Friday, July 20, 2007

NBA - Marketing to embrace their audience



The NBA (National Basketball Association) has undertaken a unique marketing program to highlight an under served property of theirs, The D-League.


Having partnered with Miller Lite, the NBA is using multiple touch points to reach their core audience - People who aspire to be a Pro .

1) User generated video was requested to be posted to the NBA.com/gopro website, stating why the person believes they could play professionally, along with actually showing video of their talents. 29 of 30 contestants were chosen by a panel of experts to participate in the upcoming D-League pre-draft camp.

2) Fan voting / Poll - another unique marketing element now increasing in popularity, was used to select the final contestant. By engaging the consumer to select a player, they now have a stake in the game. It also gives the marketer (NBA) a natural follow-up strategy to keep those customers engaged for repeat visits, and thus repeated marketing messages.

3) Content - After the camp, some of the prospects will be featured in five-minute vignettes on NBA TV leading up to a one-hour special on Sept. 24. That special will track the players who excel and those who don’t in taking a shot at their dreams of playing pro basketball.

Marketing takeaway - Multiple touch points to a passionate audience, should produce a Winning Marketing campaign for the NBA - D League program

1 comment:

BigEgghead said...

It has amazed me that the NBA hasn't been able to cultivate a consistent & stable "minor league" system. Until Isiah killed the CBA, it was looking like they had the right strategy (targeting mid-size markets), but the D-League has really been a flop so far.