What if we told you that a newly created sporting event performed so strongly for advertisers that a brand would have had to run more than 15 spots during the average primetime broadcast or cable program to match the consumer engagement of a single ad during the event?
It’s true, but neither the sport nor the league is new — quite the opposite, in fact.
The National Basketball Association’s inaugural In-Season Tournament wrapped up Dec. 9 when the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Indiana Pacers 123-109 to take home the NBA Cup. And the event—modeled after similar tournaments held by soccer leagues and NBA sibling the Women’s National Basketball Association — was a hit among fans, players, and advertisers.
Indeed, the first-ever In-Season Tournament delivered sky-high ratings, and the large number of viewers who tuned in were far more likely than average to engage with the advertised brands online. And since growth in online search engagement is closely linked to growth in a brand’s market share, it’s safe to say the event was a (sorry!) slam dunk for advertisers.
In-season tourney delivers massive reach and high engagement
Overall, In-Season Tournament broadcasts on ABC, ESPN, and TNT averaged 1.67 million viewers, 41% higher than NBA games during the same time period in 2022. And the championship game averaged a 2.5 rating and 4.58 million viewers across ABC and ESPN, marking the largest non-Christmas or non-postseason audience for an NBA tilt since the Cleveland Cavaliers at Boston Celtics drew 4.64 million viewers in February 2018.
And according to EDO’s Engagement Rate Index — which calculates how likely a viewer is to engage with a brand airing a national spot in the moments after the ad runs — ads that aired during the In-Season Tournament really resonated with viewers. This was particularly the case for the tournament’s championship game, where advertisers were a whopping 77% more likely to generate consumer engagement than during the average broadcast and cable program
All told, the average In-Season tournament game generated 31% more consumer engagement on a per-second, per-person basis than the average broadcast and cable program. That’s just a smidge more engaging than the average NBA regular-season game this year, which has been 30% more effective than the primetime broadcast and cable benchmark.
Phoenix Suns, New Balance, Pepsi among tournament’s top engagement drivers
The Lakers were one of three teams to participate in three of the 10 most engaging games of the tournament, joined by the runners-up Pacers and the Phoenix Suns.
Though the Suns were eliminated in the quarterfinals, their group stage game against the Utah Jazz was 52% more likely to generate consumer engagement than the primetime broadcast and cable average.
The most effective advertiser of the tournament was New Balance, which used an ad featuring NBA stars Jamal Murray and Kawhi Leonard to generate an engagement rate that was 214% greater than the average In-Season Tournament advertiser. New Balance was joined in the top 10 most effective advertisers by Energizer, Pepsi, Verizon’s Visible, Audi, and Lexus.
Here’s the complete top 10:
- New Balance (+214% more likely to drive per-person, per-second engagement vs. the average In-Season Tournament advertiser)
- Coinbase (+183%)
- Energizer (+156%)
- Solo Stove (+149%)
- Pepsi (+139%)
- Tremfya (+138%)
- Visible (+129%)
- Ruffles (+106%)
- Audi (+103%)
- Lexus (+102%)
Want to see the future of sports TV advertising? Check out our 2024 predictions.
It’s safe to say that the first-ever In-Season Tournament was a huge success for the NBA and its network and advertising partners — and it’s hard to imagine it won’t return in 2024.
Speaking of the NBA in the new year, our 2024 TV ad industry predictions are chock full of prescient projections for the future of live sports media. In fact, we’ve even gone out on a limb to predict that at least some of next year’s games will air exclusively on a streaming platform.
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