The Big Interview: NBA
Marc Armstrong, vice president – global marketing partnerships & emerging markets at NBA EMEA – spoke to sportindustry.biz ahead of the NBA Global Games at the O2 earlier this month…
There’s two very competitive teams in town this year, both fighting for play-off places, how important do you think this is?
Every time we bring games it’s great, whether it’s pre-season and regular season games, people love to see the NBA stars. Saying that, it certainly adds that little bit of edge to it. Even when we do the pre-season games in Europe in October, fans love it, but they do love to see a game that really means something.
1993 was the last time the Magic were here, how exactly is it decided who makes the trip to overseas games?
There are lots of different factors, but we are very lucky that we are in a position where teams are keen to come. Owners buy into the international growth of the NBA. It’s not difficult to get teams to come over.
Basically it’s up to a committee of people in the States as well as over here (in the UK), to look at the teams and who wants to go. There are lots of teams who say they want to go and express that they want to go international to build their brand on the international stage. It’s based on availability and what makes most sense from a scheduling perspective. That’s how it’s chosen on what teams go where and when.
Before Thursday’s #NBALondon16 (@Raptors / @OrlandoMagic), some photos of past @NBAUK trips! #NBAGlobalGames pic.twitter.com/X0WqewQBft
— NBA (@NBA) January 12, 2016
Do you ever get any negative press from the local fans in the US, about their teams playing matches internationally?
No not at all, the fans really appreciate the team playing internationally, it’s a great way to showcase the team and their star players. The fact that there is a large number of games in a regular season, compared to say the Premier League, one lost home game is not so dramatic.
We also find that a decent number of fans travel overseas to see their team. It’s a great opportunity for them to watch their favourite team in a different country. The fans embrace it and so do the teams. In terms of going overseas and spending time together, team bonding and spirit they get to experience another country. It’s really well received by everybody.
It’s the sixth consecutive regular season game in London that has sold out, so there’s obviously a massive appetite in the UK and this year you’ll be filling out cinema screens as well?
Yes, for the second year in a row the game sold out in less than an hour – which is great – and this year we have a partnership with Odeon Cinema Group in order to cater for that extra demand for the thousands of people who don’t get a ticket. We wanted to give fans that couldn’t get a ticket a way to watch the game in a near arena experience. We wanted to create a community event where they could go along to a local cinema. It’s in 31 different cinemas all over the UK, so it’s not just London and the south east. It’s an initiative that we are really excited about and hopefully it can lead to more in the future.
There is a real character and passion at NBA games in the US, how does it compare to the UK?
We’ve been playing games in London since 1993, one of the big attributes of our sport and league is that it is very global. Over 100 players this season in the NBA are from countries outside the US and around half of them are from Europe. It’s a global sport, with a global fan base who are very knowledgeable about the sport. You certainly wouldn’t come to the game in London and feel that it’s a different atmosphere or a less knowledgeable fanbase – it’s a very knowledgeable fanbase.
Paired with the NFL’s expansion into Europe and particular London. There seems to be real momentum for US sports and leagues coming to the UK. Does that help in the way you sell the games to partners?
We continue to grow in the UK, for example the Facebook global page has over 300,000 fans from the UK and the local NBA UK page has nearly 900,000 fans, which is up 136% year-on-year. All of our stats in the UK are great, the thing I would add about the NBA internationally is that it’s not just about the UK – we are doing this globally. We have 13 offices worldwide and London is one of the bigger ones. Recently we’ve taken games to Milan and Madrid and in October we are doing games in China and Brazil.
In terms of selling to partners, I think it’s a key point to make that a lot of our partners don’t come on board just for the game. We have a real mix of global partners, like adidas and Tissot. We have some European or multi-market deals, like Footlocker, SAP or Cisco. Then we have some deals on a national basis, Muller is a good example of a brand that has come on board just for the Global Games at the O2 to promote the Muller Rice brand and over time we hope that this can progress to something bigger.
We are also doing grassroots and experiential events all over the world and often have great content for our partners. The game is just a really nice part of that, but they are not coming on just for the game.
You mentioned a strong social content presence, and Vine is a platform you’ve had particular success in becoming the first to surpass a billion loops. Is there a secret?
We have a lot of great content and the nature of our sport lends itself to short clip videos. Vine is such a great platform for us as we can showcase short, exciting and snackable video content, but also we were the first sport league to really embrace the digital space whether it’s Youtube, Twitter or Vine. There is a message behind it as well and the guys behind it have done such a fantastic job. The billion loops is fantastic and I had the pleasure of spending some time with Twitter in New York. They were telling us how a large proportion of the traffic volume comes from outside the US and within that number the UK is quite prominent as well. I think it’s a combination of our strategy and how we embrace this whole space early on and combined with the fact that our content does lend itself to that short form.
What is the plan, certainly from a UK and European perspective, for the NBA?
Who knows what will come in the future. We have committed to games for a large number of years now and will continue to do so, but like I said it’s about so much more than that. It’s about growing our media business, growing our fanbase, bringing in partners that are year round, doing much more than just the games. Clearly, games are an important part of things, but it’s not the only thing. You’ll see us do more games in the region in the future, but we’ll also do so much more as well.
The game itself has ten marketing partners and Marriott will become our presenting partner of the game. Marriott is a partnership that started on a global basis for the NBA last summer and they came on as a partner of all the global games, starting with NBA Africa, which was the first ever North American sports league game played in the continent of Africa. Marriott has done all the games through China, Brazil, the two we’ve had in Europe and now in London and they’ve stepped up to become presenting partner.
Attn: London Members – RT this to win a chance to play on court at #NBALondon16! #AroundTheWorld #prizedraw pic.twitter.com/KUhOxM3ZQ7
— Marriott Rewards (@MarriottRewards) January 12, 2016
They’re using this game to create a buzz around the Marriott Rewards brand and they’re going to be some really cool activation and are going to brand up a traditional London bus and take it around the city as a mobile basket and sport court.
Other sponsors are getting heavily involved in some really cool activation as well. Tissot is doing a Larry O’Brien trophy appearance along with a legend appearance in their Oxford Street store this week. Footlocker is doing retail activation in Oxford Street all week and doing a major event on game day for influencers, bloggers and media, for example.
Our partners have really got behind it and our real objective for the last few years has been to create a real buzz around game time in London. We’re really enjoying it here in London at the moment.
Image: ©Getty Images
