A new marketing partnership between Moosehead Breweries and NBA Canada boasts new multiplatform reach into the B-boy market.
As the league’s official beer partner in Canada, Moosehead is conducting national NBA-themed ad campaigns that include title sponsorship of a new team-based NBA fantasy game called ‘Moosehead NBA Picks,’ available to fans on the league’s broadcast partner, The Score, at www.thescore.com/fantasy.
The partnership sets the antler-themed beer up in national ads during more than 500 NBA games aired by all six of the league’s television partners in Canada: CBC, TSN, TSN2, The Score, Sun TV and Raptors TV. Moosehead will also have a digital presence through banner ads and sponsorship content on NBA.com in Canada.
‘We were trying to develop concepts that worked within the ‘trust your instincts’ positioning,’ Dan MacKenzie, GM, NBA Canada, tells MiC. ‘That lends itself well to a fantasy game because that’s what you’re doing – you’re trusting your instincts in terms of who’s going to win.’
Developed with The Score, the game was designed to attract the widest possible audience of male-skewed 18- to 49-year-olds with simple rules that invite players to ‘lock in’ their pick of teams from 20 games every week. Correct guesses get extra points, and the two grand prizes – a trip to the NBA All-Star Game in the first half of the season and a trip to the NBA Finals in the second half – are based on the highest individual weekly score, encouraging continuous play all year.
The Moosehead NBA Picks game is being pushed through promotional units on The Score and in NBA broadcasts, as well as through NBA.com, on TheScore.com and on Moosehead sites. The Score is also running daily mentions on The Ticker.
Prizing partner Adidas also has some branding within the game, and leaderboard and run-of-site banner ad opps are currently open to other apparel and beer advertisers as well, confirms MacKenzie.
In Canada, the league also has digital media relationships with Bell Mobility, Bell Sympatico, TSN and Rogers Sportsnet, and 13 marketing partners in the country including Adidas, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, EA Sports, Gatorade, Hewlett-Packard, Moosehead, Nike, Parmalat, Sirius Satellite Radio, Spalding and Wrigley’s.
