Sports Success Stories

Phil Jackson tweets the Final Four

CHALLENGE

To increase followers and engagement for the March Madness Final Four, Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) and Kurt Rambis (@KRambis)

SOLUTION

Renowned basketball coach @PhilJackson11 and former NBA coach Kurt Rambis live-tweet the Final Four

RESULTS

  • Using on-air Tweets and including interactions between Jackson, Rambis and other celebrities increased engagement
  • @PhilJackson11 trended during the games while live-tweeting and his handle saw a big spike in daily follower growth on the days he live-tweeted. He experienced a 6x daily follower growth one day and 9x on another, while @KRambis had a 21x daily follower growth for the second day
  • Twitter engagement relating to March Madness Final Four more than doubled between 2012 and 2013

Objective

Drive follower growth for Phil Jackson’s new account and the account of his former assistant Kurt Rambis while also increasing tune-in for the Final Four and creating engaging content on Twitter for college basketball fans.

Strategy

Phil Jackson and Kurt Rambis live-tweet play-by-play commentary during all Final Four games.

Jackson got people’s attention with this comment:

And let his true colors show here:

Here, he uses Twitter to send a shout out to his fiancee:

Jackson and Rambis had conversations with each other over Twitter even though they were sitting next to each other. Here is some banter between the two coaches after Jackson provided some trivia.

Rambis had no qualms with teasing Jackson.

Key takeaways

  1. Get key personalities to live-tweet during a televised event to drive ratings and increase social media buzz.
  2. Encourage celebrity fans to communication with each other about the games on Twitter to reach a wider audience.
  3. Be honest and funny to increase followers.