A friend of mine (the guy in the Sheffield jersey in the second video) recently attended the Chargers/Jets playoff game last weekend.  Now, this friend is actually a rabid Buffalo Bills fan…..so, needless to say, he was not cheering for the Jets.  That being said though, once again, he was blown away by the overwhelming support Jets fans showed their team.  Even in San Diego…..Jets Nation was strongly represented and, as my friend stated:

“Jets fans are crazy…by far the best fans to party with at a tailgaiter!”.

Although Fireman Ed was not in attendance, it is rumored that he was there in spirit and has been cheering on his beloved Jets back in New York.  I can honestly say that throughout our travels, the spirit of Jets fans can only be rivaled by the spirit of our own Saskatchewan Roughrider fans.  They are both “Green” at heart and hard-working, blue collar in nature.  Exactly how you would envision a football fan.

NY Jets Photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/42340245@N02/sets/72157622575665005/

Saskatchewan Roughrider photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/greycupfanconnect/sets/72157622907460298/

Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts will be a tough test for the surging Jets this Sunday, but I can only imagine that the Jets faithful will be out in full force and Rider Nation will be cheering along with you!!!!  GO GREEN!!!!!!!

J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets!!!!!!!!!!!

NY Jets Experience & Social Media

“The Grey Cup has a long history and there have been many memorable moments over the years,” says Sheldon Lachambre – 2009 Grey Cup Festival – Director of Marketing and Media Relations “Some people have been coming to the Grey Cup Festival religiously for 20+ years, and every CFL fan has a Grey Cup game memory that is special to them!”

“These Grey Cup memories and the connection CFL fans have with each other is what makes the Grey Cup Festival such a special event. Therefore we felt it was important to implement a social media strategy and to showcase how the 2009 Grey Cup Festival connects CFL fans from East to West.”

Check out the 2009 Grey Cup Festival website to view the official press release: http://2009greycupfestival.com/news/34.html

2009 Grey Cup Festival, CFL Playoffs & CFL Fans = Excitement!!!

While at the game, I took time to chat with some CFL fans about the Grey Cup Festival.  Virtually everyone I speak with about this topic says the same things.

1. The Grey Cup Festival connects people from across Canada
2. The Grey Cup game is the pinnacle of the Festival, but all the events leading up to the game are what make the Festival special
3. Many people make the Grey Cup Festival an annual event and have made lifelong friends that are all connected by the Grey Cup Festival.

The two videos below communicate these points from two perspectives…….a Lions fan and an Eskimos fan.  Traditionally, they are football rivals, but when it comes to the Grey Cup Festival, it’s all about having fun, connecting with old friends and making new friends!

Edmonton Eskimos Fans – Grey Cup Festival Highlights (a 17 yr veteran!)

BC Lions Fan – Grey Cup Festival Highlights

The 2009 Grey Cup Festival just launched a new website called Grey Cup Festival Connect (http://greycupfestivalconnect.com).  The website was based on the same concept as StampsConnect (the Calgary Stampeders social media aggregated website)(http://stampsconnect.com). By properly tagging their content, fans can upload their videos, photos and tweets and have them show up on the Grey Cup Festival Connect website.

The Grey Cup is Canada’s largest professional sporting event. A celebration of sport and culture, the Grey Cup is uniquely Canadian and has a storied history and deep traditions. The 2009 Grey Cup Festival, “Canada’s Game Calgary’s Party”, will be distinctly Canadian and showcase Calgary’s famous western hospitality.

For more info on how to get tickets to all the great events planned at the 2009 Grey Cup Festival, check out http://greycupfestivalconnect.com/tickets/

Dania Jai-Alai

The event we attended was at one of the few Jai-Alai arena in the United States – Danai Jai-Alai.  You could tell that the building itself was probably the “place to be” at one point, but as interest in the sport has declined over the years, I would imagine there has not been alot of money to throw around at improvements.  The building itself is very worn down and is now best described as a gamblers paradise.  There is gambling everywhere with Jai-Alai going on in the main arena, horse races on multiple TV screens in the lobby and a poker room upstairs.  Apparently, there is some big money to be made on betting on Jai-Alai, but when you don’t know the rules…..I think your money would better spent on the Roulette table.  Needless to say, my $2 bet could be considered a donation to the future of Jai-Alai! However, I can’t complain too much since it was $0.99 Wednesdays (HotDogs, Chicken Wings and Beers for a buck!!…how can you beat that!!! ha).  If you are interested in checking this sport out….but can’t make it down to Florida, you can visit http://betdania.com and watch the live streaming games over the internet (no, seriously!!)

