10 Marketing Lessons From Seattle Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman At #AdobeSummit

Today’s keynote session at the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit brought Super Bowl champion cornerback Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) to Salt Lake City, Utah to speak to a crowd of about 7,000 digital marketing executives. What can an NFL star teach a huge room of marketing professionals? If you’re scratching your head on that one, you might […]

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Richard Sherman speaks to 7,000 digital marketers. Photo courtesy of Adobe

Richard Sherman speaks to 7,000 digital marketers. Photo courtesy of Adobe

Today’s keynote session at the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit brought Super Bowl champion cornerback Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) to Salt Lake City, Utah to speak to a crowd of about 7,000 digital marketing executives. What can an NFL star teach a huge room of marketing professionals? If you’re scratching your head on that one, you might not be alone, even if you already knew of the star player as a sports fan.

Many non-football fans also know Richard Sherman from his now infamous post-game interview with FOX Sports reporter Erin Andrews at the NFC championship game, which became a social media sensation in the days that followed. Perhaps not the best social media moment for him, as it showed in him in a negative light initially, he was able to overcome the firestorm that erupted. It didn’t hurt that he did back up his words by winning a Super Bowl ring.

As the twenty minute conversation between Sherman and sports reporter Colin Resch  (@ColinResch) unfolded, the room of football fans and marketers got to know a lot more about the man who considers himself part of #nerdnation as well. In fact, the first topic talked about was his 900K followers on Twitter, as Sherman jokingly pulled his smartphone to check them.

The conference theme of “reinvention” emerged as the crowd learned more about the player – a kid from Compton, surrounded by bad circumstances who made good grades and worked hard to create a new life for himself.

Now a proud Stanford graduate with a marketing communications degree (also going for his Masters and turning 26 this weekend), Sherman was articulate and honest about his role as a professional athlete, keenly aware of his social media celebrity-dom and how he developed a marketing plan for himself as he went into professional football. He wanted to be a change maker, and noted Deion Sanders as an influence on the type of pro athlete he wanted to be, and create a personal brand around.

On individual branding Sherman said, “You want to provoke a response and a discussion. You want to be unique in your field. Honesty and being genuine is what sells in my field.”

10 Marketing Lessons From Richard Sherman, Social Media & Football Star

Here are some of the best takeaway tweets from this morning’s candid conversation with Richard Sherman at #AdobeSummit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attendee Video of Richard Sherman Speaking @AdobeSummit

Update: The official video of the Richard Sherman keynote conversation from @AdobeSummit is now available here, listed under ‘The Reinvention of Marketers – Wednesday, March 26’ – Keynote segment, Chapter 3.

Postscript: See also our related story, VIDEO: What Would Eric Stonestreet Be Like As A Social Media Strategist for Richard Sherman?


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Elisabeth Osmeloski
Contributor
Elisabeth Osmeloski is VP of Audience Development for Search Engine Land and MarTech. In addition, she assists in programming sessions at Third Door Media's Search Marketing Expo conference and the MarTech Conference series and manages speaking engagements for editorial staff. Follow her on Twitter @elisabethos.

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