Caitlin Clark & the Olympic Team snafu: Lessons for Marketers

This weekend, news broke that the US Women's Basketball team would not include Caitlin Clark for this summer's Olympics in Paris. News outlets, sports talk radio and social media all lit up in outrage (or in, some cases, support of this decision). The outrage isn't about the potential impact on the Women's team ability to win yet another gold medal. With seven consecutive gold medals in basketball over the last three decades, the US Women's basketball team is dominant.

The story is about something else: the marketing of the sport and finding a way to carry over a new audience to what had been an underappreciated and under-viewed sport. Women's professional basketball in the U.S. has operated in the shadow of the NBA since its inception. Now, with the transcendent play of Caitlin Clark, the sport is now a featured attraction. (Did you see that the winless Mystics of the WNBA just sold out a 20,000 seat arena with Clark in town last week, after not being able to fill their usual 4,000 seat stadium for other games?)

Let me stop here to say again that I don't think that the US Women's team will see their chances of winning another gold diminished with the exclusion of Clark. And, I am not saying she's a top 10 player in the WNBA, yet. But, the choice to not give Clark a roster spot does undermine the progress the sport has been making on the awareness, visibility and marketing fronts.

What has happened as a result? Instead of celebrating the many deserving athletes who are representing the nation, we are eye rolling and agitating and complaining. The narrative continues to swirl that Clark is getting a bad shake from decision makers and others who feel that she shouldn't be bigger than the sport. WNBA players are asked to comment about the snub instead of talking about their own or their team's accomplishments. Instead of letting the general public's fascination with Clark serve as a rising tide lifting all boats, there are accusations that established players didn't want to share the spotlight. Not what those marketing the Olympic Games or the WNBA would want.

Here's some takeaways for marketers and communicators:

1) Never lose control of the narrative with lack of creativity. The people deciding the make-up of the Olympic team definitely knew that there would be some negativity around the choice to leave Clark off the roster. The focus should have been on promoting the individuals who were included and the reasons why they were on the team. Almost the entire team has both notable professional and collegiate resumes, with several being championship winners on both the professional and Olympic level. With all the focus on the women's game now, they could have used halftime of a big game (the Commissioner's Cup?) to unveil the roster and focus in on the worthiness of those selected. They could have created a moment for the league and controlled the discourse.

2) Align your message with the mission and the business goals of your company/client. Whether you are working in-house for a company or on the agency side, making recommendations for promotions, growth marketing and publicity should be predicated on how that idea aligns with the business objectives of the firm as well as the mission of the entity. If you view the Olympics as a global showcase for sport, you have every reason to select athletes who will drive positive attention to them. Alternatively, if you view the Olympics as a mechanism for brands, broadcasters and corporate entities to make money, you must build a roster that draws in the widest audience.

3) When communicating unpopular decisions, lead with accountability from the top. Cheryl Reeve, head coach of the women's team, should have been positioned to address the roster selections from a basketball perspective as soon as the roster was set. The fact that the news leaked is evidence that the organization didn't want to directly handle the inevitable heat that came when the word got out that the nation's most famous female basketball player was left off the roster. Hit it head on and limit the amount of answering that the average player has to do. Put another way: Would you want the Madison Square Garden sound technician answering questions about why Billy Joel didn't play Piano Man at the show?

4) Know Your Audience. Over the last two years, the global audience for women's basketball has tripled. Independently of why Clark is popular, she has put the game on the map in a bigger way. There is nothing about her talent, her on-court results or her character that would cast her as misfit for the Olympic team. The alleged rationale was that "her fans" would be riled up if she didn't play a lot. Some forget she became popular because she is very good at basketball and she won a lot of games. The vast majority of the people that have tuned into women's basketball because of the Caitlin Clark phenomenon are likely to be similarly impressed by the prowess of Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and A'ja Wilson. The audience came for great basketball and whether it's played by Clark or other USA players, the fans will appreciate that greatness.

In an effort to grow the game, including Caitlin Clark would have been the smart move for the Olympic team decision-makers. Instead, they missed a slam dunk in front of a global audience.