Jai-Alai – The Sport

Jai alai promotes itself as “the fastest sport in the world” because of the balls’ speed, although Badminton and Golf have actually seen faster speeds. A 125g–140g ball covered with goatskin can travel up to 302 km/h (188mph). I don’t even know where to begin to explain the rules of this sport (mostly because I don’t have a clue how they score the games…..even after watching 2 hrs of Jai-Alai last night!) I found this video on YouTube that helps explain a bit of the history behind Jai-Alai (warning – it’s a bit dated

Jai-Alai Documentary

Jai-Alai and Social Media?

As I was watching this new found sports, I couldn’t help but wonder if social media was impacting this sport……and if it isn’t, could it?  So, I did a bit of digging around to see what I could find:

Facebook

I did a quick search for “Jai-Alai Facebook” and found the following:

Jai-Alai Facebook Group – There are currently 126 members in this group.  The rules of the game are explained here and there are a couple of links to news articles

Jai-Alai Facebook Fan Page – There are over 660 member of this Fan Page (which is amazing because there is literally nothing on the Fan Page.  There is a “Just Fans” wall that has some conversation happening, but it doesn’t appear anyone has engaged in the page for a couple months now).  A link to http://www.jai-alai.info/ can be found in the “Info” section.  I have to assume that they are the ones that built this Facebook Fan Page??

Twitter

Ironically, I used the “search” feature on my Tweetie iPhone application and saw that there were people at the event last night talking about the Jai-Alai match. Here’s a link to the tweet posted by a Twitter user at the Danai Jai-Alai event last: http://twitter.com/radiodanshow/statuses/4852566047.  Unfortunately, I didn’t check it last night or I would have taken the time to track this person down to discuss their interest in the game.

I also discovered, to my amazement, when using http://search.twitter.com that there are a number of other people talking about the sport on Twitter: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=jai-alai

I also did a quick search for “Jai-Alai Twitter” using Google and came across an official Dania Jai-Alai Twitter account.  There are only a handful of followers of the account (23 to be exact) and they are using it mostly to promote upcoming events (like the $0.99 Wednesday, Horse Races and Poker Tournaments)

YouTube

There are a number of clips on YouTube profiling the sport of Jai-Alai (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jai+alai&search_type=&aq=f) But, the one that stood out the most for me was during an episode of Jackass where Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O take shots from some professional Jai-Alai players. I think the real Jai-Alai ball would potentially kill them…..so, in this case, they used oranges. Haha…enjoy!

Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O (Jackass) – Jai Alai

Conclusion

I certainly don’t think that the sport of Jai-Alai will ever reach the popularity of other major sports in the world (soccer, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, etc), but considering what I have seen in my research, there is definitely room for improvement. The great part about social media is that you can target your messaging to your target audience and reach out to those that are already engaged with the sports.  After all, there is no better promotion (with regards to impact vs cost) than word of mouth.  And by leveraging the voice of advocates for the sport, the sport could benefit from their influence and messaging.

I can’t say that I found an “official” Jai-Alai Association that oversees the sport internationally, but there are a number of Jai-Alai groups out there that would all benefit from a collective effort in promoting the game using social media. Social networks (like this one created on Ning), would be a good place to start in finding those Jai-Alai advocates

Considering that the focus of our tour is to profile the connection between Sports and their Fans, I don’t believe we could have found a better example of this than the connection between the NY Jets football team, Fireman Ed and the faithful NY Jets fans.  Fireman Ed went from being a loyal fan like many of the other fans in the parking lot that day, to an icon that truly represents the connection between the team and their fans.

In fact, just a few days earlier on September 25th, Fireman Ed was presented the game ball on behalf of the NY Jets fans for their win over their division rival, the New England Patriots. The NY Jets head coach, Rex Ryan was quoted as saying:

“He wasn’t the only fan you would notice, but I don’t know the names of everybody else,” Ryan said. “I’m sure there was Fireman Joe and everybody else out there. It was great because they’re our fans and we decided it was a little token of our appreciation to give him a game ball.”

Ryan said Fireman Ed was “all fired up” during their meeting.

“He’s expecting a lot of wins, as are our fans, and he said this is only the start and our guys understand that,” Ryan said.

Referring to the rest of the team’s fans in an interview with the team’s web site, Fireman Ed said, “Their passion is as great as mine is. There’s no difference. I’m just blessed to be able to lead the orchestra, to get them crazy.”

