RED HERRING | Lenovo Compiles NBA Stats
I know nothing about sports marketing, but Lenovo has just announced its partnership with the NBA.
“The NBA will regularly showcase Lenovo’s technology during its games with an array of computers deployed courtside to compile statistics for more than 1,300 NBA games throughout the season and the playoff matches, including points, rebounds, and assists.
“The numbers on the Lenovo computers at courtside will be crunched to produce the Lenovo Stat, a plus or minus number that shows the point differential for when a player, or combination of players, is in the game and the effect they have on the team as a whole.
The NBA will then publicize the statistics on TV and on a dedicated section of its web site after each game.”
These stats are a great “2.0” version of the type of analysis that are coming to sports these days…here is an example of plus minus stats for the Celtics by player (you can also look at various 5 man units). http://www.82games.com/0506/0506BOS1.HTM
I am glad to see that Lenovo is partnering with the NBA for this….it would be interesting to see how a sponsorship within http://www.82games.com would do as this is where many of the forward thinkers on this type of analysis have been getting this data for a few years.
In this case, is reaching the mass audience watching TV and seeing the brand connection more or less valuable than reaching the niche audience passionate about that topic in more context with a more substantial message?
My guess is that the scale and PR value of the NBA deal would win out….but worth thinking about.