Winning: Chad Ochocinco

I've decided to incorporate a new weekly post titled 'Winning.'  These posts will reflect on athletes and their Q-ratings.  So without further adieu, who better to start with then Mr. Chad Ochocinco!

Ochocinco has done an impressive job branding himself as much more than just a Wide Receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals.  Most recently, Ochocinco tried out for Sporting Kansas City of the MLS, formerly the Kansas City Wizards.  Suprisingly, Ochocinco was rewarded a spot on their reserve team, although designated as an 'honorary member of the team' by Manager Peter Vermes.  Considering reserve teams for most squads like these feature young players who are working towards making the first team, it's surprising they would offer a spot to a player with zero chance of making the actual roster.  However, this is where the Q-rating and celebrity status of an athlete like Ochocinco comes into play.  The publicity in this relationship is beneficial to both parties. 

Part-time football player, full time entrepreneur

Ochocinco gets media coverage for trying to make the jump to professional soccer, and  the MLS gets increased recognition through the courtship of a star athlete.  Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald sums it up by stating, "Ochocinco usually draws eye rolls with his publicity stunts, but this one makes sense from his end."  On point with the second part, but eye rolls? How about rolls of bills!  This guy reaps profits from people pointing and laughing at him!  Ochocinco ranked as the 5th most hated athlete in a study done by the Q-Scores company, yet why should people hate him?  His contemporaries on that list include mega-stars with a bad rap sheet such as Michael Vick, Tiger Woods, and Ben Roethlisberger. Ochocinco happens to market himself so well that ESPN and other sports networks and sites happen to catch them all.  He was recently rated the '2nd most powerful Twitter user' by researchers at Twitalyzer. Twitalyzer measures influence by how people shape the conversation on Twitter, in terms of being mentioned and having their own tweets re-tweeted, and not just how many followers a tweeter reaches. So Ochocinco, whose Twitter account features breaking stories from the Ochocinco News Network, is more influential on Twitter than celebrities like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, who have far more followers than he does.  Ochocinco was also featured on 'Dancing with the Stars' and his own reality tv show: Ochocinco: The Ultimate Catch on VH1.

Now that Ochocinco is such a figure in the social media community, what prompted his rise?  Touchdown celebrations!  I'll let you watch them as opposed to describing them myself, but the publicity he gains from them are substantial.  I'm interested in calculating the opportunity cost of the fines he receives for his on-field antics compared to the profits he gains from the increase in publicity.  The way the media covers him, they are basically encouraging him to disobey NFL rules because its beneficial to his bank account!