when smart tactics are poorly executed
as a fan of professional sports, and an even bigger fan of smart marketing, lebron’s “decision” and all of the buzz culminating and leading up to last night’s prime time announcement is at it’s best a great case study in how not to market your product and promote your brand.
lebron’s decision to abandon his hometown in favor of sobe is irrelevant. what we do know, is that conversations were taking place among marketers on how to best position their brands (wade, bosh, james) perhaps weeks before the nba playoffs began. thought was given to which tactics could best be employed to create buzz, tease the campaign, and what kind of stage would be needed for the unveiling.
social media, specifically twitter, was initially employed as a broadcast vehicle to spread the word and create faint buzz that would later become noise. chris bosh (http://twitter.com/chrisbosh) did a nice job using twitter to tease out the campaign (master plan) in advance, allowing fans to get a glimpse into his personal life. however, as a marketing aficionado i was skeptical from the onset that this tactic and his role in deploying it, were one small part of a much larger whole.
after a week filled with several pump fakes in the media, the campaign culminated with an hour long spectacle at the boys and girls club where lebron made his final “decision” with children positioned perfectly behind him like stage props wedged between a vitamin water machine and a logo banner. the final decision, while “it” may be discussed and debated for years to come by sportswriters and fans, was anti-climactic because most of us knew the outcome. lebron’s camp mistakenly leaked the information earlier that day (supposedly) with the intent of “letting the cavs fans and the city of cleveland down easily.” as a result, the “decision” was much ado about nothing and has rightfully been compared to geraldo rivera’s unearthing of al capone’s vault.
social media marketing tactics like twitter are perfect for today’s narcissistic athletes because it allows them to shout through a bullhorn anything they want at whomever is willing to listen. it provides them with a “forum of me” in which they don’t have to participate in the discussion rather become the focal point of one. all three athletes shamelessly used twitter for self promotion, logging their every move while fans waited with baited breath for a clue into which team they might choose.
the final “decision” and it’s backlash aside, lebron’s team failed miserably marketing their product and executing their campaign because they tipped their hand too early with an early “reveal.” as a result, the tactics felt contrived, opaque, self-serving, disingenuous, and they were poorly executed in the end. lebron may be the new self appointed mayor of south beach, but his marketing team may have mistakenly and irreperably tarnished one of the strongest brands in sports.
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