The NBA makes a play to slam-dunk the world

October 4, 2013 Leave a comment

October 3, 2013 4:59 pm

The NBA makes a play to slam-dunk the world

By Emily Steel

In a new marketing campaign for the National Basketball Association, Chinese characters are plastered across a shot of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryantthrowing down a slam dunk. Another version of the commercial features the same clip but the Portuguese phrase “E la é para todos”. Yet another in Spanish reads “Y es para todos nosotros”. The translation: the NBA is for everyone.With the tip-off of the NBA Global Games series in Istanbul on Saturday, the league is launching its first marketing push specifically targeted at international fans.

Called “One Game, One Love”, the campaign is part of an attempt to broaden the appeal of the sport – and by extension, its business – across countries and cultures. It includes television spots in 10 languages across 43 countries and territories as well as print, online and social media adverts.

The global pitch comes as the NBA doubles down on expanding its already sizeable international business. The league says its international revenues have grown at double-digit pace every year for the past two decades. Of the NBA’s $5.5bn in total revenues projected for the coming season, about 10 per cent is generated via its international operations. “The breadth and the scope of our international business globally has gotten to the size that we decided that we should begin addressing an international audience differently than an extension of a domestic audience,” says David Stern, NBA commissioner.

For years, US sports leagues have attempted to export their games and their stars to global audiences. The National Football League, for instance, has hosted American football games outside the US as part of its International Series since 2007, including in London last weekend. Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner, has talked about expanding its international schedule, and some have speculated that it would place a franchise in the UK capital.

Boosting the international appeal of American sports is a crucial strategy for the leagues to develop their businesses beyond cultivating the next generation of fans in the US through marketing to younger demographics.

New global fans translate into more lucrative media distribution deals, merchandise sales and other partnerships. “When you build a truly global league, the value of the franchise will go up,” says David Carter, a sports industry consultant who directs the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

Yet several challenges exist in crossing cultures, developing fan bases and translating the rules of a game. “American sports often are viewed as import products, novelties,” says Kevin Adler, founder of Engage Marketing, a Chicago-based sports and entertainment marketing company. “There is not the same nationalistic pride that comes from a homegrown sport. It takes a long time to build a fan base that understands the game.”

The NBA has been a pioneer in exporting its game across the globe. Invented in Massachusetts in 1891, basketball became an Olympic sport in 1936 and has spawned leagues across the world. While the game remains most popular in the US, a
25-year effort championed by Mr Stern has helped to establish the NBA as one of the most global leagues in the world. Games and programmes are broadcast to more than 215 countries in more than 47 languages.

And the rise of digital media has provided international fans with more access to content than ever before. NBA.com attracted 9.6bn page views and 5.6bn video streams last season; more than half its visitors were from outside North America.

“Global expansion and digital expansion go hand in hand,” says Mr Stern.

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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