Performance is the best marketing
The Knicks didn’t need a shiny media plan. They simply, improbably, won.
Go #Knicks!
And goes to show, the best marketing = performance.
When a team (any group of people) does something extraordinary, the word spreads like orange + blue wildfire.
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When they won, I had friends text me who’d never watched a b-ball game.
Same thing with NYC at large.
Meet Manhattan, an island where 1.6 million men and women live like islands -- each in their own little worlds.
In no other city does a “home team” feel more loosely connected to the populace.
And nowhere is our era of “media fragmentation” more apparent. NYC might be the most fragmented market in the world.
And yet, walking around today, I see more orange and blue than ever.
Heck, even my mom, who doesn’t know a pick-and-roll from a parking meter and couldn’t name a single NBA player last week, now knows more about Jalen Brunson than I do c/o People magazine.
And all this not from some shiny Q3 media plan.
But from winning.
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Sure, sports = media now.
And media = marketing.
The arena, its own studio.
But somehow, folks at the local bodega aren’t talking about the Washington Wizards today.
Old friends on IG aren’t posting misty-eyed tributes to the Sacramento Kings.
Distribution only amplifies what’s already there.
And:
- Being exceptional in your field
- Accomplishing something rare
- Showing underdog resilience
- Coming back from being down
- Wringing victory from the jaws of defeat (e.g., pulling off the largest comeback in NBA Finals history)
- Keeping your head down while everyone (including your own fans at times) is trash-talking
Do these long enough and well enough and, well...
People notice.
Performance cuts through.
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And “storytelling?”
Yep, key.
But not in some laminated brand deck sense.
Performance, effectiveness, and consistency are their own form of narrative.
We’re talking about Brunson and KAT and OG’s tip-in and ‘73 and MSG not because the Knicks marketing dept spammed everyone with a new “asset.”
The team told the story, arc and all, through the work itself:
Comebacks. Bruises. Near wins. Big shots. Doubt. Ugly wins. Beautiful wins. A pinch of luck. Ultimate victory.
Nothing wrong with great marketing.
But great performance, stellar ops, steady execution?
Enough to turn an uncaring world into unpaid media.
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KNICKS!!!