Gonna change it up from the usual "fix-someone-else's-problem" format and go with random thoughts. I just returned from attending my first (hopefully of many more since I am obsessed with the NCAA tournament) Final Four and wanted to share some things I noticed
-The city of Atlanta is doing a great job as host of the event. If nothing else, the city promoted itself as a town receptive to large crowds for events of this magnitude and a place with a lot to do. Centennial Park was a zoo, but is serving as a great meeting/gathering place--free concerts all weekend, stands with merchandise, food and games, free concerts all weekend, and a big screen to air the championship game Monday night. In addition, ESPN was broadcasting television at Atlantic Station (creating another fan gathering zone) and CNN Center. In all, just a great atmosphere for an event like this.
-With such a large crowd, several companies made great (even if minor on the surface) PR moves to create awareness. LifeSavers, Hardees and Vault were giving out freebies, and ESPN radio was passing out t-shirts; a cheap and easy way to get people to promote/display your product. In addition, State Farm put its logo on seat cushions awaiting each fan inside the Georgia Dome. Who knows, maybe someone will think, "Wow, I like State Farm since they cared to make my backside comfortable"
-The ESPN radio team of familiar faces (Andy Katz, Pat Forde) and not so familiar (Bob Valvano, Atlanta's own John Kincaid) presented themselves very well, but they may want to rethink analyst Doug Gottlieb's representation of the organization. While the rest of the broadcast team and their guests (NCAA coaches) were dressed formally and took pride in being live on the radio at CNN Center, Gottlieb looked like he just rolled out of bed in a t-shirt and jeans. I know you're on the radio and don't need to worry about what you look like, but it just came off to me as lazy and unprofessional.
-Nothing comes cheap at the Final Four...I'll leave it at that.
-Florida coach Billy Donovan dodged a PR crisis...sorta. Hours before tipping off tonight, word broke that Donovan was going to be offered the head coaching job at Kentucky. In answering questions, Donovan seemed to dodge the news and preach remaining focused on the game tonight. However, if he really is intent on staying at Florida, wouldn't he have just put everyone on ease and said, "I'm withdrawing my name from consideration"? Even if he does want to wait until after the Final Four (and understandably so) to deal with his future, this did put somewhat of a dark cloud over the Gator camp.
-Everyone who has dogged this year's NCAA Tournament for being "boring" and "uneventful" should watch another sport. Yeah, this year's tourney hasn't had the traditional Cinderellas and buzzer-beaters to replay over and over again as past years have had, but the competition has been great. The Cinderellas were there--they were just disguised as an underappreciated No. 2 (Memphis) and an overachieving No. 5 (Butler). More importantly, in the end, the two teams that played the best consistent winning basketball all year (Florida and Ohio State) will be playing for the championship, and that's how it should be.
Should be fun to watch Monday night...the "One Shining Moment" recap video is among my favorite 3-minutes of the year.
JC
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
THE EDGE OF REASON
The world of sports PR is so bizarre sometimes that even a maligned field like pro wrestling can have a moment of good PR here and there.
I was playing around last week looking for information on athletes and steroids (maybe something regarding the latest bust surrounding Gary Matthews Jr.) when I discovered that in addition to Matthews, several pro wrestlers were named as receiving products from the down South pharmacy in question.
I know, steroids in wrestling, big shock right?
While messing around, I stumbled into a great self-made PR defense from one of the accused wrestlers. Adam Copeland, who wrestles under the stage name “Edge”, was listed as receiving HGH from the pharmacy of doom. He addressed the controversy on his MySpace blog (http://www.myspace.com/therealratedrsuperstar) in a forthright manner.
Most notably, Copeland stated the allegations were true and even admitted that he “wanted you to get my response straight from me and not through the words of another write.” Copeland addressed that he had said on a previous TV interview that he took steroids to help him recover from neck surgery in 2004 per the request of his doctor. Essentially, he summed it up that the news reported last week was nothing that wasn’t already known.
In addition, Copeland wrote that his usage occurred before the WWE’s implementation of a “steroid and wellness” policy and that his drug tests have come up clean since. Copeland also goes on to take full responsibility for his usage and reiterates that he does not condone any of his comrades or fans taking steroids.
