Blaze Pizza (@BlazePizza) is not a brand that typically uses its social media accounts to cross into the sports world. But with brand investor, ambassador and franchise owner LeBron James deciding to join the Lakers, Blaze capitalized on the moment. By promoting a free pizza giveaway to celebrate James’ arrival in L.A., Blaze saw its Twitter followers increase ten-fold in the week of July 8-14 compared to a typical week. Blaze Social Media Manager Rahiel Dawit said of involving James in future posts, “Maybe his move to Lakers can open up the door to do more. We are all Team LeBron regardless of personal opinion or your favorite team. Anything he does, we like to promote. We do a lot with the LeBron James Foundation. It’s important that we maintain our own brand voice and it doesn’t become another part of the LeBron machine.”
SOCIAL SNAPSHOT
Must-follows: Complex. They are all about culture and you know what is hot when you follow them.
Favorite app: Instagram. I’m on it a little too much.
Average time per day on social media: A lot.
A moment in time:
The idea of free pizza was already in talks internally, but as soon as he made the final announcement, we hit the ground running. We wanted to tell the story for those who didn’t know his involvement with Blaze. There was a reason for the posts leading up to the announcement of our free pizza day. There was the video of his prank at our Pasadena location and the video of his “Uninterrupted” interview with Maverick Carter.
Relationship with LeBron James:
LeBron has control over his social media, so we can’t force him to share or do anything. We gave his team a heads up that we were going to do this and showed them the social posts. It was a surprise to us when he did share it. It was great for us to see that. Any brand would love his support. We just happen to have a leg up since he is a partner of ours.
Giving social media accounts a boost:
We increased our Twitter conversation by 400% over the course of that Monday and Tuesday. It had a huge impact in gaining fans, but also the conversation of Blaze and LeBron, for those who didn’t know the connection. Even if you don’t have a Blaze near you, you at least know of it and hope we come to your city because of LeBron.
Dealing with trolls:
We’re in the restaurant business so even if he wasn’t a partner, everyone's brand deals with this. My advice to the team is to ignore all the haters and focus on the people who love us and love him.
Benefits of having a social-savvy NBAer plug brand:
That’s a great thing about LeBron that he does, too, on his own channels. Anything he does tweet about us comes from an authentic place. It’s not anything where we say, “Talk about us today.” He’s doing it on his own. It helps us tremendously.
Working with other athletes and celebrities:
Not in this capacity. We’ve done some things and may be doing more things that are in line with culture. We donated pizza for Quavo from Migos’ birthday.
Fast-casual brand that does well on social media:
For sure, Taco Bell. I like their approach to social. I follow them personally from my accounts to see what they are doing and how they are doing it. They have their pulse on everything.
If you know anyone who should be featured for their use of social media, send their name to us at jperez@sportsbusinessdaily.com.
