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On April 1, 2007, award-winning and wildly popular football blog Kissing Suzy Kolber (KSK) posted the following:
"We had been talking to ESPN for a long time about making a move, but all of us were more or less distrustful of the idea. But all of us have careers and families to think about, so in the end sometimes you have to make compromises with what you believe in…
…So thank you to all of you who supported us. I hope you join us over at Page 2 [a feature section on the ESPN website] when we launch our beta site tomorrow. This'll be the last post we write here at the old blogspot site."
The reactions to this simple April Fool's Day joke ranged from entertained…
"We completely fell for it. We were on high alert for random high-jinks that Sunday, but then actually left the house all day, and didn't spend much time on the Net. Finally, that night, we saw the post, and were stunned. We fired off a few 'WTF????' emails, and in the morning got [in reply], 'Uh, it was a joke, man.' "
—Editor, The Big Lead [On which, more later.]
…to whatever the exact opposite of that is:
"I just read that and sat here in shock thinking about which one of my friends to call and start screaming at. [This is followed by a couple of unprintable expletives.]"
—Rapist's Wit, comment privileges holder, KSK
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So: What exactly is it about a huge media brand acquiring a tiny blog that would elicit such a reaction? The simple answer seems to be what any amateur economist residing in a community with a Wal-Mart would say: "Big companies, by nature, aren't as personalized to my tastes." And as Wal-Mart has been accused of doing to local mom-and-pops, it seems the threat presented by ESPN online would be one of hegemony, with ESPN's budgets and access making personal, unprofessional, often offensive, and reliably poorly proofread sports blogs (like KSK) about as useful as, say, a blog archiving pictures of things put on a cat.
But that would be wrong. It turns out that ESPN, which calls itself "the sports leader," isn't covering one major aspect of the way sports fans consume sports, which is the way sports fans consume sports. That is to say, ESPN has a hard time embracing a sense of humor about its product, even though humor is one of the primary ways its audience consumes said product. This difficulty in taking its product a little less than dead seriously certainly has something to do with the fact that, like many large, powerful brands, ESPN has a hard time laughing at itself.
That is to say, ESPN has no sense of humor.
ESPN: Extra-Sensitive People Nation?
And there is no more obvious example of why so many sports fans (and independent sports bloggers) find ESPN's inability to laugh at itself a threat than the story of True Hoop. When ESPN acquired the once-independent and wildly popular NBA blog True Hoop its blogroll (a list of links to other blogs) became much more anemic—some of the removed links happened to be for blogs that often make fun of ESPN, like Deadspin.
ESPN certainly has its defenders. But even they see this kind of behavior as self-destructive. Dylan Stableford, editor of the influential, professional media site mediabistro, defends ESPN's efforts. "They've done a good job of conveying their personality," he says—though he adds, "But any kind of 'blacklisting' even those who criticize you is not good for anybody."
David Glickman, corporate comedian (no, for real) and author of Punchline Your Bottom Line, says that ESPN has "worked so hard to make the brand 'invincible' that any perceived 'threat' to it becomes a declaration of war. However, the minute you show that you're thin-skinned, you become an instant target for more 'humor-abuse.' If ESPN had taken the totally opposite tact—and broadcast the funniest negative comments on-air or online, and called it something like, 'You Can't Please All the People All of the Time,' people would be laughing with them, and not at them."
Matt Ufford, editor of the sports blog With Leather—itself an inside-ESPN joke—and co-founder of the aforementioned Kissing Suzy Kolber, more directly sums up ESPN's sense-of-humor problem by basically saying ESPN's personality reflects those who run it: "For every funny and/or talented persona at ESPN, there's a vice president of such-and-such who's worried about 'how this makes the company look.' "
ESPN's lack of humor about its product cannot all be blamed on the vice presidents of such-and-such, though. "Things that are funny tend to offend lame people's sensibilities," Ufford adds. "And lame people—being lame—enjoy writing letters to advertisers, who pull their ads, which costs the company money. Blogs don't have CEOs. Or people wearing pants. That's why we're awesome."
