The Marketing Power of Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy

Adam Carolla claims that every white male between 18 and 35 loves Bill Simmons, ESPN’s most popular columnist and a best-selling author. Simmons’ columns mix sports and pop culture references.  He’ll often write about new movies, technology, television, or other products of which he approves or disapproves.

I will admit that with Simmons’ advice, I’ve consumed / purchased items he has recommended. For one, my devotion to the TV show 24 is directly related Simmons’ advice, and I can think of a few others who can say the same thing.

It’s no wonder then, that marketers are beginning to take note: our generation listens to what he says.
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During the last basketball season, Kobe Bryant compared himself to a Black Mamba. For lack of a better term, Simmons pounced on the preposterous proclamation and referred to Kobe as the Mamba for the remainder of the year.

Sony Electronic Sports has just released a game called NBA 07: The Life. The primary ad campaign features former NBA player Billy Joe Cuthbert acting as “the Mongoose,” rival to the Mamba.  Cuthbert claims to be mad that he was passed up for the cover of the video game and challenges the Mamba to a game of one on one. Website for the campaign.

I contend that if Bill Simmons did not keep the Mamba joke running, the campaign would not exist as it does today.

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Randomly, another video game company is likely using Bill Simmons influence for a campaign.

To step back a bit, Tiger Woods had an appearance on ESPN2’s Cold Pizza a couple of years back. It was just after he had bleached some very odd looking spots in his hair. At 7am, he was standing on a major street in Manhattan doing an interview with the host. My memory on this is hazy and I cannot find anything else online about it, but I know he was wearing a vertical striped shirt and in general looked as if he was headed out for the night. It was awkward. He had just had, or was about to have, a birthday. The interviewer asked what his perfect birthday would be, and Woods responded something like, “One that I wouldn’t remember the next morning.” This had to be the most odd thing I had ever heard him say. It was clearly visible that his handlers were trying to create a urban / modern image for him, and it went over horribly.

Cut to the present. EA Sports is in the middle of launching Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. Along with a substantial television advertising campaign, EA launched the product in Los Angeles recently. Time was made for Bill Simmons to play Tiger at the game. A small order, but no doubt a valuable move for EA. I’d venture to guess too that it was a better idea than having Tiger act like a partying 20-something. We all knew he wasn’t.