NBA Expands Presence in France with Launch of Jr. NBA League and Marketing Partnerships

This year, as part of the NBA Paris Game, the NBA, the FFBB and the UNSS launched a new league, Jr. NBA, in Paris. With what ambition?

Our Jr. NBA league in Paris is open to 450 young people aged thirteen and under, from 30 schools in the city. But this project is part of an approach that has already been initiated before because offering young boys and girls the opportunity to play basketball is a key element of our strategy which aims to develop the discipline. Our relationship with the FFBB (French basketball federation) through the “Challenges Benjamins” program is in its 13th year and has reached more than 250,000 participants across France. Our commissioner, Adam Silver, during his meeting with Emmanuel Macron, also announced that we will expand our basketball development program among young people in collaboration with the FFBB, the LNB (National Basketball League), the UNSS (National Union of school sport and FIBA ​​(International Basketball Federation). Basketball is truly experiencing a unique moment in France with a level of talent at a record level [la France est le troisième pays le mieux représenté au sein de la NBA avec quatorze joueurs professionnels, ndlr]which makes it all the more exciting in this Olympic year.

Exactly, how does the NBA retain its French fans the rest of the year?

Last December, we launched NBA ID, a digital platform that invites our French members to interact with each other. The platform offers exclusive content including press articles and experiences around the NBA at preferential prices. And for the NBA Paris Game in particular, members of the NBA ID have already been able to have experiences, such as playing on the Accor Arena court with Tony Parker. And then this week, we are also organizing NBA House, a free and interactive fan event where the Carreau du temple, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, has been transformed to celebrate basketball, but also fashion, music, media and art associated with the NBA.

There is a strong connection between basketball and popular culture which we believe resonates particularly strongly with fans in France and so we are always looking to exploit this with new and innovative touchpoints with fans. Other ways we build fan loyalty and engage with our fans throughout the season include, for example, our popular NBA Fantasy game, as well as personalized content on the NBA app and across our social channels in different languages, who provide that truly authentic voice.

France is the leading sales market for NBA branded products in Europe and the Middle East. How many marketing partners does the NBA work with in the country?

The NBA has 21 marketing partners in France. For the NBA Paris Game, Revolut was the presenting partner and, in total, 11 of our partners had specific activations around the match: Accor, Foot Locker, Gatorade, Hennessy, Hotels.com, Nike, NBA 2K, La Française des Games (via Parions Sport), Revolut, Tissot and Wilson. We are delighted with the level of engagement from our partners during match week, with a range of activations, draws, giveaways and interactive activities that bring partnerships to life and deliver incredible experiences for fans.

2024-01-16 09:54:36
#NBA #accelerate #development #France