Knicks G Jeremy Lin’s endorsement potential “is Lin-finite … if he can sustain the buzz, excitement, and productivity shown in the last week,” according to Patrick Rishe of FORBES. Lin has “all the characteristics that corporations cherish.” He is “fresh, energetic, swift of foot and mind, seemingly hard-working at his craft, and humble to boot.” Plus he “doesn’t come with baggage or an attitude,” and the underdog aspect of the story is “so compelling." Meanwhile, international interest in “consuming Mr. Lin’s game and image may go off the charts in China.” There is “a high ceiling” for Lin in terms of his “growth potential as a basketball player, his brand, and his 3-5 year earnings potential as a corporate endorser.” If he can “sustain a standard of play that is both exciting and productive in eking the Knicks back into playoff contention, he will find endorsement gold within the streets of New York” (FORBES.com, 2/11). But ESPN.com’s Kristi Dosh wrote it “might take a bit longer for him to become a national player.” Burns Entertainment & Sports Marketing President Doug Shabelman said, “It would not be prudent for a big company to all of the sudden center him in a big national campaign unless someone wanted to do a quick one-off spot and capitalize on him right now.” Dosh noted Lin’s No. 17 jersey has been the league’s “top seller since Feb. 4, and the Knicks were the top-selling team last week, with five of the top 10 items sold by the league being Knicks jerseys.” NBAStore.com this week “will begin selling Lin youth jerseys, additional T-shirt styles, and a woman’s tee.” The NBA Store on Fifth Avenue in N.Y. is “already selling replica and authentic jerseys and will add name and number tees and additional styles” (ESPN.com, 2/12).
APPEALING TO THE ASIAN MARKET: REUTERS’ Melanie Lee notes Lin's "fairytale rise has marketing men rubbing their hands with glee as they contemplate a potential candidate to fill the very large shoes left by last year's retirement of Yao Ming.” Lin's storyline alone “would make the 23-year-old Californian an attractive proposition to advertisers, but add in the fact he was born to Taiwanese parents and you would, it seems, have marketing gold on your hands.” GolinHarris Head of Sports Marketing & Branded Entertainment Jeremy Walker, who works out of the company's Hong Kong offices, said, "There's no question brands will be interested in Jeremy Lin. ... A lot of brands want that positive 'halo effect' association they are going to get from being involved with a superstar" (REUTERS, 2/13). Lin’s agent Roger Montgomery said that interview requests for Lin are “pouring in from all over the world and business opportunities [are] booming.” Meanwhile, Lin is in the second year of a three-year shoe contract with Nike, and Montgomery admitted that a “renegotiation of terms could be in order if Lin keeps playing like this.” Montgomery: "There's been an overwhelming amount of calls and interest -- not just in the U.S. but China. All over the world, people are excited about Jeremy Lin" (SI.com, 2/11).
HOT ON THE MARKET: MSG Store Supervisor Sharif Gerzel said Lin jerseys were "selling totally off the racks" during Friday night's game against the Lakers. On Long Island, Laura Albanese noted the store, which “began selling shortly before tipoff Friday night, had only one jersey, priced at $54, and seven $28 T-shirts left, and was expecting a second shipment at halftime.” Modell's Times Square Assistant Manager John Rape said that the location “received its shipment of Lin merchandise at 4 p.m. Friday.” By 7 pm ET, they “had sold the bulk of their inventory, though Rape wasn't sure of the exact number” (NEWSDAY, 2/11). In N.Y., Kevin Armstrong wrote Lin’s “sphere of influence is widening with each win, and his name is being emblazoned across T-shirts and mesh jerseys as the great American marketing machine readies to push him through its maw.” T-shirts, featuring the Knicks’ logo topped by “LINSANITY” are “available for pre-order ($24) in the concourses” at MSG and his Fathead is “selling for $99.99 online” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 2/12). SI’s Chris Mannix wrote Lin fever “has gripped Manhattan,” and Asian media has “descended on the Garden in numbers so high the Knicks PR staff has lost count.” A N.Y. retail location of Modell's reportedly “sold out of 62 Lin jerseys in two hours on Friday and stores across the city have stacked up orders for hundreds more.” To look at the Knicks website, fans “must pass through a page featuring an image of Lin, with an offer to download an app for the latest Lin-sanity video” (SI.com, 2/11). USA TODAY’s Mike Lopresti in a sports section cover story notes Knicks tickets on the secondary market during Lin’s five-game stretch “have jumped 27% from an average of $407 to $517.” Lin’s Twitter followers went from “70,000 to 199,314 in three days.” Delivery Agent, which operates the Knicks’ online store, found that traffic “increased 3,000% last week” (USA TODAY, 2/13).
