Really LeBron?

I just shook my head and mentally shook LeBron James by the collar when I read his tweet directed at critics, yesterday: “Don’t think for one min(ute) that I haven’t been taking mental notes of everyone taking shots at me this summer. And I mean everyone!”

(For the record, I wouldn’t lay a hand on a man three-times my size, especially if I was coaching him.)

Ok, so I guess I won’t be invited to his South Beach Christmas Bash. Oh, well….

Missed drinks donning umbrellas with The Decided aside, James is still a young player in the NBA. He has no championship rings and he still has lots of endorsements to sign before he comes close to Michael Jordan, the star basketball player he has been most compared. James’ endorsements may even trail Tiger Woods’.

Acting like a bully won’t help James’ cause. Let’s face it, he needs the money, based on a story in my local Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how much it costs to be a professional athlete. Additional endorsements could help James better live the lifestyle in his new home city, too.

More importantly, acting like a bully and making his pulpit a threatening one only enhances an image etched into public minds earlier this summer: James the Ego.

As a PR agent and publicist, I’ve long coached people in sports that if they develop and live an honest and generous lifestyle and speak clearly and with passion, endorsements will follow. I’d like to amend that statement: if your honest lifestyle is one of threats and me-centric comments, sponsors, especially in today’s market where companies are more conscious than ever about image, you may attract more negative comments than big-dollar deals.

What do James’ accusatory/threatening social media post tell you about the athlete?

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Image by Keith Allison

About Gail Sideman

Twenty years of public relations experience, including 10 in NCAA Division I sports information during which she received national awards for her work, have helped Gail Sideman emerge as a nationally-respected publicity professional in sports, social media and publishing. She is also a veteran support staffer of sports television crews for events that include the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA regular and postseason and others. You may learn more information about Sideman's business at www.publiside.com or follow her at www.twitter.com/PUBLISIDE and www.facebook.com/gail.sideman.

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LeBron Can Make More With Heat Than Cavs

• But if you match up what James’ salary would be for the first five years in Cleveland and the five years in Miami, you find that the Cavaliers are only offering him $4 million more.

Tebow Leading League In Jersey Sales

• It has been three months, and Tim Tebow still hasn’t taken a single (real) snap under center for the Denver Broncos, yet he’s leading the league in jersey sales.

Gillette, Not the Best Ads a Man Can Get

• Cynicism runs amok among our hallowed list this week. And the biggest culprit of that kind of audience distrust is none other than Gillette. The razor maker owns the top spot with last week’s debut video, “Perfect Length,” as well as this week’s No. 5 slot, newcomer “Young Guns,” which drew over 3.7 million views combined.

Petal Advertising

• To create a sense of unique opulence, flower designers Blue and Blooms were bought in. This company was the first in the U.K. to use organic media in the form of flowers to promote brands. The innovative approach to printing on fresh flowers creates a creative marketing tool for companies looking to use branded flowers that turn heads and create attention.

TripAdvisor launches travel creative challenge

• In an effort to show the effectiveness of display advertising, TripAdvisor is challenging travel brands and advertising agencies to create an ad campaign which will run on the travel website.
• The campaigns will be judged by a panel of TripAdvisor sales and marketing experts, the winning campaign will receive around $314,500 in equivalent CPM advertising media value on TripAdvisor.

Cold Stone Looks to Drive Store Traffic With Facebook E-Gifts

• Cold Stone Creamery is the latest brand to embrace social media applications on Facebook. Starting this week, the ice cream chain will allow consumers to send tangible gifts to friends via the social network.
• Using the e-gift app, developed by e-commerce firm First Data Corp., consumers can select one or more friends to send gifts to, either by adding them from Facebook or entering their e-mail address. Unlike virtual gifts on Facebook, however, the Cold Stone app sends a code for a physical product that can be redeemed at any of the chain’s 1,300 locations.

Jack Johnson And FilterForGood Join Forces To Promote Bottled Water-free Initiatives

• When Jack Johnson heads out on a 35-date North American tour this month in support of his new album, To the Sea, the singer, songwriter, surfer and environmental advocate will leave an even lighter footprint with help from Brita.
• Johnson is inviting Brita to join his tour to help expand his already unparalleled greening efforts. Brita’s FilterForGood movement, which has been working since 2007 to reduce bottled water waste, will be embedded on the tour to provide Brita-filtered water to the band, crew and fans and encourage concert-goers to make other simple environmentally friendly choices that are better for the Earth and our oceans.

