The Chosen One.
LeBron James had this moniker emblazoned on his back as a tattoo since high school. This nickname, however, bears down as a gift and a curse. There has never been a more highly hyped athlete in the history of sports. Michael Jordan’s indelible imprint in the NBA left a giant vacancy for the next generation’s caretakers to live up to. Kobe Bryant is the closest heir apparent to His Airness—his recent social media adoption is another story—but he was a virtual unknown during the 1996 NBA Draft and later developed gradually. James’ infamous Sports Illustrated cover story as a junior cemented his godsend reputation.
Beyond Jordan’s dominance on the court, he transcended superstars through the myriad of commercials. That timeless “Be Like Mike” Gatorade ad spot was the quintessential standard—Phizzle elaborated on the technological shift—of athlete, brand, and product marketing. McDonald’s aligned with Jordan and capitalized on their partnership when the classic Space Jam hit the movies. But it was Nike, of course, that best perpetuated his mythology over the years and substantially monetized the most as a result. According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, what originally started as a five-year, $2.5 million deal with stock options to elevate it to $7 million, Nike recorded north of $100 million in revenue by the first year and the Jordan Brand, a separate division at Nike, netted $2.5 billion a year ago. Phil Knight, the company’s chairman, referred to this confluence as “the perfect combination.”
This landmark relationship set the precedent between athlete and corporate sponsor. The bottom-line would never be overlooked, but Jordan’s aura effused what millions aspired to be and it should not be remiss. The latter, in particular, is an underlying principle in advertising that aims to resonate with people. There is invariably a psychological aspect elicited by the storytelling. At its core, commercials serve as a prism revealing who the protagonist really is—or, more times than not, a fabricated depiction that alters the generally-held perception towards an individual.
Consequently, James’ arrival to the public eye at the turn of the 21st century was ceremoniously a conversion of the highest order. The sports and advertising worlds collided once he entered the NBA in 2003. They knew full well the marketing potential and intriguing storyline would garner interest unlike anything seen beforehand. Jordan’s exorbitant shadow of greatness was cast on James’ shoulders to match and exceed, which was inflated daily by fans and the media.
Mashable’s Sam Laird noted: “He became a prodigy as web journalism helped sharpen the focus on the previously niche world of high school basketball. His professional career matured as social media exploded, amplified the fan conversation, overhauled the delivery of news and even changed the definition of what news is and who can report it.”
Before he dribbled a basketball for his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, Nike jumped and bought the excitement at an absurdly high price. James banked a record seven-year, $93 million agreement. Reebok and Adidas were a part of that bidding sneaker war, but could not come close to matching Nike’s unprecedented offer. Back then, Nike ranked 14th in sports ad dollars spent with over $72 million, per Street and Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily. Fast-forward to today, however, and the shoe brand has significantly doled out less endorsement dollars to new players, like Blake Griffin’s two-year, $800,000 deal. In part, these resources are being spent online as digital video reached $3 billion last year, according to MediaPost.
Magic Johnson recently wondered on ESPN’s NBA Countdown, “why doesn’t James have more commercials?”
Besides James’ sole focus on the playoffs and quitting Twitter, his mainstream partners have decided to position their ads with him initially online. Nevertheless, his journey through the years has been fascinating to follow. The ads he has promoted have given clues to how he would like be viewed and how the public perceives this polarizing figure. This particular series of ads juxtaposes with the digital change brands have taken in response to the new consumption habits of fans.
Nike’s debut TV advertisement showcased the golden child in all his regalia and glory. King James couldn’t have been marketed in a better light to commence his career:
He wasn’t even midway through his rookie season, but the hype surrounding his arrival to the NBA only grew by the day. His selfless style of play was atypical in the superstar-driven, me-first and me-last league. Nike underscored this characteristic for a broader targeted appeal and deviation from basketball’s individualized physical gifts. The late, great Bernie Mac played the preacher as he yelled to the heavens, “Oh, I feel the soul of the game comin’ over me!” This evangelical summons segues to James’ entrance into the church and passed to anyone in sight; all of whom promptly possessed otherworldly hoops skills.
“Therefore, by showing him as some basketball savior, the Second Coming to the whole Nike family, the sneaker maker manages to embrace the hype while making fun of it. And Nike-ness is next to godliness in this case,” said Adweek’s Barbara Lippert.
