Brian Manley drove a rented silver Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon down Elmwood Avenue with Stefon Diggs in the passenger seat and the Buffalo Bills wide receiver’s wardrobe in the back one day this summer in between commercial shoots for Manley’s Buffalo-based company, Imagine Staffing.
“I was sort of showing him a little bit of the Elmwood Village area because, unfortunately, when he came here last year, it was in the midst of Covid, so he wasn’t able to experience Buffalo as the city that it is,” Manley, the company’s president and CEO, told The Buffalo News. “It was a beautiful day and people were out and it was really exposing him and his team to Buffalo, which I think they loved.”
Diggs showed Bills fans and the National Football League what he was all about on the field last season after being traded from Minnesota to Buffalo, going on to lead the league with 127 catches and 1,535 receiving yards and being named first-team All-Pro while helping the Bills reach the AFC championship game for the first time since the early 1990s. Off the field, he’s just getting started.
The rising superstar, who in some quarters was viewed as a malcontent toward the end of his tenure in Minneapolis, has rejuvenated his brand in Buffalo and has been lauded as an exemplary teammate.
Diggs signed with Jordan Brand in April, and has sat for exclusive interviews with GQ Magazine, for ESPN’s December Cover Story and for Modern Luxury DC, a national publication with a regional focus that includes his hometown of Gaithersburg, Md., often bringing his own wardrobe.
And he’s working to capitalize in the Western New York market, as well.
“The challenge that we face specifically in marketing NFL players and creating those brands is that NFL players play their sport with a helmet, so the real strategy off the field is peeling that helmet off and exposing and sharing various facets of who you are as a person,” said Alexandra Meaza, the vice president of marketing and communications for The Sports & Entertainment Group, which has represented Diggs since he entered the NFL as a fifth-round draft pick in 2015. “Therein lies the true value of those initiatives.”
Diggs this offseason agreed to become a spokesperson for Imagine Staffing, a hiring agency that is rolling out a marketing campaign that includes online advertisements, television and radio commercials and billboards. And this week he is launching his “Diggs 14”-branded hot sauce and blue cheese through PLB Sports & Entertainment, the same company behind Josh Allen’s cereal, “Josh’s Jaqs.”
The bottles are available at Wegmans and Tops Markets, and a portion of the proceeds benefit the WNY Women’s Foundation in Buffalo.
“Going into this season, one of Stefon’s objectives is to just really, really further ingratiate himself within the Buffalo community,” Meaza said. “In 2020, he wasn’t able to do that, interfacing with fans. … That, I would say, is one of his key goals this season, is really getting to know Bills Mafia. Really, really becoming even more so a member of this community and getting to know everyone there.”
Right place, right time
Diggs was voted a team captain this week for the first time since high school and spoke after practice Tuesday about how the trade to Buffalo provided him with a fresh start, an opportunity to prove himself to new coaches and teammates and was “the right place at the right time.”
Diggs cited MVP-caliber quarterback play by Allen, the pass protection by the offensive line and the Bills’ pass-heavy scheme as factors for his success on the field. The increased marketing opportunities, he said, have been “an experience in its own.”
“Playing well comes with a lot on the field and off,” Diggs said, “but as far as with the marketing and that kind of thing, I kind of let that stuff kind of figure itself out. I am focused more so on the football. I tell my agency, my marketing rep and everybody involved that, ‘Let me do my job, and I’ll make y’all job a lot easier. Y’all going to do your job. I’ll just do mine. And I stick to the football.’
“I try to get education on pieces along the way. But more so, let me just focus on what got me here, not the perks of it.”
Diggs expanded on his off-the-field ambitions in November during an interview on the "Huddle and Flow" podcast hosted by Steve Wyche and Jim Trotter, who asked the wide receiver about his appearance at the prestigious Brandweek Sports Marketing Summit run by Adweek.
His session was called “Fireside Chat: Creating Brand Partnerships That Win – A Conversation with Buffalo Bills WR Stefon Diggs.”
Diggs discussed the importance of being himself; aligning with brands that share his values, including social issues and charitable work; crafting long-term relationships; and leveraging social media, particularly Instagram, to connect directly with fans.
“I’ve followed a lot of guys,” Diggs said. “I did more listening more than talking when I was a rookie, or my first few years, and I learned a lot of guys do it on the back end, when they’re on their way out the door, when they start getting out of the league or doing a lot more media and media engagement stuff and branding. I took that information and held it.
