Shaq, Credit One and Medium Rare team for credit education and DJ Diesel sets at four college campuses
Published 2 days ago • 3 min read
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Shaq teams with Credit One and Medium Rare for credit education and DJ sets on Credit Tip Off Tour
A poster for the Credit One Bank Credit Tipoff Tour. (Medium Rare.)
Shaquille O'Neal stands out from most sports analysts in many ways, but one is about the many things he's involved with beyond just talking about sports. Yes, the NBA star turned Inside The NBA analyst (and also contributor to TNT Sports/CBS Sports' March Madness coverage) is most known for his thoughts on basketball, but he also has a wide variety of entrepreneurial investments and roles, products he promotes, and even a side career as a DJ. And he's bringing many of those aspects together with his latest venture, the Credit One Bank Credit Tipoff Tour, which will see him giving free talks on credit combined with his DJ Diesel sets to 500 students at four schools this fall. Here's more from a release:
Credit One Bank announced its Credit Tip Off Tour today, a free college campus initiative hosted by “Credit Professor” Shaquille O’Neal. The college tour is bringing Real Credit Chats and live DJ Diesel sets to students this fall. Rooted in the brand’s four Credit Wrecker tips, the tour educates students on how to build healthy credit habits — and the common credit missteps to avoid — while inviting students to learn from Shaquille’s firsthand experiences and advice.
Kicking off on September 14 at Southern Methodist University (SMU)’s Moody Coliseum, the Credit One Bank Credit Tip Off Tour travels to Georgia State University (GSU)’s Student Center East State Ballroom, Fred’s Bar in Baton Rouge, and Florida Atlantic University (FAU)’s Carole & Barry Kaye Auditorium. Sports creator and host Jenna Bandy will moderate the Real Credit Chat at SMU, The School of Hard Knocks’ James Dumoulin will moderate GSU and Fred’s Bar in Baton Rouge, and Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia rounds out the tour by moderating the final stop at FAU.
“Credit education isn’t often taught in school, so we built this tour with Shaquille O’Neal to help close that gap and empower young people to make informed credit decisions,” said Michael Coleman, Chief Marketing Officer at Credit One Bank. “As the brand that believes in forward momentum, we’re meeting students where they are to kick-start their credit education in a memorable, engaging way and help set them up for a successful financial future.”
...Each free event will feature a Real Credit Chat with O’Neal and Credit One Bank CMO Michael Coleman, backed by interactive games and activities with prizes designed to keep college students on their feet. After setting the stage with fun credit edutainment, Shaq caps the night by stepping behind the decks as DJ Diesel for a live set to drop the bass and turn the room into a party.
...“I’m always learning, I never stop,” said Shaquille O’Neal. “I learned credit the hard way. Nobody broke it down for me back then. Now I’ve got kids in college, kids right out of it, and I want them starting smarter than I did. That’s what the Credit One Bank Credit Tip Off Tour is about. And yeah, we’re still going to have fun.”
This tour is a bit of an unusual marketing approach for Credit One, but there's logic to it. Rather than just putting their name on a concert or another event as a sponsor, they're teaming with O'Neal for actual in-person events combining both credit education and DJ set parties. There's a previous connection between Credit One and O'Neal, with the bank a major sponsor of the Dunkman dunk league he created with Authentic Brands Group (which just wrapped up its first season). The education part of this sounds well-tuned to the target college-aged audience, and fits with the education focus Credit One has brought to their other marketing efforts. And it's smart to have this tour feature O'Neal talking about his own experiences with credit in college, as well as relatable moderators with their own insights on the subject. And this tour is presented by Medium Rare, the events company I've coveredmanytimes; they've previously worked with O'Neal on the Shaq's Fun House Super Bowl parties, and they always throw great events, so these tour stops should be a lot of fun for attendees as well.
For O'Neal, this is just one of mnany things he's got going on. He has his work on Inside The NBA (still produced by TNT Sports, but now airing on ESPN platforms), his role as the Dunkman commissioner, his DJ appearances, a wide variety of businesses (including the Beatbox alcoholic lemonade brand he launched last year), and more. But it's notable to see him do something like this that combines him talking to students about his personal history and then entertaining them with DJ sets, and it's also neat that this includes a stop near his old LSU stomping grounds at famed campus drinking establishment Fred's Bar. This tour may be an unconventional promotional approach from Credit One, but it's an interesting one, and one that may resonate well with many college students. And it's notable to see the thought put into this promotion, with Credit One teaming with a pitchman they've worked with before in O'Neal, finding ways to make it personally relevant to both him and their audience, and presenting events that should be entertaining as well as educational.
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