Charge Dir of Brand Strategy Jesse Ghiorzi (@ChargeGoForward) said his company’s core is a brand-first approach. Formerly known as Ungar Strategies and U/S Sports Advisors, Charge works with its clients to pitch media, create content for social media, serve as an advisor and manage the client’s social channels. Clients have included the NBPA, Dodgers, Honda, NASCAR and several of its drivers. Ghiorzi said, “I love working with individual athletes. It’s a lot of fun to dig into deep, heavy questions with a person and figure out what they stand for.” One area the firm is expanding into is esports. He said, “We set up the Esports Career Mode as a free educational place catered toward esports athletes that are breaking or want to break in to a variety of esports leagues and titles they want to play.”
How social media plays into developing a brand:
For a lot of people it’s the first touch point, especially for a younger audience. They may discover them first on social or see them play in a game of a race. It’s the first chance for companies or people to brand themselves -- from the bio, what you use for your profile photo to what you are talking about. You don’t need a third partner or an advertising partner to talk about your team or a press release. You can just communicate to your current audience and start to reach out to an audience that overlaps.
Where people get tripped up with social media:
It’s messaging or staying on story or staying on brand. Sometimes it makes sense to jump on whatever given holiday it is on social media. It makes sense for some clients and others it doesn’t. Sometimes brands and individuals can get too obsessed with jumping on everything trending or always feeling like you have to say something rather than waiting to make sure we say the right thing as opposed to make sure we say something. That’s linked to being handcuffed to the follower or “like” number.
The esports community’s social media needs compared to traditional sports:
The biggest thing, especially with the athletes in esports, is that it still feels a little bit like the wild west. It still feels like a new sport. How athletes making their voices known there is different than their team or the game they play, the tournaments they are playing at. The biggest difference is when you are making a name for yourself in the NFL, like Dak Prescott, he will have a Twitter handle that you know is for Dak Prescott. In esports, almost everyone is going by a pseudonym and they are not on camera quite as much. Getting them past their gamer tag is the biggest challenge esports faces compared to traditional sports.
Staying nimble in ever-changing esports landscape:
Encouraging patience is key. It feels like there’s a new social media channel or app or add-on every week. Showing some patience there, saying let’s monitor this first. Because it just came out doesn’t mean it’s the right channel or outlet for your brand to be on right away. Let’s see what’s going on first.
Who does social media right:
I like what MLB does a lot, especially with its different channels. The Cut 4 is a little bit more pop culture, GIFs, memes and funny things. They do a really good job, especially for a sport that is often maligned for not reaching a younger audience.
Favorite social media campaign:
It’s a couple years old, but the Tweeting with Mittens and JC Penney. I really liked during the 2014 Winter Olympics when they came out with just a bunch of errors during the Super Bowl right before the Olympics and the Team USA mittens were popular. They came out with tweets that were filled with typos. People were talking: Are they drunk? Are they letting a baby tweet? They were like, “Hey, we’re fine. We’re just tweeting with Mittens on.”
If you know anyone who should be featured for their use of social media, send their name to us at
jperez@sportsbusinessdaily.com.
