Cynopsis: Sports
12.03.12

Good morning. It’s Monday, December 3, 2012, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing. 

With over 2.5 million monthly uniques on deck, sports social media platform LockerDome continues to quickly build numbers by looking to fulfill the needs of sports brands and sports fans alike. Since re-launching in January, the site ranks as one of the fastest growing sports-specific websites in the world featuring athletes such as the NBA’s Blake Griffin, Rudy Gay, David Lee and Stephen Curry, NFL stars Troy Polamalu, Larry Fitzgerald, Maurice Jones-Drew and Marshawn Lynch, and MLB notables such as Pete Rose and Wade Boggs. Other brands publishing on the site include media personalities, media companies, corporate brands and amateur sports programs.

Cynopsis Sports spoke with LockerDome co-founder and CEO Gabe Lozano about the highs and lows of launching the site, how brands are leveraging the publishing platform, and what’s on the horizon.

Lozano on lessons learned: Back in ’08, I tried to launch this company as a Facebook for sports, but back then nobody cared. Even my mom didn’t want to create a profile. So we took a step back and over a period of time we realized that it wasn’t that people didn’t care about social media and sports, it was that the rules were different than in our normal social life. There is an enormous distinction between someone’s interest graph and somebody’s social graph-which is consuming content and interacting with people we already know, our friends, family members, etc. Our interest graph is really about consuming content and interacting with people who are like-minded, who we share the same interests with.
When we looked at that, things started to make a lot more sense and we started to move toward that. So we made these communities so that if you made a free profile, you could then start joining interspace networks that appeal to you. It could be, ‘Hey I like Troy Polamalu and I’m going to join his network as a fan’ or ‘I coach my kid’s baseball team, I’m going to join this network as a coach.’ At this point we have over 1,300 of these interest-specific communities. When we started to focus on these models, we noticed that it became about one-to-many. It was about a publisher speaking to a bunch of people and then the people collecting around that topic. When we realized that model, and relaunched this year as a consumer brand, our growth has been about 14% week-over-week for about a year and we’ve gone from basically nothing to over 3.5 million monthly uniques.

On the pitch to athletes and media personalities: We just say are going to show what you already did today on Facebook and Twitter but now you can leverage Lockerdome and do it better. So you have better branding and you get more Facebook likes and more Twitter followers. We then show them some very simple ways in which people are using Lockerdome. One of the coolest ways is that we can cross-promote properties so we took Troy Polamalu, James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley, who are all teammates, and we showed them how they could run a contest from Lockerdome and they could cross promote to their various audiences so they get a bigger Facebook and Twitter audience by doing it. Their contest had 80,000 entries on it, a similar contest had over 100,000 entries and our conversation rates on the contests are 19%, far higher than the typical 2 or 3%.

On the road ahead: There are two things that we are highly focused on right now. First is our publishers. We will look to continue to add value that they are not getting on Facebook or Twitter so that their footprint can be much bigger as a whole and the content they create is something people crave in their network. The second piece is on a platform level, is how our ecosystem can extend beyond just the properties. When you start getting as big as we are, people start wanting to build interesting things on top of your platform. So of the areas we’ve explored are people wanting to build fantasy sports products within Lockerdome and then the launch of our first game through Dime magazine game was interesting for us.

On the Air

Bowl season is officially off and running with the ESPN family carrying all but two of the contests. Games start on Dec. 15 with the Gildan New Mexico Bowl on ESPN. The big BCS games, however, were finalized last night starting with the Rose Bowl on Jan 1 at 5p between Stanford and Wisconsin on ESPN. The Discover Orange Bowl then gets underway between Florida St. and surprise contender Northern Illinois at 8:30p on the network. The Sugar Bowl then takes place on Jan 2 at 8:30p between Florida and Louisville and Oregon/Kansas St. in the Fiesta on the 3rd at 8:30p as well. Finally, the Discover BCS National Championship pits Alabama and Notre Dame on Jan 7 at 8:30p.

That big grin you see coming from CBS is a result of another terrific SEC Championship game that delivered a 10.0 overnight rating, according to Nielsen, and matching the Notre Dame/USC game as the highest-rated college football game this season. That score is up 35% over the overnight rating for last year’s matchup between LSU and Georgia.

NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football game pitting the Saints/Falcons drew an average of 7.1million viewers, according to Nielsen (not including over-the-air audiences in the teams’ local markets. That viewership marks the highest TNF audience in September. Compared to NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football game in Week 13 of 2011, the game’s 4.4 rating is up 21% while viewership rose 19%. Through 11 games, Thursday Night Football is averaging a 4.1 US HH rating and 6.4 million viewers on pace to be the highest-rated and most-watched Thursday Night Football season ever.

While media criticized the NFL’s decision to have the Chiefs play the Panthers following the alleged murder-suicide of linebacker Jovan Belcher, Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt told ESPN that the team left it up to coach Romeo Crennel and the team captains to decide whether or not to play. “I spent the evening last night at the team hotel with them,” Hunt said. “I wanted to be there with the team, with the coaches, to let them know I love them and support them and know what they’re going through, and particularly the guys who were present in the parking lot when Jovan took his life. I know this has to be incredibly difficult.”

