I saw something beautiful last night. Yes, it was ‘The Decision’ on TSN (ESPN). No, I am not an avid basketball fan who is joining the Miami fan bandwagon. If anything, I am a little disappointed to see another Raptor star leave Toronto (Stoudamire, McGrady, Carter and now Bosh). Sorry, not the right blog for this… back to marketing.
Over the last couple days, the media has been drooling over where arguably one of the best NBA players of all time, Lebron James, will be playing next year. After seven years in Cleveland without a championship, Lebron felt it might be time to move on.
What do you get when you put ‘The most sought-after free agent of all time’, ‘6 NBA teams that would do anything to get him’, ‘a huge mass of intrigued fans’ and ‘media boosting his ego from every angle’?
The ability to create an event (or spectacle) that benefits a great cause!
All the proceeds from this televised event, where Lebron James announced he would be joining the Miami Heat, went to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. We saw ads from:
Hotels.ca, Redbull, Nestea, Moores, McDonalds, Degree, Shell, ABC (World cup coverage), Vitamin Water, Bing, TSN (the OPEN coverage), Red Lobster, OH! Henry, Sapporo, Mercedes-Benz, University of Phoenix, Nissan Versa, Lenscrafters & Malibu Rum
Along with the five scholarships from the University of Phoenix, I am interested to hear how much money will be raised from the event/six city tour.
I think it is amazing that people were quickly able to turn this media frenzy into something that can tangibly help people. I know a lot of sports fans think this was a joke and many people could have guessed he was going to Miami to join Wade and Bosh. They criticized him for this just being an ego-driven televised special to boost his ego, but it wasn’t.
Sure, he could have just done a press conference and been done with it. The build up that gathered over 150,000 Twitter followers in 7 hours was critical to making this a success that companies were dying to be a part of.
Brilliant is all I can say.
I think it's brilliant as well. The interest was there, and people have been going crazy over Lebron's decision for weeks. Good on him for recognizing that a lot of good could come from all the media attention!
I feel a bit better knowing this because, truth be told, I felt that the whole thing was just way too overblown. An hour? Seriously? Still, from a marketing and money-making perspective, it was genious. Everything else, not so much.
I'm not convinced that I would call it brilliant, but I do agree that if you're going to do something that extravagant, then why not dedicate it to a good cause? So yes, good on him (or his “people”) for choosing to make the most of it in a way that benefits others.
Here is a great article to read on the value of “The Decision”
http://adage.com/article?article_id=144882