Aura ✨ Madness

The real Cinderella story of March Madness was not just McNeese State beating Clemson, but their team manager, Amir Khan, garnering ALL of the marketing attention.

Let’s Explore Why…

Amir has gotten more NIL deals than any other athlete in the basketball tournament.
Here are three things you can learn from a sports marketing standpoint.

1. Have incredible AURA.

   This started on social leading up to the tournament when he began to lead his team out to the court with a boom box, rapping along to the latest in hip hop. He quickly became the content darling of the whole March Madness tournament.

Alright, three things for real…
First, we love an underdog.
This dude is unsuspecting. His teammates love him. Everybody hypes him up. It's the same reason why Steph Curry and Caitlin Clark dominate in sports marketing because they are undersized and an underdog from a traditional standpoint.

Second, the evolutionary nature of music and humor.
I can't stop thinking about this concept that I heard recently from Rory Sutherland. He’s an Ogilvy Ad exec who talks about the evolutionary nature of music and humor. A lot of marketers underestimate the power of those two. The last viral sensation we had in March Madness was Kansas State, coincidentally also with a boombox, and Lil Baby. If you have kids, you know that kids evolve for both laughing and music very early on, much more before rationale, and that's a principle more marketers should pay attention to. Because so many marketers try to appeal through rationale, yet we are irrational creatures.

Third, the Game outside the Game.
So many people are focused on what's happening on the court. There's so much energy and advertisement and production and broadcast focused on the actual game itself. If you're wanting to get creative in marketing, look to the things that are happening outside of the sport’s physical space.
I believe there's no more energetic space in all of sports than in a football tunnel walk. The same could be said for basketball, but creativity thrives in unconventional spaces, and this is what you see here.

I just saw an incredible example of this from the Champions League where a ball boy sprinted to get the ball that went out of bounds so he could toss it quickly to a player for the throw in. They subsequently scored and even the team manager came to shake his hand because they all attributed the goal to this kid. Would love to see this kid get like a shoe deal or a speed deal would be amazing.

A common theme in internet virality is getting the original owner of content rightful credit.
I would just love to see McNeese State taking advantage of this content because everybody else is, and they're not getting the numbers that they could compared to everybody else.
Congrats to Amir and all his teammates who continue to hype him up. This is why we love sports.

Education:
The BrandFathers new SPORTS MARKETING episode is out NOW:
We break down March Madness’ business, the future of Creators in Sports, what UA should be doing, the role of collaborations and much more…

Interest:
Legendary wedge designer, Roger Cleveland, is returning to the company he founded. I got to play a small role in creative direction for a larger body of work, but this is part one.
It’s beautiful.
s/o Big Bird & Summit House.

UA is making some smart moves like returning to their roots in football. Here’s the role of their sponsorship and how NFL sponsorship works…

Blessings:

I need to slow down. Often.
I’m going too fast this year, so I’ve revisited this podcast semi-annually now.
The pages are falling out on John Mark Comer’s book “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”, in particular the chapter on Limitations.
God made us with limitations, and I’m constantly pushing against them.
“What good is it for man to gain the world, but lose his soul?”
I’ve been gaining a lot in year 3 of entrepreneurship, but I’m losing my sanity.
A slow & still summer is emerging out of this spring…