The Next Generation of NBA Consumers

What sport do you think is the most popular amongst Gen Z? It’s pretty well known that American football is the most popular sport to watch in the United States in general, but what about amongst the country’s newest emerging generation? While the NFL is still at the top of the Gen Z watchlist, the NBA is right behind and actually scores ahead of the NFL in regards to brand affinity (YPulse). The NBA has managed to capture the fandom of Gen Z more efficiently than other sports leagues in the United States. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons behind the NBA’s success with Generation Z.?

Social Media Engagement

Gen Z is the first generation of digital natives, born into a world where internet accessibility and portable devices such as smartphones are commonplace. As such, members of Gen Z lead the way when it comes to online activity; they spend the most amount of time on social media and have the highest number of active social media accounts out of any generation (World Economic Forum). With this in mind, marketing to Gen Z places a heavy emphasis on connecting with them via social media and other online platforms. When it comes to sports leagues, no league has had more success connecting to Gen Z on social media than the NBA. We can see proof of this through how popular the NBA’s social media pages are. The NBA’s Instagram page has 61.8 million followers compared to the NFL’s 22.3 million. Its Twitter page has 35.4 million followers versus the NFL’s 27.8 million. Its Tiktok page has 13.9 million followers compared to the NFL’s 7.2 million. Even on Facebook, the NBA has over double the number of followers as the NFL, with 43 million followers compared to the NFL’s 18 million. Across practically all social media platforms, the NBA has cultivated stronger engagement and follower counts than any of the other sports leagues in the United States, an essential step in marketing to Gen Z.

How has the NBA been so successful at growing its social media following? A large part of that has to do with the nature of basketball games. One of the biggest appeals to watching basketball are the highlights–brief moments of incredibly exciting in-game action. These can range from slam dunks, high-difficulty shots, dazzling dribble moves, emphatic blocks, or any other manner of sensational play. Highlights also make for fantastic marketing material. Highlight clips are short, eye-catching, and don’t require in-depth knowledge of the sport to appreciate. The NBA takes video clips or pictures of its best highlights, syncs them up with dramatic commentating from broadcasters, and posts them to its social media pages or as ads on various platforms. The NBA also collects the best highlights from a given stretch of games and creates compilations that viewers can consume as the most exciting moments in basketball. This highlight-driven formula stimulates a great degree of engagement on social media and has been instrumental in capturing the attention of Gen Z.?

Strong League Values

Outside of social media usage, another defining feature of Gen Z is their devotion to social justice issues. Gen Z has been outspoken and active in regards to a wide range of social issues and not only do they care about these issues, they care about how the brands they follow interact with these issues. According to Workest, 70% of Gen Z prefer brands they consider ethical and 68% expect brands to contribute to society. Many companies have begun to adjust their business plans to include social justice initiatives and the NBA is at the forefront of this shift. They’ve gone about this largely through empowering their players, coaches, and other employees to have a platform to speak up about issues they care about. During the 2020 NBA playoffs, players were given the option to put social justice messages on their jerseys in place of their names. Additionally, the NBA has produced commercials featuring prominent members of the league speaking in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Other NBA initiatives relating to social justice include the NBA Foundation, which aims to address “education, income, and employment disparities in Black communities,” and NBA Cares, the NBA’s social responsibility program created to address social issues both in the United States and internationally.

The NBA takes steps to embody its values whenever it can, a fact that I confirmed when speaking to an employee at the NBA. They expressed to me how the NBA prioritizes social components when making business decisions. One particular way they mentioned the NBA does this is through partnerships with other companies. When finding partners and companies to work with, the NBA tries to find companies that share and act upon similar values such as social justice. Oftentimes, partnerships between the NBA and its affiliates go on to create programs to tackle issues. Some examples are impact investment programs, funds for black-owned businesses, donations for police reform, and other such initiatives (NBA.com). Through undertaking such initiatives, the NBA is able to showcase its care for social justice and live up to the social expectations of Gen Z.

Conclusion

The NBA has far outpaced other sports leagues when it comes to catching the attention of Generation Z. A strong social media presence driven by highlights has connected with the digital natives of Gen Z. High involvement in social justice issues has matched the expectations of Gen Z for a company operating in this day and age. The strong inroads that the NBA has made with Gen Z will cultivate a long-term audience for the league and ensure its long-term growth.

Sources:

Marzullo, D. (2021, March 18). Gen Z Says Social Justice Is More Important Than Climate Change. Workest. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.zenefits.com/workest/gen-z-says-social-justice-is-more-important-than-climate-change/?

NBA Foundation. NBA Foundation – Furthering economic empowerment in the Black community. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://nbafoundation.nba.com/?

NBA.com. (2020, December 17). NBA Team Social Justice Efforts. NBA.com. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.nba.com/news/nba-team-social-efforts?

These are gen Z & millennials' top 15 sports leagues. YPulse. (2021, July 23). Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.ypulse.com/article/2021/07/22/these-are-gen-z-millennials-top-15-sports-leagues/?

Viens, A. (2019, October 2). This graph tells us who's using social media the most. World Economic Forum. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/10/social-media-use-by-generation/.?