I went to a New Jersey Nets NBA game on Saturday. They were playing my favorite team, the Boston Celtics, and the experience became a good lesson in branding. First, some context:

As an NBA franchise, the Nets have never really had a strong identity. They don’t have a consistent track record of winning, will always play second fiddle in this market to the New York Knicks, they are trying to move to Brooklyn and right now they don’t have any really marketable players. Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

So I take my seat at the Izod Center (which is at least the 3rd name I can recall for the place where the Nets play – part of the problem) and you can really see the uphill battle the Nets are facing. It’s a decent Saturday night, against one of the top five teams in the league and the 20,029 seat arena is only about three quarters full. Of those in attendance, at least a third are Celtics fans (I’m probably being consertive in my estimates). So, 20,000 seat arena and only half those seats are being used by Nets fans. Did I also mention the Nets are winless on the season?

Let stop right here and commend the Nets organization. I’ve seen (and worked for) sports franchises that just don’t care about the fans. That’s not true with the Nets. They are putting in a real, honest effort to connect with fans. Yes, the ticket prices are way too high, but for those in attendance, there was no shortage of engagement. Let me quickly run down a partial list of what was going on:

Free youth t-shirts upon entering
Free ‘thunder sticks’ were passed
Free t-shirts launched into the stands
Music, fireworks, cheersquads, dancers, mascots and a hypeman
Games and contests for fans during time outs

Again, just a sampling of what was going on, and individually, those were all worthy efforts. But taken in total, and you get a weird amalgamation that begins to resemble a meatball sundae. The Nets’ identity crisis starts to become clear. Do they want to appeal to an urban crowd with the hypeman and Jay-Z songs blasting? Are they family friendly with the cute mascots, kids t-shirts and on-court contests? Are they trying to attract 20-30 year old males via the provacatively dressed dancers? The answer to the above questions is a collective… yes!

And here’s where we have the problem. The Nets are trying to be so many things to so many people, they end up being nothing to everyone. If you brought you kids to the game, the dancers and Jay-Z music blasting might be a little too much. If you are a die-hard hoops junkie, you can probably do without the music chairs game they played at half-time with a dozen 8-year olds.

Both on and off the court the Nets need to pick an identity and stick with it. If you are going to go for the urban market, great. Add a live DJ to the hype man and make sure the courtside seats are filled with hip hop royalty or at least up and comers every night. Have Jay-Z record an anthem for the Nets and develop a line of Nets gear with Roca-wear or Phat Farm.

You can base your larger marketing campaign around this thematic as well where basketball and hip hop intersect: passion, improvisation, creativity, hard work, authenticity, integrity…  Notice I’m not suggesting you have to adopt some sort of gangsta persona, there are many positive, productive aspects of hip hop to emphasize.

Once an overall theme is selected, I’d like to see the Nets develop both a game and season narrative. What do I mean by this? Each year sports teams pick some sort of bland, generic marketing line – I believe the Nets are going with “More than a game” this year. See what I mean? Instead, why not go with something bold and daring that is really tied in to the team’s identity (let’s continue with the hip hop theme).  Not saying this is brilliant, but you can see how the Yankees adopted Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind for the baseball playoffs, so pick a song, or even an album and expand that a bit.

Then, I’d hire creatives from Hollywood and the hip hop community to develop a story line that could evolve over the 42 game regular season. This narrative could involve players and team staff and engage consumers at games as well as via traditional and online/social media. Maybe it becomes a concept album, or a short film. There are plenty of possibilities, but now fans have something to follow and talk about that lives beyond a one-time freebie they get at the game.

Each game becomes an episode (or song) in a season long production culminating in some sort of dramatic conclusion at the end of the season.  Does any of this improve the product on the court (or matter if the team doesn’t get better)? Not directly, but any team feeds off the crowd. Create a compelling scenario for one type of fan and you’ll get some hardcore supporters because they’ll appreciate that you are speaking directly, and exclusively, to them. They’ll support the team passionately and the players will feed off that. It won’t happen overnight, but it will grow a strong foundation that will last even when the team isn’t playing well.