I applaud “Edge” for attempting to spin this negative publicity in a positive light. By admitting to the story and reinforcing that he’s already been over this, he takes away the steam from the muckrakers who will likely run with this story. In addition, Copeland avoids the “cloud of denial” associated with athletes (including his fellow wrestlers named in the report) who say nothing and are socially implicated. “Edge” may get a more free pass from the fans; if crowds chant something akin to “You Took Steroids” while he’s in the ring, he can simply reply, “Yeah, you didn’t know that?”
Though his profession may not be the most esteemed, Adam Copeland’s response to the steroids controversy was executed as well as possible…nothing fake or staged about it.
JC
I was playing around last week looking for information on athletes and steroids (maybe something regarding the latest bust surrounding Gary Matthews Jr.) when I discovered that in addition to Matthews, several pro wrestlers were named as receiving products from the down South pharmacy in question.
I know, steroids in wrestling, big shock right?
While messing around, I stumbled into a great self-made PR defense from one of the accused wrestlers. Adam Copeland, who wrestles under the stage name “Edge”, was listed as receiving HGH from the pharmacy of doom. He addressed the controversy on his MySpace blog (http://www.myspace.com/therealratedrsuperstar) in a forthright manner.
Most notably, Copeland stated the allegations were true and even admitted that he “wanted you to get my response straight from me and not through the words of another write.” Copeland addressed that he had said on a previous TV interview that he took steroids to help him recover from neck surgery in 2004 per the request of his doctor. Essentially, he summed it up that the news reported last week was nothing that wasn’t already known.
In addition, Copeland wrote that his usage occurred before the WWE’s implementation of a “steroid and wellness” policy and that his drug tests have come up clean since. Copeland also goes on to take full responsibility for his usage and reiterates that he does not condone any of his comrades or fans taking steroids.
I applaud “Edge” for attempting to spin this negative publicity in a positive light. By admitting to the story and reinforcing that he’s already been over this, he takes away the steam from the muckrakers who will likely run with this story. In addition, Copeland avoids the “cloud of denial” associated with athletes (including his fellow wrestlers named in the report) who say nothing and are socially implicated. “Edge” may get a more free pass from the fans; if crowds chant something akin to “You Took Steroids” while he’s in the ring, he can simply reply, “Yeah, you didn’t know that?”
Though his profession may not be the most esteemed, Adam Copeland’s response to the steroids controversy was executed as well as possible…nothing fake or staged about it.
JC
Monday, March 5, 2007
BLOODY HELL
It’s been described as the most intense rivalry in sport.
Duke and North Carolina could play competitive tiddly winks and draw interest. Between these schools, there is so much bad blood that everything gets magnified.
Today, we saw some of that bad blood on the floor at the Dean Dome at the end of the regular season basketball finale, another chapter of this feud we’ll be seeing for years to come every time these two teams take the floor.
In case you missed it, with UNC comfortably in the lead and 14 seconds from victory against the Blue Devils, Duke’s Gerald Henderson landed a WWF-style forearm to the face of driving Carolina star Tyler Hansbrough. Hansbrough left the game with a bloody nose (and will probably look like Marcia Brady tomorrow), while Henderson was ejected and suspended for the team’s opening ACC tournament game.
Of course, the debate raging now is whether or not Henderson’s shot was intentional. Both Henderson and Coach K claim it accidental, with K saying that his program “doesn’t play like that.”
Some bloggers, such as one simply identified as LD, beg to differ.
“Everything about the punch/elbow/forearm leads to one interpretation: that Henderson was frustrated with his team's performance and the result, and in order to protect whatever sense of self worth, he had to do something violent and outside the bounds of the rules of the game. This was a vicious, violent assault (http://gunslingers.blogspot.com/2007/03/wow-how-embarrassing-for-him-and-cbs.html)”
My whole point in writing this is to establish where to go from here in a PR/Marketing sense, but I couldn’t go forward without giving my take.
-I believe that first and foremost, Hansbrough should not have been in the game in the first place. Shot to the grill aside, when a game is out of reach, most logical coaches take the stars out on the off chance a freak injury happens. Let’s say Hansbrough had broken his wrist falling on a slick spot or sprained his ankle. Roy Williams would have been hung next to the burning effigy of Bill Guthridge in Chapel Hill.
-Looking at the footage, frustrated as Henderson might be, the shot looked accidental. With Hansbrough driving, Henderson extended his arm to swat it; instead, Hansbrough had the ball knocked out to the side by a previous foul, forcing Henderson to “short-arm” the block instead. After that, it was a momentum play.