In January 2004, when “The Book of Dimes” ad aired, it was one month prior to YouTube’s existence. That platform was yet to take off, but advertising spending couldn’t have been higher at the time, specifically as it transitioned rapidly online. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, $141.1 billion on ad spending doubled the American economy and $7.4 billion derived from the internet’s 21.4 percent growth. In fact, Nike was just at a nascent stage of utilizing the first form of digital media, the blog. “Art of Speed” represented their first online endeavor to tap into an “important and influential group,” per The New York Times. James’ initial signature shoe, Nike Zoom Generation, would launch merely the beginning of the digital ad evolution.
As evident by the innocent role played in the campaign, Nike didn’t let him say a single word. James’ personality, though, couldn’t be hidden from public consumption for too long thereafter. “The LeBrons” ads revealed all angles of his persona:
Athlete, Business, Kid, and Wise comprised the characters in this series of Nike commercials. They each conveyed a side of LeBron that he exudes on a daily basis. By positioning them in this manner, however, they became easily identifiable and related to the consumer. The mythological nature of LeBron is purported here perfectly through Wise’s storytelling of himself. In essence, Nike remixed Bill Cosby’s “Fat Albert” from the 1970s and packaged it into smaller, digestible segments—Wise, in turn, would be appropriated as “Uncle Drew” in the future amidst other fictional endorsers by brands.
Due to the well-received reaction from “Pool,” Nike decided to bring them back to distill, “the metaphor-personified representing the multi-dimensional NBA superstar LeBron James,” according their own press release.
Three years after his TV ad introduction, YouTube saw an incremental usage scale from its official launch in 2005. Their users were uploading six hours of video a minute, per GigaOM. Still, television remained king for ad placements within the sports industry. According to MediaPost, $6 billion was spent that year on this distribution method, and 63 percent versus 7 percent online in 2008. Sports brands across the board were conservative to deliver messages online since 11 percent of people “were likely” to view sports clips compared to 50 percent for news and music videos. Thus, James’ presence continued to be accessed through one’s television screen.
As his career progressed, Nike extended his exposure. James went from non-speaking savior, to a three-part campaign featuring four versions of himself, to a Jim Henson-esque Muppet. In 2009, they produced six-plus puppet spots where he would banter with Bryant:
Nike clearly made a strong push to market the game’s two best players throughout this season with the hopes they would finally face off in the NBA Finals. By portraying their respective attributes with puppets, they presented the public’s professed rivalry amongst them in a comical fashion. There were rumors then that they could not, or did not, get along well enough to agree to play off these roles in person. Whether that was true or not, fans wanted to see them compete against each other for the championship. This string of ads filtered the conversation further. As such, that year remained the only realistic chance such an encounter could ever materialize.
“This is about celebrating two of the game’s best players and giving fans a glimpse into their personalities, not only on the court, but away from the game,” Nike spokesman, Kajuan Wilkins, told Rovell at the time.
Conversely, this promotion marked the convergence into the viral video realm. Nike’s “Most Valuable Puppets” generated over 810,000 views in its first week, per Mashable. Visible Measures, the company that collected this data, mentioned that they invested on, “the importance and subsequence results,” coupled with, “the staying power of puppets,” as critical factors towards its sustained success online. This growth and acceptance mirrored YouTube’s 15 hours of video per minute clip earlier that year. Fans came to expect and consume video on this medium. As a result, Nike reduced ad spending by nearly $40 million from 2008 to 2009, according to the The New York Times.
And then it happened…
“The Decision” forever altered James’ status and adoration all across the globe. To the basketball Gods, this event was equivalent to the apocalypse. Outside of the O.J. Simpson trials, no athlete self-inflicted a worse publicity stunt to damage his brand than James’ infamous free agent choice. Despite 7.3 overnight ratings and topping a non-NFL telecast, the strategy deployed was ill-fated and poorly executed. Two days before this much-anticipated spectacle, James activated a Twitter account that eclipsed 150,000 followers in the first seven hours. The intended social implementation never even occurred, as both ESPN and James failed on the promise to answer fan-submitted questions via the hashtag, #LeBronDecision, during the live interview broadcast.
The overarching business question prior to this incident was best summarized by The Los Angeles Times’ quote from ESPN’s Norby Williamson, “We’re comfortable asking ourselves, ‘Are we doing the right thing?’”
