Univ. of Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari has his own "permanent branding campaign," as he is the “driving force behind several powerful media platforms -- including a Twitter account with more than a million followers, a website and a popular weekly podcast,” according to Marc Tracy of the N.Y. TIMES. Calipari “seeks a prominent public profile, at least partly to aid the all-important endeavor of recruiting.” Calipari “does not eschew traditional media availabilities, and even cooperated on a forthcoming ESPN documentary about his career,” but his "own megaphone is a big one.” Calipari’s Twitter account “has three times as many followers” as the main one for UK’s basketball program. More than 500,000 people “follow his Facebook feed, and a quarter-million track his posts on Instagram.” CoachCal.com also is not a "sleepy venue for occasional videos and links to articles posted elsewhere.” It is an “up-to-the-minute source for news, with its own de facto beat writer, Metz Camfield." While the site is “branded with Calipari’s image, it is owned by JMI Sports,” UK’s multimedia rights holder. The “newest addition to Calipari Inc. is Cal Cast -- Calipari’s podcast." After only three months and 15 episodes, it has “more than a million listens.” Calipari’s credibility is “buttressed by all the things he publishes that have no obvious utility.” Even the sponsor announcements Calipari reads during Cal Cast are "disarmingly genuine” (NYTIMES.com, 3/15).