-I also think that Henderson should not have been suspended immediately. I know that is NCAA policy, but I think that there should be some remedy where league officials (not the three on the court in the heat of the moment with thousands of Carolina fans breathing down their necks) review the tape tomorrow and then determine a course of action. Knowing this, the officials should have called an intentional or flagrant foul, which would have hurt Duke today and not down the road. Personally, I would have just ended the game after the shot with 12 seconds left and the result secured.
Now on to where to go from here. The ACC tournament starts this week, and there is an off chance Duke and Carolina could face each other again. Thus, my suggestions to avoid disaster and move past “The ‘Was it Really a’ Punch”.
-Have Gerald Henderson hold a press conference before the ACC Tournament starts (maybe Wednesday or so) just to clear the air. I know he spoke to the press afterwards to clear his name, but doing so later would make his efforts seem more genuine…even if his intentions weren’t good.
-Have some official from the ACC issue a final verdict. Sure, it won’t change Henderson’s suspension, but word from the league giving final opinion will help both sides come to grips with the incident.
-This one’s a little more out of human control, but Duke needs to beat NC State Thursday without Gerald Henderson. Should Duke win, they’ll advance and get Henderson back for Friday’s second round bout. But if Duke loses, their fan base will blame the outcome on the suspension, and this incident will further simmer.
-Do whatever it takes to bar ESPN, CBS and whomever else from showing the footage ad nauseam. Sure, YouTube will always be there, but you know the networks will show this forearm for the next few weeks over and over and over and…well you get it. The best way for it to blow over is for people to move on, and seeing the clip will only make the sports fan want to go out and knock someone across the nose themselves in overexposure frustration.
I guess perception is all about which team you’re more a fan of, as was written by one blogger:
“If you're a Duke fan, the forearm with which your Gerald Henderson decked North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough was: (A) a nudge; (B) an accident; (C) a blatant offensive foul on Hansbrough. If you're a North Carolina fan, the forearm with which Henderson knocked your Hansbrough to the floor was: (A) vicious; (B) horrendous (intentionalhttp://memigo.com/info?id=630380)”
Personally, it’s March. There’s bigger and better things on the horizon for college basketball. Duke, UNC, their fans and the media should be focusing on prepping for a national championship run.
In three years of student-paper writing, I’ve heard countless times from coaches and players that they have to forget about the previous game the minute it ends and look ahead.
I hope they all take their own advice
JC
Duke and North Carolina could play competitive tiddly winks and draw interest. Between these schools, there is so much bad blood that everything gets magnified.
Today, we saw some of that bad blood on the floor at the Dean Dome at the end of the regular season basketball finale, another chapter of this feud we’ll be seeing for years to come every time these two teams take the floor.
In case you missed it, with UNC comfortably in the lead and 14 seconds from victory against the Blue Devils, Duke’s Gerald Henderson landed a WWF-style forearm to the face of driving Carolina star Tyler Hansbrough. Hansbrough left the game with a bloody nose (and will probably look like Marcia Brady tomorrow), while Henderson was ejected and suspended for the team’s opening ACC tournament game.
Of course, the debate raging now is whether or not Henderson’s shot was intentional. Both Henderson and Coach K claim it accidental, with K saying that his program “doesn’t play like that.”
Some bloggers, such as one simply identified as LD, beg to differ.
“Everything about the punch/elbow/forearm leads to one interpretation: that Henderson was frustrated with his team's performance and the result, and in order to protect whatever sense of self worth, he had to do something violent and outside the bounds of the rules of the game. This was a vicious, violent assault (http://gunslingers.blogspot.com/2007/03/wow-how-embarrassing-for-him-and-cbs.html)”
My whole point in writing this is to establish where to go from here in a PR/Marketing sense, but I couldn’t go forward without giving my take.
-I believe that first and foremost, Hansbrough should not have been in the game in the first place. Shot to the grill aside, when a game is out of reach, most logical coaches take the stars out on the off chance a freak injury happens. Let’s say Hansbrough had broken his wrist falling on a slick spot or sprained his ankle. Roy Williams would have been hung next to the burning effigy of Bill Guthridge in Chapel Hill.
-Looking at the footage, frustrated as Henderson might be, the shot looked accidental. With Hansbrough driving, Henderson extended his arm to swat it; instead, Hansbrough had the ball knocked out to the side by a previous foul, forcing Henderson to “short-arm” the block instead. After that, it was a momentum play.