It’s time for teams, especially a team like the Nets to take a new approach to marketing.

Occasionally a topic comes up that inspires a longer post with commentary and viewpoints beyond my own. With so much talk recently about crowdsourcing it seemed like a good time to really tackle the issue. I’m positively thrilled to have input from some of the top minds in advertising and marketing communications contribute to this post. I want to thank Johnny Vulkan, Cliff Lewis, Evan Fry & Aaron Bateman who provided thoughtful commentary to this post as well as those who I have linked to for adding their insight to the discussion. I encourage you to print it out, bookmark, and of course share it with others.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF CROWDSOURCING

If it seems like you’ve been hearing a lot about crowdsourcing lately, it’s because you have.  Crowdsourcing is one of those buzz words, like synergy or viral that people are throwing around now to cover just about anything.  According to Wikipedia, the term was coined in a June 2006 Wired magazine article by Jeff Howe.

My first experience with the concept came when I participated in The Beast, the Alternate Reality Game tied to the Steven Spielberg movie, A.I., back in 2001. As a member of the 6,000+ strong  Cloudmakers group, I joined fans from across the world to solve puzzles and interact within this fantastic fictional world. We worked together to create a ‘collective detective’ that competed against the puzzle makers, not against each other, and it was brilliant.

And now crowdsourcing is very much in vogue. Howe took the concept and ran with it, turning it into a book, as did James Surowiecki with his tome, The Wisdom of Crowds.

THE CREATIVE INDUSTRY EMBRACES CROWDSOURCING

Crowdsourcing is gaining steam within the advertising agency community at the same time as another issue becomes more pressing - the broken agency business model. Shops big and small, from a variety of industries (ad, PR, digital) are all looking to do things differently. Earlier this year Agency Nil took a bold stand with their “Will work for all it’s worth” manifesto. That was followed by the recent launch of Victors & Spoils, which somewhat boldly bills itself as The world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles.

PSFK has more on Agency Nil here, and George  Parker sounds off on Victors & Spoils via PSFK here. Other great takes include Amadeo Plaza of Crayon on V&S and Contagious takes a look at V&S here. BBH Labs on Agency Nil here and here. You can read my interview with Alex Bogusky of CP+B and Hank Leber, founder of Agency Nil, here regarding agency business models. The Proffesional Artists League is taking a pretty strong stand against Work-for-Hire which can be interpreted as crowdsourcing. Take a look at their POV here.

AdAge is currently running a poll (through Nov. 6) asking if crowdsourcing is a threat to agencies.

BRANDS JOIN IN ON THE ACTION

I’m excited to see really smart people like the ones at AN and V&S make bold moves like this. Creative industries need this sort of thinking to keep them from stagnating. But here’s where it gets interesting. If you’re going to crowdsource, why does the client even need a middle man like V&S? Mountain Dew seems to have asked that question and come up with the answer: They don’t.

As part of their Dewmocracy campaign, the fizzy beverage is crowdsourcing their new TV ad. From the website:

Mountain Dew asked their biggest fans to band together and create the next DEW, from the flavors to the TV ads. Now’s your chance to get involved.

1) Create A DEW Spot
Direct, shoot and edit a 12-second DEW spot that shows off your skills.

2) Upload it
Your 12-second video must be submitted here by 11.30.09

3) Cross Your Fingers
Approved videos will be added to the gallery to be voted on by DEW fans. When voting closes, the six leading submissions will be revealed. In the end, three finalists will be selected to receive funding for a :15 TV DEW spot.

Once again the indespensible PSFK has more here. From the PSFK piece:

The brand insists this initiative will not impact its relationship with agency of record BBDO Worldwide, who has been involved with Dewmocracy from the start and will continue to play an important role in the process.

