On Friday, the website of Sports Illustrated (www.SI.com),
broke one of the biggest sports stories of the year. LeBron James is leaving
the Miami Heat and joining the Cleveland Cavaliers (to the extreme joy of some
and the heartbreaking disappointment of others). In breaking the story, Sports
Illustrated took a clear stance on how to use (or not use) the power of digital
marketing. In breaking the decision that so many people had been waiting to
hear, SI.com received its biggest traffic spike in a decade. Here are a few
observations about how Sports Illustrated is balancing this commercial
opportunity for traffic hungry advertisers with their credibility as writers in
breaking a story so important to the sports world.
SI.Com broke the story in an unconventional fashion.
Did this decision expand readership and appeal to a wider group of advertisers?
The last time that
LeBron James released his decision about which team he would join (about four
years ago), it was via an ESPN special called “The Decision”. This time around,
James wanted to reveal his decision but also have the opportunity to explain
why he made the decision he did uninterrupted. By partnering with Sport
Illustrated on an essay which revealed his decision, there is powerful
enhancement of the Sport Illustrated’s brand credibility in the eyes of the
public and therefore in the eyes of advertisers. By breaking this story in this
“softer” essay-like manner, SI.com is perceived as possessing a more human
touch that potentially will attract not just the hard core sports fans, but
also those interested in the human interest side of the story as well.
SI.com decided not to program any digital advertising
around the story break
SI.com was put in a
position in which they had to balance both their interests as a commercial
entity and a credible sport reporter. They were in the tricky position of being
given this story, being obligated to commercially leverage it as much as
possible, but not allow the story to leak. Their response to this challenge was
to not inform advertisers that big news would be breaking and not program
specific advertising around the news break. Although the magazine is likely
being applauded by James and others for keeping the story under wraps so well,
was this decision most beneficial for the business?
Although Sport
Illustrated is credited with breaking the story, the digital media landscape
and news aggregation industry has the ability to belittle such an accomplishment.
When one Googles “LeBron James”, Sports Illustrated is fourth on the Google
listing under the web page category and doesn’t even show up on page one of the
Google News category when this term is searched. This likely means that news
aggregation and other “stories about the story” are attracting more traffic
than the actual written essay on the Sports Illustrated website. Instead, sites
like Slate and large news brands like USA Today, CBS Sports, NY Times, and The
Washington Post appear on the top and middle of the first Google search page.
Other brands are definitely using the buzz to their
advantage
No comments:
Post a Comment