We The North is We The BRILLANT

If you’re a business owner, if you are part of a sports organization, if you want more people to pay attention to your brand and buy into it: follow the lead of The Toronto Raptors. 

I celebrated my birthday early this year (it’s technically birthday month) and was treated to a Toronto Raptors game with my BFF and a limo ride courtesy of Welsh Limousine.

 
I’m not a basketball fan, but I know the game. I also know watching live sports during playoffs is always great entertainment. 

We took in game three against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the ACC.  The Raptors delivered a huge win, bringing the series to 2-1 for Cleveland. 

I can honestly say I have never been to a more electric professional sporting event.  The marketing team and whoever else has built the Raptors community deserves a million high fives. Watching the Raptors from home on TV can be really boring, especially those last grueling five minutes, but in person it is the fastest most exciting game to watch. 

The entertainment (Maestro Fresh Wes performed at half!) the cheering, the free t-shirts, the Snapchat graphics,  the hashtag, the star power: Shania Twain was court side.   I’m a seat snob, but honestly the ACC doesn’t have bad seats!  These were great!

  
How sweet is that Raptor clawed basketball logo?!! Amazing!!

So why and how? How have the Raptors created such an electric and contagious community of support and one of the biggest trending hashtags ever: #wethenorth??

I’m no expert, and to be fair, I can’t compare The Raptors experience to any other NBA team, but I do have a theory on why they have been successful in building such a supportive community.

• IT’S INTIMATE:

The Raptors play in the ACC which holds 20,000 people. The Rogers Centre, where the Jays play holds about 60,000. Clearly a smaller, physically closer audience is easier to control and ultimately engage with. The entertainment people are able to connect with the fans better because they can quickly get to them. Even the crummy seats at the ACC are great seats.  There is huge value in an intimate audience. 

• SOCIAL MEDIA TITANS:

I’ll say it again and again: Social media is the best tool to engage and connect with your clients. The Toronto Raptors have done a phenomenal job with social media. Their Vine, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook accounts are managed beautifully! The fans are helping do a lot of the work for them. The fans (me included) feel apart of an elite club and we wanna tell the world! #wethenorth may be the best hashtag ever created by a sports team or brand for that matter. 

• THEY ARE WINNING!

Winning is awesome. The Raptors have some serious star power. They have a great lineup and it is reallllllly easy to cheer for a winning team. Don’t ask a Leafs fan they won’t understand what you’re talking about. 

Kudos to the Raptors. You are doing what a great sports team does so brilliantly: bringing everyone together with a common goal: To win and cheer!  A winning team can bring everyone together regardless of, cultural, economic, religious or political views. 

LETS GO RAPTORS!

Here’s my Raptors Snapchat story (watch time 3:18)

And another video showing of our limo driver Mike from Welsh Limousine (watch time 3:18):

MF