The NBA gears up for the new season with a fresh multi-media campaign – ‘This Is Why We Play’ – uniting current super stars, legendary players, big name coaches, fans and schoolyard ballers to target both core and casual fans and capture the emotions behind basketball’s universal appeal.
Launched two weeks ahead of the 2015-16 season opener (27 October) the creative essentially showcases stories of what ‘motivates’, ‘inspires’ and ‘excites’ professional teams, amateur players and fans both on and off the court.
This global marketing initiative – a declaration of purpose – has been planned to run over several seasons and its primary objective is to attract more general fans.
Among the campaign’s secondary objectives are to generate excitement around the upcoming season, drive ticket sales and boost League Pass subscriptions.
The kick-off phase is led by three primary spots.
The first, ‘Anthem’, blends in-arena historical and recent footage from around the world and shows the many ways that players, fans, and teams shows their love of the game.
From the first female coach Becky Hammon and the first publicly gay player Jason Collins, to current MVP Steph Curry, rival James Harden and legends Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, a huge cast of greats take the viewer through some of the sport’s historical milestones and explore the game’s cultural impact.
Anthem comes in both a long-form format,
and an edited down short version.
It is also benefiting from plenty of social sharing and fan amplification.
15 DAYS UNTIL TIP OFF!!!
The @NBA released an awesome #ThisIsWhyWePlay campaign in anticipation: https://t.co/k8E772O6tH
— BuzzFeed NBA (@BuzzFeedNBA) October 12, 2015
The launch phase of the campaign will continue with two further spots called ‘Anticipation’ and ‘Joy’.
Using the #ThisIsWhyWePlay hashtag, all the films will run across the social media sites Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Tumblr, Tencent and Weibo, as well as on national US TV.
Furthermore, the NBA’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vine channels will also feature ‘video content of ‘Classic Hoop Moments’ showcasing some of the greatest moments in NBA history.
Plus there will be game-related art and design strands to the campaign.
Comment
‘This is why we play’, well, it’s all there in the title.
There’s a nice mix of superstars, amateurs, fans and officials, as well as famous match-ups, playground pick-up matches and wheelchair games.
The campaign idea offers plenty of potential, so we’ll see what the NBA’s marketers do with it.
While the NFL remains the dominant North American sports property and easily pulls in the most sponsorship income and the highest TV ratings, the NBA comes in second.
The 2014 NBA Finals averaged over 19 million viewers, with 23 million tuning in for Game 6.
Those are the best figures since Michael Jordan retired and pretty close to the average weekly viewing figures for the NFL’s titanic Sunday Night Football.
Basketball’s premier league, the NBA now spans the USA and Canada and has games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages. It features 101 international players from 37 countries and territories.
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