NBA Drafts EA Sports For Sponsorship Dollars

Forget about Blake Griffin, Ricky Rubio, or Stephen Curry. When David Stern approaches the podium tonight at the 2009 NBA Draft, there is one name that may get more attention than all of them combined: EA Sports. As the top sponsor for the draft, the video game manufacturer will have a major presence in a U.S. sporting event for the second week in a row, and Nielsen data reveals why the NBA Draft is an appealing option to place its marketing resources.

More than 2.8 million viewers watched last year as Derrick Rose, the eventual Rookie of the Year, was selected first overall by the Chicago Bulls. More important to a sponsor like EA Sports, though, is the product usage behavior of those viewers.

For example, data from Nielsen’s people meter sample fused with the respondents of MRI’s (Mediamark Research & Intelligence) Survey of the American Consumer reveals the motivation behind EA Sports’ buy:

 -Users of sports video games, where EA Sports is the market leader, had 71% higher ratings compared to the composite NBA draft viewer.

-Participants in fantasy sports leagues - a feature included in EA Sports’ NBA Live franchise - had a whopping 207% higher ratings than the composite.

In an age of consumer empowerment, leagues are doing everything in their power to engage fans. And establishing marketing relationships with fantasy league and video game manufacturers like EA Sports has become a crucial part of that effort.

NBA Playoffs: Where Amazing Marketing Happens

On average, NBA playoff viewership is up 18% across TNT, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC thanks in part to a pair of Conference final games. On May 26th, the Cavs and Magic pulled 10.1 million viewers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Championship Series on TNT - the most ever for an NBA Playoff game on cable and the most-watched cable telecast of the year. And the Lakers-Nuggets’ Game 4 of the Western Conference Championship Series delivered 9.7 million viewers - the most ever for a basketball game (college or pro) in ESPN’s history.

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NCAA Tourney Gives Sports Sites Major March Madness Bounce

Monitoring traffic to three major web properties - ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, and CBS Sports - during the recent NCAA Basketball Tournament shows a spike in activity over last year (Y-O-Y) and the boost in traffic compared to the previous month (M-O-M).

Additionally, video streaming on CBS Sports saw massive gains during the tournament, with nearly a 300% gain in unique users watching video. Those viewers racked up more than 380 million minutes of viewing time in March.

Nielsen’s Tom Ziangas On NCAA Tournament Advertising

Now that the NCAA Tournament has tipped off, senior vice president for Nielsen Sports Tom Ziangas talks about how important March Madness is to the CBS brand as well as the basketball tournament’s appeal to advertisers.

“The one thing you think about as far as the NCAA tournament is it’s synonymous with CBS,” said Ziangas. “I think advertisers understand that. That’s why you have people like Coke and AT&T - and even GM is actually coming back to the tournament when they pulled out of the Super Bowl. Having that cache as far as that association of the tournament to the network and bringing in that great male 18+ demographic is something that very few advertisers see, and that’s why they jump on board with the NCAA tournament.”

Watch the video for more from Tom Ziangas about advertising and the NCAA Tournament.

Banking On March Madness: Advertising And Demographics Scorecard

The NCAA Tournament, March Madness, is one of the most celebrated sporting events in the U.S, providing a tremendous opportunity for advertisers to reach a wide and relatively affluent audience.

Nielsen’s Guide To March Madness, tracks a range of consumer and media information surrounding the event including advertising trends and demographic reach of the multi-week event. Ad buys for CBS’s coverage of the NCAA Tournament have risen steadily over the last five years - from $434 million in 2004 to $580 million in 2008 - a surge of almost 34 percent.  Spending for the Final Four Championship game has grown 47 percent over the last five years.  Last year’s final game saw $97.5 million in advertising, with the cost of a 30-second commercial over $1 million.

Over the last five years, General Motors has spent the most on ads with a total of $317 million. Last year, the auto company was the top spender, with $64.7 million in spending.

The automotive category was the top-spending category for each of the last five years.  Last year, automotive was top, followed by financial - investment services, fast food restaurants, wireless phone services and beer.

Scoring With Fans?

Are these advertisers reaching their targets?  According to Scarborough Sports Marketing, a joint venture between Nielsen and Arbitron, the answer is a resounding “yes.”  Viewers and listeners of the tournament are likely to be male, educated and married.  They have higher than average annual household incomes and and a wide range of interests, hobbies and consumer preferences:

An NCAA Fan Is…

• 10 percent more likely to have visited a casino in the last year
• 17 percent more likely own three or more vehicles in their household
• An avid fast food consumer, and is 34 percent more likely than the average adult to have visited a fast food chain 10 or more times in a week
• 33 percent more likely to have consumed any beer in the last month, with Bud Lite, Budweiser and Corona the leading brands in the light domestic,  regular domestic and imported categories.

Download Nielsen’s complete Guide To March Madness

Watching March Madness: Nielsen’s TV And Online Scoreboard

With the brackets set and first round matchups set to tip off on Thursday, Nielsen has released its first annual Guide To March Madness, which tracks a range of consumer and media information surrounding the event.

