Are you one of the 12+ million folks who play Fantasy Football? (Count me as one of the millions playing Fantasy Football this year.)
Ya know ... when you think about it … the marketing methods driving the success of the brand called “Fantasy Football” are the same methods Starbucks, Google, Apple, eBay, and Whole Foods Market use to create marketing juju.
And wouldn't you know it ... MarketingProfs.com is running my article on how Fantasy Football creates marketing juju. Here's a tease:
As marketers, we are always seeking ways to make our products and services more attractive to consumers. When we do it right, we know we’ve created marketing juju. Brands like Starbucks, Google, Apple, eBay, and Whole Foods Market all have oodles of marketing juju.Consumers are more than just attracted to these businesses. They are downright captivated by them. Each of these brands create marketing juju by (1) facilitating, not dictating the usage of its products (2) fostering community, and (3) assisting consumers in actualizing their aspirations.
With the 2005 National Football League (NFL) season upon us, we should add the brand called “Fantasy Football” to the list of brands with marketing juju.
I've been a near-addict for various auto-racing and Tour de France fantasy leagues here and in the UK. Interesting thing about it to me, is that the popularity of fantasy leagues in general has grown to gigantic proportions over the last 5 years very quietly, in grassroots / WOM fashion, with almost no major marketing effort to speak of, until now perhaps. (Although, Yahoo has had their fantasy league links positioned on Sports page 1 for a long while...that's got to help.) Water-cooler conversations among friends and coworkers made this huge. And why not? It's quick, easy, available, free in most cases, and fun. We can't easily take the time to PLAY team sports any more, so maybe this has blossomed from the ground up, as a way to still participate and compete, without the time and expense.
Marketing didn't make this a big thing, the product itself did, before most marketers even knew it. But one marketing lesson could be that shifting habits within established traditional markets and models can lead to the next big thing; the next big thing can be under radar for a long while, and as marketers and merchants we need to be in the business of early detection. (NASCAR sure was: They have had a free fantasy preview segment online each week, for more than 2 years now, knowing that people will NOT miss a race when they have fantasy picks at stake. Smart. Love 'em or hate 'em, those guys know their customers very very well, far better than most.)
Posted by: Thomas | August 24, 2005 at 08:35 AM
Thomas ... you make a great point: The best marketing is when the product itself IS THE MARKETING. Starbucks, Google, Apple, eBay, Whole Foods Market, and "Fantasy Football all have baked marketing into their business.
Fantasy sports games create indelible emotional bonds with its users that other businesses can only aspire to achieve.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | August 24, 2005 at 08:55 AM
Totally agree John, about the marketing / juju best being "baked in" to product and brand, rather than artificially manufactured by advertising or other white noise; when you have this, only good things can happen from there. It sets the stage for the customer to actually serve as your best sales person, product developer, marketer, as has happened with fantasy sports.
All of this makes me wonder what some of the struggling big brands and industries could do along these "fantasy participation" lines, cheaply and without big advertising, to build in some juju where there is none today, by intrinsically involving customers in the core processes, even if it takes a while.
GM for example: Rather than shoving what we don't want down our throats with discount deals we can't refuse, what would happen if GM's home page became an open source "peoples car" design canvas for say 2008 cars, trucks, whatever, where everything from styling silhouettes to engines, drivelines, features, trim and badging was on a drag and drop menu matrix, with all choices tracked, databased, priced up/down, and reflected in a composite working illustration showing where the collective design choice stands, (sort of like an illustrated poll, with stats shown)? What if you had to make these choices within a cost/price equilibrium, as a GM product manager would? What if you were rewarded/acknowledged for participating? What if you got regular status updates via email on "the car you helped design"? What if by the time it was launched, they didn't have to advertise it much because you are already sold on YOUR car design, and you pre-bought one during the process? I dunno, just a thought. Compared to what they spend on advertising and in-a-vacuum R&D, something like this would be awfully cheap to do, and a lot of fun for car people across the board.
Posted by: Thomas | August 24, 2005 at 10:52 AM
Nice article John!
If you haven't drafted your players yet, take a look at Steelers TE Heath Miller, a rookie. He is going to be a big target for Roethlisberger this year.
Posted by: Jackie Huba | August 24, 2005 at 11:27 AM
Thanks Jackie for liking the article and for the TE tip.
I'll consider Heath Miller as a potential pick-up for when one of my TEs on my three Fantasy Football teams has a bye week. I'm set at TE with my teams having Antonio Gates (on FourPlay), Jason Witten (on Fource), and Todd Heap (on 4th & Victory).
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | August 24, 2005 at 11:33 AM