Welcome to amazing!
Well done to Sasol on their new advert featuring the SA Wheelchair Basketball team [the one heading off to the Paralympics] versus our very own Springbok rugby team. It’s awesome to see positive publicity like this for basketball in SA!
For all who haven’t seen it yet, here it is – Chairs vs Champs:
Welcome to Amazing!
[Sounds like this could have even been inspired by the NBA’s “Where amazing happens” campaign!?]
Sasol’s site dedicated to the Paralympic team and links to all their videos and information is here – welcometoamazing.com.
I have seen the advert on TV a few times. It stareted with 10″ and extends its length. I guess this is the first advert in my time depicting a Senior National Team. The creativity of the marketers of Sasol is amazing. But I commend the WheelChair Basketball Team for setting aside a portion of their sponsorship for above-the-line results. This has been complemented by reports on the radio, a prime time news report on television let alone a good report on Slam Dunk Basketball Programme on SABC 1.Newspaper reports have been incredible and the website reports added another dimension.
The person who does the media liaison for the team has full details of their story.
Basketball is big. Marketers use the game to advertise their products. Milo has a basketball kid on its package, there is some other deodarant depicting the sport. McDonalds does the same in their commercial. In fact I see basketball everyday in the lives of various brands.
Setlogelo, what you’re describing here is one of the great missed opportunities in SA – for both basketball and marketers…
I agree with you that the creativity here is excellent and it is very good for the team to allocate something to this important avenue of communication and publicity. Perhaps this might help spark an increased interest in the sport [although as you say, it does already exist to a certain degree] that can be successfully leveraged to fund growth of the game we love.
With basketball growing the way it is in SA, will it ever get to the point where it has national coverage like other “popular” sports such as rugby and soccer??? I mean I personally would love to see an hours worth of Slam Dunk because I believe that Siya could cover so much more!!! It would be so dope if we could cover ball in SA the way that NBA is covered in the States…even have dedicated tv channels just for it…mmmh!!!
In addition, why is it we don’t have a stronger media coverage in magazines, newspapers and the like. I appreciate this website (TRUST ME…I DO) BUT what about those that don’t have constant access to the internet. I mean I might fall into that category once i leave varsity BUT would still like to continue playing and supporting bball!!!
Anyway, BIG UP to the SASOL “Chairs v Champs” Ad…too nice… I hope to see more ads that depict basketball in such a great light in the near future!!!
When I first saw the advert I was so excited cos bball was being used in something.It reminded me of an advert not so long ago that had the senior national team players….Sponsors will always follow successful products.we should continue to work hard to ensure that this can be a reality to our product which is BBall.
Yani
The key element of broadcasting is sponsorship. When you look carefully, the major sporting codes are sponsored and their pockets are deep enough to negotiate good broadcast sponsorship.
Our leaders do not have much to put on the table. I would like to think that as far as broadcasting is involved, they are at the receiving end.
And it will stay like that until marketers start advertising on the programme. Slam Dunk hardly has more than one advert in the programme. And it merely costs R 10 000 for an audience of an average 650 000. That is about a cent per person the marketer wants to reach. It will be less than that if the add the production costs. But why they do not advertise beats my intelligence.
Elsewhere in this website Joe points out that the ultimate end of responsibility is the local structure. Such a small thing which is making an impact. The local leagues are responsible to publish in the community print media. Have you published basketball in your student newspaper? What about the local community newspaper? Does publishing occur in those newspapers?
I have been invited by our Campus Radio station to send a proposal to receive coverage of our events from them. It is such a small courtesy but the relationships that will be created will be valuable for many years.
The problem for now is identifying that someone within basketball who will take the challenge. Not me! I have the responsibility to grow the product.
The rewards of publishing in the newspapers are important. The same newspaper may be read by marketers. If there is no basketball published and they receive a proposal …they think why the heck the should sponsor.
It is up to each one of us at local leagues to publish. Basketball has more potential than ever before.
Look into the retails you buy at. That plastic basketball means there are millions produced and millions consumed. I still find a basketball at Game which is owned by MassMart. There are a lot of basketballs at Mr Price under the brand of WASP. The local Kloppers never go out of a single basketball.
It seems like we have been too critical of our sport that we overlooked the small components that make up the sport. Not a single day passes that we ask ourselves questions. It is time for ourselves to focus and indulge in our vision for the sport.
Marketers are going to change the focus after 2010 soccer event. Will it be basketball or will college sports become the beneficiary? Let us make our product look better at local levels…
Who decides what sports are more poplular and thus receive more funding??? I mean who (in the government) do you go to if you want arouse interest in the basketball.
I believe we make excuses for government holding back on funds. I mean if every sporting code received relatively the same amount (regardless of their popularity level) then maybe there would be progress in basketball (and other ‘not so popular’ sports).
Why should soccer and rugby receive the bulk of the cash? They are as big as they are because government backs them up alot more than they do basketball. Do you not think basketball would reach that level if more government funds and sponsorships were invested in the sport???