The editor of The Big Lead points out the great paradox between the unapologetically comical manner in which fans digest sports, media access, and the athletes themselves—and how that paradox is the direct cause of ESPN's cantankerousness: "If ESPN pisses off [prickly Red Sox pitcher] Curt Schilling, will they ever get an interview with him again? Ditto for big-time coaches and players across the board. ESPN needs the coaches and athletes talking to them."
No observation or comment sums up the disconnect ESPN has with its subject matter quite as well as an actual, simple example. As reported by sports blog Three and Out, an ESPN.com article about former NBA player John Amaechi declaring he was gay wouldn't allow the word "gay" to be used in the article's comments. (Sigh.)
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Other Bad Sports
By no means is ESPN the only brand that exhibits the particular narcissistic personality trait of seeming wholly unable to have a sense of humor about oneself. Actually, it's a surprising and regrettable characteristic of very large and popular brands: surprising because of its commonplaceness, regrettable because it's (usually) wholly unnecessary.
Karen Post, CEO of Oddpodz and author of Brain Tattoos, says of companies adopting a better sense of humor about themselves: "It depends on the brand and the space they operate in. Some categories—like healthcare/pharma, finance, and safety products and services—deal with pretty serious issues; injecting humor may downgrade the brand's equity in trust, security, and authoritative positioning. Case by case is the rule. However, there are many companies that are just plain afraid and too uptight. A little self-deprecation would actually strengthen the connection to the market by appearing like real live humans instead of big corporate monsters."
Jeff Swystun, director of global communications at DDB, says that it is possible for the co-existence of whimsy and professionalism, pointing to Apple and FedEx. "There are several factors to take into account when contemplating self deprecation," he says, including objectives of the communications, the current personality of the brand, the industry in which it competes, and the alignment with corporate strategy.
But a good sense of humor as a marketing and branding device, to paraphrase its likeness to pornography, may just be more know-it-when-we-use-it than action-item-able. Or put more simply, anyone can script and plan a single joke, but nobody can put "sense of humor" in a marketing plan. Swystun sums up this problem: "Humor is highly subjective and has significant risk associated with its use in corporate environments. However, if done well, it can make a brand stand out in very crowded marketplaces. Many people are responding well to the Mac ads that have creatively communicated the differences in personalities between Macs and PCs. This works not solely because of the brevity but because it fits the Apple brand overall and being slightly irreverent and innovative in all that it does. A great brand communicates what consistently makes it different."
Glickman still thinks that having good humor about yourself can never really hurt. "The brands who understand the incredible power that humor produces are able to 'leverage those laughs' to greater profits," he says. "If GE were to change their slogan to 'We Bring Good Things to Laugh,' it could double its sales!"
While this sales strategy's heart is in the right place, it obviously remains to be proven. And Swystun points that whether a brand has a "sense of humor" might be as characteristic as a humor having one. "Ultimately, many brands experiment with humor and end up with very short-term campaigns that neither fit corporate strategy or long-term brand development," he notes. "Changing tone and subject within months of each other communicates a brand schizophrenia that can confuse target audiences."
Swystun claims it comes down to three fundamental marketing questions:
- What is our distinct message?
- Who are the audiences we want it to reach?
- What are the most effective channels for reaching those audiences?
"Once those have been identified, it helps to determine if humor should play a role in the brand communications," he adds. "The trick is to evaluate the situation not in an episodic fashion but in the long-term context of the brand's life. Strongly supported brands can weather short-term issues because of the equity they have built up over time."
The Whole World Laughs With You
It seems some brands are learning. Publishing giant Condé Nast has a long history of being embarrassed by media blog Gawker. In fact, Gawker has made it a less-than-secret mission of doing so. But at a recent launch party for its new magazine title Portfolio, the publisher decided to have a little laugh at the whole business by serving cookies with the message AS SEEN ON GAWKER.
So while David's final thoughts on how GE could inject a little humor into its branding approach are open to debate, it remains, at least, a funny thought. (That's kind of the idea.) And at the risk of sounding like a cheap, motivational-speaker gimmick, it might serve large brands to think of themselves as singles in the dating pool—where a sense of humor is on every potential date's wish list.
[2-Jul-2007]
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Abram D. Sauer has written about brands and branding trends since 2001. Visit www.abesauer.com for more of his work on branding and product placement.
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