If you love good sport, the code shouldn't matter

I hate cricket, but when I see a great catch, or someone caught behind I love the art  and skill of it. Why? Sport is a cultural product, and irrespective of the type or title, when performed by experts is nothing short of art in motion.

Sport creates a universe all of its own. A world with its own language, model citizens, groups and behaviours. Not all of them good or beneficial by traditional standards, but logical and intrinsic to the way that particular sport and its players and supporters have evolved.

If I was Matilda the Martian just landed in Oz around awards time, I'd think all footballers wore penguin suits at functions, wives and girlfriend's dress sense played a significant factor in the performance of cricket and AFL players and that AFL and Rugby league were by far the biggest sports in the world.

I wouldn't know that rugby league and union struggle with weekly crowd attendances, player contract renegotiations, media ownership and sponsorships. That football refers to the round-balled code, it's supporters cruising along to a tribal beat all of their own!

If I was Matilda the Martian, just arrived at the Sydney Football Stadium, Australia, I'd probably watch a game of rugby union in action with my telepathic-controlled lasers drawn, ready to defend myself within this formalised code of war. Either way, I'd certainly have a direct insight into the hearts, minds and spirits of the Australian consumer, because according to Kotler, Kartajaya and Setiawan(2010) in Marketing 3.0 - that's what the next generation of marketing is all about.

Jenkins and Fans

Meet the man who stole my post-it notes. 


That's right, the Cat in the Hat reading Henry Jenkins - one of the most fascinating minds when it comes to discussing all things sports and fandom - has single-handedly robbed me of my much-favoured Post It notes collection.


How is it so? I hear you ask. 


Well, it's quite simple really. Jenkins is one of those writers, who write eloquently on the ethnography of television fan communities and participatory culture.





In his book, Textual Poachers, Jenkins identifies at least five distinct (and often interconnected) dimensions of this culture and its:

1. relationship to a particular mode of reception
2. role in encouraging viewer activism
3. function as an interpretive community
4. particular traditions of cultural production
5. status as an alternative social community

Rugby as Hollywood Entertainment

After the fizzle of Invictus (which highlighted the critical importance for a screenwriter to understand the real backstory), there is a promising trailer promoting rugby in the movies.

Starring an Australian is a great start (we are top three in the world in the sport) and having Welsh-born dad along-side him is organically-producing rugby angst in itself (If you were ever lucky enough to experience an Australia v Wales test match at Cardiff before it became Millennium you'll know what I mean).


Anyone seen it, yet?

Why football wants to ban Twittering...

Over in the UK, Leicester rugby boss Cockerill did it earlier this month and back here in the colony, the NRL's Penrith Panthers recently had to defend themselves against having done it.

So what is IT? And why is IT such a big deal? 

IT is social media: sites like twitter.com and facebook.com.

If you're a marketer, you might ask, why are the powers that be publicly discussing at press conferences, how they are directing their advertising spend? Afterall, social media is just another media channel, isn't it? Well, yes... and no.

Social media strategy is different, because social media is fundamentally different to traditional media and marketing channels. Social media requires an entirely new mindset. Social media engagement means ceeding the sense of control and conversing dialogically (in a two-way conversation) in an interconnected globally networked mediasphere (the new mass market?) where anything can and usually does happen.

So, forget the catch phrases like Web 2.0 (that's marketing spin derived from five year old techno-speak), if you're a suit take a deep breath and visualise 'letting go'...then grab your iPhone 4 or blackberry and Carpe diem! Social media wants you two to get to know each other, before all the kids born with a username and password, lap you again in the Twittersphere.

Unlike every other form of mass media - social media is not something you can learn from a textbook or something someone can walk you through. 

YOU have to ENGAGE. YOU have to PARTICIPATE.

Think of social media as the new cafe, club or after match function. The only difference is, you're a novice again. If you can remember back to the time when your hands would start sweating just at the thought of a random social approach, well that's what social media feels like (at first). But just like your adolescent social awkwardness, you're social media stumbles will soon pass. I promise.

So what are you waiting for Mr Cockerill? Now that you've got your head out of the scrum (although I bet it doesn't feel like it sometimes now that you're an administrator), why don't you jump in and lead by example? 

After all, isn't it about time professional footballers got some help with professionally navigating the new form of media in rugby town? (Beyond 'Don't take drunk, naked pictures of you and your friends because they'll come back to haunt you!') Because the traditional benefactors of the game (the sponsors) are well-versed and engaged with social media as they seek new ways of developing intrinsic sponsorship values via integration. 

Worth considering, don't you think?