LIN-FINITE? In N.Y., Howard Beck wrote there are, “apparently, no boundaries to the NBA’s most unlikely and compelling story.” The news media “onslaught was so great Friday that the Knicks put Lin on a podium for his postgame interview -- and removed a temporary wall to double the size of the room.” With every “outlandish performance, Lin’s legend grows and the doubts fade.” Fans on Friday “wore homemade Lin masks, held signs reading ‘Madison Square Guard-Lin’ and ‘Linternational Love’ and wore freshly minted No. 17 jerseys and T-shirts.” Those jerseys “just arrived Friday afternoon, and they were selling quickly” (N.Y. TIMES, 2/11). Meanwhile, American Public Media’s Jeremy Hobson reports Lin’s high school basketball coach "bought up the web site Linsanity.com two years ago," and he is "now using it to sell Jeremy Lin T-shirts.” However, while he "had the foresight to get the web site going, he didn’t think to actually print the T-shirts and now he’s got a bit of a backorder problem” (“Marketplace Morning Report,” American Public Media, 2/13).
GLOBAL APPEAL: The AP’s Jon Krawczynski wrote Lin is “re-opening doors in Asia that some feared to be closing in the wake of Yao Ming’s retirement” (AP, 2/12). CBSSPORTS.com’s Ken Berger wrote Lin is “on the brink of becoming the biggest international sensation in the NBA since Yao Ming” (CBSSPORTS.com, 2/11). ABC News’ David Muir noted Lin was named ABC’s “Person of the Week” for last week and said he “is dazzling packed arenas and inspiring new songs.” Muir: “His popularity reaching global heights. Not since Yao Ming played in the NBA has there been such excitement overseas in China and Taiwan” (“World News,” ABC, 2/10). The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Jason Gay writes the “best part of the Jeremy Lin story is that it's a basketball story.” The NBA over the past few years has “let itself be undermined by a series of maddening, self-inflicted off-court distractions.” Lin is “leading the NBA on a strange, one-man, one-week basketball revival” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/13). In N.Y., Harvey Araton wrote Linsanity -- on the New York “stage -- became in one week the most infectious grassroots movement since the Tea Party” (N.Y. TIMES, 2/12).
LINEREST SPREADING: In N.Y., Pat Borzi noted before the Knicks-T'Wolves game Saturday night a “hint of Linsanity surfaced in the frigid Upper Midwest as a small but vocal contingent of Asian fans scattered throughout the capacity crowd of 20,232 at Target Center cheered when Lin was introduced before the game,” while others chanted “overrated” (N.Y. TIMES, 2/12). Also in N.Y., Michael Luo noted the “chants of 'MVP!' raining down on Lin at the Garden embody a surreal, Jackie Robinson-like moment.” Some have predicted that “Lin, because of his faith, will become the Taiwanese Tebow,” a reference to Broncos QB Tim Tebow. But Luo wrote, “I have the sense that his is a quieter, potentially less polarizing but no less devout style of faith” (N.Y. TIMES, 2/12).
RIGHT SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES: ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt said of Lin's popularity, “There are a lot of things in play here. There’s the fact that it’s the underdog, Harvard, the Asian Community.” ESPN’s Ryen Russillo said, "That’s the biggest thing. He’s an Asian kid from Harvard, okay, and we don’t see this. I hope everybody listens and doesn’t just hear the words because I mean the same reason why Tiger Woods was this phenomenon because he was a black guy living in the white guy’s world of golf. Wasn’t that the essence of the story there?” Van Pelt: “The idea that this lily-white sport, a guy that didn’t look like the overwhelming majority of the people that were playing, and certainly Lin does not" (“The Scott Van Pelt Show,” ESPN Radio, 2/10). ESPN’s Mike Golic said of Lin, “People love these underdog stories, a guy cut by two teams and passed over by a bunch more. ... It’s one of these stories that you turn into a script” ("Mike & Mike in the Morning," ESPN Radio, 2/13). SI.com’s Jon Wertheim wrote the “Legend of Lin also comes with built-in accelerator clauses.” If he plays in Memphis or Milwaukee, and not in the country's “media epicenter of New York, his story doesn't become this big, this fast.” It helps that his “breakthrough came the week after the Super Bowl when the sports media returned to considering pursuits other than the NFL.” Even his name “has cooperated, giving us easy Lin-Sanity and Lin-Guistics and Lin-Satiable tropes” (SI.com, 2/11).