I don’t think this is a threat to BBDO, but is it a threat to V&S?

Apparently this whole crowdsource thing is a big hit with the junk food crowd as Snickers is in on the action as well. . Another crowdsource effort comes from Genesis Today, who will award $10,000 for a good Social Media idea.

After the jump, insight from principals at Agency Nil, Victors & Spoils and Anomaly as well as agency biz model gadfly Agency Future.

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The smartest people and ideas I discovered or was introduced to via Twitter in October:

Smart People / Smart Ideas October 2009

Kicking off Oct. Smart People / Smart Ideas #245 with @briansolis Great stats on SocMed: People Defining Social Networks http://bit.ly/fo11P

Smart People / Smart Ideas #246 2 smarties for the price of 1: @GeoffLiving talks to #BlogPotomac Speaker @jquig99 http://bit.ly/25GvQk

Smart People / Smart Ideas #247 @themshow creates the PR agency of future http://bit.ly/3cm14h Must read 4 PR agency CEOs

Smart People / Smart Ideas #248 @BBHLabs talking AI and Augmentation http://bit.ly/8GiAD & http://bit.ly/4dmZ36 Great reads. 

Smart People / Smart Ideas #249 @briansolis’s PR 2.0 blog has a guest post by @mediaphyter  re: SocMed consultants: http://bit.ly/3Tbd9G

Smart People / Smart Ideas #250 @BostonPRPro says it’s still about building relationships http://j.mp/u4wEp  

Smart People / Smart Ideas #251 @DougH guest-posting for @TDefren on the new Google Sidewiki – http://j.mp/xxuyL

Smart People / Smart Ideas #252 @mikearauz says you get what you measure. Time to adopt a Valuable Measurement approach http://bit.ly/8rWKN

Smart People / Smart Ideas #253 @briansolis introduces the Social Compass: http://bit.ly/QqC6Y

Smart People / Smart Ideas #254 @awolk on opportunities to get edgy in his new AdAge column: http://bit.ly/1mGTB8

Smart People / Smart Ideas #255 @its_amber talks brand integration via Willy Wonka http://bit.ly/436v93

Smart People / Smart Ideas #256 @malbonster on organizational response http://bit.ly/2r5X12

Smart People / Smart Ideas #257 @media_reveries teaches the Ad Industry what they can learn from Bollywood:  http://bit.ly/4kPnBS

Smart People/Smart Ideas #258 @AmberCadabra reminds us that Humans don’t scale http://tinyurl.com/yje9utz Worth a click 4 the image alone. 

Smart People / Smart Ideas #259 @BBHLabs on Adaptive Brand Marketing: http://bit.ly/2GhgzQ 

Smart People / Smart ideas #260 @jinal_shah is rocking it with her new Content Decoded site. Here she riffs on @faris  http://bit.ly/1OA9co

Smart People / Smart Ideas #261 @MackCollier on Rock Stars and Rock Star ideas: http://is.gd/4CxMJ

Smart People / Smart Ideas #262 @AmberCadabra on Social Media Time Management: Getting Organized http://bit.ly/4×1jo5

Smart People / Smart Ideas #263 @TDefren  explains why some ad agencies are having a hard time with SocMed: http://bit.ly/17S93

Smart People / Smart Ideas #264 Joe Duffy (via @fastcompany) gives a plea: Stop Going to Work http://bit.ly/1Vcdhe  

Smart People / Smart Ideas #265 @anjali28 on Brand Fiction via Mad Men http://ow.ly/x3hB  

Smart People / Smart Ideas #266 @michaelSurtees: Story vs. Systems, or as things will be for the time being http://bit.ly/4wZOal

Smart People / Smart Ideas #267 @inakiescudero gives well deserved props to @BBHLabs & @madebymany  http://bit.ly/UP71n

Smart People / Smart ideas #268 @ShannonPaul on The Trouble with Blog Influence Statistics http://tr.im/DABg [hat tip @MarketerBlog

Follow me on Twitter to get the Smart People / Smart Ideas links as they happen.

