R&R Partners: Build the Brand, Protect the Brand

Usually it’s tough to like anything that, at the same time, makes you nuts. Outside of a few personal romantic endeavors, the two emotions seldom have gone hand-in-hand. But this year, much like every year, I sat around waiting to hear the bowl selections handed down to us from the all-knowing BCS and their brigade of money-hungry bowl sponsors. And this year, much like every year, I prayed to heavens above that the system would fail miserably so the adoring college football fans would get their much deserved playoff system setup and the BCS would forever be shunned.

But…it didn’t happen; at least, not in every circumstance. The BCS gave us some mouthwatering matches and like always, they shafted some much deserving teams. What is one of those enticing games? The MAACO Bowl.

Being born and raised in Las Vegas, the Vegas Bowl, or MAACO Bowl as it’s presently called, has been an event attended by my family for many years. In recent years, this event has become better and better. Teams in both conferences that the bowl plucks from, the Mountain West and the Pac 10, have continued to become increasingly better. This year is one of the best matchups in recent memory and possibly the best ever with Oregon State and BYU going head to head. The two teams have a combined record of 18-6, finished third and second in their respective conferences and both finished the season ranked in the top 20.

I was happy. Las Vegas was happy. But was the public happy? No. No they weren’t.

We know this because the forward-thinking people at the BCS set up their own social media funnel and began to educate marketers on how not to use it. As everyone knows…wait, excuse me, as everyone should know, social media is as much conversational as it is social. Very hard to be social and not have a conversation.

The BCS began to post and tweet pro-BCS messages to its Facebook and Twitter followers and did nothing to respond to the superfluous wave of hate, mostly about the lack of a playoff system, being posted from fans across the country. One fan posted that the BCS is the most hated institution in America; more than the IRS and even more than the KKK. Now, I have not been working in the advertising field for a long time, but it seems when you’re hated more than the KKK, you might want to reconsider the very essence of your brand.

Problem is, the BCS wants nothing to do with reconsidering its position on the no-playoff platform. According to Jeff Ma, co-founder and VP research for Citizen Sports and the author of the sports apps, Sportacular, “If your product is hated because of a lack of understanding, social media gives you a good opportunity to communicate with consumers in an interactive and engaging manner. In the BCS example, I think their problem is that they are not fostering conversation.”

But why aren’t they? We have heard social media success stories from mega-brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Virgin America. They have proven that conversation and listening to your consumers pays off, but does the BCS even care about conversing with fans? Could this conversation lead to a rethinking of the college football bowl system? Or is it simply about the green?

The BCS system has been adopted under contract until 2014 and has signed a four-year $500 million deal with ESPN’s parent company, Walt Disney, to televise the games. They appear wanting to take an interest in their fan base and social community, as they have hired Ari Fleischer Communications to control their PR. Funny thing about Ari Fleischer, he was the press secretary under the Bush administration. As Stewart Mandel, Sports Illustrated college football writer puts it, “The BCS, the most unpopular entity in sports, hired a guy who worked under the most unpopular president in history.”

It seems as if the BCS is indeed all about the green. And if they aren’t, they need to come out and acknowledge their fans, acknowledge that why they will not set up a playoff system, and acknowledge why big-time sponsors get a say in the highest ranked bowl games. What they cannot do is continue what they’re doing. They need to talk with the people that make their product profitable instead of sitting back, appeasing the few fans they actually made happy.

So when I sit in the frigid cold of another high-desert evening watching two top-rated teams battle it out for a hefty chunk of change and possibly pride, I can only imagine what could have been for the thousands of fans and handful of schools wondering where their shot of glory is, and why their voice has been silenced.