Boxing is set to return to finally network television on Dec. 15 with SHOWTIME Sports, Golden Boy Promotions and CBS teaming up for a doubleheader that will showcase as many as seven live fights that day. That Saturday will see CBS carrying SHOWTIME Boxing on CBS at 4:30p with the IBF Bantamweight Championship on the line. This marks the first time the sport has been shown on the network in 15 years. That evening, SHOWTIME (10:30p) and SHOWTIME Extreme (8:30p) step in the ring with more bouts including Amir Khan/Carlos Molina in a junior welterweight fight.

Hall of Famer Tracy Austin is returning for a fifth season of Tennis Channel Academy. Austin has been introducing Tennis Channel viewers to a new coach and pro-level tips and techniques each week since 2008 and the half-hour series kicks off Sunday, Dec. 2, at noon.

This week’s NBA TV NBA Fan Night presented by Sprint named the Oklahoma City Thunder/Brooklyn Nets matchup as its featured game for Tuesday, Dec. 4, at 7:30p. Fan Night Host Ernie Johnson and analysts Chris Webber and Greg Anthony will offer analysis during the AutoTrader.com Pregame Show at 7p.

NBC Olympics was the winner of four Olympic Golden Rings awards last week, including three Gold and one Silver in the four categories it was eligible. The Olympic Golden Rings are awarded by the IOC to honor broadcasters for their outstanding coverage of the Olympic Games. NBC’s haul included a Gold for Best Olympic Program, Best Olympic Feature and Best On-Air Promotion. The company also took home a silver for Best Olympic Athlete Profile for its feature on Kenyan 800m world-record holder and Gold medalist David Rudisha.

The Colonial Athletic Association is bringing in a new member, approving The College of Charleston on Friday. The school will depart the Southern Conference for fresh waters beginning July 1, 2013. “Speaking for the entire membership, we are extremely excited that the College of Charleston will be joining the CAA,” CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said. “We believe their nationally recognized athletic and academic programs will be a great institutional fit with other CAA institutions. Charleston will enhance the competition level in the conference and add to our group of nationally prominent teams in a number of sports. CAA fans will enjoy traveling to Charleston to see their team play, as will Cougar fans and alumni located in CAA cities in many of the major metropolitan areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.”

Don’t miss the Cynopsis Sports webinar, Sports Sponsorships: How to Activate Effective Partnerships and Tap Into Fan Loyalty! For just one price, your entire team/office can watch and learn how to grow sponsorship revenue and hear shared secrets and tactics from the executives behind some of the sports world’s most effective and memorable campaigns. The event will take place on Dec. 5 and you can find out more info here.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Sponsorship & Promotion

AT&T has signed on to take over as title sponsor as of The Byron Nelson Championship starting in 2015, according to The PGA Tour. The Nelson will be played May 16-19 in 2013, a week after The Players Championship.

The Phoenix Suns are guaranteeing a good time. The NBA franchise is inviting fans to check out the team’s game against the Mavericks on Thursday and if they don’t enjoy themselves, they get their money back. Those who aren’t completely satisfied can redeem their ticket stub for a rebate equal to the purchase price of their December 6 ticket. “We believe strongly in the up-tempo, exciting brand of basketball that our team plays every time it steps onto the court, as well as the overall entertainment experience we provide here at US Airways Center,” said Phoenix Suns president, Jason Rowley. “We feel so confident in our product that we are willing to offer money back to those fans who leave our arena unsatisfied after experiencing the excitement of Suns basketball.”

Meanwhile the Knicks announced a joint venture with Chase and City of New York Parks & Recreation to launch Basketball in the Boroughs presented by Chase. The community initiative will look to serve thousands of youth within the five boroughs of New York City through April. One borough will be featured each month with events, activities and player appearances that will feature a basketball clinic and prizes. December will see the initiative hit Queens, followed by Staten Island, Brooklyn, Bronx and Manhattan.

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association named Helly Hansen as the official baselayer of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team. As part of the deal, the team’s 48 athletes will wear Helly Hansen’s baselayers during competitions beginning this week at the Audi Birds of Prey World Cup event at Beaver Creek, CO, through the end of the 2016 season.

Digital Fields

Groupon locked in a multi-year agreement with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) to become MLB.com’s official daily deals site. Under the agreement, Groupon will host deals from a number of MLB’s 30 clubs through its GrouponLive events platform and also offer baseball fans with the opportunity to purchase unique experiential packages from participating clubs, including access to batting practices, luxury box seats and clubhouse and ballpark tours.

The Main Event

Giants/Redskins on ESPN‘s MNF at 8:30p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

ON THIS DAY in 1997: Golden State Warrior Latrell Sprewell has his contract terminated for attacking coach PJ Carlesimo.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Other than newcomers Missouri and Texas A&M, three SEC teams have never won the conference’s football championship. Name two. Answer: Most answers contained Kentucky or Miss. St.. The correct teams, however, were Arkansas, Vanderbilt, South Carolina. UCLA. Kudos: Jonathan Weaver-ESPN/Bristol. Bristol; Robert Twilley-Jupiter Entertainment/Knoxville; Michael Goodman-Radio One Atlanta/Atlanta; Mark Chance-Eagle Television Sales/Atlanta; Kevin Micklo-Initiative Media/Chicago; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA.

In The Know: What was the name of the division that housed the Flames, Islanders, Rangers and Flyers in the 70s? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports
12.03.12

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