This year’s Sports Media Marketing Summit & Awards in New York will feature seven-minute master classes from sports industry leaders and media innovators.

In anticipation of the Summit, Brief spoke with A&E’s Guy Slattery, who will deliver one of the master classes on building a brand on social media and cultivating a loyal audience through media personalities. His session, “Launching a Social Media Frenzy: What Sports Marketers Can Learn from ‘Duck Dynasty,’” is on Nov. 19 at 9 a.m. at The Paley Center for Media.

Slattery’s master class will cover how to build a brand like “Duck Dynasty” on Twitter, how to use those social pages as a way to promote with little to no budget, and how to encourage your stars to embrace the social media landscape (and if they don’t, find a way to use it to your advantage).

A&E’s “Duck Dynasty,” a show that’s only been on the air since last March, has more than 6.8 million fans on Facebook, 1.6 million followers on Twitter and constantly appears on the social front in the form of memes or trending topics from the show’s one liners.


According to Slattery, EVP of marketing at A&E Network and BIO, the show’s stars and their accessibility are what kicked off the “Duck Dynasty” revolution and social phenomenon. The team at A&E began to realize the potential of this show early on and tapped into the talent to enhance the series’ social aspect.

“’Duck Dynasty’ has become a tool for people to express themselves on social media,” said Slattery. “And I think there’s some really interesting insights into how you can reach millions of people on a daily basis with show-related content without spending a penny.”

Most of the Robertson clan of “Duck Dynasty” tweets and is active on social media, and they’ve invaded pop culture as well (including a prominent appearance on last week’s Country Music Awards). But even Si, the most noticeable holdout to the Twitter game, consistently shows up as a hashtag, meme or trending topic because of his one liners that seem made for the platform.

“Si himself has never tweeted, but people will find out that when he says something, it trends,” said Slattery. “Si Robertson has become a social media maven without ever being on social media.”


Using Facebook, Twitter and old-fashioned word of mouth to drive its ratings success, Slattery and his team built up the “Duck Dynasty” brand through social media, live events and consumer products. But he says none of this would have happened without a solid plan in place.

“I think there’s a myth that it just happens organically,” said Slattery. “There’s a lot of work behind the scenes – a lot of science and metrics is what ignites the flames. And from a sports perspective, people really identify themselves with their sports teams, and that’s why sports have been so successful on social. I think people really identify by being ‘Duck Dynasty’ fans, and we find that people want to express themselves through the show.”

Connecting “Duck Dynasty” to sports teams and leagues, Slattery also says that building up characters on social media is similar to building up athletes or sports brands. In promoting the show on social media, A&E has made a conscious effort to make each member of the Robertson family an individual with each person having his/her own voice. He says that there is a great opportunity for sports teams to do the same.

“Duck Dynasty’s” Season 3 promos:


Lastly, Slattery says the first step is recognizing what works for social media marketing and what doesn’t. Not everything needs to be promoted through Twitter or Facebook, but when it’s natural, you’ll know.

“We knew it was social when we started watching it, months before it came to air, and people were walking around the office quoting it. And that’s something social – everyone in the office was saying ‘happy happy happy’ within a week of watching it. And we knew we were onto something, just through that.”

As for sports, Slattery says to keep it genuine: “I think it has to be authentic and it has to be the voice of the people. Social media is the new autograph. It lets fans connect directly with talent. And I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to get out of the way and let the fans connect directly with the talent.”

Register today for the Sports Media Marketing Summit & Awards on Nov. 19 at The Paley Center for Media in New York.

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