LeBron adding the ‘heat’ to his social marketing brand, too
Avid fans of both LeBron James and his former team, the Cleveland Cavillers were intensely watching and listening for what his final decision would be as to where he would play last week. His marketing and branding team strategically decided to create a Twitter account for him the week of his big showcase on the specifically allocated hour programming on ESPN in his honour.
In less than 12 hours, he had 150,000 followers on his account and by the night of his decision he had acquired 320,000 followers. He invited these followers to tweet questions to be answered during the interview. They decided this was a good idea to pursue because based on his 2.5 million facebook fans, he appeals to a large amount of online social media users.
He gained 234,000 of his facebook friends just over the week of his final decision.
Stephen McDaniel, a University of Maryland professor who teaches consumer psychology and sports marketing, said James and LRMR Marketing & Branding have an opportunity to create a Micheal Jordan-like brand online, rather than through commercials. McDaniel said “the basketball star could be increasingly leveraged as a standalone brand that’s independent of both the team he plays for and his biggest sponsors.”
It would be in his best interest (which he clearly seems to be worried about) to pursue this potential stream of revenue by promoting and furthering the ‘brand LeBron James’ because of the opportunities it could lead to such as merchandise, media, and entertainment. Of course he still, and always will, have some competition such as with Kobe Bryant, but now with his online initiatives up and running, he will be able to captivate all audiences.
Besides wanting to win a championship, LeBron James also has the goal of expanding his brand and name globally and growing his online presence is a key factor in this process, so look out for some ‘secrets’ to be revealed via his Facebook and twitter page. If you thought you had enough of King LeBron in the media recently with the hype of his decision, you most likely have not seen anything yet…
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