Nba’s global ambitions

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NBA’S GLOBAL AMBITIONS AT A JOSOOR INSTITUTE WORKSHOP HELD LAST MONTH, QATAR TODAY GOT AN INSIGHT INTO HOW THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION IS WORKING ON BUILDING A GLOBAL AUDIENCE FOR THEIR GAMES THROUGH STRATEGIC MARKETING PARTNERSHIPS.

BY AYSWARYA MURTHY 52 > QATAR TODAY >NOVEMBER 2016

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hen it comes to team sports, the USA always appears to have existed in contented isolation. They have their American football and baseball, their basketball and ice hockey, each racking up billions of dollars in revenue, and they don’t seem to need much else. But the times are changing. If European football has taught us anything, it’s that your biggest and loudest fan need no longer be someone from the neighbourhood. That guy who has bought every FC Barcelona merchandise ever released probably lives a thousand miles away and has most likely never set foot on Spanish soil. It has a certain romantic appeal, this kind of international following.

It definitely has business appeal. And as dearly as the sports leagues in America would love to tap into this phenomenon, it’s only the National Basketball Association (NBA) that has any sort of realistic chance.

And even for them it’s a long game.

We caught up with Marc Armstrong, NBA’s Vice President of Global Marketing Partnerships & Emerging Markets for Europe, Middle East and Africa, who was in Doha for a Josoor Institute workshop.

Inspired and developed by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and egacy, Josoor Institute holds regular programmes delivered by leading speacialists in their fields and Armstrong was here to talk to the delegates on the art of forging partnerships. A veteran of marketing for the English national football team and UEFA Champions League, he soon crossed the pond to work with the American leagues – first at the National Football League and now the NBA. This would turn out to be a whole other ball game. Unlike the times when he was selling the Champions League or the English team properties, partners weren’t quite banging down the doors. “When it comes to the NBA, there are certain markets where we are already very strong. Like Spain, Turkey, France, Italy. But in other markets, we had to find the right partners who would help us grow and go to them with ideas on how they can activate,” he says.

The Middle East is a relatively new focus in the NBA’s outreach efforts, and a final frontier of sorts. The NBA has 14 offices worldwide, with presence in markets like China, Brazil and India. The EMEA team works out of London, with satellite offices in

MARC ARMSTRONG Vice President, Global Marketing Partnerships & Emerging Markets (EMEA) National Basketball Association

Madrid and Johannesburg. But if and when this region would eventually warrant an NBA outpost of its own will depend on the success of Armstrong’s efforts in capturing the market. The challenge here is that they don’t know yet what their challenges will be.

While they are further along in Europe and Africa in terms of the properties they have developed and the innovative partnerships they have built, Armstrong is excited about the potential here in the Middle East.

The art of partnerships And it’s not like they would be starting from scratch. “In the Middle East we have well over a million followers on social media and the awareness levels are 85-91%, depending on individual markets. We want to cater to this fan base, and also acquire new fans, and working with our marketing partners is a great way to do that,” he says. And their discussions on the ground have revealed that local brands are increasingly interested in buying into basketball and want to grow with the NBA. With the region becoming a key priority for Armstrong’s team, he expects these discussions to be translated into deals soon. “We will know in the next year or so how they start to pan out and how well our strategy here is working,” he added.

Armstrong says that the NBA doesn’t have too many “true global” partnerships except for a core set like Adidas, Nike, EA Games, Footlocker, Spalding (who make the NBA’s basketballs), 2K Sports and Tissot, which became the NBA’s first official timekeeper,

providing shot clocks for the games in the upcoming season. But more often than not, the NBA likes to tailor its partnerships to suit the local market. “We don’t let someone take global rights if they are not going to activate globally. So we tend to have a few core global partners and, outside of that, have regional and national partners who can focus on their respective markets,” he says. “The financials of a partnership deal are important but not as important as the activation. We need to find partners who will help us grow, who can add value to our brand while we add value to theirs.

Which is why we call it partnership, and not sponsorship,” Armstrong adds.

In the Middle East, the NBA already has some strong partners who can get the ball rolling. Their broadcast partner for the EMEA region, BeIN Sports, has been televising the games for thousands of new fans here. Recently they created restaurant promotions with KFC in Kuwait. They have instituted the Junior NBA programme in Bahrain with the Manama Sports Club and are looking to start similar initiatives in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to address the issues of diabetes and healthy living in the region. And, in exciting news for Qatar, they have teamed up with Al Mana Fashion Group to open the first NBA stores in the Middle East, starting with two in Doha next year, followed by the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Armstrong wants to use this momentum to go from strength to strength.

