits during our conversation.

Right before graduation he learned of am internship program with the Atlanta Braves. He applied and was accepted.
Within a year, Tyrone was made a full-time employee, an admin assistant as he calls it.

That opportunity turned into jobs that included area scout, assistant player personnel to Director of Player Personnel all with the Braves.
Tyrone also enjoyed am opportunity with the Cleveland Indians before landing in his current position with the Pirates.
Now, he assists Pirates GM with the day to day baseball operations and has the ultimate goal one day of being a General Manager in baseball.

As for his growing LinkedIn list, he says, “I have always enjoyed meeting other people in our game and this is a way for me to give back.”

I enjoyed meeting him too, Tyrone, and I am joining your list today.

Cindy Jarvis, Steve Buchan, Roy Englebrecht and Bill Shumard pose for a photo during the event.

Last night I wrapped up another Roundtable for the Long Beach State Sports Management program.  This program is certainly unique in that it brings 10 sports related-businesses from Southern California into one venue to meet, greet and interview with the newsest learning team of graduate students.  Each master’s candidate is required to work in an sports management internship in addition to traditional classes.  New students have a minimum of 100 hours per semester and more advanced students work 200 hours or more per semester.

Here is a list of the companies that participated last night.

1. AEG

2. Disneyland Report

3. ESPN/ X Games

4. Krav Maga

5. LA Galaxy

6. Long Beach State Athletics

7. Newport Sports Museum

8. Roy Englebrecht Promotions

9. Special Olympics of Southern California

10. USA Volleyball

We generally try and rotate the businesses that attend and provide new opportunities each semester.  Some of the other business that have joined in the roundtable include the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Clippers, UC Irvine, Fox Sports, the Big West Conference, The Rose Bowl and many other groups.

I thought it would be good to see as much as read.  Here is a brief video I put together with a few additional photos from the event for you to see.

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The folks at ESPN also have these two sites to visit

www.espncareers.com –

www.workxevents.com -

The 21st Winter Olympics officially opened on Friday evening in Vancouver, British Columbia with a first class ceremony.

I have yet to attend an Olympics and it is certainly on my Bucket List.  Vancouver, a sea-side city in Northwest Canada, seems like the perfect setting to hold the games.  I had the privilege of visiting this international city just a couple of years ago, by my stay was oh too short.  So what does the headline of this blog entry mean “Olympics as a Life Lesson?”

Let’s take a 20,000 foot view on the event itself.  The Vancouver organizing committee spent years and billions of dollars to research, plan, pitch and eventually build all of the venues for these games.

Workers were hired, security plans made revamped and updated as the games got closer.  I am sure administrators of the games lost a lot of sleep preparing for two weeks to showcase the city, country and the Olympic spirit.

What we cannot forget however, is that no matter how great and perfect the plans were, events and life in general rarely turn out as planned.  Let me show you four brief examples about what I am speaking about as it relates to the Olympics.

1. Death of a Georgian Luger during practice run.

By now, you have certainly heard of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the 21-year-old men’s luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia who lost his life when his body jumped the track, struck a steel pole and died shortly after.  Though there have not been many deaths in the Winter Olympics, yet the tragic event should remind us of a few things:  a) There is risk in what these well-trained, amazing athletes make look easy b) Life is precious and we should not take it for granted.  Ever.  c) It never turns out how you would expect . The men’s Luge starting position on the track was moved to the women’s position and the women’s start was moved even lower.

2. Protesters

My best guess is that the organizer and the security folks knew there would be protests.  However, they probably did ot know the plans in detail and this could have let to additional issues and surprises.  During Friday, the protests were mainly peaceful but did turn a bit violent on Saturday. Planned?  probably not.

3. Olympic Flame

Canada’s moment could not have been brighter.  At the end of the opening ceremonies, you have NBA legend Steve Nash and the Great One Wayne Gretzky among other holding a small Olympic torch waiting to light the main flame.  The four distinguished guests suddenly freeze on world-wide TV, waiting for the mechanical instruments to move into place.  The fourth arm, as we later learned was trapped under a sliding door that would not open.  Late system failures happen.  Time to improvise.

4. Bad Weather

Snow one day and rain ben the next.  Even if the organizers could control 1,2 and three above, there is always mother nature.  No one controls mother nature.  Snow had to by trucked in to several sites and worse yet, at least four events have been delayed.

