Steph Curry may very well be the best shooting point guard in the NBA, but basketball has always been a team game. The 30 franchises that make up the league have generated a revenue pie in excess of $5 billion. The digital age has enabled this game to reach its worldwide audience anywhere, anytime. Teams can build up their own local fan base through the sundry of platforms available.
Much like our #NFLTechSeries, this time SportTechie delves into the digital strategies–from web, social media, mobile apps, and any other technological connection–of each team and analyzes them, including insights from some of the digital executives involved. Today, the #NBADigitalSeries 2013-14 continues with the Golden State Warriors. Stay tuned to SportTechie this month for ongoing coverage of the #NBADigitalSeries.
From tech giants of Apple and Google, to the bevy of potent startups, Silicon Valley unquestionably reigns as the epicenter of technology. The amount of knowledge and access this region holds is invaluable towards innovation. Success seems boundless when so many peers are working on the next disrupter.
This technological hotbed has effused down to the pro sports teams at some level. The San Francisco Giants’ social media cafe is one of the best examples of changing the in-game fan experience. The San Francisco 49ers await to call Levi’s Stadium home next season in the most anticipated NFL venue opening since Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium. Not to be outdone, the Oakland A’s can claim to have one of the more clever Vine accounts around.
Led by the “Splash Brothers” of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, the Golden State Warriors have made their own imprint within this tech community.
To most fans, the NBA season starts with media day. This event has long been kept between the team and the media parties covering it. The Warriors’ Tweedia Day this year stands as the third consecutive time they’ve opened access to fans across the social media networks. Players were instructed to rotate inside the social media hub to answer questions from fans all day, which included officials from Facebook and Twitter on hand to monitor. One lucky fan even had the opportunity to attend through submitting an Instagram video that best showcased their spirit.
Kaiser Permanente served as the presenting sponsor for this initiative, which already maintains that status for the Warriors’ website. Adjacent in the overhead contains three important tabs to consume content from: social outlets of Facebook and Twitter, the Mandarin version of the site, and Warriors TV. Underneath this section lies seemingly a glaring omission of a search button in which to look at archived news.
The team’s banner display of the “Dub the Vote” campaign conveniently takes the place of the ticket sales push norm. This campaign’s page clearly defines how fans can cast their All-Star votes, including personalized images for Instagram, the Mandarin site, and Sina Weibo. Two of the more unique and rare features promoted on the homepage are fan-submitted artwork and the top stories written by external sources.
The website’s simplicity, ease of use, and functionality should appeal to users. This same purpose and convenience has translated to some of their social media platforms.
On Facebook, the Warriors prudently leverage their cover photo and million-plus volume to market the “Dub the Vote” campaign for an extended interval of time. They’ve ensured other social outlets and endeavors are visible, such as ticket sales and the ongoing “#WarriorsGround” ploy for user-generated photos to be shared via Facebook, website, and home games. The tone of the copy is rather fan-friendly and positive.
They’ve activated through a “25 Days of Winning” campaign that’s a sponsored giveaway, albeit with graphic branding that’s off from others posts. The team also informs broadcasting prompts on gameday to users. But the most significant tactic is the continued focus to have fans vote-in Curry to the All-Star Game.
Whereas on Twitter, the Warriors more than ensure they tweet often with the same positive tone. The 332,000 followers receive an abundance of live-game tweets, retweets to internal and external influencers, news alerts, and campaign updates.
They utilize at least four different hashtags on a routine basis. Shortened links to redirect traffic to content across the website, Instagram, and YouTube are prevalent. The most interesting tweet of late conveyed they’re experimenting with Google Glass’ “glassware” app for the first time. Still, the amount of tweets could flood a user’s timeline and the team doesn’t retweet or reply back to fans.
Instagram, though, conveys virtually the same images Facebook and not enough original, captivating posts. There’s a volume north of 200,000 and a lot of the messaging revolves around current campaigns. Of note, the team’s cardboard cutout of Curry’s head during road trips fits the nature of this platform well in order to encourage text votes. And again, posts that show broadcasting information and final scores are published here as well.
Outside of these more commonly used mediums, the Warriors’ activity on Pinterest and YouTube stand out. They’ve been extremely aggressive on the former through dedicating 52 boards, yet there’s just over 2,600 followers. Most of these boards don’t cater to the demographics present on this platform and less may very well be more. As for the latter, slightly over 30,000 subscribers is quite solid for a team when most don’t have a presence there. This channel directly promotes and uploads the team’s digital production, which explains the short length among the videos and few tailored for it.
With regards to mobile, the Warriors app covers every base possible. The home interface consists of a rotating image on top and three main tabs; the news feed can’t be adjusted in size on iOS and the images are rather small, while the calendar simply shows the next game and all the games prior, not what’s ahead. The team’s multimedia videos derive from YouTube and are built in well inside the app, which is a way to build views for that platform. The most appealing feature would be for fans attending the game; here they can view traffic through Google Maps, report issues anonymously, and a brief magazine. E-commerce efforts range from merchandise, ticket sales, content ads from in-game digital magazine, seat upgrades by Pogoseat, and current sponsored campaigns.
The Golden State Warriors have an exciting team, engaged fan base, and Silicon Valley in its backyard. They can score from distance digitally almost as well as Curry’s jumpshot–he can thank the team and the fans later for helping him start at the All-Star Game in New Orleans.