Eric Bledsoe to the Timberwolves? Not likely this year...

With the FIBA World Championships over and NBA training camps starting in a few days, there's been a bit of a gap in the news department for NBA fans. So when it came out that the Minnesota Timberwolves were exploring options to acquire Eric Bledsoe in a sign and trade from the Phoenix Suns, the basketball world's collective heads turned and took notice.

Bledsoe is convinced that he is a max-offer type of player. Whether you agree with this or not (I wholeheartedly do not agree), the two sides are apparently pretty far apart in negotiations. The Phoenix Suns offered four years and 48 million dollars. This would help maintain cap flexibility for a young team that played well in the second half of the season and has hopes to crack the playoffs in the west this year. Bledsoe, however, wants a max deal which would pay him 64 million over four years. Neither side intends to yield ground and it has been widely assumed that Bledsoe will sign the qualifying offer and become a unrestricted free agent next year.

But in came the Timberwolves, who have already made a substantial number of moves this summer, saying that they're engaging with the Suns in a sign and trade deal for Bledsoe. This just seems like quite a bit of smoke and no fire to me. The Suns aren't going to let Bledsoe go for anything less than an all-star in return and I am sure that the Timberwolves know this. But now the Timberwolves will definitely be on Bledsoe's radar later in the season and/or next summer if Phoenix doesn't find a suitable deal during the season. This was never about making it happen now. It was about later in the year.

The Timberwolves aren't in any rush to resign Ricky Rubio and many speculate that the organization may not be as in love with him as they were just two years ago. By making noise about Bledsoe and pushing a max offer his way, Minnesota has purposely shown its hand and revealed just how serious it is about making Bledsoe its starting point guard in 2015. It is a move that makes great sense for them as an organization and I think that they made a great decision to start planting the seeds in Bledsoe's mind now. A max contract for him is still a little rich for my blood, but it would be hard to argue with a Wiggins and Bledsoe combo.

LeBron & Woods Swoosh Art Will Likely Land Artist Additional Work

Well, Andy Gellenberg may just land himself some additional business after pulling together pieces of art consisting only of Nike swooshes that make up the faces of LeBron James, Tiger Woods and Paul Rodriguez. To say that they are impressive would be an absolute understatement and I highly recommend that you check them out in the link above.

The German artist shows just how effective simplicity can be in advertising and I wouldn't be surprised if he picked up some ad copy work as a result of these pieces. Kudos to him for a really great project.

Of course, I am sure that Nike doesn't mind the free press at all.

The Arby's Meat Mountain - A Well-Executed PR Campaign

Anyone who has been on the internet in the last two weeks has seen or heard about the new Arby's Meat Mountain - a Frankenstein concoction of greasy meats that would make even Joey Chestnut think twice before attacking it.

Seriously, look at that thing. I felt my heart skip a beat when I laid eyes on it. Image credit: CBS Chicago

Arby's claimed that this off-the-menu item only became an internet phenomenon as more consumers stated hearing about it and demanding its official existence. That this would become an organic request from customers isn't an entirely shocking way for the Meat Mountain to be put on the menu. When I worked at Jamba Juice, there were so many "secret" smoothies that customers would order that we ultimately had official recipes for all of them. I would go to random Jamba's around Portland to see if I could get the same ones and, sure enough, they all made them the same way. 

With this in mind, it wouldn't shock me if this was something that a few customers asked for, told their friends about and unintentionally started a grassroots effort to make the Meat Mountain an official Arby's sandwich. Customer is always right in the service industry, right?

Slate's L.V. Anderson didn't seem to think that this was an organic request from consumers, but, rather, a well-orchestrated PR campaign from Arby's that the company planted in a few strategic areas and watched the story go viral. She essentially concludes that it does look like that there was some organic demand for the sandwich, but that Arby's likely played a big part in pushing it forward.

Going off that premise, this is one hell of a job from the Arby's PR team. I am willing to bet that they heard from a few stores that said customers were requesting this and they saw an opportunity to turn it into a full-blown campaign. Landing pieces in major outlets across the country over a two week period is the definition of viral. The sandwich had its own hashtag on Twitter for a day or two.

