Okay, I talked with Fox 4 and told them “ChiefsPlanet is a 12-year-old forum (at the time) for Chiefs fans from all over the world…and the banner idea got funded and organized here. Other groups of Chiefs fans are voicing their displeasure with sites popping up like SaveOurChiefs.com and many other Facebook groups. People are becoming very, very vocal in this social age, and expressing their choice to be a fan or not. LOL. They said they are doing a video news story on it, probably the 10 PM tonight or tomorrow night…and most likely an accompanying story on their website, that will have the video on it.”
WE DESERVE BETTER! FIRE PIOLI! BENCH CASSEL! the first banner said.
The local KC news outlets feasted on that development. Within two weeks, @SaveOurChiefs had almost 80,000 followers on their Twitter account. For perspective, that was more than the seating capacity (76,416) of Arrowhead Stadium where the Chiefs play. The perception of having nearly 100,000 followers on Twitter freaked out the Kansas City media. It was 2012. New stations were still struggling to figure out how to leverage Twitter. They ate it up. They were like, “Oh My God! The Save Our Chiefs movement (Figure P.5) already has 100,000 followers and over 20,000 Facebook fans!
Figure P.5 The Save Our Chiefs Facebook Page
The media freak-out enabled greater visibility. Eric and Marty were being interviewed on sports radio stations all over the nation, talking about what's going on with Save Our Chiefs.
Travis penned a letter and sent it to the CEO of the Chiefs, Clark Hunt, and the general manager, Scott Pioli, stating what the plan was and that the intended outcome was to see Pioli get his walking papers. Using e-mail technology called Yesware, he was able to track all opens for that e-mail. His e-mail never got a response from the Chiefs; however, it was opened up 49 times on 27 devices in 13 different cities. The movement definitely had the Chiefs' attention.
The group even worked out a deal with a local sporting goods company, Sports Nutz, and created custom black hoodies that said, “Save Our Chiefs Blackout-Arrowhead November 18th, 2012. (Figure P.6)”
Figure P.6 Arrowhead Stadium, November 18, 2012, During the #blackout
On November 18, 2012, roughly 50 percent of the fans were wearing black on that game vs. the Bengals. Save Our Chiefs literally blacked out the Guinness Book of World Records for “Loudest Stadium in the World.”7
The group had other, more positive community events planned as well, like a food drive. They were partnering with a local food bank on a canned-food donation campaign called “Can Pioli.” Phil Kloster, CEO of Edgewood Construction in KC with the username “Phobia” on the ChiefsPlanet forum, came up with that one.
However, in a parallel narrative, that was the week that a linebacker of the Chiefs, Jovan Belcher, committed a double homicide-suicide. Which was absolutely tragic and brought everyone back to reality about what really mattered in life. Out of respect for all parties involved, the entire group ceased all of the Save Our Chiefs activities until the last two weeks of the season.
The overall statistics from the movement were impressive: 41,545 mentions of Save Our Chiefs, with 359 news articles written about it, 160 blog posts about the movement, and 113 mentions (Figure P.7) on various message forums.
Figure P.7 The Social Media Mentions of #saveourchiefs after the @teedubya @kcchiefs Firestorm
At the end of the 2012 season, the Chiefs ended up with two wins and 14 losses. On the Monday following the last game of the season, Clark Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, went after the best candidate possible and hired Andy Reid as coach. He also hired John Dorsey from the Green Bay Packers front office as his new general manager. Former GM Scott Pioli and the Chiefs' head coach, Romeo Crennel, and the coaching staff were fired and a new regime began. The Chiefs were saved! For fans, it was long overdue justice. Travis immediately sent Clark Hunt, the CEO of the Chiefs, a note of thanks.
Mr. Hunt,
Thank you. You've proven yourself to be extremely tenacious in getting your man, Andy Reid. I'll never call you cheap again. You've displayed balls of steel, went above and beyond, and as a result KC fans are rejoicing, today, at your awesomeness. I put on a Chiefs jersey for the first time since preseason, just now. It feels good to have our Chiefs back from Pioli and in the hands of Andy Reid and John Dorsey.
I love the Chiefs and am grateful that we have an owner who cares. Could I be unblocked from the @kcchiefs twitter now? Thanks again for saving our Chiefs, Mr. Hunt. You're a badass. Sincerely, Travis Wright @teedubya
The day that Scott Pioli was fired, the Chiefs unblocked @teedubya and the Chiefs ticket department connected with Travis and offered him half-price season tickets for the 2013 season. He gladly accepted them, and has continued to be a die-hard fan.
What started, earlier in the year, with a disgruntled guy tweeting a forgettable tweet to the Chiefs after a loss had snowballed into this major movement all because one individual on the Chiefs' social media team did not use digital sense. Save Our Chiefs was a brilliant social media experience in that it showed how people can impact change when they handle it right. The idea was born from frustration: Create a social media experience to allow fans with similar thoughts a place to engage and interact with. Our movement became a cornerstone of daily life for Chiefs fans: we were talked about on multiple radio stations and local TV, and it drew national attention from NFL.com, ESPN.com, even the New York Times.
The fallout from this effort was amazing: the Chiefs' organization had a digital transformation. They listened to their biggest customer, the fan base. Sure, they fired their GM and head coach, and they cut ties with an overpriced sloth of a quarterback (we still relish in helping accomplish that), but that wasn't the amazing thing. The Kansas City Chiefs' organization physically and mentally shifted into a fan-friendly culture.
They rolled out “Chiefs Kingdom,” which serves as a universal rally cry to bring all fans back together. They were more positive in social interactions. They stopped banning people and started to listen, engage, and learn. In short form, it proved brands are capable of change.
From a digital media perspective, the main takeaway here should be this: by creating experiences and publishing content that is engaging as well as entertaining, brands and marketers will build relationships with prospects and cement foundational relationships with brand loyalists.
“As someone who has been involved in digital media and marketing since the late ‘90s, I don't think people set out to be marketed at in the social channel. Rather, you have to apply some ‘marketing psychology' to your message