Pinterest. Tumblr. NBA Playoffs? One of these things is not
like the others… but in order to extend their social media presence in time for
the 2012 Playoffs, the NBA now has pages on both Pinterest and Tumblr. These
campaigns will support existing Twitter and Facebook campaigns.
The main purpose of these extensions is to increase
attention to the playoffs through photo sharing. The league sees this as a
worthwhile endeavor to use their “rich library of content to drive further
engagement.”
Color me skeptical; I’m all about extending social media
engagement wherever possible, but when I think of the NBA, Pinterest and Tumblr
is largely incongruent. The main demographics for these two social media sites
are hipsters and women. Unless I’ve missed something, I don’t think these are
the most active supporters of the NBA. Expanding the league’s social media
footprint to as many people as possible is a great idea, but this might be too
large a jump. (Facts to back my assertions up courtesy of MarketingPilgrim.com:
68% of Pinterest users are female, compared to 38% of NBA fans) Noble idea,
unlikely reward.
This being said, the NBA also plans on trying to push a
great deal of e-commerce through both platforms—this is about the only way
Pinterest makes sense to me, although they’re going to get to offer a bit more
than another outlet to buy league apparel to get (let alone keep) the attention
of users. Whether that’s possible has yet to be seen.
What do you think? Is
this a brilliant business move on the NBA’s part, or a flop-campaign in the
making?
I agree obviously with the fact that those two sites do not seem to hit the demo of the NBA. I also think that if there was one major sport league to make those two part of part of a successful social media arsenal it would be the NBA. I'm not on either site but I must say I am sort of intrigued to jump on my girlfriend's Tumblr and Pinterest just to check out the content.
ReplyDelete