By now, we have all probably heard or seen the one-hour television special on LeBron James announcement to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers, to go to the Miami Heat. What many people do not know is the man behind the scenes that brought this entire special together. That man was Ariel Emmanuel, a super talent agent. LeBron’s manager, Maverick Carter approached Ariel and asked him, how can they publicize LeBron’s announcement on whether or not he would be staying with Cavaliers or joining another team. Ariel came up with the idea to have this big transition televised on a network prime time for an hour special. The entire event and any income the show generates would be donated to charity for the Boys and Girls Club. Ariel’s goal was to get as many sponsors as possible and to push the needle on advertiser content programing. Ariel was able to get eight big name sponsors to make this event possible. The two major sponsors in this event were University of Phoenix and Microsoft’s Bing. There were also companies like Vitamin Water, McDonalds, Nike, and State Farm who also participated in the advertisement in commercials and in the special. This event generated more then two million in revenue. The ratings for the special peaked to a staggering 9.6 rating, when an average rating is about 7.3. This event was ESPN’s highest non-football show views that year. Ariel Emmanuel saw all the possibilities that could have been made with this event. He knew LeBron was not just a player, but he is a product yet alone a brand. He capitalized by having the sponsors make the show possible by ads. He knew the companies could not resist because this special was going to be a gold mine. LeBron James received good and bad press for how this event took place, but the main goal behind the event was to get advertisers to participate and donate the revenues to charity.http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/07/08/did-ari-emanuel-set-up-tonights-lebron-special/
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