How Dish Network Used Sports Knowledge and Timing to Engage 24,000 Boston Fans

Dish Network Talk Boston

We like great marketing campaigns just as much as any other marketer. That’s why we love what Dish has been doing with their #talkboston campaign.

If you haven’t seen the videos, they are hilarious. Dish uses Twitter endorsements and a microsite that they built to teach people how to “Talk Boston”. A Boston instructor and a handful of celebs show you how to pronounce words such as Sunday (“Sundy”) and fire (“fieyah”) in a true Boston accent.

Here is one of our favorites:

http://youtu.be/sTPwz25VmBU

But as much as we like to geek out on the brilliance of other marketing campaigns, let’s try and learn something from it, haeyh?

Paul Pierce Gets Traded to the Brooklyn Nets

To understand why Dish’s timing was so perfect, we’ll take a look at the weeks leading up to the Dish endorsement:

T – 1 Month (June 27)

Initial announcement of Paul Pierce’s future trade to the Brooklyn Nets. Previously a Boston Celtic, Pierce had a long 15-year run with the team. Dish likely begins to plan a way to incorporate Pierce into a campaign that will give him a proper send off with Boston fans.

T – 16 Days (July 12)

Nets, Celtics trade is official. Pierce is no longer a Boston Celtic.

T – 12 Days (July 16)

Pierce thanks Boston with a series of #THANKYOUBOSTON tweets. The tweet below was accompanied by 41 instagram posts from his last 15 years.

T – 10 Days (July 18)

At the Brooklyn Nets’ introduction of Pierce and Garnett, Pierce looks disappointed. After all, he had played for the same team since he was 21. Media coverage reports he’s looking forward to the new opportunity but is reminiscent about his last 15 years in Boston.

T – 0 Days (July 28)

Endorsement Tweet goes out. Videos are live on YouTube. Dish gives Pierce the platform for a well deserved send-off with his Boston fans.

Timing is Everything

The timing of the commercials featuring Paul Pierce was spot-on. Between the trade itself and Pierce’s own #thankyouboston series of tweets and instragram photos, Pierce was on every Boston fan’s radar.

USA Today even noted the Celtics took out a full page ad in the Boston Globe to commemorate Pierce and Garnett’s history with the team.

Dish Network recognized this and used his likeness and popularity to promote their newest product, the Hopper.

Not only was this an effective use of an endorsement from a trending athlete, but Dish also capitalized on the locality of that athlete by creating a Boston-themed campaign.

Like most campaigns in today’s digital world, the use of social media has become the preferred way to engage potential customers. Dish found a way to leverage a critical sports-related movement to get their own message heard by millions.

How Dish Capitalized on this Sports-Related Movement

Dish’s #talkboston campaign serves as a great example of how to leverage sports events with endorsement deals.

Besides using this as an excuse to talk sports at the office, how can your brand use sports news to maximize your endorsement marketing efforts? Here are three of our ideas:

  • Be aware of important league dates such as draft days, training camps and all-star games

  • Pay attention to the times when certain players have attention due to: trades, award nominations and important upcoming games

  • Follow more than just your favorite teams to know when players or entire teams are trending

If you try any of these out be sure to let us know how about your success in the comments. Maybe the next article we write about a successful campaign using sports knowledge will be about your brand!

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