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NBA Best Practices: Phoenix Suns Dedicate a Day to Facebook

January 24, 2012 2 Comments

It’s been nearly two seasons since Peter Robert Casey and I broke down the Digital NBA Landscape.  The landscape has changed and teams have evolved.  It’s time for us to take another crack at things.

Our mission:  To share Best Practices of how NBA Teams are leveraging digital and social, and give you thoughts on how to apply that in your world.

Here’s a look back:  Warriors | Celtics  | Clippers  |  Nets | Knicks

Next Up: the Phoenix Suns.

The Phoenix Suns are probably the team in all of Pro Sports that goes out bold.  A little over a year ago, the Suns offered a Suite and Social Night, which included 3 Twitter mentions and 2 Facebook status updates about your company.  I found this strategy a little too bold, as to me status updates and Twitter posts collectively add up to your brand.  But I loved the thought of thinking differently.

This NBA season is no different in boldness.  The Phoenix Suns are launching Facebook Night, this Saturday vs. the Memphis Grizzlies.  Intrigued?  Me too.  Let’s dive in.

Hitting the Suns Home Page and Scroll down and (if you’re like me) the idea of Facebook Night jumps out at you.

Meet Channing Frye on Facebook Night

 

Clicking in takes us here, to the wonderful concept of a night dedicated to Basketball and Facebook.  The two images below illustrate the opportunity and the process to be a part of the night.

As you can see you are simply guided to Like the Arizona Lottery and use a code when you redeem your tickets.  The feature on Suns.com lets you immediately Like the Lottery or the Suns from this page.

Step One is to Like the Arizona Lottery on Facebook

Step Two is to Use Code "Facebook" When You Order

 

In short, if you buy the special package to the Suns/Grizzlies game you get:

  1. The chance to meet Channing Frye post game and hear him talk Facebook
  2. The chance to get into the arena early and watch the shootaround
  3. Sit (and hopefully connect) with other Suns Facebook fans
  4. A t shirt for the night
That’s a pretty sweet deal, as all of it (with the exception of the t shirt) revolves around an Experience.  I’d argue that we buy tickets to a game in the first place because we want an experience.  We want to connect.  And this does a great job of amplifying an existing need.
The question I have is the Process.  Step 1 is to “Like” the Arizona Lottery.  This deviates from amplifying existing behavior.  Feels to me like step 1 should be to “Like” the Suns.  After all, you’re going to sit with other Suns fans rather than other Lottery fans.  I understand the sponsorship value, but I think there’s more to gain from the Lottery putting on an amazing part of this event.  Imagine if the Lottery allowed one person who attends to win the chance to do a pregame meal with Frye before the next game?  If I won that, I’d feel like I’d won the lottery!  (pun intended)  The point is that would connect to their brand and the Suns in an amazing way.
Going one step further, we should look at how this is being promoted and how it could become even better?

Upon visiting the Suns Facebook page and clicked on Events, you are taken to this page (shown below).  As you’ll note, at this point the concept isn’t being promoted as a Facebook Event.  This is a huge opportunity for the Suns to make it easy for Fans to help promote it by RSVP’ing for the game right here inside Facebook.

Phoenix Suns Events Page

On the other hand, a visit to Channing Frye’s Facebook page showed that there is a bit of activity on Channing’s page.  Cool.  Now imagine if Channing RSVP’d on the Event Page just referenced?  How much social attention could that drive?

Promoting the Event On Frye's Facebook Page

 

In closing, what does this mean for you?

It’s incredible to create a night to honor your fans.  The Suns are a role model for us to all look at, steal from, and apply.  The keys to a successful social event are:

  1. Create an experience only for your best fans, with reasonable barriers to entry (like “Liking” or “Following” your team)
  2. Make this experience about access rather than about getting “stuff”.
  3. Promote this beforehand to get attention and afterwords to build your brand.

That’s it.  Tune in tomorrow on Peter Robert Casey’s site to check out the next round in the East.  And I’ll be back here on Thursday.

As always follow me on Twitter, I’m @andypawlowski or on Facebook, here.

Thanks for reading.

Andy

 

Filed Under: Events, Facebook, NBA, Sponsorships Tagged With: ,
  • http://SportsGeek.com.au Sean Callanan

    I agree Andy, I like the Facebook night & understand the sponsorship component but they way it is executed it looks like you have to like Arizona State Lottery to attend the event (you don’t have to).  Fan-gating has it’s pros & cons but I’m not a fan of fan-gating with sponsors.

    I like what Golden State do asking fans to check-in to the fan event with sponsor branding which is more natural for the fans to do.

    It is a great way to sell tickets & I’m sure there are fans who attend just for the limited edition T-shirt ;)

    • Anonymous

      Great points Sean. I am not a fan of fan-gating anyway. Just feels a little unlike what you would do to a friend. And being a friend is a bigger key than most of us realize!