Sports Marketing 2.0 – when being a regular fan is not enough

Ok, so you’re a fan, but are you a citizen?

This is the question asked by the Phoenix Suns NBA team, who are doing some intersting things to build a tribe through social media. The question is on a banner that advertises PlanetOrange.net, “a social network built just for real fans” (their emphasis).

Planet Orange includes a live twitter stream from 25 Suns staff, including the mascot (“who can’t speak but can type”) and Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq is regularly interacting with fans through twitter. So much so, that the Suns threw him a virtual birthday party where fans were encouraged to create a happy birthday video and send the link to him via twitter.

Back at Planet Orange, fans are encouraged to register as citizens, create blogs, join groups and share audio, video and photos. These include Fan Art – mashups of photos and drawing that other fans can share and use. And if all this isn’t enough engagement for the real fans, the Suns also have a Facebook fan site where citizens can share more comments and media with over 46,000 other facebook citizens.

At the centre of the Suns social media campaign is Amy Martin, aka PhoenixSunsGirl, seen here being interviewed on the Suns own TV channel.

While it’s easier to think of sports teams than businesses having fans, this level of customer engagement (Shaq has over 1.5m followers on Twitter) must have some insights for organisations in other industries. What type of content would  an airline or retail store need to share, in order to get real customers wanting to sign up and become flag-bearing citizens of their brand?

Why are vodafone charging customers to remain loyal?

I visited my local vodafone store today, to ask about getting an iphone. However, despite being a vodafone customer for nearly 2 years, it’s not as simple as signing a contract extension and paying for the phone. Instead, they wanted to charge me “between $150 and $400″ for the privilege of signing up for a longer and more expensive contract.

Charging customers who want to commit to a longer relationship at a higher price, seems a strange strategy. Banks have tried it with mortgages, but the fee is usually compensation for locking in a lower interest rate. Meanwhile local energy companies are falling over themselves to offer customers money to stay or return.

The language vodafone are using reflects the penalty for ‘breaking a contract’, not the benefits of extending a relationship. In contrast, airlines will let customers change a ticket (their contract) for free on most non-budget fares, and they have limited capacity to juggle. And could you image the reaction if a marketer at Sky TV suggested charging customers a break fee to upgrade their package with new channels..?

The point that vodafone appear to be missing, is that customers aren’t lining up outside stores to get the vodafone experience; they’re lining up to get the iphone experience. And until now vodafone were the monopoly that could provide it, and their pricing and in-store attitude reflected it.

But that’s starting to change. Apple New Zealand now sell the iphone online, for $50 less. And Telecom have launched a guerrilla marketing campaign to encourage customers to buy an iphone and then defect. They’re offering a $600 account credit – enough to cover the break fees – and the prospect of the iphone 3GS working at full speed nationwide (apparently the vodafone network drops to GPRS outside urban areas, and inside our building).

So what will stop customers defecting? According to the vodafone spokeman quoted in the NBR article, it won’t be a problem because tethering on the XT Network would be very expensive by comparison. But I have to wonder who sees tethering as a ‘killer app’? The customer wanting access to the mobile internet, or the mobile companies wanting to sell larger data plans?

I’m told I’m geekier than the average person, yet I’ve never once tried to tether my laptop to my phone. For a start, it takes to long to load the pages. So I’m confident that most people buying the iphone, are buying it for experiences other than tethering. And all those experiences are available on any mobile network, at a wi-fi hotspot and even on a plane.

As a consumer, I’m looking forward to watching the competition, and hopefully seeing some price innovation to match the Australian market.

AirNZ’s ‘bare essentials’ ad campaign becomes an in-flight experience

Something wonderfully strange has happened to Air New Zealand – they’ve developed a personality! Following hot on the heels of their nothing to hide ads, comes their bare essentials in-flight safety briefing. I often rave about VirginBlue adding personality to their safety briefings, but AirNZ have successfully stripped away almost everything except the personality!

This is a great example of brand authenticity. They’ve taken what is already a catchy ad campaign and embeded it into their service proposition. The behind the scenes video shows how the campaign has engaged the brave staff in the ad, and my experience last weekend confirmed it (minus the body paint). The staff on my flight from Auckland seemed to be having more fun, the announcements felt less scripted, and they were giving out double helpings of cookies/lollie mix as standard (always a winner for me).

The customers are getting in on the act too, with a website to let them confess their own ‘nothing to hide’ stories. Putting the advert, safety video and bloopers on YouTube has added to the buzz, with overseas media like the NY Times and Daily Telegraph sharing the story.

The outcome has been game-changing. Airlines regularly struggle to get even a captive audience to watch the safety briefings. Yet AirNZ have already gained  3.5 million armchair viewers! Now that’s world-class thinking!

Good enough, rarely is

Seth Godin posted last week on the all too congested road to mediocrity. And that taking this road is a daily exercise in deciding that ‘good enough is enough’.

Also last week, Manchester United sold Renaldo for GBP 80 million. A sum even Alex Ferguson described as “vulgar”. Regardless of your views on Renaldo, or his market valuation, its clear that he didn’t become that valuable by settling for mediocrity.

Achieving the dizzy heights of high performance, is not just about performing well in competition. It’s the daily decisions to spend extra hours in practice, when others have gone home. It’s about having the courage to risk failure, in the pursuit of new ways to beat opponents. And its about being fueled by a vision – a vision of performance beyond what mere mortals can achieve.

But the secret is, mere mortals can achieve such performances. Sure Renaldo has some natural talent, but no more so than many who have failed to rise above obscurity. Sporting greats such as Sebastian Coe, David Beckham and Dan Carter all admit that others have had the same raw talents that they possessed. But what “the settlers” lacked was the vision, belief and commitment to make the daily choice to rise above “good enough”.

Of course, the business world is no different. Where would we be today if Steve Jobs had accepted a mediocre, run of the mill idea for a music player or mobile phone? Aim high, and take the road less travelled.