“Together Mode” for the NBA
Newsjacking
Newsjacking, a word that is good and bad at the same time as a marketing term. How so? It gives me a feeling that companies are doing whatever they can to ride the current media tide to stay on top of media trends. Sometimes it’s an unhealthy thing for companies to respond to a controversial topic and try to turn the whole thing around to benefit the brand because when things are controversial no matter whether you agree with it or not, your opinion will always trigger the people who support the opposite. However, when the company successfully did it which ultimately bring out positive responses from the audience, this turnaround will significantly boost the brand image, identity, and reputation.
Grown-up as a huge basketball fan, Microsoft Teams did something during the Covid-19 pandemic that cheered up the whole basketball community.
Experience basketball with Microsoft Teams
Covid-19 Pandemic which had been the most relevant news for the last two years and almost shut down the entire world had definitely affected NBA in a negative way.
During the start of the 2019–2020 season, Covid-19 had a huge spike in the US which resulting a massive delay in the season opening. After all the preparation and negotiation, the NBA bubble was finally set to restart nearly 10 months late in Orlando, Florida but this time there would not be any audience cheer for players on the sideline. They were going to witness the history through the screens and appreciated the fact that NBA is back!
July, 30th 2020.
After almost 10 months of waiting, NBA fans including me finally had the NBA back. This time even though we can’t go to the arena to watch it, Microsoft Teams got us covered. with its new partnership with NBA, Microsoft gave NBA fans a whole new way to watch games. Normally, when you watch games online, the player can’t see you but what Microsoft offered this time was that you could use a new feature in Microsoft Teams called Together Mode to turn the court into a conference room that allowed you to enjoy the game and gave feedback that players could actually see.
The Together Mode revolutionize the way people watch NBA games, It gives fans a feeling of sitting next to one another at a live game without leaving their comfortable homes. Also, it was a whole new game for players, they will still experience the energy from the crowd and see fans’ reactions through the17-foot tall LEDs as they dribble down the court.
This is a game-changer.
Partnership
Although this was a huge success for both NBA and Microsoft, we can definitely see this is a form of newsjacking. Even though Covid-19 was devastating news for the whole world, Microsoft saw the chance of turning it back around and creating a piece of positive content revolving around their technology. Fans were thankful and glad that they finally had a way to engage in the NBA games after a long wait.
Not to mention that after the NBA bubble was launched, Microsoft’s stock went up over 10 percent in just a month. Moreover, as a part of the partnership, Microsoft became the entitlement partner of NBA future events like the NBA draft, NBA All-star games, and NBA Summer leagues.
All in all, I would say the newsjacking moves from Microsoft are very effective and efficient. It benefits the NBA, the audience, and itself with no negative feedback whatsoever.
I know this was content that happened over 12 months ago but I wholeheartedly want to talk about it in one of my blogs just because it was so awesome and exciting to see the NBA was back in 2020. I could not forget that feeling.
