Sports

Tennis star and gluten-free foodie Novak Djokovic — at left, giving us some fist-pumping Zoolander action — is not exactly known for being a fashion plate. Though who needs clothes when you look like this or this.

So yeah. In an effort to expand its appeal to Europeans and Americans, Uniqlo has signed him to a five-year contract in which he’s wearing and designing clothes instead of standing mostly naked by a pool. You can check out the collection here (tennis whites, of course). Or you can scroll back up for the pictures of him in tiny swim trunks.

[via The New York Times]

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Billy Beane, GM of the Oakland A’s, is renowned for being an early proponent of using big data in baseball to predict player performance. He was the subject of Michael Lewis’ book, Moneyball, which was made into an Oscar-nominated movie of the same name last year.

Beane, portrayed by Brad Pitt in the film, once turned down an offer to be the Boston Red Sox’s GM because he didn’t want to move east. However, he did accept an invitation to deliver the keynote address to start off Internet Week in New York on Monday. Besides, as he acknowledged, “I try not to watch the games, that’s why I’m here.”

Beane spent most of the time talking about data in baseball and the evolution of his career, and in doing so touched upon universal themes such as innovation, career planning, hiring practices, and changing an industry’s corporate culture.

Read more

Last week, there was speculation about what the Brooklyn Nets logo looked like, but most were pretty sure it was something like the one Jay Z wore on a t-shirt days earlier.

Here they are officially (the other is after the jump). The logos were designed by Jay Z himself using, according to the press release, the “black and white color palette of the old New York subway signage system.” The shield is homage to the previous Nets logo. Of course, the “B” refers to “Brooklyn.” A couple of other versions of the “B” available here.

There’s also the “Hello Brooklyn” marketing campaign we talked about last week. The homepage now has an intro video you can check out here.

 

Read more

The NFL draft is under way and football fans, players, and coaches are excited. Why, look at the excitement on these faces.

For those of us not following each draft play, there are still lessons to be learned. In today’s guest post, Jeff Cohn, “a loyal Broncos fan and brand strategist at COHN,” offers up five lessons in hiring that we can glean from the NFL draft. So now, even the gridiron averse have a reason besides the Super Bowl ads to pay attention to football.

Click through to read on.

Read more

The Brooklyn Nets have sent out a news release announcing that the team’s new logo will be unveiled on Monday, April 30 during a press conference taking place across the street from the new Barclays Center. But it looks like an IT leaker and Jay Z, a team investor, may have already spilled the beans.

Jay Z appeared in concert wearing the t-shirt at left, which looks like the leaked image. But some say the image is doctored.

The team is also giving away hints on its homepage. You can catch a glimpse, along with the team hashtag, after the jump.

Read more

Over the weekend, Bahrain hosted a Formula One car racing event that was not only meant to bring in lots of sponsorship money, but give the world the image of a unified Bahrain. All of that backfired when protesters and police in riot gear took to the streets, with at least one protester dying as a result.

“Bahrain’s government has spent $40 million to host the global luxury sporting event, hoping to demonstrate that normal life has returned to the Gulf island kingdom after it cracked down harshly on Arab Spring demonstrations last year,” Reuters wrote over the weekend. “But vivid televised images of streets ablaze threaten to embarrass Formula One and the global brands that lavish it with sponsorship.”

Read more

The U.S. Olympic team is one of the few that doesn’t receive funding from the government. To shine a light on U.S. athletes and the people who help them make it to the Games, the U.S. Olympic Committee has launched “Raise Our Flag,” a campaign that kicked off this morning in New York’s Times Square with help from Cohn & Wolfe.

Read more

Add an appearance on Good Morning America to the ongoing media blitz surrounding Tim Tebow’s move to the New York Jets. Speaking today to Robin Roberts in an “exclusive” interview, nothing much was actually said. He likes football, wants to be a good person, he retells the oft-told (and controversial) story of his beginnings, he’s excited. Tebow can go on a major morning program, get some publicity, and say little because, for now at least, anything Tebow draws a crowd. About 15,000 came out to hear him speak on Easter Sunday.

“In Christianity, it’s the Pope and Tebow right now,” said one pastor.

Read more

New York sports fans have been getting repeatedly worked into a frenzy these past weeks.

First we had a bad case of “Linsanity,” which cooled some when the Knicks went on one of their losing streaks. But the team, with a new coach, Mike Woodson, seems back on track, winning four games in a row. Lin injected some excitement into New York basketball and became a household name that companies have sought to be associated with.

Coca-Cola is adding courtside ads in Chinese to reach international fans. And Lin is part of the reason ad prices and sales for televised Knicks games have spiked. His jersey has been the top seller for all NBA players since February 4.

Lin also has a deal with Volvo and, dating back to before he was famous, a deal with Nike.

Now enter Tim Tebow.

Read more

“Linsanity” struck again last night, with Jeremy Lin scoring the game-winning buzzer-beating three-point shot that gave the Knicks their sixth win in a row. Jeremy Lin is doing it all day and we’re drowning in puns.

With this incredible run, Lin’s marketing and branding value has gone through the roof. Ratings for the MSG Network have jumped, despite an ongoing dispute with Time Warner Cable. Traffic to Knicks websites has skyrocketed. And sales of the number 17 jersey are doing well. USA Today says traffic to the Knicks store is up 3,000 percent and it’s the 10th best selling jersey at the NBA Store.

Forbes even connects an elevated Madison Square Garden stock price and MSG ticket prices to Lin’s streak. The magazine values his brand at $14 million. And Lin is being declared the “fastest growing athlete brand in the world.”

Read more