Super Bowl Advertising, No Cheerleaders and Reputation Management Using Social Media: What your business can learn from the NFL

Posted by Salem Global on Jan 25, 2011

I am outraged! As a fairweather fan of the Jets or Giants – depending on whichever New York team is winning at the moment – I am incredibly disappointed that the NY Jets didn’t make it into the Super Bowl. Sunday night was the first NFL game of the season that I actually watched on TV (as opposed to the Internet replays) and I saw the fumbles, the interceptions. The safetys, The touchdowns. I saw the running plays. The completed passes. The incompletes. I saw the out of bounds. I saw the clock tick. I saw the head coach pull off his headset, throw it down and curse. I saw the faces of my friends as all these things were happening. And I heard the sounds of grown men weeping that their beloved Jets would not be going to the Super Bowl. Again.

But nothing compares to what I saw this morning in my weekly review of sports and what to write about for this blog.

On Yahoo! Sports (http:/sports.yahoo.com/sportsminute;_ylt=AsUNjyyJjnwOMN3Y0onwX5E5nYcB)  I learned that there are six NFL teams (do you know which?) who don’t pay women to shake their booty and get as close to undressed as possible for American men for money. Two of those teams are going to the Super Bowl. And in the words of the ESPN blogger Gregg Easterbrook, “THIS IS AMERICA!” With both teams being built around defense, the trophy might go to whichever’s offense is least frustrated. But since scantily clad cheer-babes propitiate the football gods, and neither team has them, how will the football gods know whom to root for? http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/110125_tuesday_morning_quarterback&sportCat=nfl… I wonder what Michael Lewis has to say about no cheerleaders?

While talking about football and the Super Bowl, did you know that there were more Super Bowl commercials airing over more time in 2010 than ever before? http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110118/FREE/110119868#

Shout out to Rob Levin of the NY Enterprise Report for bringing this to my attention… They also sold out faster this year than ever before. True it takes millions to create a great commercial. True it takes more millions to air it. But it’s all worth it. I keep on meeting with potential clients who only want to spend X amount on testing Internet marketing. For some it will work. For most it won’t. And therefore it is a waste of money. Young companies still don’t get what a marketing budget is. I prefer to educate people over the phone but if it takes a meeting then so be it. It still gives me a good reputation when I warn people up front that they are wasting their money. So hopefully they pass on my good name and reputation and I get clients with budgets out of goodwill.

And speaking of Reputation Management, this Thursday I will be speaking at the Tarrytown Sheraton with the ACW – Advertising Club of Westchester. Social media can be a tremendous business booster for you. But, what can you do when your business is under attack on the Internet by competitors or disgruntled ex-employees or even angry customers? Competitors can defame you, your products and services. They may even attempt to use your trademarks as keywords or copy your intellectual property. RSVP here: http://www.acw.org/ACW26.html and check us out on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31259938519#!/event.php?eid=162642450427421&index=1

As for Chicago Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler, in the words of Dan Wetzel from Yahoo Sports,

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=dw-cutlersocialmedia012411

“Twitter has allowed a voice to emerge from the couches – be it the average Joe or the NFL pro. Everyone is empowered.” Basically now every sports fan and blogger and twitterer and social media facebook using know-it-all can give his or her two cents about everything that’s going on in the world. Jay Cutler and his torn ligaments might not mean much to you as a non-football and sports fan, but if someone tweets something negative about your business or your own reputation, you might get into trouble professionally or personally. When people google your name, you want to have control over what comes up. I say start with your own domain name and website. But also get your own twitter account and fill out all of the top social media profiles. You not only want to have the top spot when someone googles you, you want to dominate the first few pages. Write some articles, send out some press releases. Do some good community work. Get your name out there in a positive light and tell the world about it.

Want to know more about defending your reputation or brand online? Come hear me speak this coming Thursday night in Westchester, Tarrytown NY. Can’t make it? Call Raphi Salem at 212-993-5828 or just email info@salemglobal.com and we can talk about the different ways to improve your reputation and your company’s bottom line this year within a few weeks.