The balmy, almost spring-like weather has NBC and other broadcasters going to the Vancouver weather map more often than they probably planned.  One of the bright spots with the spotty weather favors USA skier Lindsey Vonn.  Recently featured on the Cover of Sports Illustrated (jinx?), Vonn’s injured shin has been given a couple of extra days to heal.

Sports can be reality TV at its best and almost always, unexpected.  It reminds me of the old Wide World of Sports tag The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.  Defeat is never supposed to result in death but as a sports administrator, you always need to plan for a crisis.

When you think about it, its easy to use the Olympics as a life lesson.

This week, I had a discussion with an executive recruiter who attended the National Sports Forum in Baltimore earlier this week.  This person told me the hot topic of the conference was all about Social Media. The review of the presentations were mixed but the information obviously generated a buzz.  It was the hot topic.

Here is the challenge.  Many sports team owners and executives come from the “old school.”  In baseball terms, this is the pre-Moneyball era.  They operate like they always have.   Annual events like the traditional Select-A-Seat have not changed with the times.  They try communicating the same way and market just like they always have.  The sports world remains well behind progressive companies outside of sports that are using social media for listening, testing, engaging and providing a more transparent operation for fans, sponsors and media.

All this new age stuff folks, takes work.  Call it an investment if you will.

Here is the comment I have heard more than once from a sports executive — If we cannot show a measurable ROI, then management is not interested.  Worse yet, there is just silence from the top down when the subject comes up.  Not every team can will a Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup or NBA championship every year, but I will tell you nearly every team will go through some sort of crisis sooner than later.  This is just one example why every sports team and organization needs to be trained and staffed for this here-to-stay communication method.  Don’t believe me? Facebook just announced on its sixth anniversary that it has passed more than 400 MILLION USERS. No typo there. 400 MILLION

The question in terms of social media is, will the team, organization or league have invested enough resources to help them get through the troubled waters.

Let’s take Toyota, which is currently having its reputation tested with multiple recalls.  I wanted to know what the company was doing to listen, quiet the storm and deliver key messages.

Here is what I have seen in the last few days:

1) Big media TV interviews starting on February 1, 2010 in places like the Today Show.

2) Full Page Ads in The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

3) A strategic button for recall information on the home page of company’s web site

4) Video and messaging points from the company on the media section of the company web site.

5) President and CEO Jim Lentz apologizing for problems in all media outlets.

These are the tactics I would certainly expect during a time of potential upheaval.

What it also did was to jump out in front on the social media front and in a coordinated effort, Toyota also launched an information and engagement campaign in various outlets including Facebook and YouTube.

On February 1, the same day he appeared on the Today show, this video on the Toyota Facebook page also appeared.

The well-time coordinated plan helped Toyota reach people in many different areas.  In the online social media world, they remembered to do the following, quickly.

1) Provide updated information

2) Answer questions

3) Deal directly with the consider

Here’s a photo of Toyota’s You Tube Channel

The next stop stop was Facebook fan page for Toyota’s Prius.  With nearly 50,000 “fans” they have a decent base to work with people interested in the product

Here are a few of the comments since the photo might be hard to read (you can clickon it to see the site directly)

Kevin Anderson “I’m very satisfied with my 2007 Prius. I hope all goes well with the recall and that future generations of the vehicle will be better for it.”

Sarah Smock “As a 17 year old girl most don’t expect me in this car but I love my Prius, It is perfect for my lifestyle!”

Celine Lopez “These recalls happen with ALL cars. I think the American media is beating this into the ground just so they can get people to buy crappy American cars.”

***

True, not every comment is going to be positive, but three of the first four were and more importantly, Toyota has engaged its consumers.  I found them not just shoving promotional materials and messages down their throat.  That add value to the conversation and this has won trust and loyalty from their consumers.

Are you listening team executives?

Stop posting only the latest ticket program, news release or community project to your fans.  Start and add value to conversations.  Listen and respond to people that care about your product.  Before your team gets recalled by its fans.  It is not too late.

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Additional Background.

This is a longer post than most, but an important one I hope you re-tweet, email or post for others to read.

Here are two additonal things Toyota did which was smart.

They also attacked the online community with a Digg Q&A session

and they hoped for the some goodwill with the 15,000 plus people that follow them on Twitter.

