NBA Commissioner David Stern this week will take the wraps off the league’s biggest cause-related marketing program ever.
“NBA Cares” has a five-year goal of having the league, its teams and players generate $100 million in cash contributions for charitable causes; donate more than a million hours of volunteer service; and build more than 100 educational and athletic facilities for children. The program, which Stern is to launch Tuesday at the Sports & Social Responsibility conference presented by Street & Smith’s Sports Group in New York, will focus on three issues: education, youth and family development, and health-related causes.
While the league has long been involved in cause-related efforts such as its “Basketball Without Borders” and “Read to Achieve” programs, NBA Cares will have the full weight of the NBA’s marketing machine behind it. The combined support will total some $50 million worth of media exposure in the first season, as NBA Cares becomes the league’s primary cause marketing message.
The program tips off later this month with all NBA teams initiating community outreach programs under the NBA Cares banner as part of the new season and to tie into the season-opening Premiere Week theme.
There will be public service announcements on NBA TV rights holders, along with rotational signs and inventory on nba.com, NBA TV and other league-controlled media. The WNBA and NBA Development League will provide support with their controlled media and player and team efforts.
“It’s the responsibility of sports properties to use their enormous celebrity to effect change,” Stern said. “I remain in awe of what Magic Johnson’s announcement that he was HIV positive did to the debate on AIDS.”
Stern estimated the program is at least twice the size and scope of the NBA’s disparate cause-related programs last season. He said the decision to launch a unified charitable effort was inspired by recent relief efforts to aid victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and by an effort to bond NBA players to fans after the recent collective bargaining agreement was completed.
Stern added that the focus was further sharpened by this week’s inaugural conference on Sports & Social Responsibility and the fact that the World Economic Forum plans to explore the subject at its annual gathering in January.
“We’re setting a benchmark for ourselves, but it is also important to use this opportunity to demonstrate what our players’ efforts have been in this area and try, within the context of this initiative, to call attention to that,” Stern said. “The players’ efforts, in my view, haven’t been fully appreciated. Because of that celebrity factor, we sometimes get defined by a weak moment or a bad day, rather than everything we do for those less fortunate.”
Coming after a season when Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case and the fight between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers gave the NBA twin black eyes, NBA Cares could be seen as an effort in image repair.
“You would have to be living someplace else not to realize our players are better than their reputations were described during this past season,” Stern said. “Image [enhancement] will be a byproduct of this, but this really was more occasioned by the response to Katrina, where our union was quick to move with respect to relief efforts. … People are carping about [NBA] player reputation, but at the same time the demand on our players to participate in social responsibility programs like ‘Basketball Without Borders’ has never been larger. We want people to understand that corporate social responsibility is embedded in the NBA’s DNA.”
The league hopes NBA Cares will promote more private sector involvement in social issues that have been left up to governments to cope with. “We want to highlight what we think is the increasing role of the private sector with respect to corporate social responsibility,” Stern said.
“I applaud [the NBA] being proactive, because a reputation problem doesn’t disappear just because the original problem ends,” said Mike Paul, a Manhattan-based image consultant, whose MGP & Associates has counseled NBA players. “It can’t be window dressing, it has to be an ongoing effort.”
The program will be overseen by Kathy Behrens, senior vice president of community and player programs. It will begin in a few weeks, and will be integrated into the league’s season-opening week. In November and December, players and teams will be involved in coat drives and turkey giveaways and will serve food at soup kitchens. During All-Star week in Houston and in the cities hosting the NBA Finals there will also be NBA Cares events.
