Crazed Manager or PR Genius

We've all enjoyed the common baseball manager rants against umpire gaffes. Miffed at a call, baseball managers will go to great lengths to show their dissatisfaction, even humiliating themselves in the process, as they kick dirt on the mound, stand toe-to-toe with umpires, and throw fits reminiscent of a two year old. Recently, however, a minor league AA baseball manager took it to a new art form...and earned himself Internet fame in the process.



As seen in this clip, Phillip Wegman, the miffed manager of the Mississippi Braves took a tour of the baseball diamond, wreaking havoc on everything in his path, even the pitcher's Rosin Bag. After covering home plate with dirt, he made an artful recreation of the base the dirt. He then trotted to third base and second base, relocating them into the outfield. His finest moment came when he mimicked a military crawl to the pitcher's mound, grabbed the Rosin Bag, and tossed it like a hand grenade towards homeplate. He finished his rant by throwing the ump out, and bowing to the crowd.

On the surface, it would be easy to call this a manager tirade gone awry, but here at TnP, the surface isn't good enough for us. Whether he planned it or not (and we're leaning toward the former) this discontent manager earned himself and local minor league club worldwide acclaim. The video of his tirade has been viewed by literally thousands of people, and news stations across the country have aired the video.

Companies strategize for hours on end to get this kind of exposure that associates the company with a relevant and lasting image in people's minds. And yet they often fall short. The fact is, it's difficult to make your brand "cool" or "popular" and Wegman's on-field antics did just that: they made minor league baseball cool.

Think of the implications for minor league baseball after Wegman's antics: Despite a perceived lack of talent (after all, there's a reason it's called "the minor league"), minor league baseball can be exciting. While the tried-and-true baseball fan will come to a game regardless, the casual game-goer looking only for something to do, now has a reason to choose the minor league game over other excursions. Like the hockey-game attendee who only goes to see the fights, consumers previously apathetic to minor league baseball may now go to games just with expectations of deeper entertainment value. Even if for a moment, Wegman gave character to the lesser alternative to major league baseball.

The take-away: good public relations is often about creating exposure or publicity, great public relations creates a recognizable image for your company, and carves out a memorable place for your brand in the minds of consumers. Too many companies count clips and evaluate their efforts based on their level of exposure, but such an approach says nothing about what your public may be thinking about you...or if they'll even remember you at all. Creating relevance for your brand (as opposed to merely creating awareness) begins with choosing the images you want the public to associate with your company. Do you want to be seen as fun? Cutting-edge? Reliable? Controversial? Edgy? This step always entails research: how does the public see you now? How do your employees see you? Your clients? How do they want to see you? Once you've found a character that works for your organization, you can then strategize your communication efforts to match that image

...and even if it doesn't mean making a fool out of yourself in a minor league baseball game, creating relevance for your brand over awareness will inevitably make your brand memorable.