Children’s Food Marketing Guidelines Delayed

• A working group made up of officials from several federal agencies proposed the voluntary restrictions in December limiting the marketing to children of foods and beverages that contain significant amounts of sugar, sodium and saturated fat. The standards were then expected to be made available for public comment before being delivered to Congress this month. Instead, they have yet to be publicized.

European Plane Maker Submits Bid for U.S. Tankers

• The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company submitted an 8,800-page bid on Thursday for a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract amid tensions over whether European subsidies would give it a cost advantage over Boeing.

Opening a Big Store in China, Apple Remains a Market Underdog

• The company, which has been slow to cultivate the Chinese market, has relatively few sales outlets in the country and only one Apple Store — a modest branch in Beijing.
• But with Apple set to open a flagship showroom on Saturday in Shanghai — one of its largest stores in Asia — the company is making a new push to tap into the world’s biggest mobile phone market and grab a bigger share of China’s fast-growing consumer electronics business.

A Sharp Focus on Design When the Package Is Part of the Product

• SALES of facial tissue during the cold and flu season are, appropriately enough, feverish, but not so during the summer. In the four weeks that ended July 12, 2009, for example, revenue for the products totaled $57.8 million, compared with $92.4 million in the four weeks ending Jan. 24, 2010, a difference of nearly 60 percent, according to SymphonyIRI Group, a market research company whose data does not include Wal-Mart sales.
• Now Kleenex, the brand that invented facial tissues 86 years ago, is hoping to bolster summer sales with packages that resemble wedges of fruit and look more at home on a picnic table than a bedside table. The A-frame packages, featuring fruits like watermelon, orange and lime, were available only at Target last summer, and are being sold at all major retailers this summer.

G.E. Has a ‘Capital’ Idea

• G.E. will start to find that out as it rolls out ads for its GE Capital unit, which was battered by the financial crisis because of its exposure in areas like commercial real estate and consumer credit card debt.
• The campaign features actual companies with which GE Capital works. The first is Taylor Guitars, founded in 1974, and others will include Kalitta Air, JetBlue Airways and Triumph Motorcycles.

RIM Needs a Lift with BlackBerry 6

• Research In Motion (RIMM) presented Queen Elizabeth II with a white BlackBerry during a royal visit to the Canadian company’s headquarters on July 5. Her Royal Highness is an apt representative of RIM’s customer base: established, traditional, and likelier to use a phone to e-mail instructions to staff than download Lady Gaga videos. In short, not the audience co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie has to woo as RIM loses ground to Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and handsets running Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system.

Cisco Wants Flip In On NBC’s Olympic 2012 Plans

• Cisco provided NBC with Flip video cameras to allow U.S. athletes, bloggers, reporters and analysts to record the behind-the-scenes stories in Vancouver and share the videos on NBCOlympics.com. It’s not clear whether NBC will enter into a similar agreement with the company for the upcoming Olympic games that begin July 27, 2012, although Cisco will support the advanced infrastructure for the London 2012 games.

Boro offers monthly shirt sponsorship packages

• Middlesbrough has launched “front of shirt” sponsorship packages on a monthly basis after season-long offers failed to meet the English Championship club expectations.

Multi-million pound boost for Tottenham Hotspur

• The deal, with Autonomy Corporation PLC, a global leader in infrastructure software, will run for two years and only covers Premier League matches. Financial details were not released, but the deal is known to be worth more than the £8.5 million (US$12.9 million) annual sum Spurs were receiving from Mansion. The Autonomy partnership is believed to be closer to £10 million (US$15 million) per season, while Spurs will sign another shirt sponsor for cup games, including the Uefa Champions League.

Toyota plans to use customer accolades in campaign

• Toyota is to highlight user experiences and industry accolades in its latest marketing push in an attempt to reassure consumers following a spate of recalls and faults.
• The company wants to extend the theme of its “Your Toyota is My Toyota” pan-European advertising campaign, and says it is focused on “overcoming prejudices”.

Skip the Scotch, Just Have a Swig of Mellowberry

• “Relaxation shots” like Snoozeberry and iChill and soporific beverages with names like Unwind, Dream Water, Koma Unwind Chillaxation and Drank are aiming to take away the very buzz their caffeinated predecessors were designed to deliver. There are already more than 350 kinds of relaxation drinks on the market, according to Agata Kaczanowska, an analyst with the research company IBISWorld. Instead of slogans like Jolt’s “All the sugar and twice the caffeine,” these new drinks proffer serenity with maxims like Unwind’s “Tired of being wired?” and Drank’s “Slow your roll.”

