I am too deep in online brand promotion. When I read a story in the Wall Street Journal about a professional basketball player dissing his yet unreleased signature shoe on his blog, all I can think is that this sort of antisocial behavior is an amazing stealth marketing strategy. From “I hate this ballerina shoe” to “check out my cool shoe“ in no time! Coincidence? I think not!
Hell, I don’t even assume that the blog is 100% authentic, initially. I know how hard it is to maintain a blog when you’re busy. Could you imaging how hard it is to maintain if you’re busy, rich, young, popular, and a celebrity? Well, let’s read the following excepts from this morning’s Wall Street Journal, Companies Try to Score With Athletes Who Blog, and see if we can read between the lines…
Companies Try to Score With Athletes Who Blog
Last month executives at shoemaker Adidas AG got a shock when they read the latest blog entry from their star endorser, pro basketball player Gilbert Arenas. He had seen the design of his second Adidas signature shoe — which had yet to be revealed to the public — and he wasn’t impressed.
“I’m sitting there looking at the shoe like ‘I hope you guys aren’t serious. Because I’m not going to wear this shoe. … Nobody is going to wear this shoe,” said the blog post from the Washington Wizards guard. He said parts of it reminded him of a “ballerina.”
Okay, Mr. Arenas thinks the shoe isn’t cool — before it comes out. His comments are the first leak. Arenas thinks the shoe looks like a ballerina shoe. That’s terrible! Who would want their signature shoe to be that sissy? Nobody! Good thing Mr. Arenas is unfiltered… or is he?
Adidas executives learned that day what an increasing number of marketers have found — that pitchmen armed with a blog can be tricky. Blog posts are typically candid and breezy, not the kind of safe, stock answers that athletes are often advised to give in postgame interviews, says David Carter, executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute in Los Angeles. Blogs “can either help elevate the status of the companies or it can wreak havoc on the brands they work with,” he says.
Well, it looks legit so far… this rogue sports players can be tricky — they’re wild, they’re unpredictable — they’re tough alpha-males who do what they want, as alpha males tend to do. So, how is this drama going to end?
In the end, Adidas says it benefited from Mr. Arenas’s commentary. The company reworked the design with Mr. Arenas, who blogged “I think people are going to like the colors, but they’re also going to like the shoe.” Starting in November, Adidas is releasing 20 different versions of the shoe, which is dubbed the GilIIZero after one of Mr. Arenas’s nicknames, “Agent Zero.”
Wow, isn’t that a lovely ending? So, while Adidas might be making ballerina shoes for its Nancy-assed Euro customers, Mr. Arenas is demanding that Adidas keep it real and offer the kind of basketball shoes that both kicks-kollectors, basketball players, and kids alike want to own — something personally endorsed by pro basketball player Gilbert Arenas himself and not just as part of a marketing, sponsorship package.
Man, have I become callous. I think this entire fiasco was manufactured so that it would end up in the press as part of a marketing campaign. In my opinion, this is another example of how marketing companies are using social media to help promote talent and product virally and via word-of-mouth a la the Marié Digby Conspiracy.
Excerpts via Companies Try to Score With Athletes Who Blog from the Wall Street Journal
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