-I also think that Henderson should not have been suspended immediately. I know that is NCAA policy, but I think that there should be some remedy where league officials (not the three on the court in the heat of the moment with thousands of Carolina fans breathing down their necks) review the tape tomorrow and then determine a course of action. Knowing this, the officials should have called an intentional or flagrant foul, which would have hurt Duke today and not down the road. Personally, I would have just ended the game after the shot with 12 seconds left and the result secured.
Now on to where to go from here. The ACC tournament starts this week, and there is an off chance Duke and Carolina could face each other again. Thus, my suggestions to avoid disaster and move past “The ‘Was it Really a’ Punch”.
-Have Gerald Henderson hold a press conference before the ACC Tournament starts (maybe Wednesday or so) just to clear the air. I know he spoke to the press afterwards to clear his name, but doing so later would make his efforts seem more genuine…even if his intentions weren’t good.
-Have some official from the ACC issue a final verdict. Sure, it won’t change Henderson’s suspension, but word from the league giving final opinion will help both sides come to grips with the incident.
-This one’s a little more out of human control, but Duke needs to beat NC State Thursday without Gerald Henderson. Should Duke win, they’ll advance and get Henderson back for Friday’s second round bout. But if Duke loses, their fan base will blame the outcome on the suspension, and this incident will further simmer.
-Do whatever it takes to bar ESPN, CBS and whomever else from showing the footage ad nauseam. Sure, YouTube will always be there, but you know the networks will show this forearm for the next few weeks over and over and over and…well you get it. The best way for it to blow over is for people to move on, and seeing the clip will only make the sports fan want to go out and knock someone across the nose themselves in overexposure frustration.
I guess perception is all about which team you’re more a fan of, as was written by one blogger:
“If you're a Duke fan, the forearm with which your Gerald Henderson decked North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough was: (A) a nudge; (B) an accident; (C) a blatant offensive foul on Hansbrough. If you're a North Carolina fan, the forearm with which Henderson knocked your Hansbrough to the floor was: (A) vicious; (B) horrendous (intentionalhttp://memigo.com/info?id=630380)”
Personally, it’s March. There’s bigger and better things on the horizon for college basketball. Duke, UNC, their fans and the media should be focusing on prepping for a national championship run.
In three years of student-paper writing, I’ve heard countless times from coaches and players that they have to forget about the previous game the minute it ends and look ahead.
I hope they all take their own advice
JC
Thursday, March 1, 2007
FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL
In case you haven’t noticed, the NHL is still alive.
Remember the league that was on life support at the turn of the century anyways, and should have been left for dead following the labor dispute that brought sports’ first cancellation of a regular season ever?
Since returning to the ice in 2005, the NHL has for the most part been a blip on the sports fan’s radar. The league has a very slim television coverage deal and has yet to be able to replace stars Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, players familiar even to non-fans.
Until last week, when the NHL took over sports coverage and captivated the YouTube audience.
Most people figured that when people started to care about the NHL again, it would be because rising stars Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin finally broke the proverbial ice ceiling.
Instead, fans and non-fans alike were checking in to see replays of the most awesome brawl in hockey in recent years.
The Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres (far from Duke-UNC or Red Sox-Yankees) broke into bedlam in the second period of a game last week. Penalty minutes reached triple digits, and even each team’s goalie got into the mix. The two teams played again three days later, again with a violent outcome.
Right now, the NHL should be shuddering at the thought that they are back in the news for the wrong reasons again.
However, somewhere in the NHL offices, league bigwigs are rubbing their hands together and chuckling over the prospective boost a simple fight could have sparked for the league, and here’s why:
-It’s a known fact that the bulk of fans at a hockey game really aren’t there for the technical aspect and grace of the game. They are there in hopes of seeing grown men exert levels of physical violence they only wish they could mimic at their jobs. Fighting is a much a part of hockey as scoring goals, and in the Ottawa-Buffalo massacres, it got carried out to the utmost extreme. Ever hear the phrase, “We went to a fight and a hockey game broke out?” People like the fights; it’s not a bad thing.
-On that note, clips of Ottawa goalie Ray Emery and Buffalo goalie Martin Biron feebly swinging at each other received thousands of hits on YouTube. In this day and age, exposure of the NHL to the YouTube generation is priceless. The NHL has managed to form a symbiotic relationship of sorts with YouTube (remember the “Vote for Rory” campaign videos which got great viewing earlier this year), which is crucial to reaching the teen and college-aged generation. Imagine the marketing possibilities if this target audience gets attached to hockey.
