The National Football League does nothing halfway. This approach includes tackling (pardon the pun) a reputation management issue that has been following the league for years concerning what many consider an unholy alliance: Football and beer.
Almost since its inception, the NFL has fostered close ties to beer. Even the most casual fan finds it impossible to escape the Miller, Coors and Budweiser brands, either through attending a game or watching at home.
The NFL’s relationship with beer continues to evolve and so does the boorish behavior of some fans. This is behavior that many attribute to overindulgence in the very product the league promotes. Hence, a reputation management challenge of significant proportions.
Last week HBO’s Real Sports addressed this very subject. The first half of the piece was hard to watch. Tailgaters in Washington, D.C., insisting that everyone “go hard or go home,” a motto described by one reveler as simply “drinking ‘til you can’t see.” Other stories were more tragic, including an alcohol-related traffic accident that ended in the death of a father and husband following an Oakland Raiders’ game.
The NFL has chosen to meet this challenge in a manner that I’ve come to call Experiential Media Relations. That is, allowing the media to experience the story first hand rather than simply telling them about it. This approach, of course, comes with some inherent risks. But when you have the volume of P.R. capital that the NFL has, it can be worth that risk.
After the three or four minutes of inflammatory video of drunken fans and tragic stories, the NFL started to tell its story. The league invited the Real Sports crew into the security nerve center of Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo to experience firsthand how teams deal with inappropriate behavior. In addition to an elaborate network of cameras that monitors activity in every corner of the stadium, the league is engaging fans in the effort. In every stadium fans can send a text message detailing the location and manner of inappropriate behavior, enabling stadium security to respond accordingly.
Shortly after receiving just such a text, Buffalo Bills security personnel responded to the incident, with the Real Sports Crew in tow. Viewers then received a firsthand look at how the NFL is working to make the game experience safer and more enjoyable for all: The troublemakers were identified and removed.
The NFL and Real Sports didn’t just tell us about the story. And they didn’t show us the story with irrelevant b-roll or stock footage. They let us experience the story for ourselves.