Companies are always looking to take a campaign or story viral. It is enough to make a PR person's eyes roll so hard that they freeze. That response is generally warranted because what it takes for a story to go viral these days is still a bit of a mystery. There are certain elements of a viral campaign that will be essential for companies to have in place, but, at the end of the day, if customers don't take up the cause then the campaign will fall flat on its face. A lot of times it is dumb luck what catches on and what doesn't. But a company can help propel a campaign to viral status if it takes off with the public initially.

Arby's executed particularly well on a couple of tactics that helped the Meat Mountain really explode. First, they let the customers have control of the creation. As a consumer, if I hear that this product is being pushed solely by the company, it's motivations are obvious - sales and greater revenue. But since this demand and request for the sandwich came from the consumer and Arby's then gave in and added it to the menu, it gave it authenticity that wouldn't have existed from a traditional introduction. Putting the power in the hands of the consumer is a risky strategy, but it can pay huge dividends ultimately.

Second, Arby's let the buzz build for a while before it really addressed the sandwich. The company was fairly mum on it when it first started appearing across social channels and eyes slowly started turning towards them on when they would officially respond. Arby's timed its response well and extended the news cycle around the sandwich, which is no small feat when we're talking about fast food.

Third, they played the hero by giving the customer what they wanted. Obviously Arby's had to do cost-profit analysis to make sure that this sandwich made sense for them, but that's not how it is presented when the company "gives in" to the consumer demand. It demonstrates that the company values its customer base's opinion and is committed to making the sandwiches that they want to eat, gimmicky or not.

Sure, this campaign was a little too smooth and effective to have simply been organically created, but who cares? Arby's PR team should treat themselves to a steak dinner to celebrate because they earned it.

Nike Just Made Kevin Durant A Very, Very Rich Man

Can't blame Under Armour for the attempt, at least.

The company offered Kevin Durant a ten year deal that would pay him more than $260 million dollars over that time in an effort to steal away one of the most valuable pieces of Nike's army of athletes. Unfortunately for Under Armour, Nike had a clause in Durant's original contract that would allow them to match any offer from a competitor. I sure hope that lawyer who included that clause in the contract got a nice bonus as a result.

Nike, unsurprisingly, decided to match the offer. While Under Armour bet the house by going after Durant, resigning him was an absolute no-brainer for Nike. Under Armour is certainly going to make Nike pay a little more than it was hoping - reports were that Nike offered an initial deal that would pay Durant only $20 million - the Swoosh really only had one choice in the situation.

Some experts speculated that the steep price may keep Nike from resigning Durant. They already boast the biggest collection of valuable marketing assets in the world when it comes to basketball, so if they had to let one go, it wouldn't be the end of the world. But Nike is smart enough to know that while shelling out a little extra money may hurt the bottom line at the end of the day, keeping the third most recognizable basketball player in the world (LeBron and Kobe being #1 & #2, respectively) under their contract and not a major competitor like Under Armour is critical for future success.

Under Armour is trying to break into the basketball market that long has been held by Nike and Adidas. It recently picked up Steph Curry as an endorser, but it knows that it needs to land a whale in order to really make a splash. That's why the aggressive move to go after Durant made sense. It would give them immediate credibility and open up the company to greater international reach, somewhere where the company has lagged behind Nike and Adidas, especially in basketball.

But I would not be surprised if Nike was prepared months earlier for a massive bid and simply needed to see exactly how much it would cost the company. Because at the end of the day, this really won't cost Nike too much. Durant's signature shoes fly off the shelves. As long as he continues to perform at the same level he has, which following an unbelievable MVP season isn't unlikely, those shoes will keep selling and Nike will keep stacking cash.

Sure, $300 million is no small amount. But Nike has proven time and time again that it makes the most out of every single dollar it puts into sponsorships. The company's marketing panache practically ensures that they'll get ridiculous ROI from Durant. And, perhaps more importantly, it's left a competitor empty-handed and pondering the next big move it must make to take on the king.