White Hot Heat: How The Miami Heat Turned
A T-Shirt Giveaway Into A Fan Engagement Strategy Driving Over One-Third Of The
Team's Retail Revenue
The t-shirt giveaway. It has become a staple of
every major sporting event. For the Miami Heat, though, what began as a
t-shirt giveaway in 2003 has turned into a fan culture that drives 35-percent
of the team's TISI -2.92% retail revenue.
In 2003, the Heat’s executive vice president and chief
marketing officer, Michael McCullough, and his team wanted to create a
promotion to centered upon the team’s then recent success. Missing the
playoffs the two seasons prior, the 2003-04 season saw the team winning the
first round of the playoffs and generating positive momentum stemming from the
recent draftings of Caron Butler and Dwyane
Wade. ”At the tail end of the 2003-04 season, we started doing
a promotion with our fans, where if they wore a jersey to the game, we would
give them a cool black t-shirt. The black was to signify that we were
coming into the black, like in business, because we were heading into the
playoffs after missing them. People started wearing the t-shirts, which
made us think that we should try something bigger. So, once we made the
playoffs, we handed out black t-shirts to everyone in the arena and called the
campaign, ‘Back in Black.’” McCullough said.
It was the initial reactions of Wade and then Miami Heat coach,
Stan Van Gundy, that made McCullough and his colleagues quickly realize that
they had not just created a marketing promotion, but a fan engagement tool.
”When Dwyane Wade and Stan Van Gundy came out of the tunnel the first
game that we had all of the fans dressed in black, they looked around and
afterward, said that seeing all of the fans dressed in black was one of the
coolest things they had ever seen and gave the team momentum. When we
heard that, we knew we had something. From the marketing side of things,
we knew that if we gave people something, they’d wear it. However,
outside of that, we didn’t know what we had,” McCullough explained.
While the Heat would get through the first round of the
2003-o4 playoffs, they would lose in the conference semi-finals. In the
aftermath of the season, the team signed Shaquille
O’Neal and McCullough and his team built upon their fan
engagement plan. ”That year, we decided to go with ‘The Red Zone.’
It was becoming more than just handing out shirts. We were figuring
out that it could be a psychological thing. The AmericanAirlines Arena,
where the Heat play, was the ‘Red Zone’–kind of like the Twilight Zone–a place
where these magical, mystical things happened for the home team, like the ball
bouncing the right way. The fans started getting that it was about more
than what they wore to the game; it was now becoming like they were part of the
game,” McCullough said.
While fans seemed eager to participate in the Heat’s marketing
team’s promotions, McCullough’s team’s plan didn’t plan reach its fruition
until the 2005-06 season. ”By this time, we figured out on the marketing
side that if you give fans t-shirts, they’ll wear them. If you ask them
to internalize that doing so is about them and not stuff that the team is
trying to do, then they’ll buy into that. In 2005-06, we decided to go
‘White Hot.’ By this time, we figured out that this was about the fans
and gave them an active role in the success of the team,” McCullough said.
For McCullough and the Heat, “White Hot” was about more than
handing out white t-shirts on game days. Rather, it was as McCullough
calls it, about creating a “community-wide rallying cry.” ”This color,
white, signifies that you are a Heat fan. When the playoffs come, fans
know what the drills is: If they go to a game, they need to wear
something white. They can either buy it from the Heat or put together
their own outfits. For Game 5 of our series versus the Nets, we are not
handing out a t-shirt. However, over 90-percent of our fans will arrive
in white clothing. Our fans have internalized that ‘White Hot’ belongs to
them,” McCullough noted.
In internalizing that “White Hot” belongs to them, Heat fans in
turn have bought into ‘White Hot.’ Literally. According to
McCullough, the Heat is the NBA’s number-one retailer. Around 35-percent
of the team’s retail revenue is derived during the playoffs. McCullough
notes that during that time, the Heat’s team stores are turned over to carry
almost exclusively white merchandise. Thus, the ‘White Hot’ movement is
responsible for over one-third of the Heat’s annual retail revenue. The
Heat notes that it generated the most per capita retail revenue during the
first round of the NBA Playoffs of any team competing. In generating the
most per capita retail revenue, the Heat notes that its figure was nearly twice
as high as the team with the second-highest per capita retail revenue.
The NBA and the league’s other teams alike have taken note of the
success the Heat achieved in building its ‘White Hot’ community-wide rallying
cry. McCullough notes that soon after the team won the NBA Finals in
2006, counterparts across the league began calling him asking how he and his
team developed and executed the campaign. This year, six teams
participating in the NBA Playoffs adopted team-specific slogans. From the
Pacers’ “Blue Collar Gold Swagger,” to the Clippers’ “One Team. One Goal. It’s
Time,” each team’s campaign has seen the development of a retail component, as
the NBA’s official apparel provider, adidas, developed specialized merchandise
for each slogan. ”What is so great about this trend, is that it gives
fans a sense of hometown pride and shows people what the local flavor of the
team may be. It helps make the fans rally around the phrase,” the NBA’s
vice president of licensing, Lisa Piken Koper said.
As other NBA
teams seek to create their own retail-based fan engagement success stories,
McCullough is reminded of the moment he knew he found the right campaign for
the Heat. ”We figured out that fans want to engage and that they like
wearing what the guys are wearing on the court. We learned this from
‘White Hot.’ Then in 2006, we won The Finals. They handed the
trophy to Pat Riley and asked him to say a few words. The first words out
of his mouth were, ‘I want to thank those white hot Heat fans in Miami.’
Then, they handed the microphone to Micky Arison, the Heat’s owner.
And he said the same thing. In the midst of the moment of our
team’s greatest accomplishment, the team’s president and owner were talking
about our campaign! Today in 2014, ‘White Hot’ is part of our culture.”
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