NBA’s three-pronged strategy to help grow the game of basketball globally

The National Basket Ball Association (NBA) and Harman recently announced a multi-year marketing partnership in India, making JBL the official audio partner for NBA in India. Following this, JBL will introduce several NBA elements into its retail destinations and activations in the country. JBL will also offer fans in India the opportunity to interact with its roster of NBA brand ambassadors, which will definitely attract more attention to sport like basketball in India.

While the sport and NBA are massive in the US, in India cricket takes the top spot. Basketball is still very nascent in India and faces competition from other growing sports like football, kabaddi and badminton.

With this partnership, NBA India is making a move to gaining a stronger foothold in the Indian sports market, along with their grassroot level initiatives to propagate the sport.

In an interaction with Adgully, Siddharth Chury, Associate Vice President, Global Partnerships, NBA India, sheds light on the partnership with Harman, impact of the pandemic, marketing and media strategies and his vision for basketball in India.

For NBA India, what does the partnership with Harman mean?

We are excited to once again collaborate with Harman in India following our partnership during the first-ever NBA India Games last year. This partnership will provide fans an immersive experience in the 2020-21 season by providing NBA elements into its retail destinations in the country and making Harman and its brand JBL the official sound partner of the League in India. Beyond the hardwood, the NBA continues to influence popular culture at large, including music, style and entertainment. Through this partnership, we will build on the synergies of our two brands and create new and innovative ways for fans in India to experience the excitement of the NBA.

Basketball is still at its nascent stage in India. What plans does NBA India have for the sport to be further propagated in the country?

India is a priority market for the NBA given the tremendous potential and talent pool that it offers. We see an opportunity in basketball, especially with a young population, to build a strong fanbase over time. At the same time, it also poses its own unique set of challenges, including the local basketball infrastructure. But we’ve taken steps to address these challenges through our grassroots initiative – Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program, our elite development efforts through the NBA Academy among many. Through our efforts, we’ve put basketballs into the hands of boys and girls – from grassroots all the way to elite level – and delivered new live game experiences to our fans. We recognise there’s more work to be done, but we’re excited with the progress we’ve made.

Our grassroots initiative in India – the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program – launched in 2013. Since its inception, the program has engaged more than 11 million youth across 13,000 schools and trained more than 13,000 physical education instructors nationwide. We also partnered with India On Track (IOT) to launch the first NBA Basketball School in the world in Mumbai in 2017. NBA Basketball School is a network of tuition-based basketball development programs around the world open to international male and female players ages 6-18. Currently, there are over 25 active NBA Basketball Schools in six cities across India. In partnership with ACG, we launched ACG-NBA Jump, India’s first national basketball talent searchin 2015. Since 2016, top male prospects from the program receive year-round basketball development training at the NBA Academy India, which is also supported by our official partner ACG. In fact, in July, Princepal Singh became the first NBA Academy graduate to sign with the G League Ignite team.

On digital, the NBA Instagram page (global) added over 117k new followers from India during the Restart, the largest growth for any country in that span. The league account now has 1.7 million total followers from India, the 4^th most represented country after the US (10+), Brazil (2.2) and the Philippines (2.0). The International League Pass gross subscribers grew by over 40% compared to the 2018-19 season. NBA merchandise is available across multiple offline and online platforms and was bought by fans across 730+ towns and cities in India.  We have had more than 1.7 million unique users playing NBA Fantasy on Dream11 in FY20, drawing a total entry fees 2.6x of the 2018-19 season.

What kind of impact did the pandemic have on NBA and basketball as a sport in general?

Like the entire world, it’s been a challenging year for the NBA, having to navigate this pandemic. Close to 40% of the League’s revenue comes from fans attending games in our arenas, which we missed during the restart and the playoffs last season. But the display of compassion and allyship across the NBA family over the last few months has been incredibly moving. We restarted the 2019-20 season in Orlando in a bubble, creating a safe environment that allowed us to crown a champion is among the greatest Leaguewide achievements. Players, teams, coaches and League staff across departments worked collaboratively for months to execute what was an enormous undertaking and made incredible sacrifices to make this happen. We can’t thank them enough.

With the available flexible online learning solutions, in India we introduced curriculum based online basketball sessions for the children of the NBA Basketball Schools. The minimum requirement for them was to have a basketball and the rest of the activity can be done even in a small room/ area. The game is truly where the players are, and it was affirmed loud and clear in 2020.

Tell us about your marketing and media strategy for NBA. Are you looking at a communication that’s more focused on digital?

The future of sports will be defined by technology’s ability to bring the game directly to fans on their preferred device – which is especially true about reaching fans outside of North America. We have a three-pronged strategy to help grow the game of basketball globally:

• Creating opportunities for boys and girls to play the game
• Bringing the NBA experience to fans around the world through live games and interactive fan events
• Making the game more accessible and delivering localised content to international fans

Fan engagement on a global basis is at an all-time high with NBA games watched by more than 1 billion viewers last season – 1 out of every 7 people in the world. The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 1.9 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms. Nearly 70% of all NBA social media followers are from outside the US. Like I mentioned earlier, the NBA Instagram page added over 117k new followers from India during the Restart.

The League’s multi-platform media approach helps drive interest year-round on linear, social and digital. The NBA has 148 million followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok. In just three years, the NBA has seen a 43% growth in social media views across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok (9.2 billion in 2017 vis-à-vis 13.2 billion in 2020). Propelled by the Restart, we established new records across social media during the 2019-20 season with 20 billion total video views (+17%) and 1.7 billion actions (+30%), breaking the 2018-19 seas1on marks.

Are there any other brand partnerships that you are looking at?

There are some exciting updates in the pipeline. We recently announced the extension of our long-standing fantasy gaming partnership with Dream11 by offering the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the G League for the first time to users in India. Dream11 now becomes the official fantasy partner of the NBA, WNBA and G League in India.

In August 2020, we announced a partnership with Loco to stream NBA 2K League matches in India. The multi-year partnership began with 2020 NBA 2K League Playoffs and Finals.

What’s your vision for basketball in India? 

The Indian sporting landscape is growing with the emergence and success of multiple sports leagues. The country has more than a billion people, with a growing middle class, increasing disposable income, and a median age of 28.I think the country is on course of developing a robust sporting culture. Cricket, of course, is a religion here considering its history and success stories, but as with all these additional leagues, there is plenty of room for basketball in India.

Our focus is on teaching kids how to play and to enjoy basketball, so that they can follow it as they grow up. We want to make sure that we’re developing our brand in a way that is endemic to the local culture. The participation programs in India are an important part of our localisation – just as important, however, is the local media piece. Moving forward, we look to further localise our content across all forms of media and ensure that our content is relevant and accessible for an Indian audience.