There are many reasons for using social media.  Helping generate conversation from those loyal to you and your product or team is just one reason.

2. The Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials

This is certainly a game day topic and water cooler fodder for all Monday morning fans.  Which was the best, worst, and/or funniest commercials seen during the Super Bowl.  There have been some classics over time including this one I really liked when Michael Jordan and Larry Bird played an outrageous game of h-o-r-s-e in a McDonald’s commercials from a past Super Bowl

3. First For New Orleans or Peyton’s Legacy?

Sentimental favorite is on the Saints side for obvious reasons.  As for Manning, the guy who could not win the big one might own two championship rings within the next five days.  Let the debate begin.

4. The score by quarters

This week, bosses may or may not know that productivity is going down, or, maybe they are part of it.  Fans across the nation and around the world are filling in blank squares as Super Bowl football pools his their stride.  True confessions.  I have never won a dime in a Super Bowl pool, but usually play them every year.  Why?  We all want to have a vested interest in rooting for SOMETHING even if our favorite childhood team is not playing in the big game.  What numbers do you own and how many squares did you initial?

5. Who is Playing at Halftime?!

The legendary rock and roll band, The Who, is scheduled to perform during halftime of Super Bowl XLIV.  The talk is starting this week, will pick up into game time and be reviewed by anyone who saw the performance starting on Monday/

6. Classic Super Bowl Foods

I was visiting the farmer’s market in my neighborhood over the weekend and stopped at a particular farmer who sells avocados (que Pavlov’s dog cause my mouth is watering).  I asked him how business would be this week, leading up to the Super Bowl  His eyes got wide and said this is his biggest week of the year.  No surprise.  Need some off the wall Super Bowl trivia to throw at friends. try these food based facts I wrote about last year at this time.

7. Living Up to Expectations

Reggie Bush has proven, at times to be a dynamic, all-star caliber NFL player.  Bush, the number two pick in the 2006 National Football League Draft, though has also vanished from other football games and has been called Mr. Kardashian by skeptics.  It is certainly a below the belt shot and reference to girlfriend Kim Kardashian.  Bush has three touchdowns during the playoffs  and has the greatest chance to quiet the critics, once and for all with a big game.

8. Media Day

It has been called a circus-like atmosphere, which is disguised as Super Bowl Media Day.  Hundreds of media descend on players, coaches, trainers and even fans looking for a unique angle or story to tell as reporters look to fill time on TV, radio, print and blogs until Sunday.  I always enjoy the story about the idiot questions a few knucklehead reporters wind up asking.  That said, there is no shortage of topics or story lines this week.  The Colts are return to Miami where they defeated the Chicago Bears three years ago during a rain soaked Super Bowl.  You have a few stories lines about Peyton Manning, the son of legendary Saints QB Archie who grew up in New Orleans.  You have the city’s recovery from the Hurricane, the Saints First Ever Super Bowl appearance and on and on it will go…..

9. The Sentimental Favorites

The average fan is going to want the Saints to win.  As mentioned above, having never won the big prize, plus the post-Hurricane impact favors the Saints.  However, the Las Vegas odds-makers for the Super Bowl Think Otherwise.  I heard on the radio, Los Angeles DJ’s mentioning the odds had started at 5 points in favor of the Colts and since have moved to six points.  Are they right?  We will have to see….

10. Oh Yeah, the Game

After all is said and done, it is about 60 minutes in the biggest game, on the largest stage for people in the United States and around the world to watch.  Four hours of an actual game-day football presentation and even more hours of analyzing the pre- and post game make it a day that keeps millions of Americans glued to the TV. (Hint) If you enjoy shopping with no traffic, today is your day.

I was recently contacted by the folks who are connected with Doritos and asked if I would write about the finalists in their fourth annual “Crash The Super Bowl” Challenge.

Let me say from the outset, that I have always loved Doritos, but no one has offered to pay me to write this.  They didn’t even offer to stack my house for the Super Bowl with a care package in exchange for writing a word or two (not that there is anything wrong with that) but I will say, the company has moved to a level of activation that others have not.  Today, just running a 30 second commercial and spending millions of dollars for brief mentions during the super bowl is not enough.

The Doritos brand has revealed six finalists selected from more than 4,000 entries in the fourth annual Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” challenge.  The contest encouraged people to make their own commercial, submit it and then people would vote on the best of the best.

Here are the six videos (in no particular order) that have made the finals.

