"Starbury TV": A PR Slam Dunk

I sat at my desk this past Friday and marveled as Stephon “Starbury” Marbury approached the double-digit mark. I’m not talking about points, rebounds or assists. I’m talking about hours. As in hours of all-access, unedited, filter-free Starbury coming to hundreds of thousands via live streaming video. Welcome to the “new world,” non-digital believers exit stage right. A soon-to-be-retired NBA point guard was giving a lesson in modern-day publicity, and everyone I know was tuning in to bear witness.

Call it a PR stunt. Call it mindless propoganda. Call it a crazy man talking crazy. Call “it” whatever you want, but “it” worked like a charm. For those who missed it, Stephon Marbury (a former member of the Minnesota Timeberwolves, Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks and, most recently, Boston Celtics) teamed up with UStream.tv, a service that offers live streaming, for a 24-hour “reality show” the likes of which most sports fans had never seen before. Within minutes of its airing, my inbox was being pelted by friends and fellow sports fanatics asking if I was watching or had seen it. The answer: yes and yes. Of course I had, because the comments had been blowing up on Twitter since early in the morning.

The Starbury-a-thon is modern communications in all its splendor – for better or worse. The UStream.tv “telecast” garnered over 92,000 views and thousands of comments and questions via the service’s subscribers and through Twitter. In the hours during the show (which is what it was), and in the days following, people are quoting Starbury left and right. Digital and mainstream media are analyzing and breaking down this “event” as if Stephon had…I don’t know…won a championship or something. Everywhere there are tangible pieces of evidence that indicate that ultimate intangible – “buzz” – has been achieved (and then some).

The New York Times. Multiple national TV networks. Sports radio. And almost all of the foremost online sports influencers in the hoops and sports realm have had something to say about the often-bizarre peek into the life of one of professional sports most – um, eccentric(?) – characters. What in the world are we supposed to deduce from our 24-hour inside access into to the life of Stephon and his actual words? Your guess is as good as mine. However, his me TV moment undoubtedly offers communications pros another reminder of some of the elements of a winning PR stunt:

• An engaging spokesperson (check!)
• Unique content you can’t get anywhere else (I’d say so)
• Interactivity that allows consumers to “join the conversation” (quite literally, yes, Marbury must have answered hundreds of questions from fans who would never have that experience otherwise)
• Authenticity (about as real as it gets)

And that’s today’s PR lesson, compliments of Starbury. Whuda thunk it?