I haven’t always loved Weezer’s music (though the blue album is brilliant), but I love the band. They’ve always had a knack for understanding their audience and providing content (music, videos, blankets – more on that later) that shows they perfectly understand their fans. Here’s a quick review:

First, the Buddy Holly video:

Directed by the brilliant Spike Jonze.

Then they tweeked the Internet meme with their video for “Pork and Beans”

But now they’ve taken it to a different level with the Weezer Snuggie:

Clever, but when you add in a copy of their latest CD it shifts from clever to shrewd. If you think the Snuggie is dumb, and a Weezer Snuggie is really dumb, then you probably aren’t going to like their music anyway. But if you’re a Weezer fan, you love this type of stuff.

Can you imagine what Weezer concerts must look like now? Thousands of people in Weezer Snuggies. Of course the true diehard fan will be sporting the exclusive Weezer Safari Snuggie. Jimmy Buffett gets a lot of credit, and rightly so, for creating a strong community around his music, Weezer are doing it as well and are guaranteeing themselves a hardcore, devoted fanbase for years to come.

While you’re at it, look at the fantastic Weezer YouTube channel, complete with behind the scenes videos and other good stuff.

Whose lists are you on?

Who else is on the list with you?

Aside from debating the overall functionality, those seem to be the questions regarding the new Twitter Lists function.

In other words it took just a couple of days for Twitter Lists to become just another way of measuring ourselves and each other. It’s still early and people are just starting to use this feature, but it’s disappointing to see so many rush to the bottom. Mark Drapeau voices a similar concern here.

Maybe it’s because I use Tweetdeck, but I’m having a hard time seeing the appeal of Twitter Lists. Yes, I do appreciate that my lists will come with me from computer to computer, but I can still only see one List stream at a time. Am I really going to toggle between my main stream and two or three lists, back and forth, back and forth? Rachel Sklar is also somewhat less than impressed with the whole operation.

Perhaps Twitter Lists aren’t intended for power users who are already using third-party interfaces, but rather for the more casual users. I’d be interested to see h0w sophisticated users with four or five lists are getting along with this new functionality.

This is an excerpt of a post I contributed to Jinal Shah’s excellent new site, Content Decoded. You can read the entire piece here.

I think one of the bigger trends of the last few years has been increasing ability for consumers to customize the content they receive. At first blush, this seems like a good thing. Being able to pull only the relevant content you want sounds great when there is an overwhelming amount of content out there.  This sort of filtering can work on both qualitative and quantitative levels. But what is often overlooked is what is lost with this sort of filtering, the serendipitous discovery of content.

When I flip through a magazine or newspaper invariably my eye will come across an article that piques my interest. Not something that I’m necessarily a huge fan of, but something close enough that my curiosity has now gotten the best of me. Let me give you an example. I remember seeing a review or interview or some sort of mention of the novel Netherland when it was first published. While critically acclaimed, this wasn’t the type of book that was going to generate Dan Brown-type hype. If I don’t flip by this story in the paper, I’m probably never going to know of its existence. I’ll come back to Netherland in a moment.

This idea of serendipity is important, especially to people working in creative industries. We need a wide base of knowledge and experiences, yet by subscribing to certain feeds, email alerts and newsletters we tend to shrink our knowledge base. But what if, rather than narrow our sources, technology could be used to widen them?

Pandora is a fantastic application for music lovers that helps them discover new music. Not completely alien music, but rather music that is somehow similar to music users already like. So, if say you are a fan of Belle & Sebastian, Pandora will recommend Kruder & Dorfmeister or perhaps Stereo MC’s. That’s cool, I like both of those groups too. But it will also give me Sofa Surfers, a group I’ve never heard of. But I feel comfortable checking them out because there’s a pretty good chance they’ll be in the same ballpark.

Go to Content Decoded for the rest of the idea.