Committing to Culture & Lunar New Year

Brooklyn is an exhilaratingly diverse community, and the borough’s NBA team has always been committed to reflecting that. This year we were able to dedicate additional resources to game presentation and creative – and our first move was to double down on cultural platforms.

Here, the week after Pride Night, you see us kicking off Nets Lunar New Year with pyro, lion dancers, custom graphics, lucky red envelopes, auspicious foods, an arena lit all in red, and game ball delivery by the Chinese Consul! VP Game Presentation Paul Kamras and his whole team made this happen in partnership with our head of China marketing, Effie Jiang.

The train of lion dancers and musicians weaving their way across the Barclays Center concourse was amazing to behold and the fans went crazy capturing and sharing it.

Personally, I wanted to see lion dancers on our court, and I got my wish.

Brooklyn Nets Celebrate Pride

Last night, the Nets celebrated Pride. It’s a special year – the 50th anniversary of Stonewall is upon us and World Pride is coming to New York in June. Naturally, we turned Barclays Center into a rainbow. The Marketing, Community Relations, and Community teams crushed it on this one, integrating a special pre-game panel, custom content, and much more.

Below you can check out the making of that Pride Night activation…the piece you cannot see includes team members going the extra mile (by the way, it’s normal to cover 3.5-4 miles on a game night in Barclays), running in every direction, and pulling extra inventory to ensure we truly had rally towels in every section we needed.

The making of Brooklyn Nets Pride 2019

We Go Biggie-er

Today we unveiled this. Our Brooklyn Nets 2018 City Edition uniform. More than an alternate uniform, it’s an integrated marketing platform rooted in Brooklyn culture – an homage to Christopher Wallace and the impact he had both on our borough and globally.

The City Edition Jersey is an opportunity for teams to shout out to their home town: to highlight something special about the city, something that resonates with fans, and to step out of line a bit. Playing with the identity is encouraged – time to experiment.

Biggie meant a lot to the world, but he especially meant a lot to Brooklyn. We were fortunate enough to work with the Wallace family on this project and to have the very enthusiastic support of our partner Nike.

Check our reveal below.

Look, It’s a Plane! A Custom Plane. We Go Big.

Today, at JetBlue’s JFK hangar, we revealed a core piece of our City Edition Jersey integrated marketing platform (and one of the biggest pieces of OOH advertising I’ve ever bought ;-)).

As a natural extension of the Nets’ and Barclays Center’s brand partnership with JetBlue, our custom livery Airbus A320, named “BK Blue”, will fly countrywide for several years.

Our launch at the hangar, pulled together heroically by the sponsorship team, included the Brooklynettes Dancers, a snap basketball court, Nathan’s hot dogs, black and white cookies, AND…..a catwalk reveal of our 2019 City Edition jersey. More on that in another post!

Ever wondered how a jet gets a custom paint job? Check out JetBlue’s wrap-up below.

From today’s Web Summit blog: CMOs talk about our biggest challenges.

By Eoghan McNeill

The ways in which brands can, and indeed are expected to, reach consumers are changing at a breakneck pace. We talked to the CMOs of GE, Facebook, Forbes, CapitalOne and Lucid – all of whom are set to attend Web Summit in November – to get their takes on where marketing will be in the future.

This year at Web Summit, for the first time Marketing Summit will take place over all three event days. We’re also hosting Marketing X, an invite-only event, where the world’s top marketers can discuss the ever-changing industry.

Elizabeth Brooks – CMO – Lucid

What is the one major change you see in marketing since you first entered the industry?

The major change is actually the speed of change. My first marketing job was at Napster, which created what, at the time, seemed a very rapid shift in consumer behaviour around entertainment. Now, new platforms, tools, data, cultural factors and more affect people so swiftly and become accepted and acculturated at such a pace – it’s amazing. Every day brings new opportunities to reach people and this spawns so much creativity in the marketing space.

What is the hardest obstacle to overcome as a CMO today?

The limitations of the title. As CMOs we are often limited by outside perceptions of what that title means and also can be limited by ourselves if we define ourselves narrowly as “marketers”. You could be running brand, creative, digital, analytics, CRM, UX, customer acquisition, media mix, content, PR, social, and more – it’s a broader brief than many think and needs to be a core role in overall business strategy. I’m more and more preferring CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) or other titles that reflect the CMO’s ideal leadership role in company direction and overall growth.

What do you hope to learn at Web Summit?

The key to personal and professional growth is being surrounded by awesome people – I think the most valuable learnings will be surprises! Web Summit brings out the best of the best, so I’ll be open-eyed and open-eared to everything. I particularly look forward to the global perspectives brought by Web Summit attendees.

Check out all the perspectives of these Web Summit CMO attendees.

What’s in a name? Experts weigh in on challenges of rebranding.

A dive into rebranding – cover story from New Orleans City Business leading with my Lucid rebrand. I’d link, but it’s 100% paywalled. Short take: it takes a lot of self-knowledge to rebrand really well.

Article by Natalie Chandler. Originally published in NOCB on July 28, 2016.

Things had become a bit confusing at Federated Sample five years after its launch.

The New Orleans-based market research firm had doubled in size, expanding into the software, data and customer insight sectors while still offering its customers access to a large database of consumer surveys. Federated Sample also had a business unit with the same name and plans to add offices in London, New Delhi and New York.

A renaming and rebranding was announced in 2015. Federated Sample became Lucid, a nod to its goal to become clearer.

“It’s a clean way to say who we are. No matter which unit of Lucid you’re dealing with, you’re dealing with a company that is transparent and is making the unknown known and getting real human answers,” said Elizabeth Brooks, an investor in the startup who acts as its chief marketing officer. “We thought we needed a name that could embrace all three business units and speak to the core values of the company and the brand.”

