'Toine exit a marketing mess: Trade snaggles C's media office

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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      'Toine exit a marketing mess: Trade snaggles C's media office
      By Steve Bulpett
      Saturday, October 25, 2003

      From the moment Sunday night he knew Antoine Walker [news] was being
traded, Jim O'Brien had some serious reworking to do. There were two new
players to integrate into the Celtics' system and a rotation to be decided,
with the regular-season opener a week and a half away.

           When vice president of media relations Jeff Twiss learned shortly
after 8 o'clock Monday morning that Walker was on his way to Dallas, he, too,
knew he had some heavy work ahead. And not just coordinating informational
issues with the Mavericks.

           ``Our media guide had been printed, and we had to find out how
much, if anything, we could change,'' Twiss said.

           With Walker such a key to the Celtics and their public face, this
was a marketing mess of major proportion.

           ``When you make a trade of any significance - and this certainly
was a significant trade - you have to make changes in your marketing
materials,'' said executive vice president of marketing John Brody. ``He was a
co-captain. He was a warrior. He was a part of our team for seven seasons. So
we certainly had him incorporated in a lot of our marketing materials.''

           In addition to trying to alter the media guide, the Celts tried to
eliminate as many references to Walker as they could from Monday evening's
relaunch of the club's charitable foundation.

           ``It was a tough day,'' Twiss said. ``I was trying to get as much
done as I could, and I still had to pick up coach Auerbach at the airport.''

           Red was retrieved in time, but the media guide - a publication
available to the public, as well - was another issue. The more than 200 inside
pages were a done deal. They had been printed and bound.

           ``But the last thing to go on is the cover, and we were able to
catch that,'' Twiss said.

           The guides were due in the hands of all teams by the end of the
preseason, and the Celts first got permission from the league to extend that
by a few days. Mike Lissack from the media relations department then got
working on the cover.

           The team had originally chosen a posed photo of Walker, Jim
O'Brien, Paul Pierce [news] and Danny Ainge. ``We had a good one where
everyone was smiling,'' said Twiss. ``It was perfect.''

           The team was wise enough on media day to take photos in all sorts
of combinations, and fortunately there was a decent one with O'Brien, Ainge
and Pierce.

           ``WordTech did a great job for us in making the change,'' Twiss
said.

           That still left a lot for the marketing staff.

           ``We sat down and wrote a list of all the things we were doing, and
Antoine was on a lot of them,'' Brody said. ``Paul was on all of them. So we
had to make some changes, and now we have to move on with Paul and the rest of
the guys.

           ``(Walker) will remain on the tickets, but he was on some ticket
mailings we were doing and he was on some other materials and print ads, and
he's no longer a member of this family, so we had to make some changes.''

           There is also the matter of the hundreds of street banners, some of
which feature Walker. They're due to stay up through the end of this month,
but the team may ask the city to extend the run. It's not certain whether
they'll try to take down the Walker banners or replace them.

           ``We're still finalizing what we're going to do on that,'' Brody
said.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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