BBVA Compass this week will launch its campaign to tout the first affinity credit card bearing the NBA’s logo, the result of a deal between the league, the company and American Express.
To promote the BBVA Compass NBA American Express Card, BBVA is rolling out five 30-second TV spots, a stand-alone website, heavy digital and social activation, and in-arena promotion.
The TV effort includes national spots featuring Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant and Houston’s James Harden. Regional spots will feature San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard and Dallas’ Chandler Parsons.
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Customers can get a card featuring an NBA or team logo on the front.
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BBVA said the campaign will reach across ABC, TNT, ESPN, ESPN.com and BleacherReport.com as well as NBA TV and NBA.com. It also will play locally through the bank’s team-level sponsorships with Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Miami, markets where BBVA has a major presence.
The card program calls for a card featuring the NBA logo, but BBVA customers can personalize their cards with any of the 30 NBA team logos to tout their favorite teams. Use of the cards is tied to a rewards program from both BBVA and American Express. Fans earn points using their cards that can be redeemed for rewards such as merchandise or meeting NBA players.
The new card was announced last month, during the league’s All-Star Weekend. The TV ads will run through the NBA Finals. The digital aspects of the campaign will continue year-round.
“We will use TV as a kickoff, but we will really reach a lot of people engaging with mobile and tablet,” said Jennifer Dominiquini, chief marketing and client experience officer for BBVA Compass. “The whole premise of the campaign is to get fans closer to the game.”
In the early 2000s, fans had access to team-branded affinity cards from MNBA, but that program did not feature an NBA-branded card, as is the case with this program from BBVA.
BBVA’s agencies of record are DDB Tribal and O2.
“We will slice and dice for digital, and we have a variety of creative rotations,” Dominiquini said. “The goal is to reach fans as early and often as possible. The beauty of digital is to reach fans all year long.”
BBVA has been an NBA sponsor since 2010 and wants to use the campaign to expand its U.S. presence beyond the Sun Belt, where the company has a heavy consumer base, said Kerry Tatlock, senior vice president of global marketing partnerships for the NBA.
“We worked with them on how the campaign can come to life,” Tatlock said. “They want to leverage the national scope of the NBA.”