According to the promotion, you can now vote for a finalist once a day at www.crashthesuperbowl.com between January 5 and 31, 2010.  If you are not keeping track at home, that gives you until tomorrow to do so…

Contestants are not only competing to have their self-made Doritos commercials aired during the Super Bowl XLIV broadcast, they are shooting to make history by beating the ad pros and garnering the top three spots in USA TODAY’s annual Ad Meter.  If they can do it, Doritos will award the winners a shared $5 million cash prize.

Online consumer voting will determine which three of the six finalists will air as Doritos’ Super Bowl commercials during the big game on February 7, 2010

Two more to go…..

Which one is your favorite?

Here is the bottom line.  The company was able to activate thousands of people to make commercials, even more to vote and place these commericals online, where they will live for a long time to come for people to see.

The investment will pay off by allowing others to talk about the brand in a new and unique way.  It is something I helped lead in my last corporate position.  Bravo.

When I worked for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, now known as the Anaheim Ducks, part of my responsibilities included overseeing the community relations team for the hockey club.

The CR department had several goals but part of the responsibilities was overseeing special events and raising money for the foundation.

Recently, I spoke with a friend of mine who was planning a special event for her non profit group (non sports related) — you can see the background story at thesportscalendar blog . It made me think, how are these events valued, internally by a team and what can be done to help improve the results.

Here are a few brief thoughts that crossed my mind.

* Don’t just measure how much money was made.  Also figure out if you are generating more interest in terms of attendance, exposure from media an other variables

* Are you meeting your overall business goals?

* Are you following up with participants post-event — this is easily done via a survey to find out what was good and what can be improved.

* Test new components or twists when doing the same event year over year

* Certainly check for conflicts with other events and which days of the week have events performed the best.

* Don’t settle that you must continue to do things the same way as they have been done in the past

The first step in making things better is admitting you have a problem.

So, here goes.

Hello, my name is Charles Harris and I have a problem.

“Hello Charles”

I, am a news junkie.  That’s right, I need to know what is going on in the world.  From Gilbert Arenas getting suspended for the rest of the NBA season to President Obama’s State of the Union Address last night, I digest this and much more.  Every day.

I started thinking how much media I consume in any given day.   I started to make a list.  The list includes printed newspapers I still receive to my home this day (let’s see if I but the new Apple iPad here eventually), news online, TV related news, magazines and more.

In no particular order….

Los Angeles Times

Wall St. Journal

Orange County Register

Sports Illustrated

NBC Nightly News

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

New York Times

Yahoo News

No, I do not feel like I am going to get asked important questions by clients at any moment nor am I preparing to appear on the game show Jeopardy. There are several reasons I guess. The top reason is just plain knowledge.  Learning and knowing what is going on in our world.  Another is sharing.  With the advent of all of this new media, I like sharing and finding people that find value in information they do not know about.  I post it to one of my two Twitter Accounts, Twitter.com/sportsinfo or Twitter.com/Coast2CoastExp and if it is event related I am probably adding it to a master calendar called SportsCalendarPro.com I absolutely include items in my free, monthly business newsletter to interested folks.

I tried going the way of most people, by dumping my subscriptions for the printed version of newspapers for the online version and in some cases it has worked.  My wife was happy for a while since she hates the newsprint in the home and secretly dumps it herself whenever I am not looking.  But it is back in a few different forms.  The process starts when I am eating breakfast.  I must read something when I eat breakfast.  Again, a habit I blame on my father but not a bad habit.

But there are so many more types of media I am not even mentioning.  I read links to what people post on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I look for news that I feel my clients can benefit from and pass this on to them.  At the end of the day, I am not a site aggregator myself but a knowledge base.  For me, for my family and for the people I interact with on a daily basis.  If that is a problem, I guess it is one of those good problems to have in life.

Have I made things better?  You tell me.

Yesterday, we tackled the NFL and today we feature the National Basketball Association and how its teams use social media.

Let me just begin by saying, if you did not see yesterday’s article on the NFL, you can easily click on it here. Overall, I applaud teams for entering into the next stage of sports marketing and that is using social media to listen, brand and communicate with fans via different platforms.  However, just because they develop a site does not mean the team is using best practices.

Today, we begin with Twitter.  I put together a brief chart on the top five teams using Twitter. based on the number of followers each organization has listed over the weekend.