NBA sponsors are finalizing activation plans for the league’s All-Star showcase to be held this weekend in Phoenix.
“We’ve had as much or more activation by our marketing partners than ever,” said Mark Tatum, senior vice president of marketing partnerships.
Top NBA licensee Adidas has renewed its presenting sponsorship of the Jam Session fan festival at the Phoenix Convention Center, and the company is using the occasion to debut a new uniform fabrication it claims is 30 percent lighter.
As has been the case in recent years, Coke’s Sprite brand, along with T-Mobile, lead the activation parade. Sprite’s “They Dunk. You Decide.” promotion allowed fans to name a player to the Slam Dunk contest, the Trail Blazers’ Rudy Fernandez. Fans will also vote on who should win the contest, which is the final event on TNT’s All-Star Saturday Night telecast.
Meanwhile, All-Star Game balloting sponsor T-Mobile will again title sponsor the Rookie Challenge game. An outdoor ad featuring Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard and Yao Ming will hang on the Bank of America Tower in Phoenix. T-Mobile will also use the occasion to launch a sweepstakes offering the chance to play H-O-R-S-E against Wade for $50,000 as the top prize.
The NBA’s official deodorant, Right Guard, is presenting sponsor of a Block Party that has been added to the All-Star Weekend. Other league sponsors of the new event will include Anheuser-Busch, EA Sports and Toyota.
McDonald’s, which will break creative featuring Howard and WNBA player Candace Parker, has a restaurant at Jam Session and serves as title sponsor of the celebrity basketball game televised on ESPN Friday night. McDonald’s will also have Dominique Wilkins visiting local franchises.
Southwest Airlines will stage a contest to see which police or fire safety officers can tow a plane farther; Gatorade will continue its new “G” branding rollout from the Super Bowl; and Hewlett-Packard, the league’s newest sponsor, has branding wrapped around the local light rail, branding on in-arena laptops and sponsors a “digital playground” at Jam Session.
Meanwhile, participants in the various skills events on Saturday Night — the Haier Shooting Stars, the PlayStation Skills Challenge, the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout and the Sprite Slam Dunk contest — will wear patches on their uniforms, further branding the individual competitions.
Advertisers for TNT’s game broadcast on Sunday include league sponsors Sprite, AutoTrader.com, Foot Locker, Gatorade, McDonald’s, Nike, Southwest Airlines and T-Mobile. Three insurance brands, State Farm, Geico, and Allstate, are also advertisers. State Farm is again presenting sponsor for TNT’s All-Star Saturday Night telecast. Geico’s ad buy is big enough that it comes packaged with a separate event — a game of H-O-R-S-E in which competitors will spell the insurers’ name instead. That contest will not be held alongside the other Saturday night skills competitions, but it will be shown on TNT’s Saturday night coverage.
Non-league sponsors advertising in the game include Activision, Burger King, Charles Schwab, Hyundai, Jim Beam, Kmart, Microsoft, Sonic, TurboTax, U.S. Marines and Warner Bros.
