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NBA looks to extend new marketing campaign to multiple seasons

The NBA is rolling out a new global marketing campaign with the theme “This Is Why We Play” as the league seeks to attract more general fans.

 
The league is committed to using the tagline over multiple seasons, looking for a consistency in marketing that was seen in past campaigns such as “I Love This Game,” which
 
was in place from 1992 to 1999. The new effort replaces the league’s “Everybody Up” campaign that was used last season. “Big,” which ran during the 2012-13 and 2013-14
From new “This Is Why We Play” spots: Carmelo Anthony, Spurs assistant Becky Hammon, a young Stephen Curry showing his form and a Thunder fan in full regalia.
seasons, was the NBA’s last marketing campaign used over multiple seasons.

“We knew all along that we were in the process of a multiyear campaign and this is it,” said Pamela El, NBA chief marketing officer. “It is going to be integrated across all NBA platforms and social media, and it is designed to showcase not only the game, players and coaches, but also fans of the game. It is all about the universal appeal of the game.”

The campaign is the first major effort under El, who joined the NBA in August 2014. One of her first decisions was bringing in New York-based Translation as the league’s agency of record after working with the agency run by Steve Stoute in her prior job at State Farm Insurance.

The campaign launches this week with the first of three spots, called “Anthem.” The second spot, called “Anticipation,” will begin running Oct. 22, and a third spot, called “Joy,” will debut during the NBA’s Oct. 27 opening night. All three of the spots, which feature numerous NBA players and legends, will have 30- and 60-second versions. The first spot shows a montage of NBA players as well as casual fans playing at playgrounds and schools against a voice-over backdrop of “This Is Why We Play.”

The spots will air across all NBA media assets and, like last year’s campaign, also will run on nonsports media outside the NBA, including CNN, BET, HGTV and Nick at Nite.

In addition, all 30 teams are expected to customize their own “This Is Why We Play” spots for local use, and there will be related activations on NBA Instagram with a first-person photo series from players and fans. On Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine and Tumblr, the campaign will feature customized video of great moments throughout league history.

The campaign also will be featured on China’s social media platforms in Tencent and Weibo.

“You will see us buying assets outside our institutional media with a nice mix of TV, social and digital,” El said. “We are trying to reach the casual fan who is not always sitting watching the game.”

The campaign will be folded into the NBA’s community efforts as well, such as its relaunched Junior NBA program and its Ene-Be-A Spanish-language website. The league also will tailor the campaign around its Christmas Day games, Martin Luther King Jr. Day games, the postseason and the NBA draft.

“This is more than a tagline, it is a full-on platform that we intend to use with the league, teams and players around the globe,” El said.

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