MCG

SportsBusiness Journal
Published July 16, 2007 : Page 14

A few weeks ago rookie Yankee pitcher Tyler Clippard arrived half-naked in my inbox. Next came a snapshot of Steve Nash, Matt Leinart, Shawn Marion and T.O. poolside during Leinart's 24th birthday bash. Then Brady Quinn arrived ... dressed as a member of The Village People. Welcome to the brave new digital media world, where images and "news" spread as fast as fans can click.

Today, corporations, leagues, teams and agents have hundreds of millions riding on their stars. Beyond exorbitant contracts, the public's perception of these prized athletes can affect everything from merchandise sales to attendance to company stock price. Therefore, managing the "athlete brand" is more critical than ever. It's also more complicated.

The traditional media environment has been turned upside down. Digital platforms - blogs, forums, social networks - provide avid fans and casual observers the opportunity to speak louder, broader and faster. This communications transformation demands new rules. Before That exercise is representative of how 80 percent of your audience is finding information. You're also likely to find that 30-50 percent of the search results are "citizen-generated media," content written by consumers for consumers and posted in blogs, forums and social networks.

Newsday.com writer Jim Baumbach recently penned the story "Who Is Tyler Clippard? Just ask MySpace." It should be required reading for everyone involved with athlete management. The article profiled the Yankees' rookie hurler through details gleaned from Clippard's MySpace profile, which includes "photos of himself [sic] pitching, drinking and looking at himself shirtless in the mirror." A few days later Clippard's profile switched to "private," allowing only those tagged as his friends to view it. Regardless, the takeaway was clear. As Baumbach asserts, Clippard is part of a generation that grew up with the Internet, camera phones and blogs. If you've just signed the next 20-year-old phenom, whether in basketball or snowboarding, it's worth perusing the social networks and sites like Wikipedia, because the world may already know your athlete (and you need to know what they're saying).

If you market to sports fans, particularly 18- to 35-year-old males, your RSS reader (you have one, right?) should be delivering relevant information from Deadspin.com and other top sports blogs by the minute. These sites are lighter fluid to any mainstream media spark, and, increasingly, are breaking the news. The top sports bloggers are trusted news sources for on- and off-line journalists (mainstream media cited Deadspin more than 50 times in the last three months). Read page A1 of the May 29 Washington Post for the story of high school pole vaulter Allison Stokke, and further validation of the power of digital media. Stokke became an overnight Internet phenomenon after a photo of the attractive 18-year-old was posted on sports blog Withleather.com, sparking a slew of online coverage and broader discussions of issues legal, moral and otherwise.

Celeb-crazed consumers are heading online in record numbers to get the scoop behind the scoop, creating a ticking PR bomb. Forget stats, we want backstage bickering, champagne-room video or, in the case of A.J. Hawk and Brady Quinn, wedding photos. One of the most popular posts at TheBigLead.com (37,000-plus views) was "A.J. Hawk's Wedding Scrapbook," featuring the online photo album of Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk and Laura Quinn (Brady's sister). However, the shot that garnered the public's attention was one of Quinn and others donning outfits of The Village People.

A few weeks later, a Web search on Alex Rodriguez and "blonde" turned up thousands of results - one day after the Yankees slugger and the mystery woman appeared on the cover of the New York Post.

Digital is not evil ...

These cases are proof that traditional approaches to managing athlete reputation must fundamentally change. Whether you're the NFL addressing its rookie class, a blue-chip corporation signing a player endorsement deal or a PR firm offering media training, failure to proactively address the digital landscape is unacceptable.

However, it's not all doom and gloom. For those who work to understand the digital environment, there are distinct advantages. Look no further than Curt Shilling's 38pitches.com to see how the digital world is evolving as athletes deliver their messages directly to consumers. Many of the maxims that dictate traditional media relations also echo online. Content still rules, and, on the Internet, video is king. Relationships are just as critical in dealing with online media, despite definitive nuances in pitching a blogger versus a newspaper columnist.

Brand ambassadors and athlete representatives must embrace the unique qualities of the Web and use them to their company, player or team's benefit. The Internet's speed, viral nature, and communities of bloggers, fan sites and forums, all offer tremendous potential benefits. Each can be gifts to those who understand them and can develop specific strategies and tactics to leverage them. Step one is acceptance of a new digital world order. Are you ready?

Source: SportsBusiness Journal (http://sportsbusinessjournal.com)