In a classic Nike approach, they had the audacity to counter the backlash. They, too, had to ask themselves the same question ESPN did. “Rise” epitomized how they have historically responded decisively when one their marquee pitchmen have been under fire, with examples like Bryant and Tiger Woods:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1FPMDjLzs&w=600&rel=0
James aims the rhetorical question, “What should I do?” to all the haters. In order to deliver a resounding answer, the message needed to be directed at them. This was the only real first impression to describe his thoughts of that fateful night. What better way to attack them than by confronting the very moment where it all took place. Nike addressed every criticism people had of him over that summer. The reverse psychological nature impels the naysayers to think twice and take back their ill-suited beliefs. Thus, the in-your-face, unapologetic disposition declared his newfound attitude, albeit contrived to whom he’s always been.
“The real truth is that LeBron James is the victim of expectations. The only thing he fails to understand is that the expectations are entirely his own making,” said Business Insider’s Dashiell Bennett.
Still, fans reacted somewhat positively towards this ad. Nike uploaded it on YouTube and registered over 3.1 million views in the first week of its inception. According to Rovell, about nine out of ten people who posted the link of the ad on Twitter thought the concept was good. By this point, YouTube recorded 35 hours of video per minute. Taking into consideration the entire traffic of YouTube at the time, “Rise” was the most prominent sports commercial to ever launch in its history.
Despite many successes, James had to deal with a mountain of scorn after his defeat to the Dallas Mavericks in The Finals. It took him two years to realize that in order to conquer his inner demons, in addition to his critics, all James had to do was just be himself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie0mAnjz1Oc&w=600&rel=0
Samsung’s ad spot for the Galaxy Note II marked a pivotal return to the rejoice in his life. James takes one through what a day in his life felt like after winning his first ring. Although it’s not realistic that these various events would all take place in the same day, how James carried himself is. The interactions with his kids, children in the streets, and in the barbershop are believable. Humility is emphasized throughout the ad, especially on the license plate that read “EARNED 1.” Samsung’s tagline, “The Next Big Thing is Here,” could not have been endorsed at a better time. “His existing sponsoring partners will have much greater latitude on how they use and position the LeBron brand again, kind of an image reboot rather than a true redemption,” Robert Boland, Academic Chair of Sport Management at New York University told AdAge.
Boland’s remark nailed it, with respects to how James was immediately marketed after his first title. Nike took a more subtle position with their hit “The Ring Maker”. Samsung’s ad took off instantly and had half a million views on YouTube in less than 24 hours. Currently, they have garnered 1.3 million and over 40 million hits, respectively. These numbers coincide with the continued adoption of this platform via 60 hours of content a minute. Seemingly overnight fans, millennials specifically, have gravitated towards his side again.
As James’ Miami Heat began the Eastern Conference Finals yesterday, the NBA has rolled him out as the definitive face of the league. A little over a month ago, “We Are All Watching” debuted ahead of this postseason:
http://youtu.be/ruggBbgjELI&w=600&rel=0
The title, in and of itself, almost directly connotes Nike’s old “We Are All Witnesses” billboard. Rather than implicitly attach James to a deity again, the league focused on the global reach and influence he has regained instead. Multiple countries and languages were well-represented. They are captivated by every step he takes leading up to his alley-up against the Boston Celtics last year. The beauty about this spot is his game alone educes the effect he once had entering the league. The personal theatrics and hyperbole are virtually non-existent.
Laird referred this ad as a part of the NBA’s “digital dominance.” Their Webby Award for the NBA Game Time app aligns, too, with this supremacy.
This commercial has only amassed just north of 250,000 views on the league’s official YouTube channel. This metric should grow as the Heat likely advance to The Finals and, as TechCrunch reported, now that YouTube has reached 100 video uploads per minute. Although the league would not have to buy its own TV ad space, the opportunity cost to place this campaign on YouTube outweighs the $460,000 they asked advertisers to pay for last year’s Finals. As one might expect, James has a catalog of videos within this channel.
These six ads cover the spectrum of LeBron James’ journey throughout his ten year career. They provide a lens into what has transpired around his life, both personally and from society. For better and worse, he has lived through the digital age, and that will only persist for the foreseeable future. He still has ambitions to become the first billion-dollar athlete. However, it is the omnipresent number six, again, that he needs to accomplish before that lofty business goal has any chance of happening.
We are all watching…