The NBA is one of the four major sports that are followed by most North Americans all year round. The other sports are hockey the NHL, football the NFL and baseball the MLB. Through out the course of the season and playoffs the NBA is competing for the attention of viewers from all the other sports. From the start of the season to the end the NHL is on TV. For the first month of the season and the playoffs they are competing with the MLB for viewers and for the first half of the season they are competing with the NFL. In order to be effective and capture the largest audience the NBA ads and commercials have to be effective and concise.
The NBA ads and commercials use their greatest strengths to their advantage to create their commercials. They use jaw dropping highlights from past games and piece them together to show the audience in a 30 second span all the exciting and wonderful moments they are missing when they are tuning into another sporting event, TV show or even award ceremonies such as the Grammy’s, Emmy’s etc. During these commercials the NBA uses not just any athletes but rather the cream of the crop. They mostly use the athletes that are the most marketable and well known. The athletes used in a way are a brand name, even viewers who don’t watch the sport have heard of these athletes. They use athletes such as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony and other franchise players.
Another way that the NBA ads and commercials reach the people is through their sponsors. There are several other sponsors to the NBA in terms of equipment. The two biggest sponsors are Adidas and Nike. Both these apparel makers have several big name athletes that are under their sponsorship and wear their gear throughout the course of the season. For example, Nike is notoriously associated with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. They are famous for their recent line of MV Puppets commercials, this is a line of ads where both James and Bryant are roommates and what they would expect to do at home as they are both trying to one up each other in solidifying their legacy among the great ones. Adidas is famous for its association with Kevin Garnett, Derrick Rose and Tim Duncan. They have their own set of commercials that have their own athletes in a gym showcasing their skills and moves. Both Nike and Adidas are actually producing these commercials to reach the viewers and get them to invest in their apparel in the hopes it will make you a basketball players or as close to it as possible. However, inadvertently they are also advertising for the NBA because the athletes are wearing their team outfits during the commercial.
The NBA ads and commercials are designed and created, keeping the target market in mind and use catchy slogans. The slogan for the NBA is “where amazing happens”, this slogan portrays the image that an NBA game is not to be missed and even though it runs approximately two and a half hours it will keep any viewer hooked from tip off until the final buzzer sounds. There is always a chance to make that game winning shot that will silence the haters and have the fans cheering at the top of their voices as they see their opponents heart broken and frustrated. This creates a great sub plot for the NBA the next time the two teams meet again as there will be bad blood and the losing team want to get their revenge.
