The '15 NBA All-Star weekend in N.Y. "will see a level of promotion and activation from the league’s partners greater than anything seen previously for the event," according to Lefton & Lombardo of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Sponsors with "significant out-of-home advertising planned" for N.Y. include adidas, Cisco, State Farm, Diageo’s Cîroc brand and Sprite. Retail activations "are being planned" by adidas, Foot Locker, Under Armour and Harman/JBL. Foot Looker is "teaming with Nike for a 5,100-square-foot House of Hoops retail location," adjacent to MSG. League sponsors "activating during All-Star week for the first time include Degree, Harman/JBL, Kaiser Permanente and H&R Block." Sponsors "introducing TV creative during All-Star Weekend" include adidas, Nike, UA, BBVA Compass, Gatorade, Sprint and Foot Locker. The new spot from Foot Locker "will tout the debut of the Damian Lillard signature shoe" by adidas. Other new TV creative "is expected from Boost Mobile, Degree and Kia." Meanwhile, the Knicks are "taking over a local restaurant across the street from the Garden and turning it into a Knicks-themed destination, with JPMorgan Chase as the presenting sponsor" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/9 issue).
ONLY GAME IN TOWN: Turner Sports Exec VP/Ad Sales & Marketing Jon Diament, who handles TNT's NBA inventory, said that this year's ASG has been a "must-buy for clients looking to reach pro hoops' young, diverse audience." He said of the net's ad inventory for the ASG, "We've been sold out for a while." Diament added that "along with endemic categories like sneakers and apparel, time ... has been snapped up by movie, gaming, electronics, automotive and QSR brands." AD AGE's Anthony Crupi cites media buyer estimates in reporting marketers who have "invested in the weekend's festivities ... paid about $240,000 per 30-second spot." With football "on sabbatical and the playoffs still months down the road, the All-Star festivities are quite literally the only game in town, and the cost of doing business with TNT during the weekend reflects just how desirable an engaged live sports audience is in a fragmented media landscape." Diament: "At least 12 advertisers are using NBA players in their creative. Unilever, Coke, Adidas -- they're all using existing high-profile players." Crupi notes Samsung is the presenting sponsor of the first-ever NBA fashion show, while Kia and Cîroc "also are sponsors of the special." Meanwhile, State Farm "is deploying 175 'All-Star Assist Ambassadors' in major New York transit hubs and around both the city's two NBA venues" (ADAGE.com, 2/12).
THE NAME GAME: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jason Gay writes Sunday's ASG is "just one itty bit of this annual corpora-tastic hoops indulge-a-fest." Gay: "Title-sponsor hearts will flutter in Brooklyn ... at the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, which includes delectably branded content like the Degree Shooting Stars, the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest and the Sprite Slam Dunk competition." All-Star weekend is "less of a competition than it is a fashion show, a sales convention, and an opportunity for sponsors to flytrap a younger, fickle, hard-to-please demographic" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/12).
