How Marketers Can Make NBA Playoff Sponsorships a Slam Dunk
As the NBA playoffs begin April 16, brands will spend millions to transform avid fans into customers. But how can advertisers prove the value of their investments? Do sponsorships really work, and what kinds of marketing activations are possible when it comes to sponsorships, which many may still associate with days when advertising was not exactly high-tech?
Here are three steps brands can take to maximize the value of NBA playoff marketing.
Shift gears from brand awareness to direct response
Marketers have historically thought of sponsorships as the domain of brand awareness. Partner with LeBron James, and Lakers fans will subconsciously start to associate your brand with excellence and elegance, fostering spend over time.
While awareness is still an admirable goal, it no longer needs to be the default objective of sports sponsorships.
Brands can build direct-response campaigns around sponsorships by including calls to action in media and aligning exposure data with behavioral and purchase data to prove effectiveness. This way, marketers do not have to hang their hat on long-term gains in awareness; they can prove whether exposing Lakers fans to a sponsorship campaign drove a lift in sales after the game.
Build calls to action into creative
To make the most of cross-platform measurement and bring direct-response sponsorship campaigns to life, brands need to build calls to action into their creative.
To be sure, a glossy 30-second TV spot showing Kevin Durant driving a luxury car may drive dividends over the long term. But brands can drive results and determine the efficacy of sponsorship spend almost immediately by triggering direct responses.
For example, a Durant sponsor might include QR codes in its CTV campaigns or build an in-game trigger promotion tied to certain events happening in game, like a buzzer beater. This way, brands do not just bet on sales tomorrow but provide the consumer an immediate reason to connect fan affinities with brand affinities. Then, cross-platform data on the back end can help brands determine what works.
Go programmatic with sponsorships
The final step for brands seeking to reinvent their sponsorship strategies for this year’s NBA playoffs is to go programmatic. Take advantage of the expensive sports-related IP you’ve already paid for around an NBA sponsorship to target millions of relevant prospective customers across channels such as display, CTV, and social.
Say a beverage brand partners with the Warriors. The brand can target millions of Warriors fans who watched the Warriors on TV, attended a game, or interacted with online content related to the Warriors. The campaign can utilize creative that builds on the fan’s affinity for the Warriors, and incorporate direct-response elements (e.g. QR code) into the creative to drive users to purchase. On the measurement side, the brand would look to see an initial spike followed by a more sustained lift in sales.
The playoffs are a time when the NBA’s elite teams do battle. They only get there because they’re leveraging all the talent and resources at their disposal. For brands still limiting their view of sponsorships to awareness, the playoffs represent an opportunity to do the same, leveling up their marketing strategy to meet 2022 playoff standards.
FanAI helps brands understand and measure sponsorship impact on sales using unique insights to maximize investments. Our mission is to help brands realize the true value of sponsorships by proving their impact on sales, and our vision is to be the leader in optimizing brand marketing performance.
