Social Media in Sport Marketing by Wilhide Brendan & Peck Jason & Newman Timothy

Author:Wilhide, Brendan & Peck, Jason & Newman, Timothy [Wilhide, Brendan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

In-house video

Because organizations have the power to create in-house video content, as you will see in a moment with the Timberwolves and Giants, the sky’s the limit when it comes to publishing unique and engaging video content to your social channels. Organizations no longer need thousand-dollar software suites to edit materials together; most can get by with Apple’s iMovie or a similar program that is available for free or at a low cost. And as the availability of quality video cameras, phones, and other portable devices has increased, it has become even easier to shoot some quick footage, edit it on a computer, and upload it in a matter of minutes.

It is this ease of access and of use that makes in-house production a growing trend in the sport industry. To be sure, there are still plenty of opportunities for an organization to hire an outside agency to build traditional television advertising campaigns, but the rules have changed for shorter quality content in the age of social media.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are one of the NBA’s most social media–friendly franchises. Despite not posting a winning record since the 2004–05 NBA season, the Timberwolves have made headlines for their creative use of YouTube and social media in promoting their team and players.

The Timberwolves have twice created spoof commercials for star forward Kevin Love. During Love’s rookie season, the Timberwolves created a faux infomercial for “Kevin Love’s Glass Cleaner,” a tongue-in-cheek way of promoting Love’s candidacy for the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. Although Love didn’t win the award, the advertisement, which initially appeared only on the team’s website and YouTube channel, gained widespread attention from ESPN and the sport blogosphere.

The Timberwolves created a second commercial and an accompanying website, www.612allstar.com , in support of Love’s candidacy for the 2010–11 NBA All-Star Game. The commercial was viewed more than 117,000 times in its first week on YouTube. (The site no longer exists.)

The Minnesota Timberwolves are not the only pro sports team making an impact with YouTube. Indeed, a hockey team from Northern Ireland has also used online video to grow its brands. The Elite Ice Hockey League’s Belfast Giants created a viral sensation, too, when they released a music video of the entire team lip-syncing to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in December 2010 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzad9-Z0oTU ). The video’s real purpose was to promote a post-Christmas three-game homestand, but the video went viral on Twitter and Facebook in a matter of hours .

While the Belfast Giants succeeded in creating a hit, the team made one costly mistake when promoting the video: They initially made it private on YouTube. A private video on YouTube does not appear in search results. The only way to view a private video is to access it through its direct link. Fans searching for “Belfast Giants music video” or “hockey team lip sync video” could not find it. The Giants lost hun-dreds—if not thousands—of views per day until the video was finally made public.

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