Opportunity Knocking

Coming Together Online For the Greater Good

It is amazing to see all the different sites online that pool people with the same interests together to perform tasks for little or no money.  These are sites where these internet junkies can submit content that others can either use, vote on or talk about freely.  Seems like the new wave - a business and cultural revolution if you ask me.  What do you think?  Below are a few examples of what I'm talking about.  Any great sites that fit this category you are using?

www.threadless.com- Submit a design, get rated by the community, win prizes!

www.istockphoto.com- Amateur photog? submit and be famous! (well, maybe.)

www.goteamsgo.com - love your team? hate your team? talk trash with the best and win $0!

www.innocentive.com- Intellectual? nowhere to showcase your huge cranium? Solve problems and win some money from businesses at the same time.

 Photo Courtesy: www.threadless.com

Rebranding of a Champion

Today you can find Lakers star Kobe Bryant everywhere.  Conan O’Brien, Nike and ESPN are all hailing him and his fourth NBA championship.  The spotlight isn’t anything new for Kobe.  The only difference is that now Kobe's face is on a Wheaties Box instead of the police blotter. The events of July 2003 in Eagle, CO robbed the NBA of its MJ (Michael Jordan) heir apparent, and cost Kobe millions in endorsements deals that suddenly were extinct, including lucrative deals with McDonald’s, Spalding and Coca-Cola. His No.8 Lakers jersey, the NBA’s top seller before his arrest, plummeted out of the top 50 in sales. Whether he was actually guilty of the charges or the front office meddling afterwards is immaterial - association with these types of allegations can be career ending to someone who makes their money in the public eye.

Now, amazingly, he has not only returned to championship glory, but he has returned to the mainstream and has once again become a role model to kids across the nation. His high profile campaigns with Vitamin Water and Nike’s attention grabbing Most Valuable Puppets campaign show you how much Bryant’s image has changed in just six years.  

Kobe accepted that he would never have the universal MJ appeal after what happened. So instead of worrying about being the game’s brightest star in the media – he gradually built himself back up through a complete rebranding of his image, including a change of numbers from No.8 to No.24 – he has shown the world he can still shine on the court. Of course, having LeBron James as the NBA’s new poster boy has helped, but Kobe has rebounded by rebranding himself as Mr. Performance. You may not like him as a person, but his will to win makes you respect him as a player.  

This effort has paid off in a big way. Kobe’s No.24 jersey is now the NBA’s top jersey sold in the world.  He is a video game cover athlete again and Nike has re-launched the Kobe Zoom shoe brand, products largely marketed to adolescents. Kobe was the 5th highest paid pro athlete endorser in the US in 2008, a fact that would have been thought impossible six years ago and would never have been possible without the rebranding of his image.

Is Twitter a Useful Outlet for Marketing?

 

The mircroblogging service, Twitter, has gotten so much Media Coverage in the last few months that it has quite frankly become nauseating just to hear the word. Well, that word, along with “tweet”, “fail whale”, “twittering”, “RT” and “DM.” (If you don’t know the meaning of any of those consider yourself uninformed.

As far as the service goes, I personally think it has proven to be beneficial from a marketing perspective.  Does every company need to hire someone full time to tweet like Pizza Hut or Sky Mall – absolutely not.  But does it make sense to survey the landscape for your company and decide just how beneficial it can be for you and how much time you should spend using the service – YES.

As Twitter continues to grow (currently 32 million users) it is forming a niche as one of the largest platforms on the Web to share real-time information.  It has also proven to be a place where companies can build their brand, send information, empower brand lovers, and create user communities, among other things.

If you are still skeptical, give this cover article from TIME writer Steven Johnson a read.  That’s right – the TIME cover! Maybe the title is an indication of where Twitter is headed – maybe not.  But, if you’re not using it at all, or have no idea about the keywords mentioned above - tell me why you aren’t in 140 characters or less.