Video footage of Coach Rex Ryan placing the game ball into their training facility display case can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/Jets?v=app_2392950137#/video/video.php?v=103010843046316

It truly is a refereshing site to see how the New York Jets have acknowledged their fans as a major contributing factor to their success.  The idea that an average (although passionate) fan can essentially become a part of the team brand and exemplify the connection between the team and it’s fans is an amazing story.

The connection between Fireman Ed and the NY Jets has also been portrayed in promotional videos by the NFL on CBS and in a commercial for Budweiser.

We were fortunate to be two vehicles down from Fireman Ed in our pre-game and post-game celebrations and captured a very cool video of Fireman Ed and his friend leading the charge with one more J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets.  3 AND 0 BABY!!!!

By far, one of the highlights of our Sport Fan Connection Tour was the September 27th NFL game between the NY Jets and Tennessee Titans. The day began early as we made our way to the wet parking lot to partake in some pre-game tailgaiting.  We ran into a great group of guys from New Jersey that welcomed us under their canopy for some good eats and drinks.

NY Jets – Post-Game Tailgaiting

As per NFL rules, we were unable to take video footage within the stadium, but we did capture manage to capture some great footage in the parking lot after the game.  NY Jets fans are a passionate group and I am always overwhelmed with how friendly and inviting New Yorkers are.  In this video footage, we captured the thoughts of some NY Jets fans on Mobile applications (Blackberry, iPhone and Web Apps), online streaming video and Fireman Ed stopped by for some of New Jersey’s finest sausage and bread!

NY Jets & Social Media

We chatted with the Marketing and Communication department prior to our trip and had an overwhelming response to our project.  The NY Jets organization is really leading the charge among NFL teams when it comes to embracing social media. They have prominently displayed links on www.newyorkjets.com that help drive their fans to their Facebook Fan Page and Twitter Page.

Here are some examples of how the NY Jets are using social media:

Facebook Fan Page

The official New York Jets Facebook Fan page is a great example of how teams can use popular social networks to engage in a two way conversation with fans.  The Jets have created a “Welcome” page that helps inform fans of all the ways to connect with the team.  There is a quick opening video where current players Kerry Rhodes, Dustin Keller and D’Brickashaw Ferguson welcome fans to the Facebook Page. There are also quick links included that help direct fans to the videos and photo sections and an open invite to “write on the wall”.

The official NY Jets Facebook Fan page has just over 32,000 fans and it is evident that a number of them are quite active on the site contributing to the “Wall” conversations, participation in polls, uploading fan generated videos and photos.

The Jets also use their Facebook Fan page as a means to promote their team schedule, tickets sales, the “Jets Flight Crew” cheerleaders and upcoming events.

NY Jets Players on Twitter

One of the things that really stood out to me on the Facebook Fan Page was that they have a section promoting their players on Twitter.  This is a very proactive approach to embracing social media as a number of teams, leagues and conferences have outright banned their players from using Twitter.  The Jets are doing the exact opposite by embracing the fact that their players are an extension of their brand and are a major contributing factor to the overall success of the team – both on and off the field.  The NY Jets players profiled on Twitter include:

• Mark Sanchez
• Kerry Rhodes
• Nick Mangold
• Derrelle Reves
• Dustin Keller
• Bart Scott
• Braylon Edwards
• Jeff Feely
• James Ihedigbo
• D’Brickashaw Ferguson
• Damien Woody

NY Jets on Twitter

Official NY Jets Twitter Page

The Jets organization does a great job of using Twitter in a very open and engaging way.  They understand that the fans are not always going to be happy with the team.  After all, it’s pro-sports…..and you can’t win every game.

One thing that really stand out for me is the fact that the Jets do an exceptional job of responding to fan comments and questions. I constantly hear the question of whether or not a person/team with a large number of followers should follow all of those people back.  The NY Jets currently have almost 14000 followers and are following back 1600 of them.  I’m assuming they have chosen to engage with those fans that are providing quality comments and feedback as I don’t believe it is feasible to converse with 14000 fans.

The Jets also use their Twitter account to keep fans updated on game highlights with regular posting during Jets games.  Each contributor to their Twitter page uses their initials to keep fans informed on who is broadcasting the message.

Trevor Turnbull sat down with Dani Muccio (@dani3boyz on Twitter) in Farmingdale, NY to discuss the NHL Tweetup concept.  They chatted about how the NHL Tweetup started, whether teams have truly embraced social media (and in particular Twitter), which teams are leading the pack and where she sees things going in the future.

This video is only a small part of the conversation, and there will be more clips added in the near future.  Dani had a lot of great insight to offer and is doing a great job of helping connect fans to their favorite teams in support of the game they all love.  Enjoy!!