Panasonic in biggest ever Lumix campaign

• The campaign, created by The Campaign Palace, features three 30-second TV spots, which will run across free-to-air and pay TV.
• The creative focuses on the theme “You don’t have to be a great photographer to take great photos”, and is backed by targeted magazine and online advertising, as well as outdoor and point-of-sale activity.
• The print and online advertising will be highly targeted. For instance, ads relating to the DMC-TZ10 Lumix model will focus on travel media, whereas ads relating to the DMC FT2 model will target niche surfing, skating and snowboarding media.

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About Ben Sturner

Ben Sturner is the Founder and CEO of Leverage Agency, one of the most respected, innovative, resourceful and ambitious sports and entertainment branding sponsorship agencies on Madison Avenue. Sturner has taken his multi-million dollar business from a small start-up in his New York City apartment to a premiere agency that has secured deals for clients including: Jimmy Kimmel Live, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball, KFC, Gillette, Progressive Insurance, Southwest Airlines, Reebok, Comcast, Anheuser Busch, Fremantle Media, Mark Burnett Productions and NBC’s Prime Time Celebrity Apprentice, Reveille, Radical Media, as well as other top-tier brands. Ben has been named NYC Entrepreneur of the month in TrueNYC.com and has been interviewed and featured on ESPN, NBC, CNBC, USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL as an expert in sports and entertainment sponsorship.

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So this week would not be complete if I went through this entire saga regarding LeBron James and did not write about him once. I know everyone is sick of hearing about it, but for some reason everyone keeps reading the tabloids and listening to the countless information put out by the media. Everyone complains about it but than he or she plays devil’s advocate and wants to learn more about it anyways. I am not sure if there was a connection with the scorching temperatures that plagued the east side of the country this week, but LeBron decided he also wanted to be part of the “heat” epidemic.

Okay LeBron is on the Heat, we get it, but South Beach was not the only thing that came out a winner in the sweepstakes for King James. This article actually has little to do with the blockbuster deal that recently took place, but rather focusing on the wise choices made by the Boys and Girls Club of America.

Now I am not exactly sure whose idea it was to get themselves involved with one another, whether being LeBron contacting the club or the club contacting LeBron, but regardless it was an amazing public relations move in which put the Boys and Girls Club of America on the map. In what was easily the biggest hype to a sports announcement this year, and maybe all time for that matter, the Boys and Girls Club of America had their name all over the scene. I understand that they were not sponsors during the hour-long special on ESPN called “The Decision,” but as a corporation I can bet money that they created more awareness for their brand than any of the other companies involved during the LeJames-anthon.

The University of Phoenix and Vitamin Water presented a solid campaign with their sponsorships, as I can actually remember seeing them during the event, but how many people can really remember that Bing, Sprite, and McDonald’s also sponsored. I was trying to keep tabs on the sponsors that appeared during the event and I still forgot about those last three. I guess Bing, Sprite, and McDonalds were like the Cavaliers, Knicks, and Nets; but hey, not everyone could come out a winner during the campaign.

When it came to the Boys and Girls Club of America and LeBron James, they were able to compliment each other well. Honestly, I think that anytime someone like the Boys and Girls Club of America can get themselves involved with such a spectacle deserves a pat on the back. Though give some credit to LeBron, as even though after his decision some people may think differently, but the man is no idiot. Call it great public relations by the James Camp, call it a scapegoat so those the New York and Cleveland communities might show some remorse, or call it a man trying to help out an organization, regardless, it increased the brand of the Boys and Girls Club of America and it made LeBron look like less of a villain for hosting his announcement live on television.

LeBron was going to come out of the situation hated by numerous cities regardless of his decision, but the Boys and Girls Club of America knew they were going to come out a winner no matter what.

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Photos by Keith Allison

About Matt Clark

Matt Clark is currently an intern for Sports Networker, studying sport management and public relations at York College of Pennsylvania. He has an extreme passion for learning about new trends in social media and technology and how it is revolutionizing sports. He has contributed as sports editor for the York College newspaper, been an event manager for collegiate sporting events, intramural supervisor, contributor to the sports information department, and executive board member on the Sport Management Student Association. Matt is heading into his third season as part of the game-day entertainment with the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees. Connect with him on Twitter @mattgclark

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Let me start by saying that LeBron James is doing just fine for himself. LeBron can pretty much do whatever he wants (e.g. get dunked on at his own camp and confiscate the video, walk off the court without shaking hands after losing the Eastern conference finals, back out of the Slam Dunk Competition) and people will still love him. The LBJ brand is very much intact and thriving. The man has tons of endorsements. However, is “doing just fine” good enough for the most exciting and athletic player in the game right now? LeBron has never settled for “just fine,” so why start now?

