Next week, the National Men’s Basketball League will begin, with games live-streamed by NZME and broadcast on Maori TV. And now, with the sport continuing to grow in popularity, Basketball New Zealand is looking for a brand to get involved as naming rights sponsor. We chat to commercial director, Chris Simpson.
Footlocker has harnessed the power of social media and NBA player James Harden by getting fans to submit personal requests for Harden via Twitter in a campaign called ‘Play my Tweet’. The best ones will be printed on a basketball and Harden has to shoot hoops with the ‘requests’. If he makes the shot, he’s safe but if he misses he will need to carry it out.
Following the recent unveiling of its ambitious ‘Boroughs’ project, which will see five high-tech basketball courts introduced in Auckland, Spark has now announced a marketing partnership with the National Basketball Association. As part of this deal, Spark will offer its home broadband customers NBA League Pass and League Pass Premium annual subscriptions beginning next month, giving customers 15 percent off the full price of either a full season or a one-month subscription.
In a bid to get Spark connected with young Aucklanders, a group it struggled to reach in the Telecom days, the company is partnering with Kiwi NBA player Steven Adams and the Auckland council to bring five high-tech basketball courts to the city.
Steven Adams’ entertaining teaser video ‘Secret Codes’ for Spark’s mysterious basketball-related campaign clocked in with over 72,000 views—and all without any paid media support. Now he’s back for the second instalment, once again alongside Reggie Jackson, and it looks like he’s planning on doing something about the poor state of New Zealand’s outdoor courts *wink, wink*.
Spark gave New Zealand a bit of tease before it launched its new ‘Never Stop Starting’ campaign with some unbranded billboards and digital ads. And there’s some more mystery afoot, with a teaser video featuring Kiwi NBA star Steven Adams being released last night.
A new property on Sportal.co.nz will showcase localised NBA content and live games as part of a new deal between the basketball organistion and Sportal owner Perform. The digital group says it’s a chance for advertisers to reach out to the often hard to target demographic of 18-34 year old males.