-The NHL is in a place where any press is good press. The fight was the lead story on Sportscenter, the first time I can remember in a long time that hockey has led the show when it wasn’t the Stanley Cup or playoffs. Also, the buzz the fights created got people talking about hockey again in that slow time for sports between the Super Bowl and NCAA Tournament, even if in a “Did you see that?” fashion.
-Though the cities are two of the worst probably to market hockey (or sports in general in), the NHL should take advantage of the marketing buzz now surrounding Ottawa and Buffalo. I’m not sure off the top of my head if the two teams play anymore for the rest of the year, but if they do, I would make sure to put as much footage (advertising, commercials, prime-time airing of the rematch) featuring the brawl. People will tune in to see if these two teams will beat each other senseless, and, unethical as it might be, the NHL should market that. I can’t fathom the opportunities if these two were to see each other in a seven-game playoff series.
Even if it was just for a week, the NHL took center stage in the sports world once more. Yeah, a massive brawl is not something to take pride in, but if the NHL can spin it to regenerate the public attention it lost after the labor fight, I’m sure the league wouldn’t be complaining.
I know I’ll be watching when the Sabres and Senators play…if I can find the channel
Remember the league that was on life support at the turn of the century anyways, and should have been left for dead following the labor dispute that brought sports’ first cancellation of a regular season ever?
Since returning to the ice in 2005, the NHL has for the most part been a blip on the sports fan’s radar. The league has a very slim television coverage deal and has yet to be able to replace stars Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, players familiar even to non-fans.
Until last week, when the NHL took over sports coverage and captivated the YouTube audience.
Most people figured that when people started to care about the NHL again, it would be because rising stars Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin finally broke the proverbial ice ceiling.
Instead, fans and non-fans alike were checking in to see replays of the most awesome brawl in hockey in recent years.
The Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres (far from Duke-UNC or Red Sox-Yankees) broke into bedlam in the second period of a game last week. Penalty minutes reached triple digits, and even each team’s goalie got into the mix. The two teams played again three days later, again with a violent outcome.
Right now, the NHL should be shuddering at the thought that they are back in the news for the wrong reasons again.
However, somewhere in the NHL offices, league bigwigs are rubbing their hands together and chuckling over the prospective boost a simple fight could have sparked for the league, and here’s why:
-It’s a known fact that the bulk of fans at a hockey game really aren’t there for the technical aspect and grace of the game. They are there in hopes of seeing grown men exert levels of physical violence they only wish they could mimic at their jobs. Fighting is a much a part of hockey as scoring goals, and in the Ottawa-Buffalo massacres, it got carried out to the utmost extreme. Ever hear the phrase, “We went to a fight and a hockey game broke out?” People like the fights; it’s not a bad thing.
-On that note, clips of Ottawa goalie Ray Emery and Buffalo goalie Martin Biron feebly swinging at each other received thousands of hits on YouTube. In this day and age, exposure of the NHL to the YouTube generation is priceless. The NHL has managed to form a symbiotic relationship of sorts with YouTube (remember the “Vote for Rory” campaign videos which got great viewing earlier this year), which is crucial to reaching the teen and college-aged generation. Imagine the marketing possibilities if this target audience gets attached to hockey.
-The NHL is in a place where any press is good press. The fight was the lead story on Sportscenter, the first time I can remember in a long time that hockey has led the show when it wasn’t the Stanley Cup or playoffs. Also, the buzz the fights created got people talking about hockey again in that slow time for sports between the Super Bowl and NCAA Tournament, even if in a “Did you see that?” fashion.
-Though the cities are two of the worst probably to market hockey (or sports in general in), the NHL should take advantage of the marketing buzz now surrounding Ottawa and Buffalo. I’m not sure off the top of my head if the two teams play anymore for the rest of the year, but if they do, I would make sure to put as much footage (advertising, commercials, prime-time airing of the rematch) featuring the brawl. People will tune in to see if these two teams will beat each other senseless, and, unethical as it might be, the NHL should market that. I can’t fathom the opportunities if these two were to see each other in a seven-game playoff series.
Even if it was just for a week, the NHL took center stage in the sports world once more. Yeah, a massive brawl is not something to take pride in, but if the NHL can spin it to regenerate the public attention it lost after the labor fight, I’m sure the league wouldn’t be complaining.
I know I’ll be watching when the Sabres and Senators play…if I can find the channel
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