Personal Branding and Tiger's Online Brand Buzz

Corporations are constantly paying large sums on money to be associated with elite athletes. Is it really worth forking over that much money? It must be. Why else would they do it? In the past ten years, we've seen more and more athletes establishing a personal brand. Personal branding leans on the tenant that success - either social or economic - comes from self-packaging. From Michael Jordan to Tiger Woods, we've seen the power of personal branding in sports as billion dollar companies shape their marketing campaigns around just a few individual personalities. These campaigns have lasting impressions and continue to engage multiple generations of consumers. Michael Jordan hasn't played basketball in eight years, but if you type in the word "air" into Google's search bar, the first suggestion/drop down is "Air Jordan." For us consumers, it's sometimes less about the product than it is about the person pushing the product.

In his heyday (before last November), Tiger Woods was perhaps the most lucrative personal brand ever and we understood why. He was the best. His crisp, clean, diverse image brought youthful dominance to a wrinkled sport. He was a no-brainer for marketers and ad agencies alike. But what about now? How is he being perceived after all of....THAT. Can he still demand that “billion-dollar athlete” respect from advertisers? Internet Marketing guru Jeff Bullas addressed this very question, specifically in terms of social media and the online community's perception of Tiger.

In comparing Tiger’s "Brand Buzz" to the buzz of the number one global brand, Coca Cola, he found that Tiger generated 437% more buzz on social media and online than the #1 brand in the world in a 24 hour period. Incredible. In short, Bullas suggested little has changed and that sponsors would be wise to keep Tiger in their foursome as even the world’s #1 brand couldn’t keep up. The analysis demonstrates that Tiger is still is one of the world’s largest athletes and most widely discussed icons. He generates a ton of buzz and can swing demand for product. But wait a second. There's two problems with Bullas analysis: First, he snagged his data just two days after Tiger announced his return to competitive golf at Augusta, when Tiger’s trending online had peaked. Second, his data doesn’t take into account the “sentiment” of said buzz. Sponsors aren't going to stick around simply because there's a lot of buzz. They need positive buzz. Just ask Accenture, Gatorade or BP.

So now it’s the middle of June, and most of Tiger's transgressional dust in the blogosphere has settled. Deciding to take Tiger's buzz-temperature myself, I included a “sentiment” metric as well as a comparison of Tiger’s buzz to that of other elite athletes (just for kicks). The analysis comes directly from socialmention.com. While it doesn't contain complex algorithms and may not be as credible as Nielsen. However, this convenient analytical tool does a fine job of capturing the volume and mood of a brands' online buzz.
Not surprisingly, the buzz about Tiger has retreated to more natural levels, but now carrying a more negative sentiment than most of his fellow athletes. *(See below for an explanation of the metrics.) Tiger still has huge reach (more than any golfer ever) and when an athlete is discussed as much as the #1 global brand, it's no wonder why sponsorship dollars are so huge. He appears to be on par with elite athletes in terms of buzz volume (reach, strength and passion) as well as mention frequency. On the other hand, the 3:1 Sentiment ratio suggests the sponsors that dropped him are justified in doing so. This sentiment could explain why we haven't seen Tiger sign on with a new sponsor. Companies could be waiting both his swing and his sentiment to return to form. Then again, with the divorce still being settled, Team Tiger probably halted all business negotiations.

Companies that don’t value buzz sentiment as much as they value pure buzz volume will be lining up to carry Tiger's clubs in no time. We'll see who he chooses to align himself with. Sooner or later, he'll start winning golf tournaments, but winning those lucrative sponsorships? I don't think he can return to that 'billion dollar athlete' until he's mentioned in a more positive light. At least that's what social media and the online community are saying.

-Via theflopshot.net

*Strength - Likelihood the brand is being discussed
Passion - Measure of the likelihood that individuals talking about your brand will do so repeatedly
Sentiment - Ratio of mentions that are generally positive to those that are generally negative
Reach - Measure of Influence; # of unique authors divided by total mentions