That’s not to say that LeBron James owes us anything. His play on the court is an absolute spectacle. I’ve never seen anyone like him. He’s exciting, unselfish, and completely dynamic. So, whatever LBJ chooses to do is up to him. All I’m saying is, I think LeBron could take it up another notch. I can’t imagine the kind of pressure on an athlete like LeBron James is under. But he’s chosen the path of greatness, a lot is expected of great people.

Slam Dunk Contest

Did you see LeBron throwing those dunks down in the All-Star Game? Wow! As impressive as they were, all I could think about is that I wish he would have pulled them out Saturday night during the Dunk Contest.

I’m calling out LeBron. Last year, during the 2009 Slam Dunk Contest, LBJ said he was putting his name in for the 2010 competition. For nearly a year, we anticipated LeBron’s performance in this year’s contest. What would he pull out of his bag of tricks? Then, in January, LBJ announced he would not participate.

I can’t say I was surprised, but I was definitely disappointed. I don’t think anyone knows for sure why LeBron decided not to stick with the competition (complicated entry form, anybody?), nor did anyone make too much of a big deal about it. It’s possible LBJ thought he couldn’t live up to expectations, that if he entered and lost the Slam Dunk Contest, he would lose some of his aura and give the haters more fuel. I know the argument, that LeBron has far more to lose than to gain from participating in the Slam Dunk Contest, but I don’t buy it.

LBJ is the most athletic person I’ve ever seen, and the other night, during the All Star Game, he pulled out the dunks we all wish we’d seen the night before. No offense to Gerald Wallace, Shannon Brown, and even Nate Robinson, but you guys just don’t cut it. Everyone in the world wants to see a Slam Dunk Contest featuring Lebron James (and D-Wade and Dwight Howard). So, let’s see it in 2011, LBJ. No excuses.

Online Presence

This about says it all:

LeBronJames.com is a parked GoDaddy.com site.

Twitter.com/LeBronJames is an inactive account with 7,000 followers.

While Facebook.com/LeBronJames has 1.6 million fans, the last post was nearly four months ago, and LeBron clearly doesn’t run the page. So, he has 1.6 million fans, and that’s with close to zero involvement!

In a world where athletes are getting involved with social media, producing content, and interacting with fans, some of the biggest stars (e.g. LeBron, Kobe, Tiger, Peyton) are absent. As I mentioned earlier, LeBron has no responsibility to any of us to do anything apart from what he feels like doing. But if he truly wants to become the greatest, most memorable and likable athlete ever, social media can be his friend. LeBron has 1.6 million fans on Facebook, with little involvement. Imagine where he could be were he actually interacting and producing content.

Sports’ superstars often hide behind a curtain. Tiger Woods, for example, was one of the most private athletes in our world until it was discovered he was cheating on his wife with several mistresses (so, maybe for good reason). LeBron has a chance to change that stereotype. He has the opportunity to become the most beloved athlete of all time, yet he’s passing it up.

Conclusion

The sports world has been forever changed by social media. Fifteen years ago, when Michael Jordan was dominating the basketball scene and signing endorsement deals, he was doing all he could really, for his brand. Now, we live in a world where athletes can take it to the next level, by utilizing the Internet to create their own content and connect with their fans. LeBron James has a chance to be the best ever on the court. He gets better every year, and pretty soon there will be no way to argue whether or not he’s the best in the game (I don’t see how you can argue it now). He’s incredibly charismatic and likable (as opposed to a certain superstar who rocks the purple and gold). But if LBJ wants to be a truly revolutionary athlete, the most beloved of all time, he needs to be doing even more.

LBJ, we need to see you in the Dunk Contest next year. And you need to start utilizing social media. There is no reason not to. With just a little extra work, you can propel your fame to heights we’ve never seen, you can truly connect with your fans, and to be perfectly honest, you can command more money. I absolutely love what you do, I’m a huge fan (borderline fanboy) but  please think about it, because you’re missing a massive opportunity.

What do you think about LeBron James? Were you disappointed that he dropped out of the Slam Dunk Contest? Would you like to see him utilizing social media? Do you think he’s doing enough?

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Image by Keith Allison

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About Sam Taggart

Sam is a Creative Strategist for VaynerMedia, a social media agency based in New York City. Sam previously worked as an Account Executive for the New York Jets as well as the New Jersey Nets and spent time working with former NBA player Jalen Rose as well as NFL safety Kerry Rhodes. He now focuses on creative strategy across VaynerMedia's portfolio. You can follow Sam at http://twitter.com/gosam & visit VaynerMedia at http://www.vaynermedia.com.

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