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Marketing and Sponsorship

Curry, Wade starters in playoff campaigns

NBA partners are rolling out new ad efforts and digital campaigns for the start of this year’s playoffs. Among the activity:

Stephen Curry and wife Ayesha appear in a spot for Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser Permanente will debut a 30-second spot featuring Golden State’s Stephen Curry. The spot ties to a digital play at AskCoachCurry.com and features the reigning MVP and his wife, Ayesha, offering advice aimed at helping viewers break bad habits, suggesting that “offense is the best defense” when it comes to health matters.

It’s an extension of last year’s “Ode to Offense” campaign focused on healthy living habits.

Gatorade will run a new campaign through the postseason as it relaunches its Frost brand. It will feature a 30-second TV spot with Miami’s Dwyane Wade and hall of famer George Gervin.

Movie studios will use the NBA postseason to promote new releases again this year, as they’ve done in years past. Sony’s release of “The Angry Birds Movie” and Universal’s release of “The Secret Life of Pets” will be promoted during the first round of the playoffs. Other releases are expected to be promoted during later rounds and the NBA Finals.

Adidas will unveil a “Rep Hard” postseason digital, print and retail campaign. The “Rep Hard” creative will feature company endorsers in the playoffs, including Portland’s Damian Lillard.

Kia, which sponsors the end-of-season Kia Performance Awards, is holding two online sweepstakes. One allows fans to predict through the NBA Twitter and Instagram channels which teams will win various playoff games and series, with prizes to include NBA Finals tickets and NBAStore.com gift cards. The other will award fans for voting for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, with those prizes also including a trip to the finals. Winners will be chosen randomly.

Kia this year added the Google search platform for the MVP fan vote in addition to Twitter and NBA.com. That gave fans another outlet through which to vote, such that if they searched for “Kia MVP,” the voting mechanism popped up at the top of their search results.

Anheuser-Busch will launch a campaign called the “Bud Light Playoffs Play of the Day,” a highlight series that will run on NBA.com and on A-B digital and social channels.

Mountain Dew and Ruffles have an online contest.
2K will hold a 16-team head-to-head, single-elimination basketball tournament on both PlayStation and Xbox as an extension of its “NBA 2K16” Road to the Finals contest that began in February. Two finalist teams will compete for a $250,000 purse just ahead of the finals.

New league partner Pepsi, through its Mountain Dew and Ruffles brands, will have an online contest through its GetInThePlayoffs.com website offering fans a chance to win playoff tickets and merchandise.

Tissot, another new league partner this year, is holding an online drawing for a trip to the finals.

Dr. Scholl’s is holding an online sweepstakes with a historical element, allowing fans to select their favorite playoff highlight clips dating to 1978. The winning participant will receive a trip to the finals.

Autotrader will extend its Perfect Match online game through the playoffs. The seasonlong effort challenged fans to pick weekly winners of NBA games on TNT, with winners receiving $25,000 toward a new car listed on Autotrader.com.

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