He goes on to talk about some recent 53 > QATAR TODAY > NOVEMBER 2016

sports > tag this The NBA have teamed up with Qatar's Al Mana Fashion Group to open the first NBA stores in the Middle East, starting with two in Doha next year, followed by the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In 2014, the NBA opened its largest store outside the US in Manila, Philippines.

successes in Europe that demonstrate the scope and innovation involved in the NBA’s global marketing strategy. “We teamed with UBI Banca in Italy to bring out a whole range of branded payment cards featuring all the teams. There will be designated NBA areas within all the 1,500 branches, with presence in every one of their thousands of ATM screens,” he says. For the NBA Global Games 2017, which will be played in London in January of next year, they have announced a partnership with the dairy company Muller Rice, who are running a promotion to give away tickets, while advertising the NBA on millions of their products in the UK. “We created the NBA House, an experiential venue with a basketball court, video games, mascots and NBA merchandise, and took it to the Olympic Games in London and Rio. This concept could work very well here in the region, especially in shopping malls, considering the mall culture and the foot traffic during the summer months.” Equally we continue to look at new opportunities such as branded attractions. Last month we opened Europe's first NBA Cafe in Barcelona – this too could be replicated here."

“These are the kinds of partnerships we are looking for in the region. We particularly want to work in the FMCG and telecom space, with people who can utilise our assets and get the brand out there.” No two deals in any two markets ever look the same, Armstrong says. “Our partnerships are flexible and it can manifest itself in different ways. It’s about what’s right for that particular market at the particular time and for that particular brand. It’s a collaborative approach and we often act like a consultant for our partners.”

54 > QATAR TODAY >NOVEMBER 2016

The long game Armstrong doesn’t think the fact that NBA games are played almost exclusively in the USA would affect fan experience. “A very small percentage of our fans globally (and we have nearly 500 million fans in the 33 markets that we measure) will ever get to an NBA game, whether it’s in the US or abroad. So it’s really about how we enhance the experience away from the arena via TV, digital products, experiential events, grassroots promotions and virtual reality experiences in the future, and also programmes like Junior NBA which is all about participation and getting kids to just pick up the ball and play. There are lots of ways to have those touchpoints with fans without them having to be in the arena, watching the game live,” he says.

However, through NBA Global Games, a few pre-season and regular season games are being played in international venues for the benefit of their global fans. “We have had pre-season games in Barcelona, Madrid, Shanghai and Beijing last month, with more upcoming season games in Mexico and London in January,” according to Armstrong.

And the international appeal of the NBA only increases as the players get more diverse. In the most recent NBA finals, the Middle-Eastern connections of the two competing coaches were widely reported.

Armstrong agrees. “At the start of the 20162017 season, a record 113 players in the team roasters were outside the US. That’s 25% of the entire player base and we expect this to be more this year. Out of the 60 players who have already been drafted for the coming season, 26 were international; 15 of them from Europe alone, including only the

second ever player from Egypt. Clearly it’s going to help the game globally when each local market has its own local hero.”

The NBA understands this all too well and, hence, has created structured environments for youth, like Basketball Without Borders and Junior NBA. There are 11 Junior NBA Leagues in Europe alone, which will likely double in the next 12 months, he says. Also, a large number of players participate in the Basketball Without Borders camps, which are held in Africa and Europe each year; some go on to play in the NBA and many others get scholarships to study and play in the US. “If we get the participation angle here in the Middle East right, hopefully we can have players from this region playing in the NBA in the next 10-15 years,” he says.

He also contests the claim that the lack of good infrastructure is hindering the growth of professional basketball in some regions.

“We have taken the games around the world and there are some fantastic arenas out there – the O2 Arena in London, the MercedesBenz Arena in Berlin, Bercy Arena in Paris.

And there are good grassroots facilities too.

The beautiful thing about basketball is that you just need a ball and hoop to play. Which is why over half a billion people, both boys and girls, play the game globally and we have fans everywhere,” he says.

While football may reign supreme around the world, Armstrong says basketball is a close second. It’s the only other truly global sport, according to him. It is international, it’s simple and it’s familiar. Given time and strategic focus, there is no reason the NBA couldn’t capitalise on this to expand their reach beyond the borders of the United States