Today’s post comes from Dan Farkas, a good friend of mine, and — as you’ll see from this post — an avid sports fan. You know it’s a good read when it includes Johnny Manziel, Alex Rodriguez and Will Gardner. (Sidenote; Fans of The Good Wife, can we please take about how I’m still not over what happened to Will Garnder?!) And, with that, happy reading!
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Post by: @DanFarkas
The NFL Draft is less than a month away, and anyone who cares about PR should care what happens in the first hour.
Johnny Manziel is an award winning quarterback who might be the first player taken overall. Manziel may also not be taken in the entire first day.
The man dubbed “Johnny Football” makes draft fans like me argue (often loudly) with draft fans like my brother who just misses the point on this guy. But that’s a different guest blog post.
Here’s why Johnny Football should make every Johnny and Jane PR person think differently about his or her work.
Understand Your Audience:
As an Ohio University Instructor, this is one the biggest mistakes I see from students and young professionals. Brands can’t be, to quote Everclear, everything to everyone.
The NCAA investigated Manziel for receiving improper benefits. In college, that’s a big deal. In the NFL, few seem to care. The league suspended Rodney Harrsion for using performance-enhancing drugs as a player. Now, he’s a lead commentator on NBC.
Could you imagine if Alex Rodriguez, who also got busted for performance enhancing drugs, was a lead commentator for baseball? That thought would nauseate most baseball fans and almost every Yankee fan.
Football is an apple. Baseball is an orange. You treat both differently. Brands should do the same with their main, secondary and tertiary audiences. There are differences we have to respect which will impact programming.
Style Is Nice:
Every good quarterback prospect works out for teams. Most happen behind closed doors. In some cases, cameras aren’t even allowed in the building.
Johnny Manziel made his workout a rock concert. Manziel had an entrance that would make the WWE envious. Music from Drake blared in the building. Former President George H.W. Bush even attended Manziel’s workout with NFL teams. This isn’t a typo. A former President attended a college workout.
A friend of mine recently said we speak three words a second. We can hold attention span for seven seconds. That’s 21 words. Be through. Be concise. Be memorable. I don’t even know if other quarterbacks have worked out yet, but I will always remember a former President showing up to watch Johnny Football.
Substance Is Nicer:
This all goes back to understanding your audience. Johnny Football could have had President Obama, Channing Tatum and Oprah in attendance with U2 performing live. NFL teams wouldn’t have blinked. All they care about is Manziel’s release point, accuracy on out routes and ability to play within the pocket. Do some of you know what that means? Probably not. To Manziel’s most important audience, the 30 teams/potential employers watching the workout, it’s all that matters.
Manziel completed 61 of 64 throws. One of the three misses was his fault. We live in a world of results. Sometimes that world is crazy. As Heather Whaling has so often told me, “Embrace the crazy.” Always remember to deliver. We’re evaluated on results and can never forget that.
Johnny Manziel will be drafted to an NFL team in less than a month. Football fans will wait with baited breath over where he goes. PR fans don’t have to wait that long to see Johnny Football’s impact on their clients.
Dan Farkas is an Instructor of Strategic Communication at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. Dan teaches courses that address writing, social media, multimedia, strategy, and campaigns. He thinks Johnny Manziel should definitely go in the first ten picks of the draft and can’t believe what happened to Will Gardner. He hopes you will connect with him @danfarkas on Twitter or through LinkedIn.
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Photo credit: Johnny Manziel, via Flickr Creative Commons