You are to assume the role of the director of public relations for the National Basketball Association (NBA), the premiere professional basketball league in North America. The senior vice president wants you to redesign the NBA All-Star weekend to create fan interest and increase return-on-investment for sponsors.
Since 1951, the NBA has held the NBA All-Star Game, an exhibition game hosted every February that showcases 24 of the league’s star players. The lineup of players is selected by a combination of fan, player and media voting. The game itself is a public relations event that hopes to gain fan interest in new players of different teams.
A few years ago, the league decided to benefit from corporate sponsorships and turned the NBA All-Star Game into the NBA All-Star Weekend. The schedule of events includes an all-star celebrity basketball game on Friday night with players of both the entertainment and sports industries, an all-day challenge on Saturday that consists of NBA all-starts competing in skills challenges, 3-point contests and slam dunk contests and finishing with the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday night. Each event of the weekend is televised, is heavily sponsored, and features the corporate sponsors’ names and logos on all areas of the physical space and on media.
Unfortunately, the 2024 NBA All-Star Game was a flop. Attendance at the weekend events was dismal and the viewership on television and streaming services was extremely low. Corporate sponsors felt that the return-on-investment was poor and are reconsidering signing on for another year. The purpose of the NBA All-Star Weekend is to gain new fans of basketball stars and new fans of NBA teams. The senior vice president wants you to redesign the NBA All-Star Weekend. The redesign must result in new fans and a higher return-on-investment for corporate sponsors.
