제레미 린(Jeremy Lin)의 시장 가치

 

세계는 지금 언더 독(under-dog)이었다가 신데렐라가 된 제레미 린의 스토리에 열광하고 있습니다.

경제 전문 잡지 포비스는 제레미 린의 이름 가치만 1,500억(14 million)이 될 것이라고 합니다. 이 주일 전까지만 해도 자신의 집이 아닌 형의 소파에서 자야 했던 일을 생각하면 대단한 신데렐라 이야기입니다. 언론은 신데렐라에 빗대어 ‘린데렐라(Linderella)’라고 부르고 있기도 합니다.

제레미 린의 성공은 포기하지 아니하고 끊임없이 노력하여 스스로 상품가치를 만든 좋은 사례가 아닐까 싶습니다.

하버드를 졸업한 후 그는 NBA에 드래프트 되지 못했습니다. 뉴욕 닉스를 제외한 다른 두 팀은 그가 필요 없다고 퇴짜를 놓았습니다. 하지만 그는 포기하지 않고 자신을 다듬었습니다. 끊임없이 체력 훈련을 하고 슈팅 코치까지 고용하며 연습에 전념했습니다.

또한 그는 자신의 훈련 모습과 경기 장면을 유튜브에 올렸습니다. 특별히 ‘하버드에 들어가는 법’이라는 농담 섞인 영상은 주목 받기에 충분합니다.  페이스 북이나 트위터에도 수 많은 사람들이 접속하고 있습니다.    

제레미 린은 정신적인 강인함도 지녔습니다. 신앙심이 그를 더욱 강하게 하지 않았나 싶습니다. 실패해도 포기하지 않고 훈련에 훈련을 거듭해 온 그는 지금 물 만난 고기입니다.

Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks owns the court – and Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

TRONTOSTAR on Wed Feb 15 2012

 

  (Jeremy Lin has become so famous, so fast marketers and merchandisers are scrambling to catch up. That kind of flash flame is tirggered in part by the immediacy and spread of social media.David Sherman/NBAE/GETTY IMAGES )

 

In the era of social media, fame can strike like lightning.

For New York Knicks phenomenon Jeremy Lin, the flash has come so quickly he’s not just leaving opponents in the dust – traditional marketing and merchandising can’t keep up.

Lin, who has shot to fame seemingly overnight by leading the Knicks to victory, scoring 109 points in his last four games, has turned the typical slow build-up of fame on its ear.

“What I’ve been impressed by — from the technology perspective — is how prepared Lin was for this onslaught of attention. Lin began strutting his stuff on social media long before doing it for the Knicks,” Kashmir Hill, a staff writer for Forbes wrote on the website.

Lin’s Twitter feed @JLin7 is adding thousands of new followers each day – it was up to nearly 240,000 on Tuesday, up from 18,000 followers three months ago.

About 450,000 “Like” his Facebook page, which he uses to promote Nike products.

Lin launched a YouTube channel in October, 2010. It features humorous videos such as “Jeremy Lin on How to Get into Harvard.”

But as for official NBA merchandise, that’s been hard to come by. Lin T-shirts and jerseys are sold out at the Knicks’ online store and the site doesn’t yet sell replica jerseys. Customers can buy blank Knicks jerseys and customize them with Lin’s name and number.

Neither Adidas nor the NBA saw Lin’s meteoric rise coming.

“Getting the story out has really changed in the last five or six years since the emergence of social media,” said Jacqueline Voci, co-founder of Soya Marketing, a Vancouver-based marketing firm that specializes in social media.

Rather than a packaged message delivered over a long period of time through traditional channels such as marketing or advertising, “social media has given a voice for people to say, ‘Okay you want me to buy that, tell me about your industry and your expertise,’” Voci said.

“It forces companies to be more real with people about what their strengths are.”

It has also given athletes, actors, and other celebrities a direct avenue to fans, and a chance to build a solid fan base.

“Lin had lots of streams going; he was just waiting for his audience. Thanks to his performance with the Knicks, he now has it. And thanks to his being prepared in advance, it’ll be much easier for him to keep it, and profit from it,” Hill wrote.

On the flip side, the immediacy of Twitter and Facebook and other social media doesn’t give people “a chance to assimilate the brand image that they want to project onto the market place,” said Andrij Brygidyr, president and founder A&A Merchandising Ltd. and adjunct professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

“Lin may be the loser in all this because he probably hasn’t figured out how to trademark his name and his reputation and his brand yet. Everyone will jump on that because he’s not trademarked. There will be about a thousand people he can sue,” Brygidyr said.

There is no shortage of speculation on what Lin’s reputation is worth.

Lin now boasts the world’s fastest-growing athlete brand, according to Michael Ozanian of Forbes, with the 23-year-old’s name worth in the $14 million (U.S.) range.

Lin’s endorsement portfolio could eventually hit the $15 million range, Ozanian predicts.

Lin’s star power is also helping the financial bottom line of publicly traded Madison Square Garden Co. on Monday, shares of MSG rose 3.8 per cent to a record high of $32.32, on three times the normal trading volume.

Lin is helping MSG Network attract new male and female viewers across all demographics, says Mike Bair, president of MSG Media.

“It’s all to do with the product. In marketing we teach students the four Ps: product, price, promotion and place. You have to have the product. This guy has the product. He’s really good right now,” Brygidyr said.

Getting repeat business has always been the challenge of traditional advertising – and that doesn’t change the world of new media, said Ken Wong, marketing professor at the Queen’s School of Business.

“Take a product that has no qualities and you have nothing to put in the ad. You may be able to get people to get it one time but you’ll never be able to get them to come back the second, third and fourth time – and that’s where the real money is,” Wong said.

The fall too, on social media can be swift. What happens when #Linterest stops trending on Twitter? A fall from grace can happen to the best of brands: Tiger Woods, anyone? (Many observers are calling Lin the most famous Asian-American athlete since Woods.)

But ultimately it comes down to quality Wong said – and Lin, right now, seems to be the real deal.

“What Jeremy Lin’s story shows is that it’s not the medium. It’s the product,” Wong said.

Add up the the combination of factors that make Lin a curiosity – averaging more than 26 points in each of his last five games, being a Harvard grad, his Taiwanese heritage, “and you’ve got all of the ingredients,” Wong said. “Social media is just the lubricant. It makes it go a little faster.”

Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew, Business Reporter

With files from the Star’s wire services