A national campaign to build the National Basketball Association\u2019s Latino fan base is underway like a fast break down center court.<\/p>\n
National Basketball Association All-Star and Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford from the Dominican Republic has become the campaign\u2019s ambassador, the NBA recently announced. It is also expanding its marketing efforts directed at U.S. Latino consumers through a partnership with Univisi\u00f3n and a new advertising campaign titled \u201cSave Your Passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building on the success of the multilingual website \u201c\u00e9ne\u2022b\u00e9\u2022a,\u201d launched in October of 2009, the site will now be carried on Univisi\u00f3n Interactive digital platform. The co-branded site includes blogs by Latino NBA players, video highlights, news and interactive fan content.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be a part of such a major effort by the league to connect with Hispanics in a culturally relevant way,\u201d Horford said. \u201cAs a Latino player and consumer, I understand and appreciate the importance of being acknowledged and approached in a way that I can relate to culturally and emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe focus on cultural relevance as the foundation and driving force of our marketing efforts,\u201d said NBA Senior Director of U.S. Hispanic Marketing Saskia Sorrosa. \u201cThe perfect example of how cultural relevancy comes to life is \u00e9ne\u2022b\u00e9\u2022a. Rather than translate or tag the words \u201cEspanol\u201d or \u201cLatino\u201d to the end of our name, \u00e9ne\u2022b\u00e9\u2022a allowed us to connect with Hispanic fans by leveraging a brand name this group already uses to identify with and refer to our league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erick Orihuela, a psychology student at USF, seems to agree.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it emphasizes the Spanish much more. Plus I think it\u2019s creative. At least for me as a bilingual who is engulfed in an English-speaking environment, I think of acronyms in their language. So I don\u2019t see NBA and think \u2018oh la NBA in Spanish\u2019 but seeing \u00e9ne\u2022b\u00e9\u2022a does make me think of it in Spanish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want it to be NBA Latino or nothing like that; \u00e9ne\u2022b\u00e9\u2022a feels more natural,\u201d Orihuela added. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s underestimating the intelligence of the Spanish speaking community. Because it is a campaign aimed at Spanish speakers within the U.S., it allows even those would do not speak Spanish to become a part of it. Otherwise, it would be completely segregating us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former player Felipe Lopez, also from the Dominican Republic, is joining Harford as a spokesperson for the campaign. Horford and Lopez will engage the league\u2019s Latino fans throughout the upcoming season via grassroots programs, special events and unique consumer products, according to a recent NBA press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the launch of last year\u2019s \u00e9ne\u2022b\u00e9\u2022a campaign, we saw significant increases in interest and consumption of our game among U.S. Hispanic sports fans,\u201d Sorrosa said.<\/p>\n
Sorrosa added, \u201cOur partnership with Univisi\u00f3n Interactive, coupled with our extended efforts this season, allow us to further engage our Hispanic fans in an inclusive and culturally relevant way; while positively impacting our business, and creating opportunities for partners to connect with passionate consumers across multiple platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viewership among Latinos increased 17 percent during the 2009-10 season compared to a year ago, and the NBA on ESPN Deportes was up 57 percent in unique viewers. On the digital front, Latino traffic to NBA.com grew 20 percent compared to last season, and numbers on \u00e9ne\u2022b\u00e9\u2022a\u2019s social networking sites continue to grow at an impressive rate, with Facebook\u2019s \u00e9ne\u2022b\u00e9\u2022a page boasting more than 250,000 fans, according to Sorrosa.<\/p>\n
The league\u2019s 2010-2011 Latino marketing efforts is supported by a new advertising campaign, entitled \u201cGuarda Tu Pasi\u00f3n\u201d to showcase the true passion that Latinos bring to the game, according to an NBA news release.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuarda Tu Pasi\u00f3n,\u201d which literally translates to \u201cSave Your Passion,\u201d follows the 2010 Playoffs campaign entitled \u201cPobre Garganta\u201d that featured Latino fans who became hoarse after relentless cheering for their favorite NBA team the previous night. \u201cGuarda Tu Pasi\u00f3n\u201d shows how Latinos store up their energy strictly for the NBA season.<\/p>\n
Since 2007 the NBA has held annual Noche Latina programs. In March 2010 they took place in Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, Chicago, Houston, New York and Orlando. The Warriors marketing department was not available for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A national campaign to build the National Basketball Association\u2019s Latino fan base is underway like a fast break down center court. National Basketball Association All-Star and Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford from the Dominican Republic has become the campaign\u2019s ambassador, the NBA recently announced. It is also expanding its marketing efforts directed at U.S. Latino […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[18445],"class_list":["post-7823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n