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Tuesday, October 27, 2009 | 8:44am
Ochocinco & Motorola Launch Twitter News Service, Circumvents NFL Policy
Using his relationship with the NFL sponsor, the Bengals wideout looks to again get special privleges
The NFL‘s clown prince, Chad Ochocinco has taken his Twitter fanaticism to a higher, entrepreneurial level. As part of his partnership with Motorola he plans to launch his own social news network called OCNN or the Ochocinco New Network on the micro-blogging platform.
Using his extensive NFL contacts, Ochocinco hopes to offer followers breaking NFL news from around the league from an insider perspective.
His slogan: “If I break it, you might as well believe it.“
He plans to use his already 300,000 followers to launch the service. He says he’ll operate like a reporter, getting tips from players on other teams and plans to eventually get other NFL players involved.
“I am that source now,” he said. “I’ll be the leak for all 32 teams.”
Through his partnership with Motorola, Ochocinco will “power” the service using its MOTOBLUR technology and use the company’s Cliq mobile devices to post to the network.
Motorola marketing officer Bill Ogle said,
Ochocinco “brings order and clarity to a multifaceted lifestyle as a professional athlete, entertainer and devoted social networker.”
The announcement follows Ochocinco’s unveiling of his new iPhone app last week. While Chad is almost never serious about anything we’ll remain skeptical that this could just in fact be a joke designed to generate publicity for his Twitter account. But given Motorola’s involvement it presents a rather interesting dynamic. Motorola is an official NFL sponsor that dumps Millions if not Billions of dollars each year into the league.
While the NFL and other professional leagues have recently cracked down on Twitter usage as a means to “leak” or disseminate insider info to the public they might be willing to bend the rules here in the interest of their relationship with the very important sponsor.
Obviously Chad Johnson is a non-conformist and it seems is always conspiring a way to circumvent the rules at the very conservative and controlling NFL. After being fined for wearing an “Ocho-Cinco” nameplate on his jersey in warm ups he officially changed his name to thumb his nose at the league and make some cash in the process.
As I’ve mentioned before, while the leagues will claim Social Networking restrictions are in the interest of controlling information through one channel its in fact more problematic for gambling implications. Under the NFL’s new policy players and coaches are prohibited from posting to social media withing 90 minutes of kickoff and the final whistle. We’ll see if the social deviant has once again found a way to get around the league.
FILED IN Business & Marketing, News, Sports, Technology, Web 2.0
This is going to surprise you, but I’m going to side in favor of Mr 85; and here’s why…
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For too long professional sports teams have taken a “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is also mine” attitude with the fans and players.
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It’s not enough that our tax dollars are used to pay for a stadium that the owner owns and profits from. It’s not enough that you can’t enjoy a baseball game on TV without the expressed written approval of Major League baseball. And how much more are you spending to buy your son/daughter a football or basketball simply because it has the “official” logo on it?
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Now, they want to own the lives of their players. They want to pull the line that says they own your actions both in and out of the workplace.
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Knowing me as the conservative that many of you know me as, it might surprise you to know that I’m quite the leftist on this subject.
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I believe that there needs to be clearly defined lines between the employer and employee. And part of that is the belief that your boss only owns your time when you are at work.
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No after-hours mandatory e-mails; no late-night emergency conference calls. When you clock out at the end of the day/night, your time is now your own. And the same should apply to professional sports.
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Do you want a rule against twittering 90 minutes BEFORE the game? Fine. That is reasonable and acceptable in light of possible gambling issues (we don’t want Occo in the huddle twittering out the play to his fans).
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But the player is a self-owned product. Even while the team is promoting him and profiting by employing him, he too is trying to market and increase the value of his product; which happens to be himself.
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It’s the same as when you and I go home at night and sit around the kitchen table planning our own futures.
Touche’ Malcolm Touche’
Stick it to the man!
I’m with you Malcolm. He’s building his brand however silly it might be. That should belong to him. After he retires he can’t associate himself with the league so why can’t he while he’s making billions of dollars for it. I don’t see that as leftist Malcolm I see that as common sense.
ya gotta love chad and his style. if he can do it then why shouldn’t he? I’m a fan of his as he is a good player and as well as keeping everybody entertained he stand up for himself and does as he likes.