Whether it’s to freshen up a stale image, find a new voice or revamp because of an adjustment in ownership and structure, rebranding remains a popular path with the potential for success or pitfalls.

Several local firms have announced plans this year to rebrand, change names or otherwise overhaul their appearances. Chaffe McCall LLP recently rolled out a new logo. Our Lady of Holy Cross College became University of Holy Cross. And the New Orleans Zephyrs could become the New Orleans Baby Cakes, Crawfish, King Cakes, Night Owls or Po’Boys, among other names suggested in a renaming contest for the baseball team.

A company’s brand is “how you walk and talk and look,” said Eddie Snyder, chief creative director for PURE, an ad agency that recently moved into the Central Business District from New York City.

“It’s the ethos and pathos of a brand that comes across in the language and swagger and attitude. There’s an attitude, and you have to maintain that,” said Snyder, a former vice president and executive creative director at Peter Mayer Advertising who has worked with clients on branding.

“How will they like me? Why will they want to use me? Why do they want me on their counter, or why will they want to wear me?” he said.

Branding and re-branding can have varying outcomes, depending on whether a company’s product needs changes or it has failed its customers. It may not be necessary – ice cream giant Blue Bell survived its recent brush with listeria because of its tremendously loyal following, Snyder noted.

But other popular brands have had to re-adjust. Snyder recalls being hired to re-introduce Coke Zero after the company had spent “a tremendous amount of money” on initial ads that failed to convey how it was different from Coke.

“I think the most important thing is to be true to the consumer,” he said. “A lot of times with rebranding, you’re not (doing it) for the benefit of the CEO or board. You’re rebranding for the honor of the brand and the consumer – so the consumer can believe in you, so they want you in their lives, so you can develop a tighter, better relationship.”

After the 2010 oil spill, BP changed its logo into a greener, more organic image to foster a more favorable public opinion. Gap’s attempt to ignite more interest in its clothes ended with the firm reverting back to its more familiar logo. Radio Shack met the same fate when it morphed into “The Shack” in 2009.

Elyria Kemp, associate professor of marketing at the University of New Orleans, recommends that companies consider if rebranding is necessary, since consumers “equate a steady brand with reliability.” A rebranding effort may be needed more if the firm is merging with or acquiring another, or if its target audience has changed, or if the company is undergoing a philosophical shift, she said.

That was the case with the New Orleans Pelicans’ name change, which “was supposed to represent and embody the culture and resolve of the Gulf Coast, and it also symbolized Louisiana’s coastal restoration initiative,” she said.

In Lucid’s case, the firm’s leaders spoke with shareholders and employees before rebranding. The process included a new website and logo, redesigned business cards and signage and changes to the office. Clients were notified before the news was circulated to the media.

But most importantly, Lucid’s staff got on board first, Brooks said.

“It was received incredibly well,” said Brooks, who has helped other firms rebrand. “It was having a core brand that everyone could be proud of.”

“My advice is, do your work beforehand,” she added. “Don’t leap before you look. Talk to stakeholders and employees, get input from your customers. Really figure out who are you today, who do you want to be tomorrow?”

Get a map

So you’re making a change. It takes guts. Good for you.

You don’t need to leap into the great unknown. Slow down and listen to yourself. Where do you want to go?

This isn’t an epic question, like the old interview q  “Where do you see yourself in five years?”. It’s more about listening to your real hopes, dreams, and beliefs.

Then you can make a map. It’s ok to have a map.

Cultivate curiosity

Cultivate curiosity. Especially about other people. It’s too easy to keep your head down, focused on your project, your objectives, your industry. Ask someone else about what they do and why they love it. It will be good for “your work” too.

Photo by Talia Cohen.

What content needs to learn from gaming

There has been a fixed idea in the minds of content owners for a very long time now. It’s a “gating” mindset – the user needs to pay to enjoy the content BEFORE they’ve begun to enjoy it.

Gaming already learned this lesson. It’s a lot easier to get someone to pay when they’re already having fun. Of course you want to power-up after you’ve successfully surfed through a medieval castle in space (I made that one up).

In-app monetization changed everything for game models.

This is one reason trusted brands like Disney do better upfront in the gated model. They’re already a proven source of fun.

Asking people to pay before you’ve proven your value is tough. Ask me for money when I’m having fun.

The Dawn Wall

You’ve almost certainly seen the amazing free-climbing ascent of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall completed this week by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson. (If not, here’s a nice write-up.)  To put it into perspective, “sending” a 5.12 and above pitch means you’re a GREAT rock climber. The Dawn Wall is an unbroken stretch of 32 pitches from 5.12 to 5.16 (which is basically unmeasurable).

Caldwell and Jorgeson lived on the wall for 19 days. The ascent could be a business book in itself, but here are some things I personally took away from this in terms of tackling massive challenges:

Prepare like crazy. Jorgeson and Caldwell spent five years working on various pitches and trying the wall in all seasons.

– Don’t be tripped up by what you perceive as handicaps (I’m too young, too old, too shy, don’t have the degree – whatever). Tommy Caldwell has nine fingers.

– There will always be a really, really, insanely tough part and you will need to push through it. It took Jorgeson a week to complete pitch 15.

– Share your struggle. The climbers tweeted, Facebooked, and Instagrammed their way up the wall, were visible to everyone, and were honest about the tough parts. The world loved them for this and cheered them on. 

– The impossible is only impossible until it’s done.

 

Photo by Mitchell Cipriano. Creative Commons 2.0.