Basketball Brands Lead The Way In Leveraging Player Personal Social Platforms

No sports league understands how to engage fans via social media quite like the NBA and no brands understand quite how to integrate the personal social media feeds of athlete ambassadors into their campaigns quite like NBA sponsors. Evidence that basketball leads the way in this tactical integrated ambassador/brand approach abounded through 2015 All-Star Weekend activation: from Kevin Durrant’s Twitter teaser about going to law school for Sprint, to Chris Paul’s @CliffPaul spoof for State Farm’s #AllStarAssist initiative. Of course, it’s not just All-Star activation but work right across the basketball landscape that leads the way when it comes to integrating with baller ambassadors’ own social channels (from LeBron’s ‘Flo Halloween Costume‘ posts for Progressive Insurance to Dwight Howard’s ‘NBA Swingman’ tweets). When the NBA’s own ground-breaking approach to social media is combined with the huge personal social media reach enjoyed by so many of the league highly charismatic (and sometimes outspoken) basketball stars, sponsors who are subtle enough not to destroy the authenticity of the players’ channels often find themselves with incredibly powerful and effective activation platforms.