The NBA is turning its All-Star weekend events into a content factory for more than 200 top creators who are gathering in Los Angeles this week.
The league has hand-picked a small army of top creators, most of whom they have worked with in varying degrees over the past decade, to be integrated into the league’s formal presentations of “live broadcasts, in-arena programming, on-court competitions and fan experiences,” per the NBA.
The goal is to use the events that the NBA is already producing – at the L.A. Convention Center in downtown L.A. and the Intuit Dome in Inglewood — to provide spectacular visuals and days of content fodder for social media creators with influential followings across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, Twitch. The NBA sees the creator-economy eco-system as an important outlet for immediate promotion as well as pipeline for recruiting new fans.
And there’s another reason why it’s a good time to leverage the power of creators, according to Bob Carney, senior VP of social and digital content for the NBA.
“L.A. is the creator capital of the world,” Carney told Variety.
Having so many readily available in L.A. duing the Feb. 13-15 All-Star weekend made it a natural opportunity to level up the league’s creator strategy. The gathering this weekend is expected to encompass creators who represent more than 1 billion collective followers, he says.
“We have always found that the best way to work together is to find mutually beneficial activations. What we have heard loud and clear from the creator community over the last decade is they want platforms to create content like that. They’re in the content business like every single day, which is fascinating to watch them all work. They’re always working because they’re producing such a high volume of content that they need variety, and they need different settings to create content,” Carney says.
However, the NBA is not writing a check to every one of them. Some do it for the exposure, the content and the opportunities may emerge with the NBA’s blue-chip sponsors. Jesser, a sports influencer with 37.2 million YouTube followers, will have extra VIP access throughout the event. He is also scheduled to pull the live-stream friendly stunt of spending the night by himself inside the Intuit Dome before the game.
“We are not writing a check to every single creator. It’s really not a pay-to-play sort of thing, but when there’s a paid opportunity, of which there are many, mainly from the entire marketing partner footprint that we have at All- Star Weekend. When it becomes a paid engagement, marketing partners are paying the creators because it’ a sponsorship. They want to feature this talent, this famous person in in their commercial, whatever they’re whatever they’re promoting,” Carney says.
The league’s investment in bringing creators into the arena is a comment on how it sees the eco-system of media and information. Carney sees creators as the only reliable way to reach Gen Z and beyond.
“It starts with the fragmentation of consumption that exists. There’s no guarantee this audience is even going to be watching traditional linear television as part of as part of their day to day,” Carney says. “Their day to day behaviors may be YouTube or maybe Tiktok or maybe Instagram, maybe it may be one of those. It may be none of those. It may be two of those. It’s just completely fragmented.”
NBA’s creator-friendly events unfolding around All-Star Weekend include the league’s inaugural “Creator Court,” which is a fan-centric immersive installation at the L.A. Convention Center. It will start on Feb. 12 with a creator competition there dubbed the PlayStation NBA Creator Cup event that will feature YPK Raye, Cam Wilder, Argentinian comedian Lucho Mellera, Carson Roney, Kris London, Jay Cinco, Stephania Ergemlidze and Dude Perfect’s Sparky. The event will be live streamed by the NBA App as well as the NBA’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
A select group will be given access to rehearsals for the league’s All-Star Saturday events. Bree Green, Chris Staples, Ty Jackson, Carson Roney, Bionic Brooks, Whit3 Iverson, Allen Ren, JakeTheJuice and Brian Kortovic will “serve as official stand-ins for NBA All-Star Saturday rehearsals. This allows the creators to capture and share firsthand experience of being an All-Star Saturday participant,” per the NBA.
(Pictured: YouTube star Jesser, who will be integrated into the NBA’s formal All-Star events this week in Los Angeles)
English (US) ·