Ok, WNBA.... You've got the tiger by the tail...

... so what are you going to do about it???

After the big fracas last week between LA and Detroit, the WNBA has enjoyed an unprecedented level of attention from the media and the public. But even more importantly, the fans have become completely dialed in and engaged in the product, writing pages of vexed commentary, posting blog entries right and left (like this one!), and just generally tossing in the moss. So I ask again, what is the WNBA going to do about it? How can they harness all this terrific energy that the fight/flashpoint has generated and turn it into the marketing juggernaut that it should be??

When the incident first occurred, I turned to the girlfriend, and after a few "Are you freakin' kidding me"s, said, "This could be the greatest thing to ever happen for this league." Why? The poster child of women's hoops, Candace Parker, just showed us that she's a human being (and a young one at that), and reflected back to us all the emotions and the drama that sports represents. These ladies are passionate, and they work hard, and if they perceive disrespect, they let you know.

I don't have a problem with it. I have a problem if we think that just because these players are women that means they have some sort of super-human temper controller that makes them impervious to anger. Just 'cause they're ladies, doesn't mean they aren't players. Speaking from experience, it is nearly impossible not to react to physical contact that is perceived as extra-curricular to the game. I have been there many times - not in a fight - but I have reacted very angrily to hard fouls... I completely understand where both CP and Plenette were coming from.

Back to the original question, how is the WNBA going to keep all these newly engaged audience members from losing interest? For one, they have to break out of the party line. Members of the WNBA have to be able to speak on the subject. I haven't seen a single blog post out of anyone in the league responding to the event, which tells me Donna O. prohibited anyone from speaking about it. That is exactly the wrong idea. In my business, that would be considered bad customer service.

It's the new media age - let the customer (the fan) interact with the brand (the players, staff, etc.) about what the product (the league, the games, the teams) means to them, and how the fracas affected them. Let the brand speak to its own value and let the customer affirm it. I would bet the players share equally divergent viewpoints on whether the dust-up was good or bad for the league - let 'em share with us! The fans will feel like they participate in the development of the brand, and the brand will be stronger for it.

UPDATE: A columnist for the LA Times feels much the same way that I do...

Pandora and the iPhone... The perfect storm.

I am an enormous fan of Pandora. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a site that allows you to "build" a radio station by specifying songs or artists as the "seeds." Once you set the seeds, the Pandora database searches for matching characteristics of the songs/artists you seeded, and then populates the radio station with other music that matches. You can also rate the songs that Pandora plays on your radio station, and the system uses that information to further refine the accuracy of the database's selections to more closely match your taste. You can have lots of stations, depending on your mood, but just like a real radio you can't go backwards and replay, and you don't actually get to choose specific songs to play.

I have been introduced to some terrific artists that I'd never heard of through this service - music that I've gone ahead and bought just from hearing it on Pandora (and, of course, it's really easy to do this at their site - buttons are available that take you straight to iTunes, Amazon, etc.). Best of all, the whole thing is free, and the only ads are visual ones on the webpage, no audio ads like I used to get on the old Spinner (like 10 years ago now).

The only thing more amazing than Pandora is Pandora available somewhere other than your computer, and that day has come: Pandora is available as an application on the new 3G iPhone. I had seen the ads and thought what an amazing option this was; well, apparently everyone agrees as Pandora is the third most popular app download for the new iPhone so far. Details here courtesy of Adweek via my friend Mike at Heartbeat Digital.

Testing out some PopShops action

Marketeering content ahead. Ignore. Or buy some plus-sized clothing from Lane Bryant Catalog. It's up to you. Why the hell is this here? Answer: here.


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