The National Basketball Association’s 2023 season kicked off Thursday, and for the first time, the league is using generative artificial intelligence in its marketing mix to streamline content creation.
AI technology, from Microsoft Azure AI Services, will be used to analyze and categorize each play during matches, to automatically generate individualized highlight packages for each player in each match. The technology will be used to create social-style content that will (hopefully) resonate with fans to attract more people to the league’s app, said Bob Carney, senior vice president of digital content. and social of the NBA. The same AI technology will be used to create fuller, longer videos on YouTube, catering to audiences’ personalized preferences.
“We just don’t have the human workforce to be able to create the volume of content that we need on a daily basis to be able to offer personalization,” Carney said. “If it’s a 10-game night, and you have 20 teams playing, and you have players from all 20 teams recording stats every game, we just wouldn’t be able to create all these packages. highlights for each player.”
This streamlined process has not resulted in any layoffs within the company. The NBA declined to say how many app users it has, but its user base grew 40% between 2022 and 2023.
Besides the NBA, a number of other sports leagues are using artificial intelligence in their marketing strategies. THE The NHL uses AI as part of its content analysis effortsand the Los Angeles Rams use AI to support sponsorship deals. The NHL did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
“…Using generative AI…will bring speed and efficiency to the development of key assets for use in the application,” said Aakash Shah, strategy consultant for Prophet’s technology, media and entertainment department.
As the NBA revamped its app this year, the league added new features, including the ability to add team and player tabs to the app’s main screen, allowing them to seamlessly access to content in real time. The new tabs will include breaking news, trending topics, vertical video highlights, and updates about their favorite teams and players. Additionally, a new “Moments” tab will allow fans to scroll through unlimited NBA content using a vertical social media interface. The league took into consideration the behavior of its user base on the app to create an intuitive experience, Carney said.
“By better understanding its audience, the NBA can deliver highly personalized experiences to its core customers and ultimately monetize them more effectively,” said Adam Dornbusch, CEO and founder of SaaS platform EnTribe.
The NBA’s social media team has constantly tried to adapt and optimize content, as Carney highlighted its YouTube strategy and how it has diversified its business, including the introduction of Shorts in 2021.
“The beauty of sitting on top of our social media data is that you’re able to see consumer trends happening within such a large community, just across the top social media accounts of the NBA,” Carney said. “We use all of this data to learn how our fans like to consume content.”
It’s unclear exactly how much of the NBA’s advertising budget is allocated to these efforts, as Carney declined to share budget details. Thanks to Pathmatics’ paid social media, the NBA has spent just over $24 million on advertising so far in 2023, according to Vivvix.
