Buying ad inventory in the NBA Finals is almost as hard as securing a seat on Madison Square Garden’s Celebrity Row. Well, maybe not exactly that hard—but Disney Advertising has been sold out through the first four games of the best-of-seven series between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks for “a couple of weeks.”
Much of the general market interest in this year’s finals started around the time of last year’s upfront, Jim Minnich, SVP of revenue and yield management, told Marketing Brew, although he noted that some “core advertisers” are locked into multiyear deals with “the best positions with the best terms.” His team sells inventory for the first five games well in advance (even though technically only four games are guaranteed), and by Tuesday afternoon, there were only a handful of available slots left in Game 5, he said.
Game 1 and Game 2 have drawn the biggest audiences on ABC since the 2018 finals, when Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors swept LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Spurs notched their first win of the series on Monday, which means Minnich expects viewership to remain high, spurring advertiser interest in a range of NBA-related inventory.
“There’s an excitement with the Knicks and with the young Spurs team that I think is resonating,” he said. “The first two games, the audiences have almost doubled versus the prior year…That leads into some really, really good opportunities for advertisers in Game 5.”
Big year: The first four games of last year’s NBA Finals were sold out by around late May, Minnich told us, but there’s not exactly a direct comparison to be made between the two years. With both the Winter Olympics and the World Cup eating up dollars in the sports market this year, he said, demand for the finals is likely higher than last year—especially if the event can hold its own against those international tentpoles.
It’s certainly translating to audience demand: Game 1 had the highest household rating of any Knicks game on record, according to the NBA, and Game 2 had a household share of about 44 in New York, meaning 44% of household TVs being used were tuned to the game, also the highest for any Knicks game.
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During the regular season, NBA advertisers saw a combined total of $3.7 billion in sponsor media value across broadcast, streaming, and social, according to a report from the sports marketing measurement firm Relo Metrics and the ad-tech platform GumGum.
Going, going, gone: While many slots are sold upfront, the Disney Advertising team also saves some inventory for the scatter market, where Minnich said interest heats up as teams are decided and early viewership numbers start to roll in. The Knicks advancing to their first finals in 27 years prompted a surge in demand for both the national broadcast and ABC’s local New York station coverage, he said.
Though only five games are guaranteed, with the Knicks leading the series 2-1 ahead of Wednesday evening’s matchup, Minnich said as of Tuesday, his team was selling “a handful” of ads for a potential Game 6.
“We’ll see a windfall if this thing goes 2-2,” he told us.
Full-court press: In this year’s finals, there are more than 200 “sponsorship executions” from 88 advertisers, Minnich said, including 62 returners and 26 new brands. Of those activations, 92 are in-game ads, 21 are in the NBA Tip-Off pregame show, 13 are with Inside the NBA, and 48 are in NBA Today, he told us.
Buyers have also shown interest in social ads, and Disney sold out of ad inventory in ESPN NBA content on TikTok, as well as on Instagram and Facebook Reels, according to the company. The first three games have so far generated 5 billion social views, a finals record through Game 3, per the NBA.
“Folks are leaning in, not only to their commercial spots, but also integrating their message within content time across the NBA,” Minnich said.