“The NCAA Tournament is very attractive to sports marketers even in tough economic times,” said Tom Ziangas, SVP for Nielsen Sports. “The games playing out over several weeks make it a sort of mini-series for viewers. There’s always some unexpected drama or Cinderalla story - like Davidson College last year - that makes March Madness a compelling reality show as well as a prime sporting event.”

In 2008, the tournament reached nearly 100 million viewers in the US, with basketball hotbed Louisville, KY, delivering the highest ratings for a local market in the last five years.

Most Avg. Viewers, NCAA Championship Game (millions)

1979 - Mich St. vs. Ind. St. - 35.1
1992 - Duke vs. Michigan - 34.3
1993 - UNC vs. Michigan - 32.9
1994 - Arkansas vs Duke - 32.7
1983 - NC St. vs. Houston - 32.1

Top Local Market Rating, NCAA Tournament 5-year Avg.

Louisville - 19.0%
Raleigh-Durham - 13.0%
Memphis - 12.9%
Cincinnati - 12.9%
Columbus - 12.7%

March Madness On The Web

ESPN and Yahoo! were the two most-visited sports sites last March with 19.8 and 19.4 million unique users, respectively. Traffic on the CBS Sports web brand shot up 59 percent in March 2008 over the previous month. Online buzz spiked dramatically in March for last year’s Cinderella team, Davidson College. This year, there’s an additional mobile phone angle as CBS March Madness On-Demand is now available via an iPhone application as well as the desktop.

Download the Nielsen’s Guide To March Madness.

NBA Provides Key Assists To TV Advertisers

The NBA may not draw the highest ratings for nationally televised games, but it’s second only to the NFL in delivering their core fans to the TV sets, according to a new study from Nielsen PreView.

The study, which analyzed viewership data for some of America’s favorite sports, uncovered that while Major League Baseball and NBA pull in comparable audiences for nationally televised broadcast, when compared to the actual fan base in the United States, the NBA significantly outperformed most of its peers; NBA games were able to get 7.8% of its fans, on average, to sit down and view the broadcast.

The study also highlighted the strength of engagement for the sports. NFL fans, on average, watch over an hour of each televised football event; this was the only sport of the four to have over an hour of engagement per televised event.

Read the full study.

SPORTS WRAP: Unwrapping NBA Christmas Day Ratings

NBA fans will have quite a few presents to unwrap on Christmas Day, with none bigger than the Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers matchup on ABC. The teams square off for the first time since last year’s NBA Finals. When the Celtics defeated the Lakers for their 17^th championship in June, the series received an average of 14.9 million viewers, the most for the NBA Finals in five years.

Since ABC obtained NBA broadcasting rights in 2002, the network’s Christmas Day games have averaged a 4.1 rating and 6.9 million viewers nationally. The highest mark came in 2004 when the Lakers and Heat (featuring a much-anticipated reunion between Kobe and Shaq) pulled a 7.3 rating and 13.2 million viewers.

The San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns officially tip off ABC’s broadcast season at 2:40pm ET Christmas Day.  Last year, the NBA on ABC averaged a 2.2 national rating, up 10% from 06-07.

Aside from the two ABC games, the NBA offers a few Christmas stocking stuffers, with the Hornets-Magic at noon on ESPN and two nightcaps (Wizards-Cavs and Mavs-Blazers) on TNT. The NBA’s cable ratings remain steady through the first two months of the season after ESPN and TNT boasted 20% and 10% increases in viewership last year, respectively.

SPORTS WRAP: NBA Teams Putting Up Big Local Numbers

Less than a month into watching the NBA season, Nielsen has spotted some noticeable trends, including several teams outscoring last year’s ratings in their local markets. While the San Antonio Spurs are still the highest-rated NBA team with a 6.8 Average Household Rating in their market, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trailblazers are close behind, thanks to large increases in viewership compared to this time period last season.

NBA Local Ratings Box Score

• The New Orleans Hornets ratings are up 163% compared to a year ago, thanks in large part to last year’s come-from-nowhere victory of their division.
• In Cleveland, fans witnessed the high flying Lebron James lead the Cavs to an eight-game winning streak, which fueled a109% lift in ratings from last season.
• Atlanta and Portland, two teams loaded with young talent, have captured the attention of their markets, with a 97% and 44% increase in their local ratings respectively.
• In Orlando, Dwight Howard and the Magic are atop their division, and are also enjoying a 26% boost in viewership compared to last season.
• The New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers, who benefit from the nation‘s two largest markets, are also outperforming last season, with 17% and 14% increases.

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Finding The Avid Sports Fan In Season

When is the best time to engage with sport fans? 

It may depend on the time of the year, according to a multi-sport study from Nielsen PreView.  The research, which analyzed fan loyalty for more than a dozen sports found that while some fans are fully dedicated to one sport, many have competing loyalties that affect their engagement with each sport. 

For instance, while NCAA Basketball season begins in the fall – when baseball and football are also on the sports scene, February and March are the prime months when basketball fans are most engaged in their sport.

Sports sponsorship and licensing is at least a $17 billion business in the U.S., Nielsen PreView’s study notes.  With stakes that big, being able to gauge fan engagement across a variety of sports – in order to time ad spending – is no mere game.

View Nielsen PreView’s study.