Rex Chapman...Marketing Genius?
Block or Charge, Gabe becomes a NIMBY and of course the week's best links.
Chris Hatfield
I don't have a long diatribe for you this week. I don't have a long-opinionated read either. We'll get back to that next week (also: if you have something you'd like attention drawn to, slide into those DMs and let's talk).
When we started this, I told you this would look different every week, and this is the perfect example of that. I have a wild ass story about a user on Twitter that is fascinating to me. Let's talk about it.
I can only find two people on the website that are followed by both ESPN God Adam Schefter and Kentucky Basketball Head Coach John Calipari.
One currently resides in the White House.
The other? He resides in Lexington, Kentucky. His name is Rex Chapman, the former Kentucky Wildcat and 8th overall NBA draft pick. The same guy who has seemingly recreated his brand to overcome and defeated a basketball legacy that was mired by legal troubles. All because of the website and nothing to do with hoops. And good for him.
I understand why many people wouldn't care about something like this. If that's the case for you, I won't be offended if you stop reading (make sure you come back next week).
For those who do care...here are some numbers: At the end of 2016, Chapman had around 36,000 followers. In April of this year, he had increased that number to 145,000 followers. Now that number is 328,000. That type of organic growth on social media makes you turn your head. Mainly when, for the most part, there hasn't been an astronomical event that occurred in Chapman's life that would result in an influx of followers.
There's an interesting thing happening on Twitter where average celebrities can become much larger than that simply by using their platform effectively. My Old Kentucky Podcast Host Robert Kahne pointed out to me how Ashton Kutcher was the first Twitter user to crack 1 million followers, despite the platform not existing when Kutcher was at his most popular. He's the perfect case study for what Chapman has done. Scroll through his Twitter feed, and you'll see what I mean. He's taking "America's Funniest Home Videos" entries and juxtapositioning them with the much maligned "Block or Charge" call in basketball. It's went viral. He's then followed it up with simple engagement with his followers.
It's such a simple task that many people spend countless hours and money trying to perfect. However corny it may seem to me, it appears that Chapman has done just that in quite an easy way. Of course, the notoriety that comes with being a former Kentucky Basketball player and NBA player helps.
Yet still, it's a really great case study for marketing folks that want to find new ways to grow their brand. I commend him for it.
Now, I'm interested to see the way he finds to cash in on it.
Local Links
I’ve been trying to get around to talking about this on the podcast. This situation is quite wild. Here’s some preliminary reading from one angle. CH
It’s been quite a week for the Louisville Metro Police Department. But the interesting appearance of one officer’s personal drone near a prominent apartment high-rise hasn’t gotten enough attention. Joe Gerth tries getting to the bottom of it. GD
The smallest unique things about Louisville make me happy. Here’s an example of just that. CH
Happy Trinity-St. X Day! Here’s a story about the most impressive single football season in Louisville’s long history. Go Crimsons. GD
Tim Sullivan has my entire heart. CH
Call me a NIMBY…I don’t want a Cat Café Comedy
Gabe Duverge
Four different people have sent me the same story over the last week. The Courier-Journal’s version reads “These 'Big Bang Theory' actors are teaming up for a new show, and it's set in Louisville.”
For the unitiated I’ll explain the gist. Mayim Bialik and Jim Parsons are producing a show set in Louisville for the FOX network. Bialik will star in the sitcom which is about a 39-year-old woman who spends all her money her parents had for her wedding on opening a cat café instead. Sounds like the show is loosely inspired by the BBC sitcom “Miranda” (which my mom loves, and honestly seems like a decent entry into the long tradition of British comedies.)
People (mostly the types of folks who think the Big Bang Theory was actually good) are absolutely jazzed about the prospect of watching a sitcom intersperse scenes with a b-roll shot of the Watterson Expressway or Bardstown Road.
I’m not.
Reader, I was not in the room when Bialik and Parsons devised their cat café comedy. But I don’t think the selection of Louisville as the setting was particularly inspired.
A group of writers and producers in some studio lot wanted a small-to-medium sized American city that wasn’t on the coast for their setting. They probably used the term “Flyover Country.” They were searching for the type of place that’s relatable for the folks who think the Big Bang Theory was actually good.
Maybe Nashville felt to country music-y and Chicago is too closely associated with NBC’s Chicago Fire-PD-EMS-Coast Guard-Mall Cops shows.
Tell City Hall we finally beat those cities for something…but I don’t want this show.
What kind of depiction of our city would I endorse? Here’s a few better ideas I’ve had for television depictions of our city.
· A 12-part Netflix series about the Cornbread Mafia
· Workplace comedy about a bourbon distillery
· Period piece show about the Seelbach Hotel in the roaring 20s
· A romantic comedy about a UofL fan falling in love with a UK fan
· And of course…Real World: Louisville
If you don’t think these ideas would be 10x better than “Louisville Cat Café Comedy for folks who think the Big Bang Theory was actually good (working title,)” I can’t help you.
Outside the Snyder
Baseball is dying. The first step to giving the national pastime a makeover is to rethink the cathedrals it’s played in. This from Louisville’s own Scott Hines is fantastic. CH
There’s not much more I can say about Prachi Gupta’s reflection on her late brother Yush than it is well worth your time. GD
You may know that Rudy Giuliani is insane but you should probably read this to realize how truly insane Rudy Giuliani is. CH
When you’re as committed to protecting the President as much as Fox News is…it becomes quite hard to wiggle your way in times like these. Gabriel Sherman, the foremost expert on News Corp’s upper echelons, is brilliant in this tit-tat for Vanity Fair. GD
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See you next week!