“When I got some time off and football isn’t the only focus, you make sure you’re crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s with speaking engagements and doing stuff like this. It keeps you focused that it’s not just all about football, you are a businessman, you are a brand and taking those steps in the right direction early instead of trying to get on the horse late when nobody cares about you because you’re not playing football anymore. I’m trying to do the right stuff.”
Being traded to Buffalo, long viewed as an NFL outpost, didn’t hinder Diggs’ ascent to superstar status in the least.
John Cimperman, a Buffalo-based sports marketing executive and the founder of Barnstorm Sports + Entertainment, has decades of experience with pro teams in large and small markets.
“Market size does not play as big a part in national endorsements as it did, say, five, 10 years ago,” Cimperman said, “and I think a big reason for that is the sport of football and the NFL, in particular, has really grown into a national sport, versus a regional sport. Green Bay is a smaller market than Buffalo and they built a winning tradition and a winning culture and that’s parlayed into big national deals for players in a small market.
“On-field success definitely translates to off-field success, and specifically when it comes to player endorsements.”
'Beyond a natural'
Diggs said that because his reputation took a hit toward the end of his tenure in Minnesota, he intentionally shied away from media and promotional opportunities, preferring to prove himself through his actions.
“When things started going downhill, I just took a step back from it,” Diggs said on the podcast. “I know who I am and I’d rather just go put it on display as far as who I am as a player and the things that I do and planning to do in the community and continue to do more showing than talking. I still do a press conference every Wednesday to talk about football, but everything outside of football, I really wanted to take a step back for myself. …
“People are going to feel how they felt. I always took it with a grain of salt. But as a player and protecting yourself and your brand and your legacy, I gotta be a bigger person here. I gotta take a backseat here and let people feel how they feel and let the cards fall where they lay. The future is going to be the future. Only way you can kind of control it is to put the positive energy in the air and push forward.”
Manley, the president of Imagine Staffing, described Diggs as both easygoing and a perfectionist during their day together.
“We have a business relationship, so I don’t know him,” Manley said. “Like, I’m not his friend. But by the end of the day, we were laughing at each other, because when you spend that much time with somebody, you sort of get to know them.”
Diggs introduced himself to the staff working the shoot when he didn’t have to.
He helped the photographers and video crew while they were setting up at the company’s downtown headquarters and when filming moved to a field at Nardin Academy.
“There was one person walking by, carrying a bunch of heavy equipment, and he just instantly went and helped that person,” Manley said.
The wide receiver was happy to eat pizza from the restaurant next door, whereas other “talent” has been far more particular about lunch requirements, Manley said.
And once it was showtime, Diggs delivered like a seasoned pro.
“When I say beyond a natural, it was astonishing,” Manley said. “We had a lot of lines. You’ll see the commercials coming out. We have like 8,000 of them over the next four months across every single network. He’s featured in all of them and had tons of lines. And he was so good. He’s smooth. Talking for 30 seconds straight in front of a camera and walking – they had him stopping at a certain place and saying something. I felt like there were so few takes, and that’s just a credit to how good he is.”
Diggs’ marketing rep said the wide receiver pursues his off-the-field career objectives in much the same way he prepares to play football.
“Stefon is very tactical,” Meaza said. “He goes into his offseason with basically a list of objectives and the key results that he wants to see, and that relates to his on-the-field preparation for the next season and then off the field, all of his business endeavors. So his offseasons are jam-packed and he takes full advantage of them to get everything done that he needs to, both personally and professionally.
“Obviously, you want to strike while the iron is hot. You want to take advantage of that.”
Diggs on Tuesday recalled the Bills' first-round playoff game against Indianapolis last season in Orchard Park, the first home game he played with limited fans in attendance, and how he tried to hype the crowd and ended up dropping a pass.
“I’m going to just focus on the game,” Diggs said about the upcoming home opener against Pittsburgh, the first game in a stadium packed with the fanbase he’s working to embrace. “I’m excited. I think it’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be loud. That’s what people have been talking about all week, ‘You haven’t had a game with the fans.’ I was like, ‘No, I haven’t, but I’m actually just focused (on football) because obviously I can’t do both.’ ”
