Comparison Between NFL and NBA Global Marketing Strategies

Aaron Rodriguez

Ent MKT 4330

February 17, 2019

Professor Akopian

Football Globalization Journey

The game of football started in Canada and the United States in the 1800s and since then has grown to one of the most popular sports in those countries. In the 1930s football had been introduced to Japan and gained popularity in the country. Japan became the first country outside of North America to play the sport and establish leagues. In these early stages football was still small globally but in the 1970s is when there was a real start for the push of football on the global stage and a huge surge in the 1980s. Due to the increase in popularity globally, there was a push to have a world championship. This championship happened in 1999 in Palermo, Italy and was the first senior world championship. The winner of this first championship was Japan where they beat Mexico 6-0. To capitalize on this increase in popularity of football in 2005 the NFL introduced its American Bowl and NFL Europe. The American Bowl was a series of games during the preseason played around the world to try and introduce the world to American football.  From this international series, the league had built interest in the sport and created a developmental league, NFL Europe. NFL EuropeThis American Bowl series has expanded to regular-season games as well where now a few times a year the teams go to London to play. These games have been widely successful bringing in over 80,000 fans per game. Although football has tried to establish multiple leagues worldwide they still fail to make football prominent in those countries, unlike basketball.

NBA Globalization Journey

Basketball started its globalization quest in 1893 by Melvin Rideout when it was introduced in France at the new YMCA building on Paris’s Rue de Trévise which is the oldest original court in the world today. The next year Brazil was introduced to the game as well and became the first country in South America to play basketball. In 1895 Basketball was introduced into China in the cities of Shanghai and Tianjin and two years later it entered Australia. Basketball started to become large in multiple countries but didn’t become a global brand till the NBA started to intervene with the “Dream Team” and touring the stars around the world with the help of sneaker companies. Basketball has become one of the most popular sports with 825 million fans globally and 108 international players from 42 different countries in its most prominent league the NBA.

NFL strategies for globalization

The NFL has mixed success with its globalization efforts. In Mexico they have been extremely successful with the most fans internationally according to Statista there are 23.3 million fans with huge drop-offs in the next countries of Brazil at 19.7 million and Canada at 7.21 million. Their success is largely due to the fact of partnerships with popular brands in Mexico such as Bud Light, Sabritas, Pepsi, Movistar, and Dodge. The next step that the NFL took was to make deals with cable providers in Mexico by giving the right to televise nine games per year. The televised games have exposed the youth to the game and have grown popular among them and teams have been popping up in high schools and colleges. The NFL has realized this interest in football and partners with schools by donating footballs and equipment and today in Mexico 2.9 million students play football in their gym classes according to the National Football League. Fans in Mexico of football who prefer it over soccer do so according to an LA Times article because of its focus on strategy, teamwork, and discipline. Despite all these efforts in Mexico, less than 1% of players are Latino. Although there is moderate success in Mexico through most of the world the NFL is unsuccessful in establishing their league and stars. According to Forbes the reason for this is the name is confusing in a game with the word “foot” in it there are almost no feet used in it. Another reason is that is the lack of action in the game, according to a study by the Wall Street Journal NFL games have an average of 11 minutes of action in a 3-hour game. The last reason that they fail to be internationally accepted is that they have a perception of not being manly enough compared to rugby because of players wearing pads.

NBA Globalization strategy

Although Basketball had been introduced into many countries since the 1800s the NBA started its Global expansion in 1984 at the peak and rebirth of the league. David Stern and the league decided to televise the games internationally and the Celtics vs Lakers rivalry helped reignite the league in the United States as well as expand their fans globally. In that same year the first European-born and trained player France’s, Hervé Dubuisson to the New Jersey Nets. Through the 1980s there was a trickle of players who came in such as now Hall of Fame players Nigeria’s Hakeem Olajuwon and Germany’s Detlef Schrempf but as soon as the fall of the Soviet Union there was many foreign-trained players who came into the league bypassing the NCAA which made the NBA more appealing. In the 1990’s the arrival of Michael Jordan intrigued the fans domestically and globally. 2 years later the 1992 “Dream Team” excited the world about the game of basketball and showed them all the stars of the game. This became the catalyst for the exponential growth of the game, kids' interest in the game increased who now dreamed of playing in the most elite league in the world the NBA. The US coaches decided to set up camps for these kids to capitalize on the new interest of the youth. With the growth of satellite television and the internet, there were new platforms to watch the games as well as stars like Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Dirk Nowitzki who were foreign-trained helped kids realize their dreams were attainable.

How can the NFL improve?

The NFL has a challenging task when trying to establish their league in many different countries since athletes must not only be tall but also big. The NFL should continue to develop their talent in established countries such as Mexico and Brazil. This will create stars that kids can look up to just like how kids who watch basketball can look up to European and Chinese players in those countries. Another platform the NFL can use to expand the popularity of the game is by increasing visibility. The league must look into working together with foreign television providers to show their games in those markets. Another tactic they can use is to provide online streaming videos to foreign countries and use social media to promote these games to other countries. Currently, Rugby is the 9th most popular sport in the world according to World Atlas. There are a lot of similarities between the two games which means that there is room in other countries for football to grow. In order to get the youth into the sport, the NFL can establish flag football leagues all over targeted countries. According to an LA Times article, the appeal of football in Mexico is strategy and teamwork. The NFL can target countries in which rugby is popular and establish leagues in the offseason. This can be perceived by the youth as a way to keep in shape for rugby but when the coaches show how fun and strategic the game can be they can convert these players to football players. During these seasons they can bring in NFL stars to run camps and have corporate sponsors such as Pepsi, Microsoft and Amazon provide attractions to bring in the youth. Once the NFL is popular among the youth they will grow up to star in the NFL and will make the game of football popular in these countries.