Nothing BUT NET

A PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL COURT IS 94' LONG BY 50' WIDE. BUT THE PLAY SPACE FOR THE PHOENIX SUNS' MARKETING EFFORTS IS MUCH BIGGER THAN THAT.

The Arizona NBA franchise is an all-star when it comes to connecting with fans across a variety of media, from sponsorships and events to all aspects of social media.

In the past four seasons, the team was fortunate in that all the seats at the US Airways Center sold out. “We didn't have to do a ton of outside advertising, so we weren't spending a lot of actual ad dollars in the market,” notes Niki Adams, senior director of marketing for the Suns.

Still, the Suns put a considerable amount of effort into keeping fans engaged — and ready to fill seats. Annually, the team spends about 15% of its marketing budget online. From a single-game perspective, online marketing accounts for about 90% of ticket sales, with the remainder sold through the box office and Ticketmaster.

Approximately 70% of the Suns' ad budget is garnered through ticket barter agreements with local media partners including TV, radio, outdoor and print. Cash is used for online campaigns and direct mail, plus traditional channels once trade allotments are exhausted.

The Suns have about 110 marketing partners, close to half of whom have digital inventory or participation with the team, notes Jeramie McPeek, vice president of digital for the Suns. Some might just have banner ads, while others might be a presenting partner for a whole section of the Web site. Right Guard, for example, presents the Flash-animated player section, while Verizon Wireless presents the mobile area.

Unique one-of-a-kind promotions are also created for partners. In March, an 18-hour dribbling contest was held outside the arena. Twenty-five fans participated in the contest, which was sponsored by the Health & Wealth Raffle, a charity that raises money for St. Joseph's Hospital and Barrow Neurological Institute. The entire event was streamed online, along with an 18-hour chat on the Suns home page. In one day, $640,000 worth of tickets were sold. “It was huge success,” says McPeek.

IN THE GAME

The Suns' first foray into social media was in the spring of 2007. At a league-wide meeting — where the Suns were given team site of the year honors — the NBA told teams to consider things like starting MySpace pages and YouTube channels. McPeek rejected the idea at first.

“We wanted people to come to our site, to be exposed to sponsors' ads, ticket offers, etc.,” he says.

This led to the creation of PlanetOrange.net, the Suns' own social network, connected to their main NBA.com/Suns site. At PlanetOrange fans could create a profile, blog, put up videos, participate in discussions and utilize other social features. Today, obviously, a lot of that activity has migrated to Twitter and Facebook. But the team still has about 16,000 PlanetOrange members, who get particularly active around key times like the playoffs.

The NBA basketball franchise first joined Twitter in Nov. 2008. Adjusting to the social medium was a departure from the traditional public relations model, notes McPeek.

“In the past we just broadcast information to fans,” he says. “It's more two-way now. We spend a lot of time listening to our fans, answering questions and joining their conversations.”

The Suns use Twitter in a variety of ways. Quotes and anecdotes are tweeted by players and coaches from practices, locker rooms and the team bus. The PR department uses Twitter to pitch stories to local media, sometimes highlighting charitable work players do in the community.

“And [the game operations department] uses it to ask fans what type of music we should be playing in the arena,” McPeek says. “The Suns Dancers talk about appearances they'll be doing around the town. Plus, the broadcast department uses Twitter to get questions from fans to answer on TV during the pregame show. Live tweets are also streamed onscreen during broadcast and on the big screen in the arena.”

Players, however, aren't allowed to tweet during games. “There were a couple of players, including our former center Shaquille O'Neal, who tweeted at halftimes last season,” says McPeek. “Our coach didn't have any problem with it — he even made a joke about it when he was asked — but I know that Milwaukee's coach was angry when one of his players did it, so the league did institute that policy.”

At first, there was concern about having so many people representing the Suns brand out on the virtual front line. “But over time, we've set up an in-house process,” McPeek says. “If employees want to get on Twitter and represent the organization, I'll act as kind of a Twitter mentor, teaching them the features of Twitter and how important it is to use common sense, and not be tweeting out things that are negative or that reveal important business info that we shouldn't be revealing.

“And truthfully, our employees on Twitter are Suns veterans and know to put the interests of the organization first. So it's a great chance to have them out there talking about the team and spreading Suns fever.”

Next Page: Team Building