Big Game in Big Easy

When the National Basketball Association decided to hold its All-Star Game in New Orleans this month, the league realized it had to be more than an extended photo op in a picturesque locale.

So when the league drew up activation plans with 20 corporate sponsors for the game, it determined to give that recovering city something more than just a high-profile basketball exhibition. The result is several days of sponsored projects preceding the annual NBA tilt to help restore the city still slowly rebuilding from the floods of Hurricane Katrina.

Dubbed the Jam Session, the event will give 100,000 fans a chance to interact with the All-Star sponsors and their products. The 400,000-square-foot exhibit space full of activities for fans in the days preceding the game on Feb. 17 will be located in the city’s convention center, which sheltered evacuees in the days following the 2005 natural disaster.

“It’s been a season-long effort for the New Orleans community,” notes Mark Tatum, NBA senior vice president of marketing partnerships. “By having our partners involved in such a big way, it’s taken this to a whole new level.”

Toyota is presenting sponsor of Hands on New Orleans, a day of building and refurbishing projects on the Friday before the game that will bring the All-Star players into New Orleans neighborhoods. Toyota also will sponsor an effort to rebuild homes in the city’s Fremont District that day.

Toyota Project Rebound, an initiative launched earlier this season with the NBA and WNBA, already has been rebuilding basketball courts in New Orleans and other cities.

Also on Hands on New Orleans day, Spalding is sponsoring a court upgrade in the Big Easy and donating balls and equipment to other city parks and recreations projects.

First-time All-Star sponsor Cisco is funding refurbishment of 10 recovery district resource centers in the city and providing computer hardware for 30 locations. It will also underwrite five Jefferson Parish resource centers.

Midway will refurbish a basketball court and Singular will sponsor construction of an asthma-friendly house as part of the NBA All-Star Habitat for Humanity build.

Adidas, presenting sponsor of the fan-oriented Jam Session, will build a playground with Kaboom! and refurbish a basketball court at Central City’s Mahalia Jackson School on the day of service.

Adidas has a major presence at the Jam Session in the form of a 17,000-square foot exhibit with a full-length basketball court, video games on Xbox 360 units and, of course, Adidas products.

“It’s a huge consumer event,” says Travis Gonzolez, a spokesperson for Adidas basketball. “It definitely adds a lot of value and gives people exposure to our brand.”

On another front, Sprite will make a $50,000 donation to the Boys and Girls Club of New Orleans as part of its title sponsorship of the Slam Dunk contest.

As NBA All-Star balloting sponsor, T-Mobile is donating $1 for every vote cast in its retail stores or online to the New Orleans Recovery School District. A “Vote for Your Faves” sweepstakes will give one fan a chance to go to the game with his or her “Five Fave” friends.

Anheuser-Busch will hold two “Jersey Off Your Back” raffles at Hornets home games, with proceeds to benefit New Orleans’ Build Together project.

Anheuser-Busch also is running a contest for a trip for two to the game. Haier and 2K are running similar contests. McDonald’s is running a promotion offering 10 winners trips to the game with a guest.

A new wrinkle to the All-Star Game festivities, fans will be able to choose the winner of the Sprite Slam Dunk by voting with text messages and online at NBA.com. Sprite will air TV spots to build fan awareness about the voting.

Interactive polling suggests the NBA’s desire to draw younger fans. But Tatum says the NBA is merely soliciting participation of all ages. “We think it’s a way to engage all of our fans in a more meaningful way by having them actually decide the outcome [of the slam-dunk competition].”

T-Mobile, title sponsor of the Rookie Challenge and Youth Jam, is inviting 5,000 young students to attend that Friday night event. Those students, 6th through 8th graders, will qualify for the best seats in the arena as “T-Mobile Huddle-Up All Stars” by completing reading and attendance requirements at their respective schools.

They’ll watch a squad of rookies compete against a team of second-year players in a game showcasing the league’s next generation of star talent.

The finals and semi-finals of the 64-team Gatorade Invitational for boys and girls will be held on center court at the Jam Session.

Virtual fans will be able to observe the finals of the EA Sports’ NBA Live ’08 Challenge in that venue, along with a separate tournament of 128 New Orleans video game players.

Sony PlayStation will sponsor the PlayStation Skills Challenge, a real dribble, pass and shoot competition among All-Stars, on what’s billed as All-Star Saturday night.

All of the competition events leading up to the All-Star Game have title sponsorships.

Haier sponsors the Shooting Stars — pitting stars and ex-stars shooting against each other — and Foot Locker sponsors the Three-Point Shootout on Saturday, when the Sprite Slam Dunk also takes place.

McDonald’s sponsors the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. Toyota is presenting sponsor for the All-Star Practice on Saturday afternoon.

The competitive events are televised on TNT. So the NBA has succeeded in selling sponsorships to advertisers and the events themselves to the networks and the fans.

Wrigley’s, another new league All-Star partner, sponsors the league’s traveling NBA Jam Van exhibit, which will make 10 stops at locations in and around the Big Easy in the run-up to the game.

The Jam Van is part of the promotional routine for the NBA. But there is nothing routine about the proactive support the NBA and its sponsors are showing for the city.

Since Katrina hit at the tail end of the summer of 2005, players from visiting NBA teams have been involved in a number of Crescent City philanthropic efforts along with members of the hometown Hornets.

The league has previously executed what it calls “legacy” projects in All-Star cities, single projects similar to those in New Orleans.

NBA Cares is the league’s community outreach arm that gets involved in a myriad of social support projects in franchise markets. But in New Orleans, the NBA seems to be taking its social promotional game to another level.

“Giving back is in our DNA,” sums up Tatum. “NBA Cares is a huge focus for us.”