P. League+: Creating an Unprecedented Basketball Boom in Taiwan
P.League is a newly established professional basketball league in Taiwan. The league has been successful in attracting Taiwanese basketball fans and the attention from pop culture and social media.
Taiwan national basketball team is currently ranked 68th in the world by Fiba, but has had no professional basketball league for the past two decades, with only a poorly running semi-professional SBL( Super Basketball League), which once set an embarrassing record of fewer than 200 spectators in a single game. However, with a large basketball-watching population in Taiwan , fans have no way to enjoy local games. Thus, the emergence of the P.League has created great hope for the development of basketball in Taiwan.
P. League officials have also devised a number of refreshing marketing approaches, such as launching a YouTube channel, running Facebook and Instagram, interacting with fans online, and partnering with major brands to launch limited-edition products, resulting in building a huge marketing network.
Online Interaction
P. League has focused on online community interaction since its inception. The official Instagram account has more than 130,000 followers. Players’ performance and game data can be viewed at a glance on the website. The professional editing team post videos in real-time during the game and interact with viewers on social networking sites.
Co-branding and Sponsorship
P. League’s marketing strategy includes advertising partnerships with Porsche and Audi in advertising to create a sporty, high-minded image of the league, and to enhance the league’s added value. In addition, the league’s basketball stars are frequently invited to brand events, a huge implication that the players are more than just players, they are both basketball stars and a symbol of pop culture.
From TV to YouTube
In addition to broadcasting P. League games on TV, the smartest strategy is to use YouTube to stream games for free, and live games are available for oversea viewers from Malaysia, Hong Kong as well . The total number of views P. League received on YouTube exploded from 15.74 million in the first season 2021 to 50.85 million in the second season 2022. According to the analysis, the 25 to 34-year-old group watched the most P. League videos on YouTube, were up to 44 percent, followed by 18 percent for the 24-year-old group and 34 percent for the 24-year-old group. As many as 40 percent of the nearly 500,000 viewers for the second season 2022 were women. It is known that the league actively attracts ambition from all age and gender groups.
Judging by the results, the average attendance for the past two seasons from 2020 to 2022 is nearly 5,000 and the occupancy rate is more than 80 percent. It has passed the 50,000 mark and has a return-to-visit rate of 75 per cent on a weekly basis, meaning that a degree of stickiness has developed.
All in all, Taiwan is still small in sports market, besides professional baseball league (CPBL), P. League is merely second established professional sport league in the country. The league still lacks to create a long run business strategy that Taiwanese fans can fully accept, each team has to find its target audience and create elements that appeal to them. Taiwan’s sports industry must change its thinking and believe in impact of data on commercial value. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the development of the stars of the team and build their personal brands through the community, such as highlights and individual performance data to increase value. After that, sponsorship and endorsements will follow.
