LeBron James on ESPN's "The Decision". Courtesy of Ho/Reuters
News Flash: LeBron James signs with Miami after city agrees to change name to LeBronia and NBA team renamed James. The newly named LeBronia James will play in the newly branded “King James Arena.”
That gem comes courtesy of my colleague over at 463 Communications, Tom Galvin, mocking the hysteria around James’ free agency decision. As hilarious as it may be, it wasn’t all that far from the reality of the situation.
Last night, months of speculation drew to a close as ESPN hosted “The Decision”, a 90-minute show dedicated to LeBron James’ choice of which NBA team he would play for over the next few years. The once relatively subdued affair of a professional athlete announcing his or her business decision was turned into a primetime television special, complete with corporate sponsors, and reaction has been mixed.
Twitter and Facebook lit up with calls that James’ did this to feed his huge ego. Cleveland Cavaliers’ majority owner, Dan Gilbert, issued a letter to fans shortly after calling LeBron’s departure a “cowardly betrayal” and labeling James “narcissistic” and “self-promotional.” Personally, I don’t agree. This is just the latest example of the communications era that we’re living in: a selfish one. And when I say, selfish, I’m talking about consumers.
In my mind, huge credit has to go to LeBron’s management team, who sometime ago came up with the idea for this primetime drama and pitched it to ESPN, who then worked to secure advertising revenue, all of which went to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Say what you will about the way the decision was communicated, but the fact that 7 of every hundred homes in America (and 1 of every 4 homes in Cleveland) watched the LeBron James show last night, shows that people wanted to see this. Could the messaging have been different? Could it have been done in a more tasteful way that didn’t get people’s hackles up? Perhaps, but the fact remains, people watched it, and more people than not are fine with it. No surprise, Cleveland hated it. And no surprise, Miami loved it, and why? Because they got something out of it.
Let’s change subjects for a second.
This week in the social media world, pitchforks and flaming sticks were hauled out as an angry mob reacted to Fast Company’s Influencer Project where, based on promoting a Fast Company link, you have the opportunity to land your picture on the cover of the magazine. What many took umbrage with was the spammy nature of the campaign and how you and your friends have to constantly promote Fast Company (although some of the higher brow socialistas also tried to dispute that the campaign wasn’t actually measuring influence… that’s semantics and it’s beside the point). That said, those who are high on Fast Company’s “influencer” list and getting on the cover are probably okay with the campaign. Others not getting on the cover aren’t.
Example three: A few weeks ago, Klout gave away free Virgin America flights to those people in Toronto deemed Twitter influencers. Guess what – the people who got flights loved Klout and Virgin. It wasn’t seen as too corporate, or egotistical, or shameful. Those people who felt they should have got a flight and didn’t, disliked the campaign or felt cheated.
The more the social media landscape changes, the more we see that it’s like any other time in history: people like free stuff. And if they get something from it like a free flight, a cover picture on Fast Company, or LeBron James playing in your hometown, they’ll be happy and don’t mind hearing and repeating the corporate messages thrown at them.
The only difference between the Fast Company campaign and LeBron’s is that LeBron had more money and influence to go big with it. At the heart of any campaign is the corporate dollars that are being spent to achieve a business objective. Some campaigns hide that corporate purpose better than others, but when that thin veil falls, we as consumers shouldn’t be surprised by it, or frankly, annoyed if we don’t get some immediate handout or reward. And we as communicators need to try harder to make sure that veil doesn’t fall, otherwise we risk alienating the very audiences we’re trying to win over.
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