We couldn’t be prouder to announce the debut of our latest project, “A Week in the Life With Steven Jackson.”
Filmed during Week 11 of the current NFL season, it’s a never before seen look at what life is like behind-the-scenes for one of the league’s premier running backs, and his team.
A trailer appears below. Check out the three-part documentary series in its entirety at http://aweek.sj39.com.
On Friday, the fourth and final installment of “In the Life With Steven Jackson,” which we co-produced, will air at http://inthelife.sj39.com.
The goal of the short documentary, which is essentially what “In the Life” is, was to give fans an unprecedented look into the life of one of the NFL’s superstars. It was also to realize Steven’s brand identity in a way that, to my knowledge, no athlete has done for himself before. What made the latter possible, really, was Steven. He is exactly the person who comes across on camera: an athlete with an incomparable work ethic and determination, a thoughtful, humble and occasionally hilarious person with a maturity well beyond his 26 years.
It is very easy to look at Stephon Marbury’s week of webcam performances and mock him, or shake your head in disbelief, or simply pity him. But in terms of branding as it relates to professional athletes, what he’s done is fascinating because it’s such an extreme example of an athlete exposing his inner life so completely to the world.
There’s a lot to be learned from it, and the reactions that have followed.
Based on what I’ve seen, it’s clearer to me than ever before that for an athlete, maintaining a significant distance between yourself, and both fans and the media, is not just important — it’s essential. That might seem contrary to everything that’s happening online right now where pro athletes are concerned, but as I’ll explain, it isn’t.
The notion of an athlete being a brand isn’t something that is new — it’s universally recognized, at this point, that Michael Jordan was the first pro athlete to take branding himself to the proverbial next level. These days, however, since all athletes are told that they are (potentially) brands, what athletes and the people they work with are doing to try and brand themselves has become a bit more involved.
An article yesterday in the Washington Post about Ty Lawson and his pre-draft branding effort has gotten some decent play in the past 24 hours, and without knowing precisely what is being done to market him, it’s difficult to assess that effort.
I love Twitter. The second I was introduced to it, it was obvious just how significant it could be for our clients when it came to marketing themselves. Athletes, usually relegated to short, closely monitored public sessions by team PR staff, perhaps understandably unwilling to put themselves in contact with the masses, suddenly had a way to interact directly with fans without a media middleman, and build a loyal, always accessible following — all from the safety of a cellphone.
The implications of that are staggering, particularly from a marketing standpoint. For athletes, authenticity — a trait valued by marketers and which normally involves all sorts of branding gymnastics to achieve — became instantly achievable (assuming, of course, one tweeted the right way, and was actually doing the tweeting). There is no better example of this, as Tweeters around the globe know, than Shaquille O’Neal. THE_REAL_SHAQ, in his 1,000-plus twitter posts, musings, ticket giveaways and jokes, has produced the tweeting equivalent of a pointillist’s self-portrait, showing a still-growing legion of a half million followers who he is: utterly likable, and exceedingly real.
SHAQ IS NOT A STRATEGY
To draw conclusions about Twitter and its value to athletes in general based on Shaq’s success, however, would be misguided. Shaquille O’Neal is the Twitter equivalent of the Terminator, a virtually perfect Tweeting machine. If you were to construct the ideal athlete Tweeter, you’d be hard pressed to do better than a seven-foot tall, 300-plus pound teddy bear with the wit of a comedian, a smile that could sell toothpaste, and the generosity of Santa Claus.
